It is hard to fathom the thought process that is at work on occasions when the US President Donald Trump willingly sets about creating division and hatred, and one can only assume that the pressures and frustrations of being in charge of a multi-billion corporation one day and the US governmental framework the next represents a challenge for the current occupant of the Oval Office. That is perhaps the only means possible to excuse Trump’s crude and vulgar language used late last week in deriding El Salvador, Haiti and African nations for the quality of immigrants and refugees foisted upon his United States by history, disaster, pestilence and plague.
We are almost at the one-year milestone since Trump’s inauguration. And yes, Trump is a divisive character, one who polarises as never before, and one who speaks his mind as never before. The result is that his comments grate on the ears of those who see his tenure as a menace to liberal and democratic values constructed through years of policies and protocol. But Trump’s actions and words too fall on the ears of his political constituency, a body — in a majority in November 2016 — that sees him breaking the mould of a Washington too used to political correctness and unused to plain speaking. That indeed may be the case, but there is a distinct difference between plain speaking and plainly ignorant and hurtful speech. And the president’s widely reported used of an expletive to describe developing nations represents conduct unbecoming of the holder of the highest office in the US. It is language that is hardly suitable for a warehouse, never mind the White House.
What is unbecoming too is Trump’s crude attempt to offer a denial that he ever uttered the expletive and insulting phrase. Clearly, that is not the case, when many in attendance in the room heard him repeat the phrase on several occasions. We all make mistakes, but compounding it by offering alternative truths or fake words merely compound the initial insults and further denigrate the moral authority of the office Trump swore a year ago to uphold, protect and serve.
The United Nations have issued a rebuke to Trump. Ambassadors representing his administration, government and the American people have been summoned by governments and issued with diplomatic rebukes. What’s needed is some good old fashioned school punishment, with the president washing out his mouth with a bar of soap.
