A few months ago I commented to a friend on Facebook that Donald Trump is not a patriot. They asked, “How so?”, so in true procrastinator fashion I waited three months or so to put this together. It seems that hardly a week goes by that he doesn’t demonstrate this, and with so many examples it’s hard to come up with them all in a casual conversation, so here we go.
I touched on this before in What is a patriot?, but this is specific to a particular individual, Mr Donald Trump.
- …A patriot doesn’t lie to the troops and tell them he gave them their biggest pay raise in ten years… when he didn’t.
- …A patriot doesn’t siphon money from military budgets for an ineffective border wall.
- …A patriot doesn’t cozy up to North Korean dictators.
- …A patriot doesn’t tell the world he is smarter in military matters than his generals… when he’s not.
- …A patriot does not disrespect… publicly, no less… “Gold Star” families of fallen soldiers… ever.
- …A patriot isn’t required to serve their country, but a patriot does not make lame ass excuses to get out of it.
- …A patriot doesn’t siphon money from military schools for an ineffective border wall.
- …A patriot doesn’t question the utility of NATO, nor do they threaten to quit.
- …A patriot does not disparage war heroes… especially publicly… especially after they did everything possible to make sure they wouldn’t even serve.
- …A patriot doesn’t minimize brain injuries from warfare as “just a headache”… then refuse to correct them self when the truth is proven otherwise.
- …A patriot doesn’t claim avoiding STDs as his own “personal Vietnam”.
- …A patriot doesn’t claim that making less money than usual is a personal sacrifice equal to or better than serving the country militarily. (This was Donald Jr, but the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.)
- …A patriot doesn’t cozy up to Russian dictators.
- …A patriot does not turn a speech at a Boy Scout Jamboree into a political event.
- …A patriot does not openly criticize and dismiss their intelligence community.
- …When calling the widow of a fallen soldier killed in Niger a patriot would take time to at least know the man’s name, and wouldn’t give off a ‘sucks to be you’ attitude by saying he “knew what he was getting in for”.
- …A patriot does not let slip classified information not once, not twice, but multiple times.
- …A patriot doesn’t outright lie and claim no other president has ever paid respects to the families of fallen American troops.
- …A patriot doesn’t publicly disparage loyal career veterans who served honorably and courageously and call them names simply because they disagree with him… i.e.: Robert Mueller, John McCain, Admiral McRaven, General Kelly, General McMaster, General Mattis, Lt Col Vindman… you get the idea.
- …A patriot doesn’t blow off a ceremony commemorating the end of WW1 because it’s raining and inconvenient and he can’t have his way and take a helicopter. All the other national leaders made it. His Chief of Staff made it. Yet Mr Trump didn’t want to get wet, so it was ok to blow off the 100th anniversary, apparently.
- …And when they do show up (the next year), a patriot does not stand next to a cemetery with almost 10,000 American war causalities and use their speech as a platform to aggrandize himself and attack “Nervous Nancy”.
- …A patriot doesn’t complain about a football player disrespecting the flag and the country by kneeling in protest during the National Anthem, then mock the National Anthem by acting like a conductor during the National Anthem before the start of a football game.
And this is only a partial list. Bottom line: A patriot puts the country first in deeds, not just words and rhetoric. A patriot doesn’t need to tell everyone how patriotic they are. Donald Trump is no patriot.
One minor correction:. On point 20, it was the 75th anniversary of D-Day not the 200th.
Your point is very valid none the less. But it is that type of error that Mr Trump’s supporters will attach themselves to in order to try to invalidate your argument.
That should be “100th” not “200th” of course! Damn fat fingers on a cell phone! I do not know how to edit my comment.
You are correct, Mr Gary. I indeed did have my facts jumbled. But I had the wrong war and the wrong commemoration. It was a ceremony to honor the fallen troops and the end of WW1. The 100th anniversary of that. Thank you for pointing that out.
https://apnews.com/52462add34fd45ecb16319b564045d61