Wrong, Old or Both
Terry H. Schwadron
Feb. 13, 2024
Yes, it’s unfair.
Joe Biden’s bad-enough, verbal missteps resound as echoes of senility; Donald Trump’s most outrageous claims are dismissed as entertainment or less than serious to his rally or television crowds. The result is that Biden can’t allow himself any mistakes, and Trump seems to have no tether to tie him to any reality that the rest of us recognize.
The weekend brought a doozy from each.
For Biden, the real issue revolved around the exoneration for having kept classified documents rather than on his age. With all the fuss settling on the depiction of Biden’s age and memory, somehow nothing about haphazard packing of classified documents has been addressed. For a guy who claims competence, that seems a hard strike that Biden swung at and missed, not a gaffe.
He never apologized for taking documents he should not have taken and holding them, and we have yet to hear why it won’t happen again. Instead, Biden highlighted exoneration from criminal charges, and he blamed his staff for poor packing.
That may be true, but it doesn’t address the problem.
Trump Endangers Alliances
Meanwhile, Trump, in one of his regular accounts of anonymous conversations with himself, recounted a leader of a big European nation asking him about lagging NATO self-assessments, “Well, sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’ I said, ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want,” Trump said.
Trump thinks he told a story about speaking back to powerful allies with strength. This is Trump, who famously shirks paying even his own lawyers, shrieking about payments by other nations towards international defense commitments.
What the rest of us heard was a statement that invites Russia to attack NATO countries without American support, in breach of our NATO treaty responsibilities.
Set aside the story likely never happened, Trump’s boasts, reflecting his views of American isolationism at a time when ally Ukraine is at war with Russia, is a dangerous endorsement of Russian interests in Europe — right there on the edge of treasonous if we take it literally.
Trump’s crowd cheered.
Later, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a late-come admirer of Trump, and Sen. Lindsay Graham, a Trump loyalist, brushed it off, saying that’s just the way Trump talks. No. when a would-be president talks about inviting Russian aggression, we need to listen.
Reality, Anyone?
Nikki Haley keeps talking about a mental health competence test for politicians over 75, We ought to be talking about a governmental competence test.
Just for a touch of reality, NATO nations pledge in a treaty to support any one attacked country, though that clause, Article V, took hold formally only once — after the attack on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001. However, the alliance has been solid in working together for defense of Ukraine, in Afghanistan, in Iraq and other conflicts. Each country does pay into NATO, and each has promised to boost national spending towards defense. And over 10 years, direct funds to NATO have been increasing, though not at the pace set for 2024. At the same time, national defense budgets also have increased.
Even if Trump wanted to withdraw from NATO, as president he would lack authority to do so. A bill in Congress last December requires congressional approval first.
But Trump’s statements come as Republicans in Congress are indeed threatening to halt aid to Ukraine, which is seeking to enter the European Union and NATO. On Saturday, Trump said any aid to Ukraine and Israel ought to be a loan rather than financial aid.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin has re-doubled commitments to take over Ukraine with a two-hour “interview” with right-wing commentator Tucker Carlson that was a tedious two hours of Russian-tinged historical justification without counter. It seems clear that delay works not only for Trump in his various legal fights against criminal charges, but for Putin in hoping that Trump can win back the White House and hand him a victory in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Europe is talking about its own alliance free of the United States, though NATO officials underscored that Trump’s remarks put troops at risk.
How about Trump extend the same logic to the United States?
Would he only provide services to states that pay full tax freight for the amount spent on services — because most of the states on which he counts on for electoral support do not. New York and California pay far more into federal taxes than they take out. Oh but, Trump does want to reward the loyalty of states that vote for him. Hmmm.
Trump’s repeated and increasingly outrageous attacks on American institutions — educational and cultural outlets, our laws and courts, our security and intelligence agencies, environmental and medical groups — reflect an unhealthy path to a world that even Trump appointees from the last administration reject.
Maybe voters should be listening to what the candidates say.
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