Even after the performance of the last week; the avoidable gaffes, self-inflicted wounds, bad decisions, poor judgment, and utter incompetence, there are still some who argue that there is a vast bias against Donald Trump. Well I’ve got news for them.
They’re right.
Many people and organizations are biased against the president. Understanding that bias gets one a long way towards understanding the massive failure of this presidency.
The media is biased against Donald Trump. He’s earned that bias time and again. He has maligned the media, invented stories, lied during interviews, repeatedly made false claims of false news. He has damaged the reputations of journalists in America and put those abroad at risk with the foolish and reckless decision to label journalists as the enemy of the American people. Every politician knows the first rule of governing is not to make an enemy of the media. It was a stupid move by Trump. The first of many.
Rule two of governing is not to make enemies among the intel community. The intelligence community is biased against Trump. And he’s earned that bias over and over. He has publicly questioned the patriotism of various agencies, and he even compared them to their counterparts in Nazi Germany. These are serious people with serious jobs, who risk their lives to defend the country and maintain the rule of law. Trump is not a serious person. He has treated US intel officials with less respect than he gave to Gary Busey and Dennis Rodman on The Apprentice. Trump stood in front of the CIA wall of honor and bragged about his election win and the size of his inaugural crowd. Add that to that his unwillingness to learn, his wild lack of curiosity and his inability to keep a secret — is it really any wonder that he is hated in this community?
While there is a general bias against Trump among intel agencies, the contempt is especially strong among those in the FBI. Think about it. Trump fired the well-liked head of the agency without even having the guts to tell him to his face. Comey found out about his firing on the TV. These folks always saw Trump as a loose cannon without the chops to run the country, but they may have held out hope that at least some of his supposed chief executive skills would translate to his new gig. They now know that hope was misplaced.
The people in the White House are biased against Trump. While we should give the media some credit for stepping up to history’s challenge, this is not exactly a meeting with Deep Throat in the lower floor of a parking garage situation.The leaks are shooting out of the White House like an Icelandic geyser. They never stop. During Watergate, reporters were told to follow the money. These days, they just have to sit by the phone and wait for White House staffers to call. There are a few key reasons for this. The first is that people in the administration are rightly concerned for the security of the country. The second is that Trump habitually throws his staff under the bus and undermines their credibility by going off script and distracting them from their work with nonsensical digressions and distractions. Trump came into office pretending to be a great job creator. Instead, he will be remembered as a masterful career and reputation killer.
His own people are also biased against him because the buck never stops with him. He never admits being wrong. He throws tantrums and lashes out at staff when there is zero doubt that he is the weak link in his own administration. We’ve never had this kind of a minute by minute view into the workings of a White House. It’s there because Trump is a terrible leader and for the reasons above, no one can stop talking about it.
People in cabinet departments are biased against Trump because he has shown disdain for their work by denying the value of science, research, and knowledge, and repeatedly appointed people who are either unqualified or who have utter contempt for the work these departments are tasked with doing.
One thing all these people have in common is that they are biased against Trump because he lies nonstop. The world doesn’t trust his word, his people don’t trust it, those who cover him don’t trust it. And this is all with good reason. He’s the most active and aggressive liar we’ve ever seen in public life (and that’s a high bar). To make matters worse, even with all the practice, he is really bad at lying.
Finally, Trump himself is biased against his own presidency. He knows he can’t do the job. That is clear because he oozes insecurity, he constantly needs praise, and no one can effectively reassure him that he really deserves the job.
So to those who argue there is a bias against Donald Trump, I say you’re right. It exists because it has been wholly earned. The bias against Trump is ultimately a bias in favor of America. At this point, one can’t be loyal to the president and the country at the same time.
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