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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Jayne: Trump’s words, actions reveal hatred, not love, of U.S.

By , Columbian Opinion Page Editor
Published:

Why, oh why, do they so hate America? They torment this nation with their offensive rhetoric. They demonstrate disdain for our laws and the U.S. Constitution. They engage in actions that indicate a desire to destroy us from within.

And while deciphering the complexities and the motivations of an entire group of people might require a Ph.D. dissertation, the basic question is this: Why do Donald Trump and his followers so deeply despise the United States?

I know, I know, that might sound like a stretch. Trump, after all, took a break during a recent speech to walk across the stage and hug the American flag — and nothing could be more patriotic than that. Could it? But there is a nagging sensation that deep down, deep in the recesses where his soul should be, Trump has an antipathy for any aspect of the United States that does not directly benefit him.

One need go no further than the First Amendment before finding evidence of his scorn. He has promised, if elected president, to have Muslims monitored and force them to register with the government. This, most certainly, would violate the notion that Congress shall make no law “prohibiting the free exercise” of religion, which the Founding Fathers thought was important enough to be placed right at the top of the Bill of Rights.

Those founders also thought that a free press was pretty essential. But Trump has revoked the credentials of reporters from BuzzFeed, Politico, The Daily Beast, Univision, The Huffington Post, and The Washington Post because he disapproved of their coverage. To which Post editor Marty Baron responded: “Donald Trump’s decision to revoke The Washington Post’s press credentials is nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press. When coverage doesn’t correspond to what the candidate wants it to be, then a news organization is banished.”

Trump also has promised to ease libel laws to make it easier for public figures — meaning him — to sue the media.

Religion, the press — that’s one half of the First Amendment right there. No telling why Trump hasn’t yet prohibited freedom of speech or freedom of assembly, but … oh wait, on Thursday he said Republicans should back him or “shut the hell up.” Well, there’s still freedom of assembly — but the campaign is young.

Trump doesn’t understand

And yet, Trump’s aversion to the United States goes beyond the Constitution.

As USA Today reported recently: “He has been involved in more than 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades — and a large number of those involve ordinary Americans … who say Trump or his companies have refused to pay them.” The article continued: “Trump’s companies have also been cited for 24 violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act since 2005 for failing to pay overtime or minimum wage, according to U.S. Department of Labor data.”

There’s nothing more American than average people putting in an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage. Why does Trump despise them so?

Now, all of this has been well-documented; we’re not breaking new ground here. But much of it was known before the primaries started, and still Trump managed to garner enough votes to presumably earn the Republican nomination. He managed to convince enough acolytes that we should be so fearful of Muslims and immigrants that we abandon the principles that have turned this nation into the world’s most powerful.

That is perplexing. It’s nearly as perplexing as pondering why Trump’s campaign didn’t crash and burn the moment he said of John McCain, who spent 5 1/2 years as a prisoner of war: “He’s not a war hero. He’s a war hero because he was captured. I like people that weren’t captured.”

Personally, I like people who love the United States instead of some bastardized vision of what it stands for. Make America Great Again? Hah, Donald Trump doesn’t even understand America.

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