The two words Donald Trump cant bring himself to say
President Trump had a lot to say at his long-awaited news conference yesterday. His performance — characteristically rich in calculated provocations, bizarre asides and even the occasional bit of genuine news — generated enough material to keep the press corps occupied for weeks. As is so often the case with Trump, however, the most significant thing may be what he chose not to say.
In the nearly 14,000 words of the news-conference transcript, Trump never mentioned the words “freedom” or “democracy.” This is merely the latest installment in a well-established pattern. Throughout his election campaign he was strikingly reluctant to invoke America’s higher ideals, choosing to dwell instead on what he sees as the dismal state of the country. His 1,439-word inauguration speech will be remembered for his startling use of the word “carnage” to characterize the country’s current state — and rightfully so, since the text dwelt so lustfully on claims of national decay. Trump made only one distinctly pat reference to freedom (“we all enjoy the same glorious freedoms, and we all salute the same great American flag”). “Democracy,” “values” or “ideals” never came up.
Trump evinces a striking lack of faith in American institutions. His unusually harsh rhetoric about the courts, his congressional opponents, protesters and the media betrays little appreciation for the complexities of an open society. He has a dismal view of the nation’s moral stature. “I think right now when it comes to civil liberties, our country has a lot of problems, and I think it’s very hard for us to get involved in other countries when we don’t know what we are doing and we can’t see straight in our own country,” he declared in an interview with the New York Times. When Bill O’Reilly of Fox News recently pressed the president on his fondness for Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom O’Reilly described as a “killer,” Trump responded, “There are a lot of killers. We have a lot of killers. Well, you think our country is so innocent?”
Such remarks might have passed as a refreshingly frank commentary on America’s failures to live up to its own standards were it not for the fact that Trump is quick to absolve dictators of their sins. On some fundamental level he just doesn’t seem to care. He has repeatedly lavished praise on autocrats such as Putin (“he’s been a leader far more than our president has been”), Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan (“I do give great credit to him for turning [the 2016 coup attempt] around”), and Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sissi (“he’s a fantastic guy”). Rarely in recent U.S. history has a president found so much to praise in those who deserve it least. In an earlier age the American public would have savaged him for his lazy embrace of moral relativism. Now we just let it slide.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/02/17/the-two-words-donald-trump-cant-bring-himself-to-say/?tid=pm_opinions_pop&utm_term=.030fb1c32100
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