Imagine, just for one moment, everything Donald Trump has said during his time in the White House is absolutely true (a quantum leap of faith).  I raise this possibility because it is more terrifying than the thought of having a sociopath who cannot or consciously chooses not to distinguish fact from fiction sitting in the Oval Office.  Here is why I make that assessment.

Let’s start with the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as acting attorney general following the forced dismissal of Jeff Sessions.  On Friday, Whitaker was exposed for the political hack and con-man he is. In Trump’s latest example of “the buck stops somewhere else,” he told reporters, “I don’t know Matt Whitaker.”  Forget the Fox News interview just last month when Trump said, “I can tell you Matt Whitaker’s a great guy.  I mean, I know Matt Whitaker.”  Forget Whitaker attended almost every White House meeting between Trump and Sessions since becoming the latter’s chief of staff.

If what Trump claims is true, he is confessing several less than comforting alternatives.  Trump wanted to replace Sessions from the day the attorney general rightfully recused himself from overseeing an investigation of the Trump 2016 campaign in which he was an active participant. So, either Trump had 18 months to select a successor and ensure a smooth transition and did not.  Or, at the last minute, he randomly picked someone he “did not know” to be the acting head of the Justice Department.  Or,  as he told his supporters at a November 2nd Huntington, West Virginia rally, in response to the possibility of blue wave overtaking the mid-term elections, “My whole life, you know what I say? ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll just figure it out.’  Does that make sense?  I’ll just figure it out.”

Fast forward to Saturday, November 10 to see how well that philosophy works.  As part of the commemoration (which Trump wrongly called a celebration) of the 100th anniversary of the World War I armistice, the White House had scheduled a trip to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery 55 miles outside of Paris to lay a wreath honoring veterans of WWI and especially the 1,800 U.S. soldiers interred there who died during the Battle of Belleau Wood.

But, as they say, “The best laid plans…”  It rained and the secret service advised against using the helicopter in bad weather (a reasonable decision).  So, how did Mr. Be Prepared “figure it out?”  He cancelled the visit and spent the afternoon watching television at the U.S. ambassador’s residence.  Somehow, White House chief of staff John Kelly and chairman of the joint chiefs General Joseph Dunford, Jr. were able to assemble a motorcade to make the trip from Paris to the Marne Valley.  And other world leaders such as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron braved the elements to lay wreaths at sites where their countries’ respective war casualties are buried.

Obviously, this is just one more example of Trump being an embarrassment in front of an international audience and an affront to American veterans.  However, the question we should be asking today is, “How much confidence should we have in a leader who can’t figure out how to get from downtown Paris to a national cemetery 60 minutes away by car? If he doesn’t have a Plan B for something for which there was weeks of advance planning, what can we expect when he is expected to respond to a national emergency without any warning?”

Every time Trump says, “I don’t know this person” or “I knew nothing about this,” I care less about the fact he is lying than the scarier prospect, he believes every crisis can be resolved on the spur of the moment or as he claims now about global climate change, it will take care of itself eventually.

Postscript

On Memorial Day, 2005, our family had the honor to be in Normandy, France.  We had planned several stops including Omaha Beach and the American cemetery in the nearby village of Collevile-sur-Mer. It was a less than perfect day as you can see from this picture of the cemetery’s memorial structure.  Despite the weather, there was no way we were going to forego this historic reminder of how America emerged as the leader of the free world.

And the rewards were worth the effort.  At each marker–Christian cross, Star of David and Islam star and crescent–was placed an American and French flag, a reminder of the trans-Atlantic partnership which defeated Nazi Germany. The same partnership which has been responsible for preventing a similar conflagration for the past 73 years.

We “figured it out.”  To combat the cold, we all bought sweatshirts at the gift shop in the information center at Omaha Beach.  Too bad Trump could not have followed his own advice and “figured it out,” realizing a little rain was nothing compared to the hardship and sacrifice endured by those who rest at Aisne-Marne and every member of the armed forces before and after.  On this Veterans Day, they deserve more from the commander-in-chief.

For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP