No one is going to be surprised that Donald Trump says things that are patently absurd. His grasp of the facts on any subject is minimal at best and, more often than not, utterly fictional. And he has a difficult time displaying an ability to express thoughts with simple logic or any semblance of coherence.
On Friday morning Trump provided an outstanding example of his cognitive confusion. While rage-tweeting about resistance to his reckless intention to have schools open this fall, Trump employed his customary method of persuasion: vicious, albeit impotent, threats. And the proprietor of the fraudulent Trump University is unwise to bring up academics at all following the recent news that he cheated on his SATs (as reported in the new book by his niece, Mary Trump).
Never mind that the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic is surging throughout the nation and Trump would be putting students, teachers, administrative and support staff, vendors, security, and the families of them all at risk of deadly infection. Since Trump and his family don’t fall into any of those categories, he couldn’t care less. So he tweeted that…
… and/or Funding, which will be taken away if this Propaganda or Act Against Public Policy continues. Our children must be Educated, not Indoctrinated!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 10, 2020
This is so very like Trump. First of all, it’s another quid pro quo threat to withhold crucial funding unless his unreasonable, and possibly illegal, demands are met. It’s identical to his attempted extortion of Ukraine in order to coerce them to dig up dirt on Joe Biden. He was impeached for that.
Additionally, Trump wraps his mob-style shakedown in a brazenly partisan harangue that falsely accuses the entire institution of academia of being a bastion of “Radical Left Indoctrination.” Which is ironic considering that the whole of Trump’s presidency has been dominated by indoctrination, gaslighting, and outright lying for three and half years.
The consequences for not obediently complying with Dear Leader’s decree will supposedly be the loss of tax-exempt status and federal funding. The only problem with Trump’s ultimatum is that he doesn’t have the authority to carry out either of those penalties. Congress is responsible for appropriating funds for schools, and the president cannot unilaterally overrule them. The same is true for the tax code which is passed into law by Congress and, once signed by the president, can only be amended by Congress.
So as usual, Trump is talking tough out of his asinine misunderstanding of the law. But even worse, he is admitting that the proposed sanctions be applied due to what he says is left-wing political discourse in the schools. That is plainly unconstitutional. He is openly asserting that the government should have the ability to punish schools on the basis of the content of speech. Trump obviously hates liberal politics, but he cannot use federal funds to suppress speech that he doesn’t like.
Finally, Trump’s threat makes so little sense that it could only have come from someone suffering from severe mental infirmities. He is so determined to force schools to reopen that he is making bizarre and improper threats in order to achieve his goal. But he also believes that these same schools are hopelessly tainted by leftist politics. So he’s actually trying force students into the academies of radical indoctrination that he despises. Seriously, Trump is not running on all cylinders. But then, you all knew that.
How Fox News Deceives and Controls Their Flock:
Fox Nation vs. Reality: The Fox News Cult of Ignorance.
Available now at Amazon.