President Donald Trump is such a terrible leader that he has drawn the ire of a 101-year-old historian who had been happily retired in Oregon. But now he feels forced to speak out against Trump in a public forum to plead for his removal from office.
At 101, Dr. Vaughn Davis Bornet was a teenager when Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, served in the United States Naval reserve during World War II, witnessed the Civil Rights movement, the Vietnam War, and most of the events that shaped the 20th century.
But in the 21st century, Bornet can’t get used to Trump being president and cannot sit on the sidelines any longer as he wages war against the free press, democracy and America’s leadership role in the world.
And that’s why he wrote an op-ed this week denouncing Trump’s presidency, and delivered a plea to the American people to remove him from power before it’s too late.
“Our free press is subject to ridicule; actually, it is undergoing threat,” Bornet began. “Presidential antagonism is approaching entirely too close to action.”
Indeed, Trump has repeatedly referred to the press as the “enemy of the people” while threatening to take news organizations off the air.
And his attacks have already resulted in action taken by his own supporters as they threaten journalists and send explosive devices to where they are headquartered.
Bornet then tears into Trump’s constant rallies, which never used to be the norm:
“Political rallies have long occupied partisans as election day approached. Now, it does seem, instead of governing, the White House occupant campaigns around the calendar—instead of concentrating on Congress or the passing scene.”
He’s right. Trump repeatedly criticized former President Obama for campaigning in 2016, yet has seven campaign rallies in the next few days alone and has spent much of his presidency ginning up crowds of right-wingers across the country with whining and narcissism.
But, perhaps, the most dangerous thing Trump is doing is unraveling our alliances that have been the cornerstone of our foreign policy and national security since World War II.
“Once, we made permanent friends of nations far away and tied them to us with alliances,” Bornet observes. “Today, you can’t tell any ally without checking first with the White House to make sure which nation is a friend and which an enemy. Indeed, they may well have switched overnight.”
“This is serious stuff,” he continues. “The ship of state has no helmsman, it seems; or maybe he just doesn’t think it important for us to know the difference between a true friend and a dangerous enemy.”
Trump has attacked our closest allies while sucking up to dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
Bornet then returns to defending the free press, which Americans need to get accurate information on what is happening in the nation and the world. Without it, Trump can say anything he wants and claim it’s the truth without being fact-checked:
“[Journalism] has standards, and concepts, and principles. All are taught in college classrooms. Our present political leader ridicules any such idea and barges ahead—to the point where his expression ‘lock ‘em up’ or whatever it is, sounds suspiciously like a proclamation of jail time back in Nazi or Fascist days.”
Bornet went on to wrap up his op-ed by pleading for someone to stop Trump.
I really want, if the truth be known, the removal of Donald J. Trump from the presidential office. If I can’t have that, I want powerful individuals in named offices (Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, etc.) who will keep that one man from running things until his term has limped to its end.
“I’m sick to death of mediocrity, of posturing, of pretense, of lies told with a straight face,” he concluded. “Bring dignity back to my White House.”
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