Trump – Finding Ourselves In The Bible

In the year preceding the election and in the days that followed I wrote a number of essays about President Trump and included them in my book, Why the Kof? Getting the Best of Rabbi Fuchs https://tinyurl.com/jz4utns

For several months, though, I have had nothing to say about him.

The primary reason is that others have—more pointedly and eloquently than can I–written everything I feel about his policies, appointments and public statements.

But eight months after his inauguration I must express my dismay:

Donald Trump diminishes the pride I feel as an American.

When I see him dressed as the American flag in red (tie) white (shirt) and blue (suit) responding in such an equivocal, mealy-mouthed way to the violence in Charlottesville, I want to vomit.

As horrible as they are, moments of tragedy are golden opportunities for a president to stand tall and unite the country in pride and resolve.

Such horrible moments allow the president to speak for all decent Americans and express the country’s outrage and resolve to do all that is necessary to comfort the victims and condemn the perpetrators.

Even a president I did not like, George W. Bush, rose admirably to that responsibility in the aftermath of Nine Eleven.

But Trump? Uh Uh!

Whether you agreed with him or not, Barack Obama is a man of gentility and class. He was almost always eloquent and appropriate in his responses to terror and those who besmirched the values this country represents.

But Trump is the opposite. He represents nothing but selfishness, greed and a callous disregard for the very people, as Emma Lazarus wrote on the Statue of Liberty, our country is here to protect: “your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

Donald Trump has offered these precious potential sources of our country’s future greatness nothing but an upraised middle finger.

He seems to wink at—if not fan–racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism. His grandiose promises to repair our country’s infra structure, bring thousands and thousands of jobs back to America, bring an end to urban violence and uproot international terrorism have been nothing but empty words.

But what is most disturbing is that so many people continue to rally around him.

In addition to continuing to condemn Trump and protest his actions and policies, it is in our vital interest to understand why.

What is it that he brings to the table that induces so many to resonate to his words and persona?

Until we find the answers to what is really behind Trump’s appeal, we will continue to write essays that allow us to get things off of our chest. And yes, we should.

But we will really be no closer to fixing the problems that led to his election in the first place.

And that is what disturbs me most about Donald Trump!

I was wrong!

The list of his egregious actions is too long and too well-known to merit full elucidation here, but two put me over the top:

The Executive Order on immigration! My goodness! What kind of a heartless cretin thwarts the reunification of families for no good reason? So many of those whose lives you disrupted, Mr. Trump, have rendered valuable service that has made our nation a better place. How dare you? Bravo to all who flooded our airports in protest!

I stand in solidarity with our Muslim neighbors who have suffered most from this outrage.

The Holocaust Remembrance Day Declaration that made no mention of Jews! I know that for many this incredible statement—that he had the nerve to defend—is far down the list of the new president’s sins, but for me as a Jew, a rabbi and the son of man who was arrested and abused on Kristallnacht it is a tipping point.

Yes, Mr. Trump, many more millions of people were victims of Hitler’s madness than the six million Jews who perished! But what other ethnic group had—by Hitler’s design—its worldwide population reduced by one-third?

What other European group saw its population reduced by two-thirds?

What other religious group saw 4/5 of its religious leaders massacred?

One might expect such a statement from Stalin’s Russia but not from the United States of America.

There can only be one word to aptly describe a presidential declaration re the Holocaust that makes no mention of Jews:

Disgraceful!

The fact that your Jewish daughter and son-in-law did not react publicly to this dreadful omission tells me all I need to know about the “Jewish identity” of both of them.

And again, these are just two of many grievous acts by the President that have violated the basic values for which America should always stand.

And so Mr.Trump, consider the 100 days of grace I wanted you to have EXPIRED!

It took longer than it should have for me to reach this conclusion. I apologize to those who put stock in what I mistakenly thought was a magnanimous gesture of reconciliation.

There is no other way to put this: