Trump’s Life Is Not More Precious Than Anyone Else's
In the story of Trump being smuggled off Air Force One, the mainstream media is once again missing the point.
Shortly before Air Force One took off from Turkey at the end of last month’s NATO summit, facing a credible Iranian threat, Donald Trump, America’s first convicted felon president, was secretly smuggled via catering truck onto a second, smaller military plane.
Journalists and some White House staff remained on the old Air Force One, unaware the so-called president was no longer traveling with them. The passengers were told to keep the window shades closed for safety reasons, but were they were not informed of the danger they were facing — nor were they told they were now effectively part of a decoy operation.
Here’s an ABC report about the incident. Notice, there’s no mention of the fact that the those who remained on the targeted plane were unaware of their lives being in danger while Trump is whisked to safety.
Yes, our government has a responsibility to respond to a credible threat against a president, whether that president is fundamentally unfit or otherwise. Political violence corrodes the democratic system and puts the country at the mercy of whoever is most willing to use force. Trump should know this better than most, given his own role in inciting the January 6 insurrection and his attempt to overturn a lawful election he decisively lost.
Trump’s Life Is Not More Valuable
Beyond the curiosity of imagining Trump being smuggled anywhere, there’s a bigger message the mainstream media remains reluctant to explore.
This incident exposes the fundamental rot of life in “Trump’s America,” where we are constantly inundated by the notion that this president is above the law and immune from accountability. Now, we’re being told that our very lives are less valuable than his. We don’t deserve the respect of being fully informed. Our lives are completely expendable when weighed in the balance of a tax-cheating, draft-dodging, pathological liar, serial-bankrupt, con man with a history of sexual assault.
Of course, there’s nothing further from the truth.
The lives of the journalists on that plane are just as valuable as the wannabe-dictator whose incessant offences against decency, dignity, democracy and humanity they are tasked with reporting. The Secret Service’s mandatory duty to protect a president does not create a hierarchy in which everyone else becomes expendable — at least, it shouldn’t.
No one should unknowingly have their lives put at risk so Donald Trump can escape harm, free to grift, graft and crime another day. If nothing else, they deserved enough information to understand the danger so they could make an informed choice to fly on Air Force One or not.
Trump’s Pathology Infects the Body Politic
We all know Trump’s guiding principle: he comes first, last, and always.
While no formal diagnosis can be made from public behavior alone. But experts in human psychology have long noted Trump’s cruelty, grandiosity, lack of empathy, and compulsive self-regard as traits commonly associated with malignant narcissism.
The rest of us exist either as pawns to feed his ego, protect his wealth, repeat his lies, buy his worthless magic beans, absorb the consequences of his failures, or take the blame when the damage he inflicts becomes impossible to hide.
It surprises exactly no one that Trump does not give a damn about anyone beyond himself. What’s truly unacceptable that his pathological indifference appears to have infected the people and institutions surrounding us all.
Human Shields for an Unfit President
Protecting a president from a credible threat is expected. But treating everyone else as disposable, lesser beings deserves loud and unequivocal condemnation. That they didn’t even bother letting the passengers and crew of the targeted Air Force One make an informed choice whether to willingly put their lives in danger speaks volumes of the lack of regard Trump’s maladministration has for people.
The lack of outrage is a testament to how thoroughly Trump’s sociopathic mindset has infected our system. Public servants are supposed to protect the public, not use our lives as human shields to preserve themselves.
This time, it was journalists, unnamed staffers, and crew. Who will be the next group of pawns they’re happy to sacrifice?
Every American should be outraged. Trump’s delusion that he is the most important being on Earth is dangerous enough. We should not stand for the people around him adopting that delusion as actionable policy.
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