Trump Denied the Only Way of Speaking He Knows

I posted the following on FB not long ago and not everyone understood the point.

“I think I understand something about Trump’s sense that the gag order has stripped him of his freedom to speak. Throughout his adult life he has had only two ways of responding to opposition or criticism. One is aggressive intimidation to assert control over others.  The other is to attack critics with humiliating insults. It’s his way of winning by making others look like humiliated, weak, ugly, stupid losers. Well, he is prohibited from trying to bully the judge with aggressive anger and he’s been barred from publicly attacking witnesses and jurors with abusive insults.  His only two tools have been taken away.  He has nothing left.  It’s really quite sad.”

A few thought I believed it was sad that his freedom of speech had been taken away from him.  What is sad is that a mature adult is limited to the conflict resolution skills of a four year old pre-schooler. More sad is that he was once president, wants to be again, and is adored by millions as a godlike figure to whom they pledge absolute loyalty. 

Lest I be accused of ridiculing him, it’s not ridicule to state the obvious.  Nor is it a contest of conservative against liberal.  There is nothing conservative about his intentions for a second term.  Speculation has it that the people behind Project 25 have established the agenda he will implement and it’s a frightening vision of an ultra-right Hungarian style state, but don’t be too sure about it.  Trump is loyal to no agenda but the one he thinks will keep him in power and out of jail.  His tight circle of loyalists will be loyal to him, however influential they might be at times, not an agenda thrust on them. 

He is not to be underestimated.  As ignorant and uncouth as he is, he is as wiley as they come and has no sense of humor.  He wants to run the country the way he has run the Trump Organization.  As recent court testimony has made clear, that means he wants to run it as a private, tightly controlled operation in which everyone reports to him with unquestioning loyalty.  We have long suspected and now know that his track record running a big business is not a good one. It looks huge but teeters on a wobbly debt structure, exaggerated values, and uncounted lawsuits to keep creditors at bay. 

He is a clear and present danger not only to our democracy but  to every standard of moral behavior. He is incapable of knowing that he does not know and doesn’t understand that he doesn’t understand.  He is an antediluvian character.  It may seem odd, then, that I am sorry for the man.  He is empty of the full humanity God created for us. My hope is that he might yet surrender his emptiness to receive the fullness of life that is God’s to give.