Friday, May 22, 2020

What did Donald Trump do today?

He honored America's fallen servicemembers as only he can.

In a White House ceremony today, Trump attacked unions, calling them "thieves" and "sadists" who were attacking hospital patients. 

He said he'd taken the U.S. military budget from "millions" to "trillions."  In reality, it's less than a trillion now, and hasn't been in the mere millions in over a century. He also said the military was "depleted" and had no "medical equipment" when he took office, which is a lie.

He said that at the time he took office, the United States had no ventilators. This is also a lie. He said that there was no "testing," presumably meaning tests for COVID-19, which is true because the virus was not known to science in 2017.

He bragged about new uniforms for the Army that "cost a lot." It's true uniforms aren't cheap, but the ones he's talking about were unveiled in 2019. Servicemembers pay out of pocket for their uniforms. They receive a clothing allowance, but it is not always enough to cover the cost of their uniforms.

He once again promoted an unproven drug as a cure for suicides.

Trump claimed that when the COVID-19 pandemic reached the United States, he "quickly secured [Veterans Administration] hospitals." It's not clear what he meant by "secured," but VA hospitals ran desperately low on PPE, forcing doctors to treat sick patients without protection from the virus.

He attacked Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi, repeating a lie about Pelosi "dancing in the streets" with Chinese-Americans at the outbreak of COVID-19. 

He bragged about winning the 2016 election.

He told a story about "rough guys" on motorcycles who called him "sir."

The event where Trump said all these things was part of the White House's official Memorial Day observations.

Why is this a problem?

  • No part of lying, bragging, or political grandstanding honors America's military heroes.
  • A president who could stop himself from doing all this at a Memorial Day commemoration probably would.