by Emil Guillermo
The October Surprise this election year may be wondering what will Donald Trump do of say next.
When you’re a rich lame duck you start throwing things around and hope something sticks.
They start looking like bribes.
$90 dollars to help pay for Medicare? Is he kidding? He’s already offering a $5,000 Trump dividend for votes. After making billions off the presidency, he expects us to go cheap.
The latest Hail Mary scheme is Trump saying that Putin will provide diesel in the world market lower fuel costs in the U.S.
Rely on the enemy for help? I’d reject that idea on its face.
But that’s how weak Trump is now. So This weak that he can’t talk straight.
Witness his statement that sounds like he’s sacrificing to Iran Los Angeles and San Diego, two of the largest cities in America, representing 10 million-plus U.S. residents.
And of course, what about all your Filipino American relatives in both cities?
By now, you’ve heard about the comments by the president at a rally in Nebraska. He essentially implied that Iran could bomb LA and San Diego.
Joking? Really. If he was joking, keep in mind that anyone who joked about bombing as he went through a TSA checkpoint would be promptly arrested.
Bombing anything is no laughing matter. Especially if you’re the so-called leader of the world.
But here is Donald Trump desperately trying to make his forever war with Iran seem somewhat palatable by making an irresponsible statement that cannot be taken lightly.
Trump ran on no forever wars, then started one, a war of choice. He got in it with Israel, without Congressional approval, and declared it was over almost immediately. But it wasn’t.
He’s still in it. He can’t get out, and the consequences of this are enormous to everyone in the country and the world, and to the Filipino Americans, 40% of whom voted for him. Are you going to vote for him now?
The war has caused gas prices in California to exceed $6 bucks; diesel prices around the country to soar over $8 dollars; Since trucks run on diesel, the fuel costs of food, goods, and supplies have soared; The $70 billion war has made life in America expensive; And we haven’t even begun to talk about the lives of American service members nor the thousands of war dead.
Donald Trump has caused all that, and you want to give him a pass on the implied bombing of Los Angeles and San Diego?
So let’s go back to Trump’s speech at the rally on Monday in Grand Island, and the surrounding words that should give us full context.
He was talking about the Iran war, the economic pain from it, and especially higher prices:
“I want to see a tremendous victory. You want to see a tremendous victory because it verifies all the things we did. And again, remember, with the war, it’s just artificial. It’s a little bit high. It’s a small price to pay for keeping the world safe, keeping our country safe. They can take out a city. Let ’em take out Los Angeles. Let ’em take out San Diego. This is a very small price to pay, and it’s gonna be over very soon. It’s essentially almost over with.
“And they might keep going a little long. You know, they always say, ‘They have a big threshold for pain.’ They need it, let me tell you. But it’s gonna end very soon. And it’ll end one way or the other. And your gas and your gasoline and all the other things…”
Since Trump, the master divider, was playing to his red crowd, he knew the crowd would love something that targeted Los Angeles and San Diego.
And they cheered him on,
But I know when I heard the lines, I took him dead seriously.
The White House tried to explain that Trump was arguing that higher gas prices and other costs caused by the Iran war are a “small price to pay” compared with the danger Iran supposedly would pose if it were left unchecked and eventually had the ability to destroy an American city.
Communications Director Steven Cheung said Trump was describing the danger he believes his Iran policy is preventing, not literally inviting Iran to attack California.
“He was clearly stating U.S. cities would have been threatened if a nuclear Iran hadn’t been stopped,” Chung said in a social media post.
Yeah, but the Iran nuclear threat still exists, as does the war.
Trump really didn’t say what his handlers want to think he said.
Trump said: “It’s a small price to pay…”
Then, “They can take out a city. Let ’em take out Los Angeles. Let ’em take out San Diego.”
Then immediately again: “This is a very small price to pay.”
It sounds like he’s offering up LA and San Diego to Iran. A small price? In exchange for ending the war?
Taking Trump literally is the only way to understand him. There is no metaphor. There is no nuance. Trump’s rhetoric is all grab them by the …you now. He’s no class.
He didn’t even use a disclaimer, like, “I don’t want this to happen…but…” or say something like: “Imagine if we did nothing and Iran eventually became capable of taking out Los Angeles or San Diego.”
Trump said what he was thinking out loud. It’s the babbling of an old man unhinged, who doesn’t understand the gravity of his position or his words.
He’s bored and wants to play golf. We should let him. He’s irresponsible and cannot be trusted. A man dangerously unfit to stay in office.
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