JOHN CHUCKMAN COMMENT: TRUMP'S FOURTH-OF-JULY SPEECH WAS "NON-PARTISAN"? - NO UNDERSTANDING OF THE NATURE OF TRUMP'S PARTISANSHIP - HERE IS AN EXTREME NARCISSIST WHO SEES NOT POLITICAL PARTIES BUT ONLY "ME AND THEM" - A TRULY BIZARRE SPEECH AND TRAMPLING OVER FAMILY-PICNIC-AND-FIREWORKS TRADITIONS - GIVEN BY A GRIMACING MARVEL-COMICS HERO IN A THICK GLASS BOX

John Chuckman


COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY MARK GOLLOM IN CBC NEWS



“U.S. President's Salute to America at National Mall a departure from past celebrations”



“Trump defies critics, delivers non-partisan Fourth of July address”



Oh, I think that might be just a wee bit misleading.

Yes, it was “non-partisan” in the sense of Republicans versus Democrats.

But that political division really doesn’t characterize Trump’s thinking anyway. After all, a number of Republicans have opposed him on matters, and he has insulted a number of them in public.

No, he is a political maverick in the truest sense of the word. It’s Trump against the world.

Things are always about Trump, versus everyone else.

Except for his faithful supporters who wait eagerly for the next chunk of red-meat verbiage about migrants and refugees to be tossed to them. Or about how that whole big, ugly world out there takes advantage of poor, dear old America.

So, in that sense, it was very much a partisan speech. Just taking the day away from its usual focus, the general public having an old-fashioned family picnic with fireworks, was partisan in the same sense, partisan for himself.

The speech, in my view, was bizarre, and with all its malapropisms, mistakes, and anachronism. Delivered from behind a bulletproof glass shield, he wore his best grimacing stone-bust look most of the time.

There were moments when he resembled a grotesque Marvel comic book hero held captive in a force field.

I guess he thinks that grimacing look inspires audiences with a sense of his strength and determination. To my mind, it communicates something else entirely, but if I accurately identify just what it is, this comment will certainly be removed by a moderator.

It was interesting to hear some little-known historical anecdotes from Trump, as how early Americans had taken airfields from the mighty British imperial forces a century before the invention of airplanes.

It was inspiring to hear how he feels that anything is possible. I was thinking, yes, like tipping the entire planet into a depression with trade wars, tariffs, sanctions, and threats to oil supply. Or, maybe, literally tipping it into a major bloody war over nothing.