Who hates America most? His initials are D.T.
by digby
Aaron Rupar took on Trump’s fatuous hectoring of The Squad for its alleged lack of patriotism in criticizing the country. I’ve been stunned by this edition of “I know you are but what am I” and collected a few examples. But this adds to the list substantially:
CNN put together a montage of Trump — who now that he’s president thinks criticizing America is an unpatriotic thing to do — saying things like, “how stupid are the people of Iowa? How stupid are the people of the country?” pic.twitter.com/iNrUHOXfqu— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) July 22, 2019
In recent days, Trump has repeatedly denounced Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for a comment she made in March that wasn’t even critical of him, but that instead took aim at incrementalist policies supported by more moderate members of Congress that she described as being “10 percent better from garbage.”
“This idea of 10 percent better from garbage shouldn’t be what we settle for,” she said.
Trump, however, has misconstrued Ocasio-Cortez’s words in an effort to make people believe she actually compared America with garbage. She didn’t. But in an especially ironic twist, Trump in October 2014 did the very thing he’s now falsely accusing Ocasio-Cortez of doing.
More here.
Denigrating America and all US leaders has been his stock in trade for years. Going all the way back to 1987:
Donald Trump once spent nearly $100,000 to place a full-page advertisement criticizing U.S. foreign policy in the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the Boston Globe.
“There’s nothing wrong with America’s Foreign Defense Policy that a little backbone can’t cure,” the ad’s headline blares. Below, the reader finds “an open letter from Donald J. Trump” — addressed “To The American People” — “on why America should stop paying to defend countries that can afford to defend themselves.”
The ads appeared in the papers on September 2, 1987. According to an Associated Pressstory published the night before they appeared in print, Trump paid $94,801 to run the advertisements.
“For decades, Japan and other nations have been taking advantage of the United States,” the letter declares. “The saga continues unabated as we defend the Persian Gulf, an area of only marginal significance to the United States for its oil supplies, but one upon which Japan and others are almost totally dependent.”
“Why are these nations not paying the United States for the human lives and billions of dollars we are losing to protect their interests?” the ad continues.
“The world is laughing at America’s politicians as we protect ships we don’t own, carrying oil we don’t need, destined for allies who won’t help.”
Trump writes that Americans could “help our farmers, our sick, our homeless by taking from some of the greatest profit machines ever created — machines created and nurtured by us.”
“‘Tax’ these wealthy nations, not America,” suggests the tycoon. “End our huge deficits, reduce our taxes, and let America’s economy grow unencumbered by the cost of defending those who can easily afford to pay us for the defense of their freedom.”
“Let’s not let our great country be laughed at any more,” Trump’s letter concludes.
He didn’t understand the concept of a world oil market even then. Or the US security umbrella conceived in the wake of the bloodiest wars in human history.
And he still doesn’t.
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