Consoler in chief? Not this president

By Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on Oct 31, 2018

But those who are seeking some sort of hope or guidance beyond who to vote for, they'll have to look elsewhere. Trump does not console very well, or very eagerly, after such tragic events.

There's no mention in the Constitution of a consoler in chief, but recent presidents have shown us how valuable that job can be -- and how demanding.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush faced one of the biggest national unity and hope-rebuilding tasks since Abraham Lincoln. Yet he found just the right words and the right tone to bring the nation together, at least until the Iraq War came along.

President Barack Obama employed his formidable oratory skills after school shootings that were all too frequent and famously started singing "Amazing Grace" in a moment that warmed hearts nationwide.

But President Trump, after a few obligatory statements of sorrow for the dead, quickly returned to shifting all blame onto a favorite target, the media.

"Fake News Must End!" he tweeted Monday. "There is great anger in our Country caused in part by inaccurate, and even fraudulent, reporting of the news. The Fake News Media, the true Enemy of the People, must stop the open & obvious hostility & report the news accurately & fairly. That will do much to put out the flame ... of Anger and Outrage and we will then be able to bring all sides together in Peace and Harmony. Fake News Must End!"

Right, I say sarcastically. We know by now that Trump's definition of "fake news" is any news that he does not like. With his masterful skills at salesmanship, he delights his base by attacking the credibility of any negative news.

Blaming the messenger for the message and inventing an opposition, whether it happens to be the media or some conspiracy theory -- such as mythical terrorists supposedly using a caravan of asylum-seekers to sneak into the country -- are key elements of Trump's game plan.

Election years are notorious as periods in which not much gets done in Washington. This one, unfortunately, is one in which even minimal standards of civility are being shortchanged.

Still, currently, our sorry state of national unity makes this a particularly important time to be choosing the next Congress. The midterms won't decide who is president, but they will decide whether he gets much help.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)