Trump's Luck and Mojo Run Low

Jamie Stiehm on Apr 17, 2024

But the danger is, Trump will never surrender without the ugliest clash since the Civil War. If he has his way, he'll incite more political violence ("a bloodbath") against the government than he did on Jan. 6, 2021. That day is still a nightmare from which we are trying to awake. I was in the Capitol under siege.

(This time, FBI, brace for it. And Attorney General Merrick Garland, please do your job.)

Trump's campaign "speeches" are studies of a disturbed mind, demons unleashed. There are no limits on what to say. No rules of play as he swings from self-pity to raging rants. The fierce bonds with white folks (mostly) are perplexing, but in plain sight.

Call it negative charisma.

White nationalist tirades often defend the armed mob that attacked the Capitol. The Jan. 6 violent convicts are "hostages," while true Israeli hostages are suffering somewhere in Gaza. Strangely, that dark day was perhaps Trump's personal pinnacle as president.

Lately, immigrants on the border are called "animals." Losing the Battle of Gettysburg, Gen. Robert E. Lee, Trump declared at a rally, is "no longer in favor, did you ever notice that?" Stating the obvious, he seemed like he was letting you in on a secret.

The truth about Lee, the Confederate icon, is that he betrayed his own army and country. Lee could have been hanged, but President Abraham Lincoln was not out for revenge and "retribution," Trump's vow to get back at critics. (But he'd only be a dictator on the first day, he said.)

Tragically, Lincoln's mercy on the defeated Confederacy was met with an assassin's bullet in a full-house theater that was celebrating Union victory in the Civil War.

As someone who loves the sound of music in words, the crude way Trump speaks to crowds robs the English language. The swagger suggests a bar brawl. If he said something charming, witty or wise in seven years, I never heard it.

The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, told Congress that our allies depend on America to champion freedom, to stand against authoritarianism.

Instead, Trump pressed House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to delay a key floor vote on aiding Ukraine in its war against Russia. After two months, the vote may go ahead.

Trump's first day in criminal court, April 15, was the date that Lincoln died. And the nation wept.

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The author may be reached at JamieStiehm.com. To find out more about Jamie Stiehm and other Creators Syndicate columnists and cartoonists, please visit creators.com.

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