Photo Credits: NBC News
Donald Trump’s latest temper tantrum has the world, again, on a string. Seemingly, the public is either mesmerized, antagonised or paralyzed by the inhale and exhale of his every breathe. Like the masterful puppeteer that he is, Trump’s latest meltdown is dominating the airwaves.
Trump’s current conniption boils down to his disdain for Fox News Anchor, Megyn Kelly. Kelly, if anyone cares to recall, during the first Republican Debate, went after Trump’s unflattering language towards women. Specifically, Trump’s diatribe which he hurled at Rosie O’Donnell several years ago.
Kelly’s question was the very first one directed towards Trump this Presidential Debate season. Had Trump answered the question, the public in their minds, would have voted the seriousness of his campaign up or down. But Trump’s response did not answer the question. Instead, he deflected it and turned the question into an attack on him by Kelly.
I watched that debate and felt at the time that the question, given Trump’s previous comments on sexism, was a legitimate inquiry of someone who aspired to become the President of the United States of America.
Sadly, we never got an answer. What we got was a slight of hand by a billionaire, who cried, like a political neophyte, that an enterprising news reporter was being unfair to him.
The world is an unfair place. The majority of Americans whose life opportunities have not been served up with a silver spoon and the very best that money can buy, know very well that life oftentimes is not just. We are taught to expect incongruous situations. We are taught to work with those who treat us ugly. We are taught to get along with our neighbors, in short, to thicken our skin to the slings and arrows that Shakespeare warned were all around us.
It appears not to be Trump’s nature to play with the other boys and girls when he gets pushed a wee bit harder than he expected. Why should he? Unlike most Americans, Trump can take his prodigious bank account and build his own playground, where he can invite only the people who will not force him to play by the same rules of respect and decency everyone else is expected to follow.
Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.