• Home
  • Blog
  • Contact
The Screaming Moderate

Me, the Trump. Not, We, the People

7/17/2026

0 Comments

 
Everyone, even most of the Republican Party, knows President Trump lies about most everything including the 2020 election results. Let’s talk bigger picture.

President Trump is destroying the credibility of the United States among our long-time allies, among our citizenry and, importantly, of the presidency. And, an entire generation of voters is being taught not to listen to what a President says because, in advance, we know it won't be the truth.

The fact that a President of the United States can announce an address to the nation and no one – except his most loyal of cable channels – covered it is destroying, too, the ability of the President to say, “this is important. Pay attention. I have important news about the United States – be it war or the state of the economy.”

And no one can listen to what he says because the networks and cable news, in advance, said: since we know he’s going to lie, we won’t broadcast it live, but we will cover anything newsworthy.


Sensible news coverage? I think so. If a president, any president, is not making news, why cover it?

What does that generation think, then, when they are older? The presidency is just another office, not one they should pay attention to?


The only legacy this President cares about is putting his name on anything and everything – from savings accounts for children to the Kennedy Center, to a gold coin and almost anything else. He can’t wait patiently to win that recognition based on what he does because he knows it likely won’t happen, so he’ll do it himself. As he did with Trump Vodka, Trump University, Trump Airlines and other failed products.

He had every right to do that when he was in the private sector. He doesn’t now.

It truly all is about him, not us.

What does the next President – and there will be a next President – do to regain that credibility? Who is that man or woman who not only is capable of running this country and its foreign policy but also can talk, with credibility, about our daily lives? About the legitimate threats we face?

He talked last night (apparently, because I couldn’t find a place to listen to him) election security. His spokesperson announced in advance that he had “shocking” things to say about it.

He didn’t.

He released information that mostly we all knew before, putting on it his “spin” that it threatens the legitimacy of our elections. It hasn’t and it doesn’t.

He provided no proof that any election was affected by any tampering. Because that proof doesn’t exist.  Why doesn’t it exist? Because it has never happened.

It wasn’t enough that he called the Georgia Secretary of State a few years ago demanding he find enough votes for him to win Georgia, now he is using, at best, innuendo to damn our election process that had made the United States the envy of the world, insulting every elected official responsible - Democrat and Republican for overseeing free and fair elections.

If our elections are so manipulated by cheaters – how did he win?

How did the Republican Party gain control of both the House and Senate?

If the evil Deep State, the media and others conspired to screw the GOP, wouldn’t the GOP be screwed? But it isn’t. The GOP controls every lever of government, including the Supreme Court. Where are the fruits of this “cheating?”


In doing so, he never mentioned that as President, as The New York Times reported, he has: “…(dismantled) the election protections built up over previous years. The FBI’s task force on foreign influence was shut down, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence sharply cut back a task force that warned against foreign meddling and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency gutted. And, Mr. Trump has appointed an heir to a housing fortune with no relevant experience as the interim director of national intelligence.”

If there is evidence of foreign meddling, why gut the agencies responsible for uncovering and protecting against that meddling?

Do other countries try to influence our elections?

Duh, yes.

But not by invading our voting machines, or adding votes to their favored candidate. They do it by gaining access to publicly available information to target their disinformation efforts at our voters.

My friends, that’s what the major political parties do, too.

This isn’t all Mr. Trump’s fault, though much of the responsibility can be laid at his door.

Former President Joe Biden contributed to our political world by not doing what he said he’d do – serve as a President who will get us back to “normal” and then not seek reelection. He promised to be a transition president, a one-term president. But he didn’t keep that promise. He, too, convinced himself only he could beat Trump. Even he, he thought, was above our system.

Mr. Trump was elected President because he had the good fortune of running against a flawed candidate (Hillary Clinton) and by Biden deciding too late that he was too old to run. A decision he was only forced into.

The only candidate Donald Trump could have defeated in 2016 was Hillary Clinton. The only way he won in 2024 was because President Biden created the political environment for him to win.

Has Mr. Trump done some good things? Probably. Illegal immigration is down, though one can certainly question the tactics he’s using. One can mourn the lives of those immigrants who did everything the right way, but still were gunned down by thugs hired to supposedly protect us from the “worst of the worst.”

You may not agree with every policy he’s brought to our country but he won the election(s) and that’s how our system works. It’s the tactics that he has introduced to our country, the damage he has done to the United States’ credibility that is the problem. It is the conspiracy theories he foments and spreads.

And that we, in a couple of years, must deal with, with whoever the next President is.

He does not look at legacy as, am I leaving our citizens in better shape than they I found them? His legacy is how that we must correct all the damage he has done to our country, internationally and domestically. To our system.

His approval rating is down to, basically, his base of voters, people who want their lives made better not more violent, people who want their children to be better off than they were. But who for some reason support the very man in the way of that progress. Who for some reason believe he is telling the truth.

That’s the measure, the legacy, of a President. We’ve had some succeed at that, some fail.

He’s failing. And because of his failures, our system is being undermined by a man who cares only about “Me, the Trump.”

Not We, the People.
0 Comments

    RSS Feed

     
    Follow @bjaycooper

    Archives

    July 2026
    June 2026
    May 2026
    April 2026
    February 2026
    January 2026
    December 2025
    November 2025
    October 2025
    September 2025
    August 2025
    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013

    B. Jay Cooper

    B. Jay is a former deputy White House press secretary to Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush. He also headed the communications offices at the Republican National Committee, U.S. Department of Commerce, and Yale University. He is a former reporter and is the retired deputy managing director of APCO Worldwide's Washington, D.C., office.
    He is the father of three daughters and grandfather of five boys and one girl. He lives in Marion, Mass.

powered by bjaycooper.com