Trump's Contempt for the Ex-Presidents Is Costing Us Right Now

[Zorro]

About a year ago, in an interview in the Oval Office, I asked President Trump if his years behind the storied Resolute desk had made him empathize with his predecessors. In the very room where most of them had called on one another in times of crisis for years — and well before the novel coronavirus pandemic changed the country, and the world — Mr. Trump was dismissive of the men who came before him.

He answered my question without hesitation: “No, no.” His attitude toward his predecessors has apparently only hardened over time. The chaos of the pandemic has shined a spotlight on his contempt for the living presidents.

He has stripped them of one of their only jobs in retirement: their unique ability to unify the country in a crisis. The relative absence of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter is more striking now than ever before.

Mr. Obama’s endorsement of Joe Biden on April 14 was as much — if not more — about calling out Mr. Trump as it was about declaring his support for his former vice president. The endorsement gave Mr. Obama the chance to speak up against not only Mr. Trump’s muddled handling of the pandemic but also his entire presidency in a video that ran nearly 12 minutes.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/opinion/coronavirus-trump-presidents.html

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Historically, our modern presidents have reached out to their predecessors, regardless of party

U.S. POTUS is a pretty exclusive club. In the past, LBJ reached out to Eisenhower. Jimmy Carter, who had only Nixon and Ford to call on, reached out to Ford - his former opponent - and Ford was able to help him in dealing with Congress and the two became genuine friends. Ford called on Carter to give his eulogy. George H.W. Bush also called on Carter for diplomatic missions. And in 1994 Carter was able to forge the last successful nuclear treaty that we had with North Korea on behalf on the Clinton administration. All of our former presidents have important contacts with our allies - and a few other countries as well - and considering how well President Obama is regarded throughout the world, this is only one of Trump's biggest mistakes.

[Hortensis]

2. Trump's mentally disordered and incapable of respecting others.

Of course he's incapable of empathy.

With all due disrespect to this opinion writer pushing her new book, horseshit to the insinuations of that last paragraph. President Obama's endorsement of his great friend and workmate was entirely sincere, not a cynically degraded excuse to insult Trump. This person has a national platform 24/7 to use for that when he wishes.

This take makes me suspect the author shares just a smidge of Trump's inability to understand, or at least expect and recognize, principled behavior. Or maybe it was just a hit.