nytimes
This week Donald Trump failed to stand at attention during a military ceremony. He just sat around talking and telling jokes. My question for today is: Do we need to dwell on this?
Stop jumping up and down and cheering.
Policy-wise, this has been a particularly dreadful week in Washington. The president trashed the health care act and washed his hands of the nuclear agreement with Iran.
Attention must be paid. But there has also been a bumper crop of Ridiculous Events. And it seems only fair to mention a few of them, given that the president himself doesn’t have enough stable thoughts for a serious policy debate. He never did understand the Affordable Care Act. During one top-level discussion with his foreign affairs advisers, he reportedly compared the United States’ strategy in Afghanistan to the remodeling of the 21 Club in Manhattan.
Good story, huh? I’m afraid I’m sinking to his level.
Let’s get back to the flag. Trump was doing an interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, sitting in a hangar used by the Pennsylvania Air National Guard. A bugle began playing “Retreat,” music marking the end of the day and, often, the lowering of the flag. The military tradition is that when you hear it, you rise and put your hand on your heart. Or salute. Trump kept sitting and talking. He joked to the crowd that the bugle was in honor of Hannity’s ratings.
Well, maybe he had no idea what “Retreat” was. And to be fair, only people outdoors are really obliged to stand for the ceremony. But if you’re a president who went to a military high school, sitting in a military facility, near people who suddenly get to their feet, there ought to be an inkling that some attention should be paid.
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Gail Collins
American politics and culture.
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RECENT COMMENTS
PJ Maybruck 18 hours ago
Thank you Gail for today’s article. You are blessed with having a wonderful writing skill filled with knowledge, integrity and humor.My...
Mark Long 18 hours ago
Why is Trump treating California and Porto Rico quite differently than Texas and Florida? Two reasons... One... Number of electoral vote...
TJ Michaelson 18 hours ago
Speaking of the bugle incident, Trump attended the NY Military Academy. He should still be familiar with the appropriate response to...
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Trump was in Pennsylvania, by the way, to promote his tax plan. In recent days he was also in North Carolina for a dinner with the Republican National Committee. He played golf with Lindsey Graham and met with the Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins. Do we have any right to ask why he hasn’t dropped into California to check up on the wildfire disaster? He couldn’t do anything to help, and most Californians wouldn’t vote for him if he showed up wielding a hose and rescuing trapped bunnies. But it would still be a nice, leaderlike gesture.
Have you noticed how much of our discussion about the president is just a list of symbolic failures and punch lines? Are we just aping his fecklessness? Nah.
Usual straw man nonsense. The criticism of Trump re. health care is not that he is undoing what Obama did. The criticism is that the steps he is taking do nothing to advance his stated goals of providing better coverage to all Americans for lower premiums while protecting all those with pre-existing conditions. His latest step of stopping subsidy payments has been panned by both Republicans and Democrats as leading to an increase in premiums. His refusal to consider the bipartisan plan being advanced in the Senate to shore up the ACA is indicative of the fact that his only interest is undoing Obama's legacy, not helping the American people. Same with the Iran deal, where his own national security team has asserted, under oath, that Iran is in compliance and that it is in America's interest to remain in the deal.
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