A Nation Where Blame, Denial, Refusing Information and Lie Trump Taking Responsibility

  

A Nation Where Blame, Denial, Refusing Information and Lie Trump Taking Responsibility

The President ordered his recovering alcoholic, reservist major, news reader Secretary of War to plan and implement an attack against Trump-declared fast-boat, purported drug smugglers in open Caribbean waters, some of whom were not even heading towards the United States… Multiple attacks, based on Trump’s unilateral declaration of a new war on narco-terrorists without congressional or judicial approval and without tangible proof. It is estimated that at least 90 individuals over many such strikes were killed, including two who seemed to be clinging to a decimated boat via second strike on September 2nd. Indeed, inexperienced Hegseth was also facing renewed criticism over his earlier careless use of an unsecure Web platform to discuss military actions. Now he had to join the Trump team of finding someone to throw under the bus over the killing of these two survivors. He had a good teacher.

Trump’s “war on drugs” was clearly a lame excuse for exercising military power against a leftist dictator he wanted out. The President even contemplated spreading military action to Venezuela (and even ally Colombia) territory, unlikely to be more than bombs and missiles. While China was and is still the main source for fentanyl ingredients, on December 1st, Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was convicted in 2024 of trafficking drugs into the United States. The 57-year-old Hernandez was released from a federal prison in West Virginia, where he had been serving a 45-year sentence. So much for caring about true importation of drugs into the United States.

The United States drew opprobrium from many other nations for these attacks on small vessels, mostly in international waters. Mutterings of “war crimes” and even “murder” echoed, even from close allies. The UK stopped sharing intelligence with the US over Caribbean activity, and there was even bi-partisan criticism in Congress of these extra-judicial killings, viewed by many as Trump usurpation of yet another Constitutional right delegated exclusively to Congress, the right to declare/initiate “war.” But straight out of the Trump playbook, the cleverly worded blame shifting began at once. Congressional testimony clearly saw the shifting sands of explanation.

Having purportedly ordered, “kill everybody,” Pete “nobody likes or respects me” Hegseth said (but denies) in his implementation of Trump’s directive, that he handed over the design, implementation and command of this operation – with a huge US fleet looming near Nicaraguan waters – to former Navy Seal, Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley. Hegseth noted that it was Bradley who ordered the strike that killed those two survivors… but he was honored and proud to stand behind the Admiral. Hegseth noted that while he watched the strike that generated survivor on September 2nd, because of the “fog or war,” he did not see anything. In testimony before the Senate on December 4th, the good Admiral, obviously reeling from the bus tires that were running over him, declared that indeed he did order that second strike, with the unlikely explanation … I thought they were resuming the narco-run (in a destroyed boat?), so I ordered the second strike.

This pattern of blame, deflection and outright refusing to deal with divulging underlying facts, from the Epstein investigation to January 6, 2021, incitement of the Capitol attackers, is Trump’s signature… a man who continuously screws up and never takes responsibility for his obvious failures. He is blessed with a dwindling following of MAGA diehards who believe everything he says… as their own eyes and experience tell them otherwise. In the military, the buck stops with the commander of the unit where the mistake was made. In Trump-world, the buck only stops with the President on success; failures are either misreported or “blamed on others.”

Biden seems to have cause everything that Americans see as wrong with Trump’s policies, but the President’s blame game, the litany of hoaxes and con jobs foisted on the American people, accelerated by the “enemy of the people” (the press), and covering up embarrassing realities are Trump’s signature moves. But simple things, like taking credit for lowering prices everywhere when every American has proof to the contrary in the rising price of real estate (rentals and purchases), consumer goods and particularly medical care, are eroding Trump’s credibility with most Americans.

Trump well knows what he did and where he screwed up, but Mister “double down” depends often on keeping truth hidden. Lawsuits attempting to assert civil damages by trying to connect Trump, as an inciter, to the damages and injuries resulting from the Capitol assault on January 6, 2021, would produce an embarrassing reality for Mr. Trump. Robert Birsel, writing for Newsweek, explains: “President Donald Trump has reportedly asserted executive privilege to prevent his courtroom opponents from getting access to evidence in the lawsuit in which he is accused of stoking violence at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.

“What occurred on January 6, 2021—when Trump supporters attacked the Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden's win in the 2000 election—has become one of the most contentious political issues of recent years… The attack caused millions of dollars of damage at the Capitol and about 140 police officers were injured, some of whom brought legal action… It is unclear exactly which records Trump is aiming to keep out of the hands of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“However, Politico has reported that a White House spokesperson confirmed that the president has decided to fight disclosure of some material subpoenaed last year from the National Archives and Records Administration… ‘The President asserted executive privilege over the discovery requests in this case because the overly broad requests demanded documents that were either presidential communications or communications among the president’s staff that are clearly constitutionally protected from discovery,’ the spokesperson, Abigail Jackson, said in a statement.

“The police officers who filed the lawsuit say Trump’s remarks to a crowd of supporters fueled the riot that nearly derailed the transfer of power from Trump to Joe Biden… Lawyers for the officers have complained about long delays in getting access to White House records from Trump's first term in office, which are now in the custody of the National Archives, Politico reported… In January 2022, when Trump was a former president, the Supreme Court ruled that he could not exert executive privilege to block the release of White House records to the House's January 6 committee.” Trump’s main vulnerabilities, from Epstein to his own actions and massive Trump family economic gains, stem from the truth (definitely not Truth Social) and enough people to see and believe that truth.

I’m Peter Dekom, and I’d like to restate a famous quote from Abraham Lincoln updated: “A house built on lies cannot stand”… I hope.