Very little truth and few consequences

On Easter Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump talked about the war in Iran while standing beside his wife and a wide-eyed Easter Bunny.

The same day, Trump presided over the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, at which he regaled small children with anecdotes about how his predecessor, former president Joe Biden, relied too heavily on the use of an autopen.

“He was incapable of signing his name, so they’d follow him around with this big machine,” Trump told the tots, who looked nonplussed.

“President Trump,” said one little boy, proffering a paper airplane, “I made, uh, Air Force One — ”

“Who likes fake news?” Trump asked, cutting him off.

Later that day, Melania Trump, posing with that same Easter Bunny and trying to be heard above the strains of a jazz band, was asked by a reporter if she had a message for children who happen to find themselves in a war zone.

“Well,” she said, “all of this is happening for their future, so they will be safe in years to come.”

(Words of great comfort, I’m sure).

It’s hard not to milk these scenes for sardonic laughs.

The president discusses war while standing next to someone in a bunny suit.

The president rambles on about an old foe while talking to a bunch of impressionable kids.

The first lady hosts Easter games for American children while Iranian children and their families are being threatened with obliteration.

But there’s nothing funny about a powerful world leader who seems to have parted ways with reality and civility some time ago, and one for whom there seems to be no consequences, no matter how reckless or unjust his behaviour and directives are.

Cynics among us will say the war in Iran was started primarily to deflect the American public — and much of the rest of the world — from Trump’s many missteps: his once very chummy relationship with a billionaire pedophile, for example; his increasingly incoherent speeches; and his bombast and swagger about taking over other countries and territories, such as Greenland and Canada.

Oh yeah, and let’s not forget about him ordering U.S. special forces to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores. And there were those airstrikes that rained down on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean, blowing people to smithereens with no consideration of how justice is supposed to prevail, with charges, due process and trials. And what about the 175 people — most of them young girls — killed in an airstrike on an Iranian school. Where are the consequences for that catastrophic blunder?

What about ICE agents mowing down U.S. citizens in the streets on Trump’s watch? Has he suffered any serious political fallout for those actions?

During an interview with NBC’s Tom Llamas in February, in which the president said neither Renee Good nor Alex Pretti — who were each shot to death while protesting the heavy-handed actions of immigration agents — were “angels,” he went on to complain about public reaction to their deaths.

“Two people out of tens of thousands, OK, and you get bad publicity,” he whined, as if popularity ratings mattered more than people’s lives.

Who is even talking about Good and Pretti now? The senselessness and illegality of their deaths have been lost with so many other important issues in the maelstrom of Trump’s smoke-and-mirrors show. Because, let’s face it, Trump is good at deflection and distraction. Nearly every day he delivers a fresh ream of toxic, racist and profane social media rants about the Obamas, the Pope, Iranians or Somalis.

Just last week, Trump reposted a meme in which he styled himself as Jesus Christ healing the sick, complete with divine light radiating from his hands — and then claimed, straight-faced, that it was not Christ he was meant to represent, but a doctor.

In either case, the logical next question is “Why?” Perhaps he was hoping to boost sales of his “Presidential Edition” of the God Bless the U.S.A. Bible (yours for just US$99.99) or, perhaps, offering a clue as to how his wounded ear healed so fast after the assassination attempt.

I keep wondering when Americans will find they’ve had enough of his erratic behaviour and the disrepute he has brought to the Oval Office, or why no one has yet invoked the 25th amendment to legitimately question his mental capacity. Or how he can threaten war crimes with impunity. But then Trump posts something new and outlandish and my attention is diverted, just as he intended.

While campaigning in 2016, Trump famously boasted that he “could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?”

He has already overseen far worse than that and, sadly, seems to have gotten away scot-free.

Pam Frampton lives in St. John’s.

Email pamelajframpton@gmail.com | X: @Pam_Frampton Bluesky: @pamframpton.bsky.social