SIMPLE & QUICK: Always the showman, Donald J. Trump successfully distracts the media as he misdirects Americans and dismantles democracy

Many people are saying, “What is the President thinking?” There is no comparison in American political history to help understand the pathway the 45th President of the United States and the country under his leadership are on. Or why. Why is the President more interested in rallies and racist monuments than managing the coronavirus pandemic? Why is America three-and-a-half years into the Trump presidency and still stumbling to explain “that Russia thing?” And why is the President, himself, at a loss in articulating why he should be elected to a second term?

Despite dire pleas from Drs. Fauci, Redfield, and Hahn; and scores of other doctors, scientists, and epidemiologists on the current trajectory of America’s coronavirus problem, Donald Trump septupled-down this week on the pandemic being a media hoax. However, in a separate bizarre display, the President conceded that wearing a mask is “probably a good thing.” He even posited that he looked good in one— “like the Lone Ranger.” Except the Lone Ranger does not wear his mask in accordance to CDC guidelines— or is that the joke?

This holiday weekend marks two weeks since the Tulsa rally. There are, as expected, a dozen or so of the President’s frontmen and aids now self-quarantining. The President’s son’s girlfriend is now also infected with the novel virus. She and DJTJ are driving back East alone. As are some of Trump’s body men. Former GOP Presidential hopeful, Herman Cain, is tonight, on oxygen, in a hospital bed with Covid-19— after also attending the Tulsa rally. And yet, yesterday, the MAGA crew threw another racist homecoming.

This time, the event is disguised as a July 4th celebration. It just so happens to be taking place on stolen land and in front of a monument built by a Klansman, whose white supremacist aesthetic philosophy bids purposeful allusion to Manifest Destiny. Oops! There is a reason why the monument has not been finished. Furthering division, The President’s Mount Rushmore speech is not about combatting the virus, or rebuilding the economy, nor is there a bid to bring Americans together on Independence Day. Instead, POTUS is pissed about monuments.

The Russian bounties story is proving to be as virulent as the coronavirus, and just as disconcerting. Since the NYT broke the story last week, Americans learned that the President has known for months about clandestine Russian forces possibly paying bounties to Afghani militants. Bounties for successfully killing Coalition/U.S. soldiers. Per habit, the President denied even being briefed. However, Trump is kind of walking that back now after more news broke confirming the information was indeed in the Presidential Daily Briefing (PDB). That, of course, turns the denial itself into part of story. Top officials are left demanding to know more.

In an attempt to explain the debacle, the President’s men, in more or less words, said they have learned to not lead the oral PDB with intel on Russia. The President goes into an apparent rage regarding anything Russia. This bizarre behavior is compounded after a dispute on how the President absorbs his PDBs. Apparently, the information was not “read aloud” to the President. Republicans, too, are confused. How is any of this possible given that the subject of the conversation is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces. When it comes to Russia, are U.S. troops disposable to POTUS?

More reporting has pried the lid off and the can of worms is fully open. Moms of recent slain U.S. Soldiers are demanding answers. Veterans groups are not happy. They are also demanding answers— and also receiving nothing. One group is already airing an attack ad. There are reports of financial transactions between Russia and Taliban militants. And instead of more answers, Americans are faced with even more inexplicable questions. Why did the President offer Putin’s Russia a path back into the G7 after learning of these bounties? Why is POTUS demanding the U.S. stop assisting Germany’s military instead of insisting Allies work in better unison on pressuring Putin? Why are strategic U.S. Military moves seeming more and more to be in Russia’s better interests?

Unfortunately, there are no answers yet. There are odd excuses. There are countless denials. But there are no solid answers. There is only misdirection. Last night, on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell, GOP Strategist turned Lincoln Project creator, Steve Schmidt, put it this way, “We have had incompetent presidents before. We have had dishonest presidents. But America has never had a faithless president— a president faithless to his oath of office and faithless to the U.S. Constitution.” Which brings Americans back to the fact that the President, himself, does not know why he is running for re-election.