Like all of the warning signs that precede the horrid diseases that can result from risky, unprotected sex, they are painfully there. Ignore them at your own peril. Ignore them, media, and you imperil the country. Again.
So we should know exactly what is coming as we witness the unconscionable attempted rehabilitation of Donald J. Trump.
We’ve seen Trump the everyman doing color commentary at a boxing match. Does he long for his gold toilet when attending such events?
We’ve seen Trump the aggrieved, banned from Twitter as he should’ve after his first birtherism lie. Allowing Trump back on Twitter would be akin to the United States building an atom bomb factory in Tokyo post-WWII.
We’ve seen Trump the mentor. Herschel Walker, Trump’s most special friend (sorry, Sean Hannity), the main mentee. I wonder if Walker (and Evander Holyfield and Larry Elder) know that years ago, they could not have rented an apartment in a Trump building.
And if someone would deny a person the right to residence because of the color of their skin, is it really much of a stretch to believe that they would deny the same people of color the right to vote?
We’ve seen Trump the savior, a rerun. Trump the darling of homecoming football fans.
And of course, we can’t ignore the granddaddy of them all — the personal favorite of the flag groper/smacker himself — Trump the patriot. Actually, this has been the underpinning of all his lies but forever remains the most comical of all his fraudulence — a red, white and blue flagbearer for a family with not one military enlistment or conscription in more than 150 years of residence on American soil.
Just as cockroaches scurry toward garbage, liars and shills are re-attaching to Trump. The Kellyanne Conways, Bill O’Reillys, Laura Ingrahams. Their wares are bolstered by entrenched liars like Cindy Adams and Stephen Miller (is it me or does Miller bear a striking physical resemblance to Roy Cohn?).
But cockroaches will dash from the light when shined on them. Dig deep on every lie, new and old. (How is the tax return audit going, Mr. Miller?) When Trump or any co-conspirator lies about stolen elections, end the interview immediately. Illuminate the hole and the vermin will eventually run for it. When they do, squash them and their lies.
It’s not that complicated, really. Trump is a con man. Everything he does must be viewed through that prism. He has no other talent. Dig. Question. Confront. Expose. Rinse. Repeat. Relentlessly.
As for Ivanka, the society swan wannabe might be the most dangerous Trump, sneaking around under her veil of decency. It’s time to rip the veil off before she becomes the ultimate election ratings gimmick, the political equivalent of TV’s Bobby Ewing in the shower — the 2024 vice presidential candidate. Veilless, she may prove to be the most indecent Trump of all.
Eric and Donald Jr.? These two political hobos are riding the train to wherever they can find acceptance, their pot of mulligan stew. It seems almost too easy to reveal them. Why are they still here?
Donald J. Trump is the rancid onion lodged under the dumpster for weeks in ninety-degree heat. To peel it is to endure unbearable rottenness. Under each layer oozes more and more stench. The tax returns. Russian paper held on him. The failed coup d’etat. Thievery. Racism. Intolerance. Sexual assault. Unfathomable delusion. Incredible untruth.
Final victory will be won on the margins. Trump’s cult will not cave. Enlighten every undecided voter. It’s time for the world’s uber-rich to anoint Trump, self-professed business genius, a failure and a joke. Time for all military leadership to announce Trump a traitorous danger to the existence of the planet, to warn that his next insurrection on democracy may be a flick of the nuclear switch.
There is no time for any humanizations of this demon — right down to the hair jostlings of Jimmy Fallon.
As recent books have proved, the truth does exist. If it’s out there for release years later, what is to prevent it from being reported in real-time? Dig. Question. Confront. Expose. Rinse. Repeat. The discharge of Trump is predicated on such. So too, the health of American democracy.
Marotta is a filmmaker and writer.
