The Post-Journal
Bullying In The White House
Mar 8, 2025
Rolland Kidder
I thought I had seen it all with Donald Trump, but his
atrocious behavior in bullying the President of Ukraine in the White House went
beyond the pale.
Can you imagine George Washington or Abe Lincoln, or
any other President we have had, ever doing anything like this? If it were done
in school, the teacher would send the student involved to the principal’s
office.
Actually, it was more than bullying. President Zelensky
was bushwhacked between the two hammering voices of President Trump and
Vice-President Vance. This was no spontaneous, unplanned event. They were out
to surprise and crush the Ukrainian President in a coordinated way.
As an American, I was ashamed and embarrassed.
To Trump though, it was a victory. “This is going to be
great television,” he said. An observation that fits with his general “modus
operandi.”
When Tony Schwarz ghost-wrote in 1987 the book “Art of
the Deal” for Trump, the publisher showed Mr. Trump a copy of what the proposed
book would look like. Trump liked it, did not comment on its content, but said:
“Please make my name much bigger.” That was done on the cover, and the book
became a bestseller.
The same Donald Trump, our current President, now in
his first chaotic days of a second term, seems to be consistent, at least on
that point. Even if the news is not good, as long as the Trump name gets top
billing, it is a success.
As Schwarz said in a follow-up interview after the book
was published, Trump “seemed driven entirely by a need for public attention.”
After spending decades as a tabloid titan, “the only thing left was running for
President. If he could run for emperor of the world, he would.”
As to that ambition, unfortunately, the President may
be in for a surprise. The world is not ready for an emperor, even an American
emperor. We have to hope that others in the world will arise to remind us of
our democratic roots and help steer us back in the direction of responsible,
representative government.
The Roman philosopher, Seneca, once wrote: “Caesar and
the state are one and the same.” It was opposition to that kind of thinking
that brought America into being. We didn’t want Caesar or the King of England
running this country.
When asked what kind of government the Constitutional
Convention had proposed, Ben Franklin is purported to have said: “A Republic if
you can keep it.” Now is a time when we need to be focused on “keeping it.”
Bullying a beleaguered leader of a country that was
invaded and is fighting for its life as a democracy is not the American way.
Rolland Kidder is a Stow resident and a former New York
state Assemblyman.
