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Myeshia Johnson, widow of Green Beret Sgt. La David T. Johnson, who was killed in Niger, apparently objected to the president 's telephone call to her. He merely referred to the deceased as "your guy," rather than by his name.
Moreover, he apparently made things worse by saying, "He knew what he signed up for, but it hurts anyway." Myeshia Johnson was furious, and the honorable Wilson wanted to take the telephone from her hands and curse Trump.
Well, according to my research, a little-known fact is that when retired Marine Gen. John F. Kelly, the president's chief of staff, lost his son, Lt. Robert Kelly, to war in Afghanistan, the sad news was bored to him by his best friend, Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., then-assistant commandant of the Marine Corps.
His words were poignant.
He said: "Kel, he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed. He knew what he was getting into by joining that 1 percent. He knew what the possibilities were because we're at war."
That is the way men who know about death on the battlefield speak of such things. Presumably, it is how Kelly thought the president should address Johnson, and so, Trump did.
For the honorable Wilson, or even Myeshia Johnson, to criticize the president for his choice of words on such a difficult occasion is shameful. And to exploit the sad event — I believe Kelly called it a "sacred" event — for political gain is of a piece with the condition of politics today.
Politics is everywhere: on the football field, in the classroom, in news shows and, of course, in Hollywood.
Why?
A political point of view that has dominated America for years and has steadily radicalized is losing wherever a vote is held — or almost everywhere a vote is held.
There is always California and New York, and a few of California and New York's colonies, but in these states, there is talk of secession.
Will President Trump be called upon to be our Abraham Lincoln?
The aforementioned political point of view was once called liberalism and is now called progressivism.
It has to hate someone, so it hates Trump.
During the last Republican administration, the hatred of President George W. Bush was so virulent that the eminent columnist and, if I am not mistaken, psychiatrist Charles Krauthammer coined a term for it: "Bush Derangement Syndrome."
Some observers now speak of the "Trump Derangement Syndrome," though this syndrome does not quite do justice to those who begin to foam at the mouth at the mention of the president.
Why is this?
I think it has something to do with money. Trump has earned large sums of money, mostly on his own. It also has something to do with celebrity, which he also pretty much attained on his own.
Then again, Trump has achieved in less than two years what others have spent their entire lives pursuing: the presidency.
Thousands of gifted men and a dozen or so women have devoted themselves to being elected president of the United States, and only 45 have achieved it. The Donald might have spent less time in pursuit of the presidency than almost anyone else, with the exception of George Washington. That is a considerable achievement.
Those are powerful reasons for small-minded people wedded to an utterly materialistic view of the world to hate Trump. Still, I think there is one more reason they hate him: The 45th president of the United States relishes this country, its people, its achievements, its folkway and its mores. He would rather live in America than anyplace else. As Americans used to say years ago, Donald Trump is a Yankee Doodle Dandy, and that brings out the Derangement Syndrome in some people. Call them progressives, and remember that progressives really do not like America very much.
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R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr. is founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator, a political and cultural monthly, which has been published since 1967. He's also the author of several books.