Trump’s Lack of Empathy Sign of Loss of Hope for 2nd Term: US Analyst

“The reasons for wanting to delay the voting is obvious. Considering that he has no empathy for people suffering, whether it be because of the virus and its related deaths of over 100,000 today, or that millions more of Americans are suffering economically because of his disastrous handling of the pandemic, he, and certainly his campaign team, knows he’s likely to lose, and lose in a humiliating fashion. The Democrats have released over a dozen polls so far while the Republicans and his campaign have not released one. His team might be trying to hide him from the inevitable,” Myles Hoenig, who ran for the US Congress in 2016 as a Green Party candidate, told Tasnim in an interview.

Following is the full text of the interview:

Tasnim: US President Donald Trump on Thursday raised the idea of delaying the Nov. 3 election, an idea immediately rejected by both Democrats and his fellow Republicans in Congress - the sole branch of government with the authority to make such a change. Why do you think Trump wants to delay the elections?

Hoenig: President Trump has been in office for nearly four years now and he still doesn’t have a clue how government works. He is the CEO of the federal government but he views it as his private business adventure. It’s one thing for him to have allegedly paid another to take the SATs for him to get into college but one has to wonder if he failed civics in high school as well.

The reasons for wanting to delay the voting is obvious. Considering that he has no empathy for people suffering, whether it be because of the virus and its related deaths of over 100,000 today, or that millions more of Americans are suffering economically because of his disastrous handling of the pandemic, he, and certainly his campaign team, knows he’s likely to lose, and lose in a humiliating fashion. The Democrats have released over a dozen polls so far while the Republicans and his campaign have not released one. His team might be trying to hide him from the inevitable.

The other reason is just as simple. It’s a matter of his personal hubris, arrogance and narcissism that he believes he can do what he wants, just because he’s president. He follows along the lines of former President Nixon who said, ‘If the president does it it’s not a crime.’ Trump feels the same and practices what he believes, knowing that the ‘opposition’ party, the Democrats, do not have the spine to react sufficiently and his own party is too afraid to take him on for fear of being primaried, or lose support come November.

Tasnim: On Thursday morning, the government reported the worst US economic contraction since the Great Depression: 32.9% in the second quarter. Do you believe that the notion is an attempt to distract from devastating economic news?

Hoenig: Most bad news, economic or otherwise, is dumped on a Friday afternoon. Unfortunately for Trump, there was enough time to make it through several news cycles to be the top story. So the usual strategy for Trump when faced with bad news is to divert attention to something just as mind boggling. In this case it was delaying the election and foreign voter fraud. The first is not possible and outright illegal if tried, as only the Congress can change the date, and the other is to blame China for interfering with our election through mail fraud.

The contraction of the US economy is in itself mind boggling but his party’s Senate left for the weekend without dealing with millions of people whose unemployment insurance ended on Friday, the end of July. A 32% contraction added with people losing whatever economic support they have are the ingredients for a true revolt among the masses, and that would include his working class supporters. This series of crises added together cannot be ignored through ridiculous tweets. What Trump does with it all is part of the drama enveloping this White House.

Tasnim: Trump, who opinion polls show trailing Democratic challenger and former Vice President Joe Biden, said he would not trust the results of an election that included widespread mail voting - a measure that many observers see as critical given the coronavirus pandemic. Without evidence, he claimed that ramped up mail voting would be rife with fraud, but praised absentee voting, which is also done by mail. What is this voter fraud that he is talking about?

Hoenig: At first his idea of voter fraud was people voting more than once and not his supporters but the opposition’s. With so many people, including Republican governors whose responsibility is to manage elections, proving how unlikely such fraud is, with history behind them, Trump changed his argument to foreign voter fraud. That is not only extremely improbable; it is almost laughable because his target is now China interfering when the Democrats are forever incredibly fixated on alleged Russian interference in our elections. How China would be involved in such mail fraud is almost unimaginable. But there is a rationale to Trump’s argument in that he, from the beginning of his first campaign, has targeted China as our most dangerous adversary, especially economically. Considering how both sides are flexing their muscles in the S. China Sea, this argument could be a prelude to a confrontation with China, and right before the election. Most Americans rally around the president when he goes to war but this will be seen by all as a ruse to divert attention away from the upcoming election.

Tasnim: Trump’s tweets come as the United States is enduring a multi-pronged, once-in-a-generation crisis: a coronavirus pandemic that has claimed more than 150,000 lives, a crippling recession sparked by the outbreak, and nationwide protests against police violence and racism. What are your thoughts on this?

Hoenig: Using Twitter to announce a possible delay in the election or the idea of voter fraud is Trump’s way of expressing his immediate, and often, outlandish thoughts. He is clearly not known for thinking things out as he believes he’s a ‘stable genius’, and he says he knows more than the experts. Needless to say, he’s a buffoon. His number one skill, and it is a political as well as advertising skill, is promoting himself as a brand. He knows how to divert attention and especially divert blame and responsibility away from him. He sees accepting them as a weakness.

Things are out of control around him. His inner circle, friends and allies are under investigations, but nothing a pardon would solve. His most reliable Senator, Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader, is already telling his caucus to distance themselves from Trump if they need to survive the November election. Opportunities though abound for him as huge demonstrations have erupted in many cities for weeks now related to the brutality of the American police forces. He is playing the ‘law and order’ card but it only helps with his base, as most Americans are appalled at not just the thugs in blue but his thugs that he’s sending to quell peaceful demonstrations, something only totalitarian and authoritarian countries do.

The one thing he won’t have to worry about if he loses the election and the Democrat, likely Biden, is sworn in and that is being held accountable for his actions while president. President Ford pardoned Nixon, who resigned after the House Judiciary voted to impeach him. His reason was to put the Watergate nightmare behind us. President Obama refused to prosecute the war criminals and bankers of the Bush administration. Obvious reasons for that is he knew he would be thus held accountable when he commits the same war crimes, which he did, and that his circle of cabinet members and advisors would later be working for the same bankers and financial institutions after he’s out, especially because it is they who chose the cabinet for him. And now with Trump the only charges the Democrats leveled against him were related to ‘Russiagate’ and that was proven to be a total bust, a fraudulent investigation on so many levels. They could have investigated real crimes, such as using his office to enrich himself, and others, but they balked.

These crises will eventually go away and be replaced with others. With a probable Democrat in the White House, it would be quite expected the new administration will not effectively deal with the global climate crisis as well as its usual saber rattling that could end up in a hot war somewhere, which would devastate both countries. Trump will be history and in four more years, if we survive, it will once again be the argument of the lesser evil come the election in 2024.