Tuesday, December 12, 2017

What did Donald Trump do today?

He lashed out at a female senator who called for his resignation, saying she'd "do anything" for his money.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), who recently made waves within her own party for her repudiation of Bill Clinton's sexual conduct, has also called on congressional Republicans to investigate the many accusations of sexual assault or harassment leveled against Trump. This morning, Trump--who tolerates criticism from women even less well than from men--retaliated with a tweet that suggested Gillibrand was "disloyal" because he'd made contributions to her campaign funds in 2007 and 2010, adding that she "would do anything for them." 

Trump did not explain why he thought his $5,850 in donations to Gillibrand, a liberal Democrat, entitled him to her silence seven years later on the question of his alleged sexual assaults. 

Trump's tweet was almost universally understood as a crude sexual reference, but White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders gamely pushed back, saying that only people whose minds were "in the gutter" could take it that way. 

Gillibrand, who did take it that way, learned about Trump's tweet after she was pulled out of a bipartisan congressional Bible study.

What's the problem here?

  • A president whose instinct is to call a women who upsets him a whore isn't morally fit for the office.
  • A president who can't control that instinct isn't emotionally stable enough for the office.
  • It's bad if a president who is monetizing his presidency every chance he gets thinks that politicians' "loyalty" is for sale.