Trump's deranged social media behavior shows why he is unfit for office
Anyone who wonders why so many Democrats and never-Trump Republicans despise Trump should look at the way he acted on social media on Easter Sunday.
One of the few diehard Donald Trump supporters among my friends often says that I shouldn’t let my disgust at Trump’s behavior blind me to what he’s supposedly doing for the country. She frequently says, “You’re not inviting him to dinner!” She also suggests that I’m letting my outrage at Trump’s outrages—something that has once again become an almost daily occurrence since his return to the White House—override my love for the country.
Like most of us who have recoiled in disgust at Trump ever since he came down the escalator, I despise Trump because I love my country. And like most of us who have recoiled in disgust at Trump over the years, I despise Trump because, time and again, he has shown that despite his ranting about how Democrats and their handmaidens in the “FAKE NEWS media” don’t let him do his job, he hasn’t even begun to understand what his job is. Yet another reminder of this came with Trump’s displays on social media on Easter Sunday.
As much of the East Coast was gearing up to go to church, Trump fired off this on Truth Social.
Before you ask—this is real. So, once again, we have another deranged holiday social media post from Trump. Posts like this are why I have never even considered supporting him, and why I will never vote Republican for anything, anywhere again until the GOP shakes itself loose from him.
You don’t need any special training to know that anyone who posts something like this is not well. If anyone else posted something like this, people would rightly be questioning their sanity. Why should Trump get a pass for this? I’ve asked this question for a decade every time he fires off a deranged post along these lines—and I’ve yet to get an answer that makes any kind of sense.
This is especially personal for me, as someone who has been taken advantage of by a lot of people in my 47 years on this planet. Most of my longtime readers and friends know about two of the most outrageous examples. In my freshman year at Carolina, I was tricked into joining an abusive and outright cultish hypercharismatic group. It took me six months to get out of there—a little over 180 days. By my reckoning, they lied to me 180 times, if not more. Years later, I spent three years being married to an abusive and controlling woman who yelled, screamed and cursed at me so often that when I finally left, I was as beaten down as anyone who had been slapped or punched by their spouse. Even worse, I discovered that this woman had willfully concealed her history of abusing her own children—a history that, as far as I’m concerned, rendered that marriage morally null and void.
More recently, I discovered not long after I got married for the second time legally and the first time morally that my father—or rather, my sperm donor—had willfully stayed on third shift as a city bus driver in order to facilitate cheating on my mother. I had wondered why he would stay on third knowing that he had a teacher for a wife and two sons at home. He claimed the timing of first shift didn’t work—an argument that didn’t cut ice, given that he was the union rep there for years and could have lobbied for changes. Now I knew why he hadn’t done so.
While I’ve expressed my feelings about these matters on social media, I would never, ever, do so in a manner as deranged as Trump has done. It’s part of the reason I bristle at the times that people excuse Trump’s behavior because at bottom, he’s a guy from Queens. I’m half North Jerseyan—basically from a different part of the same country as Trump. There’s one big difference, though. Unlike Trump, I know how to control my tongue—and my thumbs. Granted, a few of my friends on both sides of the aisle have been concerned about how I turn the screws on abusive churches. But I would never, ever talk about them in the manner that Trump talks about people whom he thinks have wronged him.
That’s why I cringed when I first heard about trump’s Easter message. As badly as they hurt me, wronged me, I would never spew out a holiday message attacking my sperm donor, or the outfit that burned me, or my first wife in this way. If I had done so, I would have been told, not asked, to get help and get help now. No matter how badly they had wronged me, it wouldn’t have been an excuse. Again I ask—if I couldn’t get away with something like this, why should Trump? It’s one of too many cases to count where Trump gets a pass for things that would never be acceptable from anyone else, anywhere else, anytime.
That Trump found it acceptable to make a post this deranged was bad enough. But to pile obscenity on top of insult, he ordered it on the official White House social media channels. No, I’m not kidding. Here’s how it looked on Instagram.
Think about it, folks. The president of the United States found it acceptable to fire off a deranged attack against his foes—and then found it acceptable to post it on official social media channels.
Granted, we’re talking about a White House that found it acceptable to post a video taunting undocumented immigrants who were being perp-walked.
But even by Trump’s admittedly low standards, using official government channels for this is ghastly. I’m reminded of how the right went into meltdown after former President Biden issued an official proclamation for Transgender Visibility Day on the same day as Easter. And yet, nary a peep about Trump’s deranged post, and equally deranged decision to post it on the official White House social media channels? The mind reels.
As outrageous as this was, it was made even more so by what was posted immediately before and after Trump used official channels to jeer his opponents. Earlier, the official White House Instagram posted an Easter greeting from Trump and his wife, Melania.
And shortly after Trump’s attack on his opponents came this lighter fare.
Looking at this reminded me of how my first wife could go almost seamlessly from spewing F-bombs to raising her hands in praise like the hyper-devout Pentecostal she led me and others to believe she was. In hindsight, I realize that this was evidence she was not well—and it should have been obvious even though I don’t have specialized training. Likewise, you don’t need specialized training to look at the White House Instagram and conclude that its current occupant is not well.
To be sure, much has been made of late about evidence that suggests Biden’s inner circle concealed evidence of Biden’s deterioration. Indeed, I swallowed hard when I read about an excerpt from Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes’ new book, Fight: Inside the Wildest Battle for the White House, that suggested Biden had already declined to the point that party officials were making plans for Biden’s withdrawal as early as 2023. Also around that time, aides to former Vice President Kamala Harris were taking steps—without Harris’ knowledge—to prepare for the prospect of Biden dying in office. But the GOP has no right to use this to beat Democrats over the head. Not when its own leader’s mental state is questionable—at best. That has been evident for almost all of Trump’s time in public life. His behavior on social media on Easter Sunday only underscores it.
My Trumper friends think I’m putting my disgust at this and other outrages from Trump above my love for the country. They forget that I, and many others, are disgusted at things like this because we love our country. And we are appalled that it is once again being led by a man who has never even begun to understand his role. And we are also concerned that we are being led by a man who is unwell—dangerously unwell.
Excellent, Darrell. I don't have to worry about Trumper friends. I have no close friends who are Trumpers. When I see Trumpers out in public, conversation is limited to social niceties. Friendships of consequence are not with backstabbing hypocrites. That excludes MAGA and that is most of Kentucky. Not all Trump voters are MAGA, but I don't trustvthem either, so polite, surface level conversation is it.
Well said, brother. Trump really is thoroughly deranged. The misplaced loyalty and phony patriotism of Trumpers is sickening and frightening.