The Apologies Will Come
Soon there will be a lot of people distancing themselves from Donald Trump and apologizing profusely for having supported the president so loyally. This will not only include his most trusted political allies, such as Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo, but also his family members, including Ivanka and Jared Kushner. Without doubt, when the true extent of Trump’s inadequacy, immorality, and egregious behavior, as well as the damage caused to the United States domestically and internationally, become clear, there will be an insistence from every loyalist that they were completely unaware as to the degree of Trump’s impropriety and only stayed in his camp to act as a counterweight to the president’s worst instincts, incompetence, and irrationality.
Crucially, they will openly acknowledge that they knew Trump was hopelessly inept, deranged, and dangerous but remained on his team to ensure there was some adult guidance in the room and to avoid a full-blown catastrophe. These loyalists will claim that they did this solely out of patriotism and for the good of the country (a rather unoriginal and amorphous defense, it has to be said, but one that is invariably dragged out when cornered by circumstance); they were willing to offer public support to him so they could maintain private influence and save the nation from disaster. Because they, and only they, had Trump’s ear and confidence, and could therefore influence and direct him to some degree and contain the carnage that would have occurred had Trump been left to his own devices or with random hand-picked ‘yes-saying’ acolytes. From this standpoint, there will be the allusion and not-so-subtle inference to public duty and even heroism, in that they had to swallow their pride, and publicly stand by Trump despite their inner concerns and, at times, revulsion, so they could save us, the country, and the world, from a perilous presidency.
It will be an interesting time and I certainly wonder what the ardent Trump supporters and the MAGA hat-wearing brigade will make of it all. Essentially, when everyone close to Trump admits that the president was a madman, and that it was pretty evident he was a madman, then it will make those who voted for him appear rather foolish, gullible, and exploited. Of course, Trump did not have to be elected; he merely took a chance, even if every decent-minded and rational-thinking person could see that Trump was obviously a charlatan and a deeply disturbed man. Ultimately, I guess it will beg the question: who was crazier, Trump or those who voted for him?
