Trump's treason implication is new low: Column
The presumptive GOP nominee disrespects Obama, the presidency and the party he now leads.
Donald Trump intimates that President Obama is complicit in treason.
It's the latest example of why Trump's Republican Party would not be recognizable to my father.
My dad used to say it was important to respect the office, even if one didn’t particularly like the current president.
He was a staunch Republican who gathered with buddies over a Nixon crying towel — and plenty of beer — the day JFK was elected.
Not my father's GOP
They were a different breed of Republican than Trump, who uses a national tragedy in Orlando to hint that Obama might be in league with terrorists.
On Fox News Monday morning, Trump said: "Look, we're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind . . . People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.' There's something going on. It's inconceivable. There's something going on."
Trump was talking about the nation’s worst mass shooting, which was committed by Muslim who claimed to be acting on behalf of terrorist groups. Trump was also suggesting that there's "something going on" with the president.
Such as?
Character assassination
Trump said: "He doesn't get it or he gets it better than anybody understands — it's one or the other, and either one is unacceptable."
On NBC's Today show, he said, “A lot of people think maybe he doesn't want to know about it. I happen to think that he just doesn't know what he's doing, but there are many people that think maybe he doesn't want to get it. He doesn't want to see what's really happening. And that could be."
Doesn’t want to know about terrorism? Understands better than anybody else what’s going on?
This, from the man who questions Obama’s birth certificate and his commitment to Christianity. It’s part of a steady drip, drip of character assassination against our twice-elected president.
What 'people say'
Trump is using the "people say" approach to suggest that Obama is in league with terrorists. He’s careful to say that’s not what he thinks. But there are “many people that think” there’s something else going on.
People also think UFOs visit their backyard.
Trump’s candidacy validates the lunatic fringe as he trashes the presidency. Both actions are as damaging to civil society as gang graffiti.
Obama has been subjected to a great deal of disrespect by Republicans in and out of Congress. He remained dignified and focused. History will remember Obama with more kindness than his uncooperative opponents.
And Trump? History will not be kind to a candidate who so blatantly popularized assaults on the presidency.
Linda Valdez is a columnist for the Arizona Republic, where this column first appeared. Follow her on Twitter: @valdezlinda
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