President Donald J. Trump’s official White House photographic portrait by Doug Coulter.
What can you say about the past week in Washington D.C. except that God is the best screenwriter. I mean, who else could come up with such a beta-ameloid and tau tangle of plot twists and turns replete with a depth of characters – which is not the same as depth of character.
In the latest scene in our saga, Don Donald Trumpet – cue “The Godfather” theme – had sought an oath of loyalty from would-be consigliere James Comey. But Comey had demurred, necessitating his “termination.”
“He was crazy, a real nut-job,” the Don revealed to associates from Little Odessa, er, the Russian Embassy. “I faced great pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.”
Uh-huh. Cut to the hiring of straight-arrow Robert Mueller as special prosecutor and a ship of state leaking faster than the Lusitania. (Things are so bad that anchormen and women are constantly interrupting themselves to pronounce the latest breaking developments being whispered into their earpieces by their producers.)
Among the revelations: Don Trumpet told Comey, “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this (investigation) go, to letting (former National Security Adviser Michael) Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”
Cue the signature song from “Frozen” or one of the “Let It Go” Trump parodies.
“I hope you could see your way clear” is a phrase in search of an exit strategy, implying for its recipient something burdensome at best and nefarious at worst:
“I hope you could see your way clear to loan me $100,000.”
“I hope you could see your way clear to help me murder my wife this weekend.”
It’s not a phrase you should roll out before a careful notetaker, but then you shouldn’t tell a rival that one of your employees is “a real nut-job.” Trump’s defenders said this was merely a sales pitch. If that’s so, it’s not a good one. The person you’re pitching may laugh with you, but imagine what he’s saying behind your back.
It’s a reminder that whatever you think of Trump’s temperament, he has no gift for language and no real feel for people. (And imagine that this a man now on a sensitive tour of the Abrahamic faiths in Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican.)
I hope that Pope Francis and other leaders can see their way clear to take Don Trumpet seriously.
Or maybe they can just let him go.