Pardons for convicted murderers of Iraqi civilians and loyalists who declined to cooperate with Robert Mueller’s investigation. A veto of the defense bill. Threats to the bipartisan Covid relief bill that would provide the unemployed and small businesses with the help they desperately need.
This Christmas, President Donald J. Trump is locked and loaded for bear. It is ever thus with narcissists, whose egos and identities are so fragile that unless they are getting their way 24/7/365, they must explode lest than implode.
Faced with the ultimate presidential humiliation — impeachment and rejection in his bid for a second term — Trump threw Republicans under the bus, upping the ante on money in a relief bill that he paid attention to only after Congress had signed it.
Question: Do we think Trump was really interested in putting more cash in a suffering America’s empty Christmas stocking or do we think what he really wanted to do was to spite Repubs, who have done nothing but kiss his considerable butt for four years, for having the temerity to acknowledge President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. at long last? Thought so.
But all Trump has succeeded in doing is to spite his oblivious base, whose members will struggle along with the rest of us in the presence of another possible government shutdown and the absence of more economic stimulus, as well as continue to portray America to the world as a untrustworthy laughingstock. A merry Christmas indeed.
And yet, as Dr. Seuss’ Grinch learned, Christmas comes in spite of spite. You can not rob it of its joy, for it is “the season of hope,” said Anton Salman, the mayor of Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. And that’s why he and his town were going to celebrate Christmas in all its religious and secular meanings despite few tourists in Manger Square because of the pandemic.
It’s been a tough year, made tougher by other people’s selfishness. But today is Christmas. Don’t let the Grinches and Scrooges rob you of that joy.