Trump Derangement Syndrome

 A very dear friend of mine - an American-born and educated rabbi, youth leader and teacher living in Jerusalem - doesn't like Trump. His Facebook posts boil over with contempt for this president to the extent that I have latterly replied to them with laughing emojis, because I can see 4 more years of suffering ahead. His latest post referred to the presidential debate issue of 500 migrant children unable to be reunited with their parents and said this made voting for Trump contrary to Halacha (Jewish law).

I felt I had to respond this time with more than emojis, and this was my reply: 

I do laugh at the degree to which TDS can affect even the most sane and educated people. The idea that voting for Trump should be against the Halacha is truly deranged. That it should be about 500 migrant kids separated from their parents when voting Biden means empowering the continuing aborting of millions of babies at or close to term (or beyond in Va.)? Not in my book.

I could happily argue the rights and wrongs of Trump with you, but to be totally fair I need to declare my biases. I love Israel and care deeply about its security and its place in that dangerous region. So I will try to disregard that Trump has been undeniably the best US president for Israel since its founding; that unlike all past presidents, he kept his word about moving the embassy to Jerusalem; that he recognised Jewish sovereignty over the Golan and deep-sixed the notion of our ever returning to the 1967 ‘Auschwitz borders’.

I will also disregard that he tore up Obama’s nefarious Iran deal, defunded the PLO & UNRWA and had his UN ambassador put a stop to hateful censures of Israel and also withdraw from its nefarious Human Rights Council, chaired by the world’s biggest abusers. And, of course, I will have to pretend that those stunning peace agreements between Israel and four Arab states just didn’t happen nor that Saudi Arabia is about to join the club.

So, what am I left with that’s beyond my biases?

Well, I do grant you - and all victims of TDS - that Trump is nothing nearly as clean-cut and polished as Obama. It takes a slick politician to throw Israel under a bus at the UN during his final month in office.

Yes, I do grant you that Trump is the unwashed outsider, loud, crass, macho, overbearing … you choose … and is perhaps the antithesis of your typical politician. But then again, unlike most politicians I have seen and heard in my lifetime, he has been the ONLY one to keep his election promises. All of them!

In fact I can’t think of a single 2016 promise of his that he hasn’t kept. In truth he has actually OVER-delivered – such as freeing Biden’s black prisoners through criminal justice reform, and taking 7 million people off food stamps and 10 million off welfare, with the lowest minority unemployment rates in US history. All these are authentic government numbers. Surely you trust the Deep State?

But it seems academics hate Trump most of all. I don’t think they can stand the idea of a loudmouth businessman who never went to Yale or Harvard sullying the White House with his poor manners, trophy wife and Jewish grandchildren.

This makes the Dems the true bigots in this four-year tantrum.

Happily, ordinary honest, family-loving and hard-working Americans are a lot smarter than the media, academia and big tech give them credit for.

Which is why Trump will be re-elected by a wide margin.

Which is why I use those laughing emojis.

Four more years!