The nation is already building 'antibodies' to Trump’s corruption: opinion

At the age of 80, President Donald Trump has been plodding around on American dirt for more than 30 percent of the nation’s entire 250-year lifespan.

That is no small number, and critics say his advanced years have been bearing down on him as he prepares to celebrate his 80^th birthday at taxpayer’s expense.

“I don’t think it’s a great idea for Donald Trump to be reminding everyone that he’s 80 years old at this moment, when he shows various signs of faltering or saying very odd things,” said New York Times columnist E.J. Dionne on the paper’s Saturday morning “Opinions” podcast, while decrying Trump’s hijacking of the 250 celebration and imposing a UFC fighting ring upon the celebration.

“[But that’s] the only sporting event that Donald Trump could go to these days, and not get booed at,” said columnist Peter Wehner, referring to Trump’s raspberry-filled greeting at the recent NBA finals game before falling asleep. “If you saw him at Madison Square Garden … earlier this week, it was just a cascade of boos, and that’s happened elsewhere.”

Contributor Robert Siegel also noted Trump’s requirement for military persons invited to 250 Celebration “to meet current waist-to-height ratio and physical fitness standards. So, the crowd should look good.”

“Yeah, well, I guess there’ll be an exception for the president,” Wehner quipped.

Beyond Trump’s waning health, however, was the moral stain he will leave inevitably leave on the White House, which all agreed will require heavy elbow grease to remove, particularly since Trump “makes Bill Clinton look like a Boy Scout,” according to Wehner.

“He’s easily the most corrupt president in American history, and one of the most corrupt political figures in American history,” Wehner said, while adding that the nation appears to be moving into a new era that values ethics — likely spurred by Trump’s extreme absence of them.

“Sometimes viruses create their own antibodies, and I think in the life of an individual, just like in the life of a country, you begin to take for granted certain virtues, certain qualities, and then, when they’re stripped away from you, you realize why they mattered after all,” Wehner said. “And I do think that this sort of stripping of the public square — the immorality, the depravity, the cruelty, the antipathy, all of those things — that takes a toll. And I would say that this year, more than at any moment in the last 10 years, I’m beginning to see something else. I think despondency is giving way to people who are energized, and it’s focusing itself on the repair.”

“I’m hopeful. I wouldn’t predict it. Life is complicated, but I’m hopeful that we’re seeing these civic antibodies kick in, and that we’re going to go into a better time having gone through a really hard time,” he added.

Dionne said he believed emerging politicians representing this new grade of ethical antibody include Texas senatorial candidate James Talarico, as well as highly visible social figures like Pope Leo.

“A lot of people in politics reflect this right now. Andy Beshear, the governor of Kentucky, is going to write a book inspired by ‘The Parable of the Good Samaritan,” said Dionne. “There’s something going on out there that reflects a different kind of moral argument. I welcome it since I am broadly on that side of the argument, but I also think it’s just a fact that we’re going to have to grapple with.”

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