Trump Bullies Trans Soldiers to Distract You from Scandals

Mar 24, 2018

The Trump administration seems to be in a state of chaos.  Trump's scandals has become too numerous to keep track of.  These include extramarital affairs and sex tapes with porn stars, accusations of criminal sexual misconduct, continual resignations from key staff, appointments of unqualified and controversial figures to strategic positions, illegal use of taxpayer money, conflicts of government interests that benefit Trump businesses, and collusions with Russian officials to hijack the US democratic process.

This is why today, sensing the tide of reports have been against him for too long, Trump decided to pull out a new zinger from an old playbook in order to distract the media.

But he couldn’t distract us anymore with the wall—that one Americans have become numb to.  And he couldn’t say insensitive statements about mass gun shootings—that one Americans have also become numb to.  None of his favorite methods seem to gain much media viral traction anymore, such as picking on Hollywood (of which he is a member) or picking on trivial things such as Obama's birth certificate.

What would really be great for the Trump administration is a new war.  This would fully distract us from his reality TV administration.  But lacking that, he decided to pick on the US military instead.

He is now calling for a discriminatory and unconstitutional ban on transgender troops.  These are troops who have taken the oath and are putting their lives on the line to serve.

A military trans ban has been decried at length by generals and soldiers, and also has been blocked in courts.  But the goal is not the actual ban.

Trump doesn’t care too much about blocking trans people.  With all the problems of the world, how is that on anyone's priority list?  

The real goal is to get influencers talking about something new to take the pressure off of his other scandals.  He figures this will be a hot button to poke the left, as he doesn't care about the left—he cares about voters in swing states.  He hopes his target voters will share this prejudice and feel Trump's ban on trans is a sign that Trump is “one of us,” and thus will overlook his others scandals to turn out to vote for Trump in 2020.

It is our responsibility to not feed into Trump's playbook tactics.  We must call it out like it is.  It is our responsibility to not react to the drama of a bait and switch presidency.  It is our responsibility to hold our elected officials accountable for their misdoings.