President Trump finally mentioned the people who got more attention than his inaugural swearing in, that is to say the women who marched around the world on Saturday in protest of his attacks on women’s rights, which are basic human rights.

But instead of being presidential and congratulating the millions of marchers for their peaceful protests, Trump wondered why they were protesting since we just had an election, blamed celebrities for Hillary Clinton losing and wondered why the protesters didn’t vote:

Basically that’s an admission that if they had all voted, Trump wouldn’t be in office. Perhaps this is the nearest Trump will get to self-examination or reality, given that he lost the popular vote.

The answer to Trump’s question about why people were protesting when we just had an election is that they do not like him or his policies or what he stands for. They are concerned about the human rights that his administration is already taking aim at and Trump’s own personal contempt for women. He would have known this if he had bothered to read their mission statement, their signs, or listened to any of them.

What a real leader would have done is comment yesterday, during the protests, that the marchers were engaging in democracy and doing so peacefully and that he would welcome someone from their movement to the White House for a discussion on the issues that concerned them.

But instead, Trump threw a fit yesterday over his crowd numbers, tried to distract from the protesters by going to the CIA and standing in front of a wall of stars representing people who gave their lives serving this country to ramble in a self-aggrandizing diatribe about how smart he was, how horrible the press was to him, how they lied about his crowd size and a bust in his office.

Donald Trump is still bitter that he couldn’t get anyone near a-list status to stump for him or sing at his inaugural celebrations, whereas Hillary Clinton and indeed the marchers yesterday had a full roster of a-list celebrities, including Forbes’ highest-grossing actor of 2016 and many times over “sexiest woman alive” winner Scarlett Johansson. So yeah, that hurts a man who is all about image and stagecraft and pictures himself the ultimate ladies’ man (aka, assaulter/same thing to him apparently).

It would be helpful if someone in the Trump administration had the courage to be honest with Trump enough to instruct him that even after elections, people will disagree with him and protest, and that this is part of our democratic process. His election doesn’t halt dissent.

But no one in the Trump administration seems to be made of the kind of ethics and bravery called for to have a real talk with our new President. He has surrounded himself with sycophants who follow him to his events to cheer and clap for him, because he is so needy that he can’t function without plants laughing at his jokes. Yes, they did this yesterday at the CIA “event”. Then Trump claimed the CIA was with him and had voted for him. Yes, this is disturbing.

Donald Trump needs to get a grip or he is going to throw away his entire presidency and ruin the Republican Party brand for a generation. Well, to be honest, it’s probably too late for the Party or it will be after America gets a good look at the Alt-right, white nationalist, anti-civil and human rights gang.

But with his lowest approval rating for an incoming president, Trump doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room to throw Twitter fits. He has revealed his big weakness, and that is his desperate need to be worshiped. If people want to unsettle Donald Trump, all they need to do is protest.

Update: While writing this, someone seems to have spoken to Trump because he (or more likely someone who works for him) tweeted a more appropriate message:

Still waiting for Trump to invite a leader from the Women’s March to the White House for a discussion. It looks like we are in for four years of temper tantrums followed by press coverage of said tantrum, followed by a grown up coming in to clean Trump’s spilled milk after they realize that yes, this tantrum is a problem.

In other words, we have a President of Do-Overs. The Trump administration needs to realize that the fit itself is the problem, and this isn’t a job comprised of endless opportunities for do-overs.

  dissent, Donald Trump, protesters, why do they protest after an election