In a series of tweets this morning Donald Trump responded to outrage over his Muslim ban, claiming “There is nothing nice about searching for terrorists before they can enter our country. This was a big part of my campaign. Study the world!”
He said this while directing our attention to some alternative facts, namely, that Delta, and not his executive order, was to blame for chaos at America’s airports this weekend.
He employed his first tweet as blame-shifting, a typical response from Trump and used on those occasions when people criticize his actions, before mocking the “tears” of Sen. Chuck Schumer with his second, a reference to Schumer’s claim that “Tears are running down the cheeks of the Statue of Liberty”:
Only 109 people out of 325,000 were detained and held for questioning. Big problems at airports were caused by Delta computer outage,…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
protesters and the tears of Senator Schumer. Secretary Kelly said that all is going well with very few problems. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
For the record and for the sake of context, some 150 Delta flights were delayed or canceled Sunday due to a system outage. The chaos, however, erupted Saturday and as a result of Donald Trump’s executive order. By the time Delta’s problems cropped up, several court rulings had been issued as a result of problems created by Trump.
Trump could not stop himself, however, from defending his hugely unpopular harsh measures in his third, a “ends justify the means” tweet:
There is nothing nice about searching for terrorists before they can enter our country. This was a big part of my campaign. Study the world!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
He followed that up later with an afterthought, about which PFAW’s Brian Tashman said, “When your president is an actual idiot.”
This seemed again by Trump an attempt to excuse his actions, which created pain and separation for many families, including a five-year-old boy:
If the ban were announced with a one week notice, the “bad” would rush into our country during that week. A lot of bad “dudes” out there!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 30, 2017
The Trump administration has blamed Obama and now it has blamed Delta Airlines while refusing to take any responsibility for any of its own actions. Mika Brzezinski says she and Joe Scarborough “urged compassion” when they visited Trump at the White House on Saturday.
Instead of compassion, we got blame-shifting and a complete abrogation of the personal responsibility that is supposed to be the hallmark of the true conservative. Trump and his Republican supporters have now proved instead that hallmark to be cowardice.
Oh, and that crowd protesting that cowardice? Yes, it was larger than Trump’s inauguration crowd too.