Twice in about a week, President Donald Trump suggested that he is being persecuted more than any other politician in history. He said so before the graduating class at the Coast Guard Academy, claiming, “No politician in history, and I say this with great surety, has been treated worse or more unfairly.” Then he tweeted, just after Robert Mueller was appointed as a special counsel to investigate alleged ties between Russia and his campaign. “This is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!” He also complained that he was being subjected to a double standard that was not applied to President Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s complaining is causing people to wonder if he had a persecution complex.
Is Trump the worst treated politician in history?
The standard joke was told when Trump first complained to the Coast Guard officers was, to the effect, that Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy were not available for comment. Leaving aside assassination and being thrown in prison, the fate of too many dissident politicians in totalitarian countries, one leaves media driven character assassination. Given that template, does Trump have a point?
History is replete with politicians who have been at the receiving end of criticism and calumnies. Ronald Reagan and both presidents named George W. Bush come to mind. Sarah Palin could indeed expound at length about what it’s like to be hated.
Some, like Richard Nixon and both Bill and Hillary Clinton, brought it on themselves. Indeed, Ted Cruz can talk about being ill-used. Ironically, at the hands of Donald Trump.
Is the president smart to complain about his enemies?
The theory is that Trump is hurting himself by always pushing back against attacks on his character and actions as that serves to be a distraction from his agenda.
Trump should concentrate on repealing and replacing Obamacare, enacting tax reform, and building the Wall. These accomplishments would serve as the sweetest revenge on the president’s enemies who are trying to tear him down.
On the other hand, Trump could just as easily say that the strategy of leaving no slight unanswered has worked for him so far.
He beat an entire field of professional politicians by being on the constant attack, including Hillary Clinton, constituting as she does a target rich environment. He could point out that President George W. Bush tried the above the fray approach and left his term in office unpopular and reviled anyway. Finally, the president can slyly suggest that he can complain about his enemies and move his agenda forward. Trump is a man of boundless ego and self-confidence. But if he succeeds, then, as the saying goes, it isn’t boasting.
