Only President Donald Trump can stir up so much controversy and anger by addressing the Boy Scout Jamboree. To be sure he gave a version of his political stump speech, a bit inappropriate. Usually, presidents will make a statement about timeless values that the Scouts try to inculcate in its members. They don’t denounce their political enemies and call for the advancement of their agenda. However, Trump’s various enemies seem to have gone full bore Godwin in their reaction to the speech and the response of the scouts to it.
‘It was like a Hitler Youth rally!’
Newsweek reports that some of the president’s enemies had filled social media with the trope that Trump’s speech before the Boy Scouts was like a Hitler Youth rally. Right away, according to Godwin’s Law, they lost the argument as anyone who first introduces Hitler or Nazism. One can say a lot about President Trump, good and bad. However, he nowhere near approaches the depths of Adolf Hitler. Only a handful of leaders in human history (Stalin and Mao come to mind) even came close.
The Boy Scouts react to Trump’s speech
One of the factors that triggered the president’s critics is how the 40,000 or so Boy Scouts responded to Trump’s red meat. They cheered wildly.
They chanted “We love Trump! We love Trump!” and “USA! USA! USA!” When President Barack Obama’s name was mentioned, the scouts booed. The fact that the former president declined to personally address a Jamboree and only mentioned the Boy Scouts at all was to reference the gay scout leader controversy had something to do with it.
One thing one can say about Donald Trump is that he knows how to put on a show.
The Boy Scouts of America distance themselves
The Boy Scouts of America took pains to distance itself from the president’s remarks, taking pains to point out that they in no way endorse any of his policy or political positions. The BSA is a non-partisan organization.
The president, whoever he is, always is named the honorary president of the BSA during his term in office as a matter of course.
Some parents, understandably, were upset at the president’s remarks. They didn’t send their dear ones into the Boy Scouts to see them become props in a Trump campaign rally. Quite a few of these parents likely did not vote for Trump.
The awkward question that is facing the Boy Scouts is what happens next year. The president is invited to speak at the Jamboree as a matter of course. Not inviting him would cause endless trouble. However, if one thinks he will behave appropriately in 2018 when he didn’t this year, one will likely have to learn to live with disappointment.
