The tweet below opened my eyes. trump does not use social media as a presidential mouthpiece. It is not a vehicle of education or explanation. It is what is revealed in the tweet below which is a short survey of what actually dominates Trump's social media output.

Admittedly this is a snapshot and two points must be made. Trump's tweets are reported when they are salacious and part of an ongoing conflict.

The snapshot holds up when you remember the range of Trump tweets that have skewered the Khans, Obama, the media other than CNN, and a range of targets and enemies that suggest not a president but someone who makes a career of Umbrage.

Outrage machine

Umbrage is a wonderful word whose synonyms include affronted, annoyance, anger, resentment, pique, and feeling insulted. Trump is a walking insult magnet who relishes it as a chance to insult back. To keep this going without becoming a colossal bore, he leavens his umbrage with outrageousness. Here's a sample.

Trump makes things up. There was never a facelift. These lies become the basis for extending distraction and firing up columnists like Maureen Dowd who managed to portray Trump as Cruella De Ville.

Did Trump break the law? The more serious fallout from Trump's umbrage career may be legal problems. His tweets have been cited as a basis for obstruction of justice charges and now David Corn of Mother Jones says the president may face criminal charges because of his Mika-"Morning Joe" vendetta.

Corn says the charge may be extortion.

The law of Trump

If I had to write a law of Trump it would be the following. Based on his history, there is a 50/50 chance that he will be caught for something. Based on the same history, there has never been any area of his life that has not been riddled with conflict. The law of Trump is that at some point he will be the vehicle of his own self-destruction. He does things that deserve a tough response, but (almost inevitably), he is the author of his own destruction. I suppose that is true of us all, but we do not make careers of insult and umbrage.

We could be rid of Trump

We could wake up from umbrage world and say never again. We could become a people's movement to say enough already. We still have votes and democracy is not over yet, though it is threatened. We have a president in an almost constant state of collapse. The proper response is to flood the White House with notes saying "Enough." We will not vote for you again. You do not represent modernity as you claim. You represent a form of umbrage and insult that we reject.
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