If Trump’s pre-game performance from Super Bowl Sunday doesn’t show you that the Republican Party will let every single one of his actions slide, then I don’t know what will. If you missed it, a video emerged on Instagram featuring Trump and Melania standing for the National Anthem at a Super Bowl viewing party. And reminiscent of their solar eclipse event in 2017, Trump decided to break basic human instinct and commit unorthodox actions like pretending to conduct a band and pointing his finger during the performance. 

He claims that he doesn’t drink, but he can’t claim that he doesn’t have schizophrenia. Maybe he was summoning the ghost of Jerry Falwell so that the latter could bribe God to make sure the acquittal goes smoothly. It could explain why he’s pointing in a random direction. “I’m good for Wednesday, right Jerry? You da man!”

If that wasn’t enough, after the Chiefs won the Super Bowl, he tweeted out a congratulations to the great state of Kansas. To be fair, Kansas City is right on the state line, so it’s an honest mistake. After all, I wouldn’t put it past him if he congratulated the great state of Illinois after the Blues won the Stanley Cup. 

Then, this week, he threw out yet another tweet criticizing Mike Bloomberg for the stop-and-frisk policies while Bloomberg was Mayor of New York, calling the latter a total racist! Even somebody who’s lived off grid since 2015 can easily say that’s hypocritical. Why even attack Bloomberg? They’re pretty much the same person; billionaire New Yorkers who bought their way into the presidential election and live under the pretense that they’ve helped the Big Apple. But I digress. 

Never mind the fact that the guy who knows the nuclear launch codes is going senile. This is the same guy who bashed the people playing in the game itself for kneeling and sitting during the National Anthem. The players, of course, were protesting police brutality against African Americans and how the country enables it. And instead of understanding their plight, Trump declared that they should be fired. 

And of course, his supporters did what they always do when a concerned American offers any grievance or critique to the country: the exact opposite of amelioration; they just turned the argument against them, saying those who protest the National Anthem hate the American flag and hate America’s military. That’s like a college student going on a hunger strike to protest a university’s healthcare cuts and the chancellor saying the person cheers for the rival school instead of fixing the issue. 

How can a 73-year-old man screw up a ceremony that’s been driven into our minds since grade school? I vividly remember learning the lyrics of and the motions for the Star-Spangled Banner in the first grade. Even more so, we were taught to put our right hands on our hearts, turn towards the American flag and recite The Pledge of Allegiance; “Under God” and all. I would imagine those years at the New York Military Academy would give him the same treatment; or do bone spurs affect learning and long-term memory. 

Naturally, Conservatives will let this, and other incidents, slide. Not because they think he can’t commit wrongdoings, but because they themselves don’t care if their own actions are hypocritical; so long as they troll Liberals. Take Tomi Lahren, for example, who, in 2017, decided to dress up as a member of the Delta Upsilon Mu Beta sorority; fanny pack and all, and sprout a set of wings possibly made out of the flags draped over Ronald Reagan’s and Antonin Scalia’s coffins. She posted a picture of herself in this outfit on Instagram and told LA to get ready for its safes spaces for she was “offensive” for Halloween. 

Now I will not say that I’m offended by your costume, Tomi, but I will say this: you’re violating about three points of the United States Flag Code. 

How can GOP lawmakers sit there, look at their boss’ actions and look the other way? There’s nothing he does that screams Coolidge or Reagan (aside from the mental breakdown of course). We make fun of the president for being a man-child, but Congress sees actions like Super Bowl Sunday’s and essentially says, “Leave him alone, he doesn’t know better.” 

I wouldn’t care if he was still The Apprentice Trump and acted this way. Many celebrities have been caught doing stupid things and acting stupidly. If they didn’t, TMZ wouldn’t be necessary, and it already isn’t necessary. Yet, he sits at the Resolute Desk, chats with the heads of our foreign allies and hands out the Presidential Medal of Freedom to help his supporters complete their bucket lists. 

Now that 53 Senators just turned the other cheek when he committed more heinous acts, it’s up to the American people to say the joke’s over and end this embarrassment. I don’t care if the Democrats nominate Bernie or Warren, or even Vermin Supreme. We need to go into November in full force and vote him and his enablers out; before the National Anthem becomes “Horst-Wessel-Lied.” 

-Duncan Campbell