Editor’s Notes: i) We have divided Part Two of Thomas Gotowka’s essay into three sections. We will publish Sections 2 and 3 on Tuesday, Sept. 17 and Thursday, Sept. 19, respectively.
ii) This is the opinion of Thomas D. Gotowka.
If you read Part 1 of this “View,” (which was serialized in three parts in LymeLine at these links: Section 1, Section 2 and Section 3), you would conclude that I am very troubled by one of the candidates in the upcoming presidential election, Donald J. Trump.
I began that “View” at the debate between Biden and Trump, and considered the events that occurred right afterwards; which led to the emergence of Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate for President of the United States.
I then reviewed, via direct quotes from Trump’s speeches, the Hitler-esque themes of some of his rallies, his bizarre obsession with crowd size, his shocking rhetoric, and his nearly constant use of insults, threatening language, and statements that are totally untrue; which got worse as Kamala Harris’ campaign progressed and he became aware that he could be facing another loss.
As I noted in Part 1, the above title is derived from Martin Luther King, Jr’s Aug. 28, 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he states that “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
In this “View,” I present several events in Trump’s life that I believe are good indicators of his “character.;” which I define as the moral and ethical principles and qualities that guide an individual’s behavior and decision-making, which is certainly important for someone who wants to try being President again.
In doing so; I also provide support regarding my statement in Part 1 that Trump is “particularly ill-suited for the President’s concomitant role — Commander in Chief of America’s Armed Forces.”
I have reprised a trope from JFK’s 1960 campaign, where it was used to gauge the honesty of his Republican opponent, Richard Nixon; and so, before voting in November, please ask yourself, “Would I buy a used car from this man” (or woman?”)
“The Central Park Five”:
In the Spring of 1989, Trump took out full page ads in New York’s four major newspapers, the New York Times, the Daily News, the New York Post and New York Newsday; and demanded the death penalty for the “Central Park Five” — five black teenagers falsely accused of raping a white woman in Central Park. “I want to hate these muggers and murderers,” Trump wrote. “They should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.”
Their convictions, based on coerced confessions, were vacated in 2002 after DNA evidence linked a serial rapist to the brutal crime. When arrested, the five were between 14- and 16-years-old: sentenced separately, they spent between six and 13 years in prison.
In the decades since the now “Exonerated Five’s” convictions were overturned, Trump has refused to retract his statements, shamelessly arguing “They had admitted guilt.”
The “Exonerated Five” appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Yusef Salaam, now a member of New York’s City Council, said Trump, “Never changed, and he never will,” adding, “He wanted us dead; he still stands by the original guilty verdict.”
Trump vs. Amazon:
During his “fake news” phase, Trump began threatening Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, because he was upset with The Washington Post’s coverage of his campaign, which he called “unfair.” Bezos had purchased The Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million. Trump also called out The NY Times for treating him unfairly.
Trump often referred to The Washington Post as the “Amazon Washington Post;” although Amazon does not own the Post—Bezos owns it.
Trump went on to threaten, “[We] would use libel laws to go after the press in the courts when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles.” He noted, “We can sue them and win lots of money.” Bezos responded with an offer of a free trip to orbit, via another of his companies, rocket-maker “Blue Origin.”
In a related Trump lawsuit. New York Judge Robert R. Reed ordered Donald Trump to pay $392,638 in legal fees to The New York Times after his failed lawsuit against the news outlet and its journalists over the disclosure of his tax information in a 2018 NY Times article.
Note that an Amazon Prime membership currently costs $139 per year. Trump’s shiny, gold, high-top sneakers were introduced earlier this year for $399; the Trump bible is $59.99; and his perfume and cologne are $99 per bottle.
Birther Nonsense:
In March, 2011 Trump began saying that he had “real doubts” about whether President Obama had a U.S. birth certificate, commenting, “There’s something on that birth certificate that Obama doesn’t like.” He alluded that the specific “something” could be, “It says he’s a Muslim.”
Trump then claimed that he was sending a team of private investigators to Hawaii to learn the truth and promised to donate $5 million to charity if anyone could convince him that Obama was born on US soil.
President Obama’s Response:
In an extraordinary moment in his presidency, Obama produced his long-form birth certificate in the White House briefing room in April 2011. He said, “We’re not going to be able to solve our problems if we get distracted by sideshows and carnival barkers,” clearly referring to Trump. After releasing his birth certificate, the President went further and presented what he called his “birth video” at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. The video clip was from Disney’s “The Lion King” and showed the grand unveiling of the baby Simba in Africa.
Finally, on Sept. 16, 2016, after continuing the lie about Obama’s birthplace for nearly five years, Trump read a statement at a “press conference” that lasted just 40 seconds, finally admitting to the world that he knew President Barack Obama was, in fact, born in the United States. Predictably, there is no record of a $5 million donation to charity.
Trump’s embrace of the birther controversy seemed outlandish when it began. In retrospect, it looks like a prototype for the fact-challenged approach he has continued to adopt in all his campaigns. Of course, he attempted a new variation of his birther claptrap at the National Association of Black Journalists Conference (see Part 1), after which VP Kamala Harris commented, “It was the same old show.”
Losers and Suckers et al:
In a statement to CNN published October 2023, Trump’s former Chief of Staff, General John Kelly contemptuously criticized Trump, while finally confirming the 2020 report in The Atlantic regarding Trump’s insults and derogatory statements directed at veterans, titled, “Americans Who Died in War Are ‘Losers’ and ‘Suckers’.” He detailed objectionable comments that Trump made behind closed doors during his presidency; and corroborated several similarly negative stories attacking U.S. service members and veterans.
Predictably Steven Cheung, Trump’s thuggish campaign spokesperson, responded with insults, saying, “John Kelly has totally clowned himself with these debunked stories he’s made up because he didn’t serve his President well while working as Chief of Staff.”
The “et al.”
On July 18, 2015, then-candidate Trump insulted Senator John McCain, saying, “He’s not a war hero. He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured.”
He went further and on March 19, 2019, offered this assessment of Senator Mc Cain after his death: “I was never a fan of John McCain and I never will be.” Trump ordered flags at national buildings lowered when McCain’s death was announced, but raised just two days later, bucking a tradition of honoring well-known members of Congress for longer periods of time.
Trump has also declared that he is more knowledgeable than the military’s leadership. “I know more about ISIS than the generals do, believe me,” he bragged in November 2015. “They don’t know much because they’re not winning” he reiterated in June 2016.
Trump’s basis for that ridiculous statement was his high school experience at the New York Military Academy (NYMA); which he claimed as having given him “… more training militarily than a lot of the guys that go into the military.”
Incredibly, Trump has said that he wants military leadership that mimics the Nazi high command. He asked General Kelly, “Why can’t you be like the German generals?” and explained that he wanted generals who were, “Totally loyal” and “Yes-men,” in the same way as the Nazi commanders under Adolf Hitler were.
Kelly gave him an overview of the outcome of World War II in Europe, which included the question, “You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?”
To set the record straight, Naval aviator John McCain’s A-4 Skyhawk was hit by a surface-to-air missile during a bombing mission over North Vietnam; forcing him to eject, suffering a broken leg; and subsequently leading to his capture and imprisonment for over five years, where he was subjected to intense torture.
NYMA is not West Point—though it did have a few notable attendees including John Angelo Gotti, the mobster, who was the acting boss of the Gambino crime family from 1992 to 1999; Stephen Sondheim, who went on to write “Send In the Clowns“ for the 1973 musical, “ A Little Night Music; and of course, Donald Trump.
NYMA has shut down and was up for auction until finally filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on March 3, 2015.
In contrast, the United States Military Academy at West Point has been educating and training future commissioned officers for the United States Army since its founding on March 16, 1802.
About the Author: Tom Gotowka is a resident of Old Lyme, whose entire adult career has been in healthcare. He will sit on the Navy side at the Army/Navy football game. He always sit on the crimson side at any Harvard/Yale contest. He enjoys reading historic speeches and considers himself a scholar of the period from FDR through JFK. A child of AM Radio, he probably knows the lyrics of every rock and roll or folk song published since 1960. He hopes these experiences give readers a sense of what he believes “qualify” him to write this column.
