by
Win
McNamee/Getty
Images)
President
Donald
J.
Trump
begins
the
public
portions
of
his
Cabinet
meetings
by
going
around
the
table
having
all
of
the
Cabinet
members
praise
Trump
to
the
heavens.
How
embarrassing.
Embarrassing
for
Trump,
who
is
so
insecure
that
he
insists
that
others
publicly
praise
him. But
also
embarrassing
for
the
members
of
the
Cabinet,
who
have
chosen
to
publicly
debase
themselves
for
the
chance
to
hold
power
(and,
for
those
named
Vance
and
Rubio,
the
possibility
of
holding
yet
more
power
in
the
future).
I’ve
attended
an
awful
lot
of
meetings
with
powerful
people
in
my
life
—
CEOs,
managing
partners,
and
the
like. Not
one
has
insisted
on
starting
with
praise
of
the
boss
before
moving
on
to
the
rest
of
the
agenda. In
fact,
if
you’d
tried
to
start
a
presentation
by
flattering
the
boss,
most
bosses
would
have
shut
you
up. Those
who
didn’t
shut
you
up
would
have
simply
fired
you.
That
doesn’t
mean
folks
don’t
suck
up
to
the
boss. Of
course
they
do. Folks
flatter
the
boss
in
private. They
laugh
at
his
or
her
jokes. They
stay
at
the
company
holiday
party
until
five
minutes
after
the
boss
leaves. But
no
boss
insists
on
reverential
praise
in
public.
Except
Trump.
What
a
sad,
pathetic
little
man.
Foreign
leaders
have
learned
this
lesson. Praise
Trump
publicly,
and
perhaps
he’ll
treat
you
better. Heads
of
state
across
Europe
now
play
this
disgraceful,
but
effective
game.
Maria
Corina
Machado,
the
Venezuelan
opposition
leader
who
won
the
Nobel
Peace
Prize,
recently
gave
her
prize
to
Trump. She
accompanied
that
gift,
naturally,
with
flattery. If
you’d
like
Trump’s
help
to
install
you
as
the
leader
of
Venezuela,
flatter
the
man.
A
person
with
a
shred
of
dignity
would
have
refused
to
accept
Machado’s
prize.
Not
our
guy.
I
checked
the
comments
on Breitbart to
see
what
the
Trump morons loyalists
were
saying
about
Machado’s
presentation. The
loyalists
figure
Machado
was
sincere: “She
said
great
things
about
Trump. It
was
touching. He
must
be
a
great
man,
and
she
sees
it.”
Did
those
commenters
miss
the
way
Cabinet
meetings
start? What’s
your
explanation
for
that?
Just
coincidence?
Trump
is
not
great. He’s
a
sad,
pathetic
little
man.
John
McCain
was
captured
in
Vietnam
and
then
declined
an
early
release
from
prison
because
he
feared
the
North
Vietnamese
would
use
his
release
to
score
public
relations
points. Private
Bone
Spurs
didn’t
like
McCain.
Bone
Spurs
said
he
likes
the
guys
who
don’t
get
captured.
Like
himself,
maybe. Avoid
the
draft;
avoid
the
risk
of
capture.
Trump
knows
what
a
real
hero
is,
and
he
knows
that
he
doesn’t
look
like
one. That’s
what
really
bothers
Trump
about
McCain.
Guys
who
died
on
the
beaches
of
Normandy
were
“suckers
and
losers.”
Right. I
can
see
Trump
going
over
the
side
of
a
Higgins
boat
on
June
6,
1944,
into
freezing
water,
in
the
face
of
enemy
fire,
at
Normandy
Beach.
Wait
—
my
aching
bone
spurs!
Only
once
in
history
—
in
the
aftermath
of
9/11
—
has
any
member
of
NATO
invoked
Article
5,
which
says
that
an
attack
on
one
NATO
member
will
be
deemed
an
attack
on
all.
Our
NATO
allies
heeded
the
United
States’
call
to
duty. Those
allies
paid
a
price
for
their
loyalty.
Of
the
roughly
3,500
service
members
from
NATO
countries
who
were
killed
in
Afghanistan,
about
1,000
were
from
countries
other
than
the
United
States.
But
last
week
Trump
said
of
those
1,000
dead
that
the
U.S.
never
“needed
them.” According
to
Trump,
“they’ll
say
they
sent
some
troops
to
Afghanistan
or
this
or
that.
And
they
did.
They
stayed
a
little
back,
little
off
the
front
lines.”
Tell
that
to
the
grieving
sons
and
daughters,
you sad,
pathetic
little
man.
On
the
night
before
D-Day,
General
Dwight
D.
Eisenhower
wrote
a letter in
the
event
that
the
Normandy
invasion
failed. He
praised
the
troops
and
took
all
the
blame
for
the
failure.
When
President
Donald
Trump
was
asked
if
he
took
responsibility
for
the
problems
with
COVID
testing,
he
heroically responded,
“No.
I
don’t
take
responsibility
at
all.”
Of
course
not.
You
sad,
pathetic
little
man.
What
president
—
indeed,
what
person
—
would
give
visitors
free
admission
to
national
parks
on
their
birthday,
post
insulting
plaques
about
former
presidents
on
the
walls
of
the
White
House,
or
put
their
name
before
that
of
the
assassinated
John
F.
Kennedy
on
the
facade
of
the
Kennedy
Center?
Yes,
yes: The
answers
to
those,
and
all
the
other,
questions
are
the
same:
A
sad,
pathetic
little
man.
Mark Herrmann spent
17
years
as
a
partner
at
a
leading
international
law
firm
and
later
oversaw
litigation,
compliance
and
employment
matters
at
a
large
international
company.
He
is
the
author
of The
Curmudgeon’s
Guide
to
Practicing
Law and Drug
and
Device
Product
Liability
Litigation
Strategy (affiliate
links).
You
can
reach
him
by
email
at [email protected].