That Donald Trump has no filter when it comes to making disparaging remarks about almost everyone and anyone is no secret.
Over the course of his business life — and now during his successful run for the Republican presidential nomination — Trump has insulted anyone who has gotten in his way or hasn’t embraced his insufferable ego: government officials, business adversaries, fellow candidates, women, minorities, the disabled, prisoners of war and now the family of a dead soldier.
So far, his chronic incivility has done him no harm. It helped make him a reality TV star for a while, and it propelled him to the top of the GOP field because it resonated with an angry, fearful and frustrated slice of the nation.
Whether his criticism of the Muslim parents of a slain U.S. Army captain will be one insult too far is doubtful. Trump’s supporters either agree with most of what he says, excuse it as “just Donald,” or think it’s overblown by the “liberal media,” a term that itself is becoming all the more liberally used as some of Trump’s harshest critics happen to be conservative journalists.
What this latest controversy does underscore, though, is how temperamentally unsuited Trump is to be president.
One of the things that any political leader should know intuitively is when to speak and when to hold your tongue. That goes double for whoever occupies the most powerful position on the planet.
Trump had nothing to gain by responding aggressively to the speech given at last week’s Democratic National Convention by Khizr Khan, the Pakistani-born father of U.S. Army Capt. Humayn Khan, who was killed a dozen years ago in Iraq. Khizr Khan’s words were tough — criticizing Trump for his anti-Muslim statements and policy proposals, questioning the Republican nominee’s understanding of the Bill of Rights, and asserting that Trump had made no sacrifices for this nation. Had Trump left the matter alone, this speech — like all the anti-Trump remarks made during the opposition party’s convention — would have quickly faded from the public consciousness.
Instead, Trump’s knee-jerk reaction was to take on Khan and his wife, and in doing so turned this into a bigger deal, forcing a number of Republican officeholders, already uncomfortable with his nomination, to distance themselves even further from him.
This dust-up is a warning shot of the potential damage that a Trump presidency might do. This isn’t a disagreement about political correctness. This is about being sensitive to the power of words to do great harm when used injudiciously.
If Trump is elected and talks in office as he has on the campaign trail — and there’s no reason to expect any magical transformation in the White House — the repercussions could be significant both domestically and internationally.
Tensions within this nation are real. All it takes is one misjudgment, such as a police officer being too quick with a trigger, to set off riots, as we have seen in recent years. A president’s job, through the power of the national podium given to the office, is to try to calm such civil unrest, not to stoke it further with inflammatory remarks.
Globally, the U.S. has plenty of enemies, both foreign powers and terrorist groups, looking to capitalize on any perceived slight to stir up anti-American sentiment. A U.S. president who doesn’t think twice before speaking would be a recruiting bonanza for our adversaries.
A pop-off president could further divide us at home and harm our standing with the rest of the world. Trump seems incapable of grasping this.
