During a press conference last week, NBC reporter Peter Alexander stood in front of President Trump and asked him a simple and long awaited question: “Why should Americans trust you?”
The question was directed to Trump when he made the claim that he had the biggest Electoral College win since President Ronald Reagan.
Alexander corrected Trump by saying that many other presidents since Reagan have surpassed Trump’s 304 electoral votes. He gave the two examples of former President Barack Obama’s win with 365 electoral votes in the 2008 election and President George H.W. Bush’s win with 426 electoral votes in the 1988 election.
Naturally, a stunned Trump defended himself by blaming someone else for giving him this information, “Well, I don’t know, I was given that information. I was given that. We had a very big margin.”
I don’t blame Trump for wanting to defend himself. It’s human to defend yourself against your accusers.
There comes a point when we have to look at how often we need to defend yourself and the severity of our words. Trump is not in middle school, and he can’t blame his mistakes on others anymore.
Ironically, Trump was spreading false information with his statement.
This is something he has repeatedly bashed media and individuals for on his Twitter account.
This isn’t the first time that Trump has played the blame game, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
Given last week’s press conference, now more than ever, protesters are not backing down.
For most, Presidents’ Day means free parking and maybe even a day off from work to honor those who have served as our president.
This year, however, the day had an entirely different purpose for some people.
Hundreds gathered in cities across the nation to protest Trump on Presidents’ Day by calling it, “Not My President’s Day”.
While the protesters belonged to different groups and gathered for various reasons and causes, there was one message they all wanted spread.
Trump is unfit to be our president.
After much back and forth between the two of them, President Trump asked Alexander one final question, “But it was a very substantial victory, do you agree with that?”
Alexander answered with a defeated, “You’re the president.”
Between the lies, blame and misinformation we as Americans need to ask ourselves if we can trust Trump to be our president.
kkmeier@umail.iu.edu
