Sitting quietly and listening to people praise sacrifice and kindness was torture for Trump
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The fact that they were all gathered for a funeral did not dim the conversations between Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama and their families. But the arrival of Donald Trump immediately cast a gloom over the whole affair. While the formeSitting quietly and listening to people praise sacrifice and kindness was torture for Trump
The fact that they were all gathered for a funeral did not dim the conversations between Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, George Bush, Barack Obama and their families. But the arrival of Donald Trump immediately cast a gloom over the whole affair. While the former presidents listened and responded to both moments of humor and calls for prayer during the service for President George H W Bush, Trump and Melania glared straight ahead, slowly reducing the paper program in his hands into a crumpled mass. There were hymns. Trump didn’t sing. There were readings. Trump didn’t even bother to look at the words. There were jokes. Trump didn’t laugh. If Trump’s presence was so galling that it cast a pall over a funeral, attending the event was obviously no more pleasurable for Trump. He sat through most of the ceremony with his face twisted in a frown and his arms folded across his chest. Because the qualities that earned the elder Bush praise in the National Cathedral—his kindness to strangers, his humility in the face of history, his refusal to shirk the blame for his own actions, and above all his reluctance to strike back against insults—were all counter to anything in Trump’s own nature, the fact that they were getting praise, amounted to little less than an insult to Trump. Bush biographer Jon Meacham: His life code was: “Tell the truth. Don’t blame people. Be strong. Do your best. Try hard. Forgive. Stay the course,” And that was, and is, the most American of creeds. The idea of being truthful, accepting blame, and forgiveness are also the least Trumpian of creeds. Donald Trump has refused to sit down to be roasted by comics, but what he got on Wednesday was something even more painful—a reminder that the virtues most people value, are virtues he absolutely does not have. George H W Bush was far from a perfect person, something that even those standing to eulogize him admitted. But the things about Bush that drew warm memories and heartfelt thanks on Wednesday were not his savvy investments nor his blue-blood background. He was praised for the moments he remembered the less fortunate and times when he sacrificed his own political standing for what he saw as the greater good. Trump appeared to take every moment of that praise as a slap to everything he is. Because it was. Read more