This was the fundraising letter sent to supporters upon Trump’s announcement of the new travel ban, which was thankfully halted by a federal judge last night.
The failure of communication from this administration is astounding.
The first bullet, for example:
- Temporarily Restricting immigration from six countries comprised by radical Islamic terrorism: Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, and Yeman
The first two words of the sentence are capitalized, which also makes no sense.
The first two words of the next bullet are also capitalized, but not the first two words of the third bullet.
This is a mess. And the actual content isn’t much better.
Despite Trump’s argument that this is not a Muslim ban, he indicates in this letter that these countries were chosen specifically because they are “comprised by” radical Islamic terrorism, which clearly implies (if you can get beyond the grammar) that one religion is being targeted over another (which is one of the very reasons the federal judge halted the ban), even though the majority of terrorist attacks in this country are committed by Americans.
In fact, no act of terrorism has been committed on American soil by anyone from these six nations since 9/11, and Saudi Arabia, where almost all of the 9/11 terrorists originated, is not on the list.
And Iraq, the very center of ISIS activity in the world, has now been removed from the list. Logic would dictate that if your travel ban is essential for keeping terrorists out of America, the first country on the list should be Iraq.
Of course this is a Muslim ban. Trump referred to it as a Muslim ban many, many times on the campaign trail and after the election. His own words have doomed these Executive Orders right from the start.
You may say I’m nitpicking here. Who cares about grammar and capitalization? But details matter. When a President who is attempting to change something as complex as the American healthcare system, details matter. They matter a lot. They are the difference between the elderly having access to affordable healthcare and the ultra-wealthy receiving massive tax breaks as part of the proposed plan.
For many Americans, the details in this healthcare plan will be the difference between whether they live or die.
Details matter.
This administration doesn’t seem to think so.
Trump’s Housing and Urban Development Cabinet chief, Ben Carson, recently referred to slaves as immigrants.
His chief White House counselor Kellyanne Conway introduced the world to the notion of an “alternative facts.”
His national security advisor, Michael Flynn, was an agent for a foreign power who lied about communication with the Russians during the election – facts which Trump knew about for weeks before finally firing him.
Trump accused a former President of wiretapping based solely on a right-wing report based upon the unsubstantiated claims of a right-wing talk show host. He claimed – once again – that his Electoral victory was the largest since Reagan, only to be corrected by a White House reporter again.
His response: “I was given that information. We had a very, very big margin.”
“Given that information?” By who? The President’s team can’t conduct a simple Google search? Or more likely, Trump was either lying or spitballing because details don’t matter to this administration.
His Electoral win, by the way, was not as large as George Bush, Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama. In fact, it was one of the narrowest Electoral victories in American history.
Details matter.
But when you have the resources of the Republican party and the United States government at your disposal and you can’t produce a letter that is grammatically correct, you make it clear that details don’t matter at all to you.
This might be the most frightening aspect of the Trump administration.
