Across the U.S., millions of people took advantage of the long weekend to chow down on burgers and mark the unofficial start of summer with visits to pools, lakes, and beaches. Millions more honored the true purpose of Memorial Day by laying flowers on the graves of fallen veterans.
None of this describes how Donald Trump spent his holiday.
With closing arguments in his New York trial beginning Tuesday, Trump took a moment this weekend to shout out the “human scum” working in his legal case. Then he topped it off with a video in which a man proclaims, “You liberals are gone when he fucking wins.”
But before any of that, Trump kicked off his weekend by getting utterly humiliated by Libertarians.
In what might be one of the most poorly thought-out political appearances of the century, Trump dropped in on the Libertarian National Convention on Saturday to tell them that they should just give up nominating their own candidates and put him at the head of their ticket.
“What’s the purpose of the Libertarian Party of getting 3 percent?” Trump said as the crowd booed and heckled him. “You should nominate Trump for president only if you want to win.”
Back at Trump Central, someone had the brilliant idea that Trump should drop in to explain why his authoritarian strong-man rule would be perfect for Libertarians. Fox News certainly thought it was a great idea.
The ridiculousness of this idea was clear even before Trump stepped on stage.
After Trump’s appearance, he called the crowd “enthusiastic” and claimed he could have had their nomination if he’d only filed a little paperwork.
But almost every word Trump said generated a flood of derision. People on the floor of the convention shouted “liar” and “you crushed our rights.” Following his appearance, one attendee told Politico, “He’s more delusional than I thought.”
With that humiliation boiling, it isn’t shocking that Trump celebrated Memorial Day the same way he seems to celebrate every national holiday: by making it all about him and attacking the people he hates.
As The Guardian reports, Trump issued a message that started with, “Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country, & to the Radical Left.”
Trump then used the statement not just to attack Justice Juan Merchan, but to once again disparage writer E. Jean Carroll, calling her “a woman, who I never met before (a quick handshake at a celebrity event, 25 years ago, doesn’t count!).” Carroll would certainly be in a good position to sue Trump a third time because it’s clear that he’s not at all remorseful for sexually assaulting and defaming her.
Trump went on to reiterate other false claims about Carroll before adding a quick attack on Judge Arthur Engoron, who presided over Trump’s recent fraud trial.
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden spent the weekend delivering the commencement address at West Point. After the speech, Biden stuck around to greet each graduating cadet, shaking their hands as their names were called. On Memorial Day, Biden delivered a speech at the tomb of the unknown soldier at Arlington National Cemetery, celebrating and mourning veterans who are no longer with us, including his own son Beau.
“I can still hear him saying, ‘it’s my duty dad, it’s my duty,’” Biden said. “Duty—that was the code my son lived by … the creed the generation of service members have followed into battle on the grounds around us by fallen heroes.”
As seems to happen so often, the difference between the two candidates was incredibly stark. Hate and vengeance versus love and admiration. The fact that this remains a contest at all is simply baffling.
