I know, I know…The Julie Principle.
Even so, as I said in brief summary of Rep. Mace’s uncivil and disrespecful treatment of a constituent who dared to imply criticism of her representational, “This doesn’t help.”
Once upon a time, Presidents chose their words carefully for their public pronouncements. I defy anyone to explain how the Truth Social rant above can accomplish anything positive. I place it in the same category as the Trump Hate outbursts by the likes of Maxine Waters, Adam Schiff or Jasmine Crockett, all of which are designed to inflame rather than to unite, except that a President should be held to higher standards than members of Congress.
The only question in my mind is whether exploiting the holiest of Christian holidays to barf out insults and declarations of personal pique is less revolting, more revolting, or about as revolting than President Biden’s use of the day last year to issue a pandering, celebratory proclamation about “Transgender Day of Visibility.” I score Trump’s message as worse, as in “more unethical,” because its language is, though typical of this President, still inappropriate for any resident of the White House. (Trump issued a similar message last Easter, but he wasn’t President them. That’s a material distinction, or should be.)
It is also, like Biden’s message, stupid and incompetent. Trump has a challenging agenda and a tough road ahead; his personal popularity is crucial to achieving that agenda, and there is no way these kinds of self-indulgent outbursts can do anything but alienate potential supporters.
Ethics Alarms 
To lead off with all the negative aspects of these people to whom he is supposedly wishing a Happy Easter is to completely negate any well-wishing that might have been present. To a great deal, this is an anti-Easter message. Christ offered himself as a propitiatory sacrifice to reconcile man with God. The salvation he wrought is open to all, no matter how vile, depraved, or atrocious their sins might be. God went to the furthest bounds of god-forsakenness so that all might be saved. Here Trump wants to rub their noses in what he perceives as their wrong-doing (however accurate his perception might be). It almost makes the “Happy Easter” itself a spiteful, vindictive measure, sort of in the vain of the Second Niggardly Principle, in which Trump might imagine that wishing them a Happy Easter itself would pain them.
I firmly believe, though I know there are many true believers in Trump, that the majority of the United States did not vote for Trump, but voted against the Democratic party. And Republicans can take special notice. If I’m correct, then the nation turning against the Democratic party will only last one cycle if the Republican party acts just as vilely. We can’t survive the tribal mentality in which no one from the tribe can do wrong, no one from the other tribe can do right, and the only substantial difference between the two tribes is the label. Yes, Trump has a lot of substance under his diarrhea of the mouth (and thumbs), but that substance has to speak, not be buried under infantile, self-serving rants. And sadly, I’m not sure we’re seeing much substance from the GOP outside a few individuals who cannot carry everything on their own.
B-I-N-G-O!
Well said. While I chuckled when I read it yesterday, I shook my head, saying “Trump’s gotta Trump.” I thought he statement was boorish and crass, surely not representative of the highest executive office in the country. Someone needs to tell him to stop this nonsense.
jvb
I came right here to make the same comment: Trump’s gotta Trump. There’s no other description for it.
A new phrase has been coined, I think.
Exactly. My mind went back to the SOTU speech when he called Senator Warren “Pocahontas”.
Deserved?…yes.
Appropriate for the situation?…absolutely NOT!
President Trump could (possibly) have been an Ethics Hero had he chosen the proper Easter response. But he’s just got to have the last word. It’s so juvenile.
<sigh>…
Rude and unproductive as usual from Trump – white trash level ugliness.
But, there was some theological verisimilitude.
If you distill his message into two parts: 1) you are sinners and 2) happy easter, then what you have is something that parallels the gospel in a very bastardized way. Judgement and yet blessing.
After all, YHWH picked the Hebrew people and explicitly reminded them that they were just as bad as every other people around them, essentially that there was nothing of themselves that was quality.
Trump is speaking to his base. They love this side of him. They know it’s crass and boorish. So were the Obama and especially the “Biden” regimes–far more dangerously so, having cloaked themselves in the rhetoric of compassion and “rule of law” and “Our Democracy” while creating humanitarian crises and seditiously undermining the Republic.
Trump and his base also know that the Axis hates him (and them), no matter what he does or says. So he might as well say what he and they are thinking and feeling. It’s cathartic. It’s also funny, if highly inappropriate.
Will this kind of cathartic outburst from Trump keep Democrats from making gains in the 2026 midterms? Probably not, unless exposure of the corruption and crimes of the Obama and “Biden” regimes, and of the Axis in general, is sufficient to deliver a much needed shock to the collective system. But there probaby isn’t time for that. And even if there were, the cognitive dissonance is strong in the Axis and its allies.
So even though this sort of outburst doesn’t help, it probably doesn’t matter. Meanwhile, the base can have a chuckle while the Axis clutches its pears and the ship goes down. Enjoy the show.
I do thinks this matters. One of the key factors to Trump’s victory last fall was the swing towards the Right among so many demographics. (Practically everyone but college educated, white, liberal women.) If, as I propose, this swing is due to a rejection of the Democratic Party’s far-left agenda, then it is incumbent upon the GOP to do everything it can to show these defectors that the Republican party’s solutions truly are the better ones. But if the GOP plays the same gutterball that the DNC has been playing, then all those disaffected centrists and moderate leftists will abandon this coalition.
One example I have is Holly Mathnerd. She was gradually leaning further and further right from her centrist stance, up until a number of conservatives (include LibsOfTikTok) decided to dox that Home Depot worker who posted on social media she was disappointed that the assassin had failed to kill Trump. As despicable as that comment was, it wasn’t worth her losing her job and receiving so much hatred. And Holly was horrified that the Right (or at least some members thereof) was deciding to play the same games that the Left had been playing. That turned her off to the GOP. And since she has some influence on substack, you can bet her reaction influenced a number of other potential Trump voters to vote elsewhere.
Trump will drive away the people who hated the way the Biden administration vilified half the nation if he also vilifies half the nation. And if he’s playing to the base, that means his base also wishes to vilify half the nation.
This is an opportunity for conservatives to show the country that they are not the totalitarian theocrats that the Left has painted them. It’s incumbent on the Trump administration (to say nothing of the President himself) that they show the sane civil side of them that has been so missing from the Left.
“If, as I propose, this swing is due to a rejection of the Democratic Party’s far-left agenda, then it is incumbent upon the GOP to do everything it can to show these defectors that the Republican party’s solutions truly are the better ones.”
In theory, I agree with you. However, the DNC has not done a realistic, honest reflection on the 2024 election results. Bernie Sanders, AOC, and Jasmine Crockett are the front runners for 2026 and 2028. The DNC has also embraced illegal immigration as a hill to fight and die for, without really thinking it through. Rather than move toward the center, the DNC seems to be swinging even harder for the left field fences, to their peril.
jvb
I am afraid that this type of outbursts matter a lot.
First, the President does not understand the meaning of Good Friday and Easter. I am not going to speculate on how serious Donald Trump’s faith is, or offer a theological treatise at Ethics Alarms; however to be in the spirit of the Christian holidays you need to offer a message of reconciliation, redemption, forgiveness, and hope. So if the President choose to offer a message at Easter is needs to have a conciliatory tone and be positive in outlook. It is also the time for POTUS to be humble, and acknowledge a higher Authority.
Second, Trump handles the “King” component of his office poorly. Trump needs to learn how to master soaring rhetoric, that unifies the nation and makes all citizens and legal residents feel good and proud. He needs to be able to reassure the nation in difficult times, as Franklin Delano Roosevelt did in his fireside chats, or Ronald Reagan after the Challenger disaster. Not every Presidential rhetoric needs to be nakedly political.