Empathy for Trump

I am a proud Canadian so American politics is really none of my business.  However, America is a superpower and the President is supposedly the most powerful man in the world, so everything that happens is all of our business.  

Trump as President is an unmitigated disaster.  He has an unchecked ego, he is unpredictable, he is erratic, and he thinks it is appropriate to fire someone from their life's work via twitter.  And those are his good qualities. 

However, in spite of all of this, there was a week when I actually felt some sympathy towards him.  I really felt he was given a raw deal.  

Former FBI director James Comey has written a book after his firing.  I was very prepared to embrace this book as it would give some insight into the workings of the Trump Administration.  What I found instead was nothing but self-serving statements by a bitter Comey.  

He described his firing and says that he saw it on CNN while he was on the West Coast.  I am sure that was devastating.  It raises a question why White House staffers aren't allowed the same protection that most other employees are allowed.  Seeing you have lost a job that you have had for 34 years must be devastating, however, it probably pales in comparison to the humiliation you must feel being the last to know.  However, after reading the book, I am sure Comey has been savvy enough to have an employment lawyer on speed dial.  

The rest of the book offers nothing new that we have not already known.  He describes his first meeting with Trump.  He says he felt Trump has a spray on tan and horrible hair and his suits were not tailored and didn't fit quite right.  He goes on for pages with these insights.  They are not insights.  We have known this for a long period of time.  Most of us have been above such personal mean attacks.  I would have thought the FBI Director would also be above this kind of school yard talk.  My opinion of Comey dropped considerably.  

Next, in a private conversation with Comey, Trump allegedly asked for his loyalty.  Hold the Presses.  This is the big bomb shell revelation in this book.  I am not impressed.  I think that is a reasonable question for the Commander in Chief to ask of his FBI director.  At the point this is revealed in the book, Comey has made it very clear how negatively he views Trump.  I am sure Washington (or even the intelligence community) is a very small town and those perceptions were already known to Trump.  I think Trump was actually giving Comey an out or an opportunity to start again with a blank slate.  

And then there are the Comey memos.  Bombshells about Trump's meetings with Comey.  Yeah, not really.  First of all, they aren't really memos.  They are just Comey's recollections of his meetings with Trump.  I can guarantee Trump's recollections would be different.  It is just he said/he said but Comey's is on paper.  That does not mean that they are any more true.  

The rest of the book goes on and on for pages and chapters about how much Comey loves America.  It is not only self-serving, it is boring and predictable.  Yawn.  It reminds of the phrase, "she doth protest too much".  Why does he have to spend the majority of his book telling us how much he loves America.  Is it because he really has nothing else to say?  

It pains me to say this because I like Trump bashing as much as the next person, but, I actually feel sorry for him.  He gives us so much material every day and yet Comey can only come up with a possible spray tan.