{"id":1315687,"date":"2019-10-15T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-16T03:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/parker-column-the-malevolent-aura-of-donald-j-trump\/"},"modified":"2019-10-15T21:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-16T03:40:00","slug":"parker-column-the-malevolent-aura-of-donald-j-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/parker-column-the-malevolent-aura-of-donald-j-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Parker column: The malevolent aura of Donald J. Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"
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COLUMBIA, S.C. \u2014 As the world seems consumed by all things Ukraine, it\u2019s time once again to dust off the ever-popular, evergreen headline: Rudy, Rudy, Rudy.<\/p>\n

As in, what happened to the nation\u2019s mayor, Rudy Giuliani? He held so much promise. He was the prosecutor and leader who cleaned up New York City. He was the man of the hour after the 9\/11 terrorists left Manhattan smothered in toxic ash and shocked into disbelief.<\/p>\n

Lately? He\u2019s been behaving a bit thuggishly, frankly, more closely resembling the crooks he prosecuted than the quick-witted, intensely likable agent of change. Where have you gone, dear Rudy?<\/p>\n

While we\u2019re at it, what happened to Lindsey? As in Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, once widely beloved for his penchant for truth couched in humor. For the past couple of years, he has defended the president with a rare passion that erases memory of the man who once, truthfully, tweeted that The Donald was \u201cnot fit to be president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Credit Graham, at least, for calling Trump on the \u201cworst mistake of his presidency\u201d: opening the gate for Turkey to invade Syria and attack Kurdish forces who helped the U.S. defeat the Islamic State. But if you want to ruin your reputation, your career and possibly your life, Trump World might have some use for you. No one who enters Trump\u2019s orbit leaves unscathed.<\/p>\n

We lack a sufficient number of digits to list all who\u2019ve come and gone \u2014 sometimes to federal prison. Although turnover in any White House is relatively high, given the stress and demands of the job, officials are exiting this administration much sooner than the norm.<\/p>\n

Some have cited irreconcilable differences (former Defense Secretary James Mattis); others have left early enough to preserve future options, though only a couple come to mind \u2014 former press secretary Sarah Sanders and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, whose next political move is subject to rampant speculation. And like Graham, while Haley has largely remained supportive of Trump, she issued biting criticism last week about Trump\u2019s abandonment of the Kurds.<\/p>\n

Still others have simply been tossed under the proverbial bus idling on Pennsylvania Avenue, awaiting the next victim who otherwise would be known as a person Trump used to like but now can hardly remember his name. One-time lawyer Michael Cohen springs to mind. Who? He did only \u201csmall deals\u201d and was \u201cnot somebody that was with me that much,\u201d Trump said of the man who paid $130,000 in hush money to porn-star Stormy Daniels. Remember Cohen? Trump, not so much. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t a very good lawyer, frankly,\u201d he has said.<\/p>\n

Many West Wingers have been reduced to such shame and infamy that departure was the only option. But for some, shameless is the better descriptor. As in former press secretary Sean Spicer \u2014 recently all gussied up in white pants and a chartreuse, puffy-sleeved shirt so garish that it hurt one\u2019s eyes to watch him on \u201cDancing with the Stars,\u201d the ultimate dead-end junket for the serially embarrassed.<\/p>\n

One can only wonder what lies ahead for Giuliani, Trump\u2019s personal lawyer, now that a campaign finance scandal has materialized involving two of his \u201cassociates,\u201d who were arrested last Wednesday evening as they tried to leave the country with one-way airline tickets. The two American citizens allegedly had raised foreign money and then made a large donation to a Trump super PAC, which prompted a Federal Election Commission complaint.<\/p>\n

Poor Rudy. Depending on how things go and what we learn in the next few days or weeks, Giuliani could become \u201cthat guy from New York, who wasn\u2019t even a very good mayor.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for Graham, he\u2019s sticking around for now. Never mind what he said about impeachment back in the Clinton days. That was about lying under oath and refusing to cooperate with an inquiry, after all. Trump lies no matter what. See the difference? The word around here, besides, is that Graham has snuggled up to Trump enough to guarantee his Senate reelection come 2020, and now can risk a little criticism.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s an obvious advantage to being a senator rather than a hired hand. But, as one southerner to another, Sen. Graham, I wouldn\u2019t look back next time you leave the White House. Like Lot\u2019s wife in the Book of Genesis, you might turn into a pillar of salt.<\/p>\n

Kathleen Parker\u2019s email address is kathleenparker@washpost.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

COLUMBIA, S.C. \u2014 As the world seems consumed by all things Ukraine, it\u2019s time once again to dust off the ever-popular, evergreen headline: Rudy, Rudy, Rudy. As in, what happened to the nation\u2019s mayor, Rudy Giuliani? He held so much promise. He was the prosecutor and leader who cleaned up New York City. He was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1315687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 18:33:17","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1315687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1315687\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1315687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1315687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1315687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}