The Provenance of Witch-Hunting

The President is king of the witch-hunt. He loves to accuse his enemies of pursuing that activity to harass him. But in fact, “far from being the victim of witch hunts, he is the orchestrator of them.” Thursday he outdid himself in orchestrating the indictment of James Comey. To do that, he illegally pushes the Justice Department to destroy his enemies, that is, anybody who dares cross him.

This is the behavior of a sociopath. I don’t use the term lightly. Here are seven recognizable characteristics:

• • Lack of empathy
  • Impulsive behavior
  • Antisocial behavior
  • Surface-level charm
  • Narcissism
  • Cold-hearted, unemotional traits
  • Lack of guilt.

Sound familiar? You might add “bullying” to the list. The President is certainly not as good at bullying as he used to be. Look at the botched indictment his DOJ tendered against Comey. One commentator on the article said, “Thank God for her sake Halligan is pretty. She is not likely to have her law license 5 years from now.” Odds are the judge may even dismiss the suit out of hand. Even a Fox News analyst thinks there is no case.

America’s faith in the system of justice will be tested as never before. This is bullying carried to the extreme. Per Michael Tomasky:

This is just the beginning. Trumped-up indictments of Adam Schiff and Letitia James are presumably coming. And then George Soros, for funding “terrorism.” Who’s next? Who knows. To Trump, all these people hate America. But the one who actually hates America is the man who is so ignorant and dismissive of its highest principles that he thinks he’s entitled to use the justice system to destroy people he doesn’t like. And history will remember who that is.

His sociopathic tendencies were never on more obvious and odious display than in his recent harangue to the UN General Assembly. It was an exercise in pure braggadocio and insult. He attacked Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, “a terrible mayor.” He lectured and hectored on everything from immigration policy to climate change, calling the latter “the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world” and praising “clean, beautiful coal.” For nearly an hour he berated his audience and asserted his own brilliance—a childish exhibition of bullying to get attention. For this he demands the Nobel Peace Prize.

Meanwhile his campaign of retribution against a host of enemies proceeds, fueled by increasing militarization of law enforcement. Even the career lawyers at DOJ are appalled. So are the rest of us.