COWARDLY LION: Confessions of a Trumpist with Observations on the Character of the Weakest, Most Corrupt and Cowardly President in American History

By Hank the Janitor

This is the story of Hank. A retired janitor, son of a mechanic - and one of the forgotten men and women who Trump promised to take care of once elected. No one was more excited when Trump won the presidency. Hank was a Trumpist, through and through. He came to realize however that it was all a big con, that the first thing Trump did was to for

• Language: English
• Publisher: Hank the Janitor
• Release date: Sep 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9780578761374

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Preface

I am a retired janitor of a public school district. My father was a mechanic, deacon, real estate salesman, and school bus driver.  He served in the Navy in World War II.  My mother was an elementary school teacher.  My name is Hank.  No one was a bigger and more dedicated supporter of Donald J. Trump than me.  I was a staunch member of his base.  I came to know his base.  I came to know who they are, how they think, and why many of them still support President Trump.  You might think I’m a rarity in that all loyal members of the Trump base have actually stuck with him through thick and thin, but actually that is not true.  There are many others who have decided that they can no longer support Trump.  Now, I am not talking about the ten to fifteen percent of the base who will stick with him no matter what.  That is the hardcore sub-base.

With some few exceptions that ten to fifteen percent just want to blow up the whole system.  They want a bull in a china shop and want to see it all smashed into pieces.  They don’t believe in democracy or meritocracy and look with disdain on the federal government and those with advanced degrees or extensive public policy experience.  They want the country divided and destroyed.  I will not convince that group.  I did not write this book for that group . I wrote it for those honest Republicans and independents who are beginning to question whether they should vote for Trump again.  And for those who just want to better understand who Trump is at his core – what is the true nature of his character? I have learned that Trump is a man who no longer warrants your support - or anyone’s support - if you love America. This is my story about how and why I left the Trump base.

It didn’t suddenly happen on June 1 , 2020, but that is a big part of it. There were others who got me to this place but June 1 may have been the final straw. On that day President Trump engaged in a shameful act of ordering the violent use of tear gas, smoke grenades and rubber bullets on American citizens exercising their first amendment right under the Constitution to peaceably assemble in Lafayette Square.  Trump did it to clear a path for a photo op in front of St. John’s Church which he never entered and where he never prayed.  It was nothing more than a stunt intended to rile up his base and fan the flames of hate rather than heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds , as the Bible teaches. Two days later on June 3 James Norman Mattis, the distinguished United States Marine Corps General and former Secretary of Defense issued a scathing condemnation of President Trump.

Not only did Trump blatantly attack our Constitution on that day but he used religion as a tool for partisan political purposes.  It was an unspeakable act.  General Mattis said that Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people – does not even pretend to try.  Instead, he tries to divide us.  This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone but apparently it still does:  Donald Trump does not want to unite the country.  He not only tries to divide us; he wants to divide us.  He thinks that serves his interest s and is how he will get re-elected.  The deeper question is: what kind of man would do that?  When you are finished with this book you should have your answer.  And I hope you will not be voting for Donald Trump.

You should know that there is no indignity or dishonor in switching your allegiance.  After all, Donald Trump was not fully honest with us prior to the 2016 election.  As just one example, remember Stormy Daniels, the porn star he committed adultery with just after his child was born?  We didn’t know about that before the 2016 election because Trump paid hush money to cover it up.  He was still paying hush money from the White House once in office through Michael Cohen. It is undisputed. We have all seen the check. That only came out after the election.  That’s why Michael Cohen is sitting in prison right now serving Trump’s time.  Trump said he would always be transparent but he lied and he kept that from us.  There are many other examples about how Trump has betrayed us.  He said he would be for the forgotten man and woman but the first thing he did when in office was to forget about us.

I’m a member of the working-class; Trump turned his back on us, on all of us hardworking men and women.  The first thing he did was to pass a big tax bill that mostly benefitted real estate developers like himself and his son-in-law Jared Kushner.  He also told us he wouldn’t golf like Obama yet he has golfed far, far more than Obama ever did and used our hard-earned tax dollars to support his golf clubs and resorts, using millions of our dollars to pay for his resort fees, hotel rooms and golf carts.  Donald Trump stabbed us in the back.  He conned us all in 2016 through no fault of our own.  He is not our savior but instead a false prophet. That is who stood in front of St. John’s Church.  He will do anything for personal political gain and to enrich himself at the expense of Americans. I hope you enjoy my journey.

1

My Journey

It was a hot Friday evening in August 2015.  I was driving in my car toward the Jersey shore when I turned on Sirius XM radio, and there was the voice of Donald J. Trump booming through the speakers, bellowing at a rally in Mobile, Alabama.  He had 30,000 people jam-packed into a football stadium.  I thought to myself then that he could go all the way to the presidency.  As he railed against the establishment and the media one could feel the energy reverberating through the airwaves.  He portrayed himself as an outsider who would really shake things up in Washington.  He attacked everyone, even Caroline Kennedy as someone wholly unqualified to serve as an ambassador.  With music blaring at the end from Twisted Sister’s We’re Not Gonna Take It I said to myself, this is just what the country needs to bring about dramatic change!  I was tired of the elites and the haughty educated classes that controlled our government; it felt like they told us what to do and how to act, and even what we could say or not say.  I was tired of the political correctness police complaining about every misspoken word.  I loved this guy!

So, over the next fifteen months after that rally I was all in for Donald Trump.  And when he won the presidency I felt as if we finally had someone who would have my back and fight for me; that he was truly looking out for the forgotten man and woman.  Here’s a guy who is on my side.  I couldn’t get enough of Trump.  I grew up in the same metropolitan area as Trump and knew about him, but I needed to get more.  Over the past few years I researched his life.  I learned all I could about the man.  And during his presidency I have watched everything Trump has done and listened to everything he has said.  I absorbed as much information as possible.  There are misconceptions about blue-collar workers like myself; that we are not quite as smart as doctors or lawyers or that we don’t read books or newspapers or write, simply because we may not have college diplomas or graduate degrees.  Dad would say most doctors and lawyers wouldn’t know the difference between an oil filter and an air filter.  Mechanics can be a curious bunch; always looking for a solution to the problem, and I’m the same.  I enjoy reading and writing.  I write a lot.  And I am actually a voracious reader.  I read all the news.  I read history and I read biographies of famous people and past American Presidents.  I read the conservative news, listen to Breitbart and Fox News but also watch MSNBC and CNN on occasion, although I admit there was a time when I could not watch those latter two.  I glean information from YouTubers and other social media platforms.  I try to absorb it all.  Heck, I have even read the Federalist Papers.

You have to read everything today.  No one can question that we live in very divisive times.  That is one thing we can all agree on.  There are teams today, not political parties, and you are either on one team or the other team.  And teams either win or lose.  There is no middle ground.  No one wants a tie or a compromise when we are playing against each other to win!  As Trump says, it is either our side or the other side.  But that’s not how it should be in politics where we actually want government of the people, by the people, for the people as Abraham Lincoln said.  And this is one reason why I now try to get as much information from both the right and the left.  Our political environment is so divisive that you almost have to listen to both sides if you want to truly get an honest assessment of what is going on in this country.

So, I listened as much as possible and I read as much as possible.  A janitor can do that in retirement.  Another reason I followed everything Trump did and said - and why I absorbed as much information as possible since that Friday evening in August 2015 - is that I really wanted to know the answer to this question: who is Donald Trump?  What is the essence of the man?  What is the nature of his character at his core?  Is he a man of courage?  Because, let’s be candid, it’s all about courage.  The single most important character trait in a President of the United States is, of course, courage.  From Washington to Reagan, courage is the one common thread that binds all our great presidents together.  I have always voted for presidents based first and foremost on character and the most important character trait I look for is – courage!  Presidents must have courage.  They can’t be afraid that they might be blamed for a decision.  They must have the courage to take responsibility for their actions.  They must have the courage to admit mistakes.  A president can’t pass responsibility for decisions onto others in the midst of a crisis.  They must be able to say the buck stops here and not the buck stops with everybody as Trump did during the government shutdown in January 2019.

Many pundits in the media over the last few years have said about Trump that they can’t figure him out and that he’s unpredictable and erratic or they don’t know what he believes in or what makes him tick or what his principles are.  Well, I can tell you that I have figured him out.  I was able to do this not just by observing everything he did and said over the last four years, and not only because I was part of his base, and got to know his base, and why they support Trump.  It is also because I have lived in the same geographic area as Trump all my life and, as a result, I have come upon sources and individuals who knew Trump personally, including in his youth when he attended high school.  It didn’t take much to find friends here, acquaintances there, contractors and vendors who dealt with him and spoke to him.  To my surprise, the biggest source was someone very close to me personally.  He got me reading more and thinking more.  I can tell you that Trump has not changed.  There will be more about this in the pages that follow.  But the point of my story is not to give you some breaking news about an inside account of something that occurred in the White House; it’s to tell my story about my transition from a member of the base to anti-Trumper.

I am sorry to say to all those Trump supporters and friends that I can no longer support Trump.  He no longer deserves our loyalty or our vote.  I may not convince you, but I hope you will read my story and at least give it your honest consideration.  There is a lot in the pages that follow and my voyage was a long one; I did not easily jump the ship.  There were many factors and influences.  One could say it probably distilled down to this:  I have come to understand that there are two central traits of character that constitute the crux of Donald Trump.  There are two words that capture the essence of who he is: coward and amoral.  Donald Trump no longer deserved my support because he is, principally, at his core, a man who lacks courage.  He is a coward masquerading as a bully.  He is afraid to take responsibility for presidential decision-making, even stating I don’t responsibility at all for his failure in getting Americans tested for coronavirus and then passing the buck to the states.  And he is a man who lacks principles, completely amoral.

The Swiss moral philosopher Henri-Frederic Amiel described heroism as the dazzling and glorious concentration of courage.  Heroism comes from courage and courage is what we all look for in our presidents.  He also said truth is not only violated by falsehood; it may be equally outraged by silence.  I could not remain silent and so I am speaking to you.  It’s the reason I recorded my journey.

On January 26, 2018, Peggy Noonan, a conservative Pulitzer Prize-winning author and columnist for The Wall Street Journal said on a radio show that we are in a post heroic era – do we no longer expect honor in our leaders?  People we can tell our children to admire, to look up to as an example?

Well, do we?  Do we no longer expect courage, morality and character in our leaders?  Especially our presidents.  The presidency is like no other office in the country. It is different from a local or statewide office. Why?  Because the character of our president forms the character of our nation.  It just does.  The character of our president forms the character of our nation in the eyes of its citizens, the eyes of the world and the eyes of God.  I ask everyone, and particularly my former fellow Trumpists, to hear what I have to say and just give it some sincere, candid reflection.  Do we really want four more years of Donald Trump?  Is he a man of courage?  Does he instill in our children the values of bravery and kindness that are truly the intrinsic qualities that make America great?  No.  He does not.

I have come to realize that, throughout his presidency, Donald Trump has encouraged division, fomented hate, fostered bigotry, incited violence, sanctioned white nationalism, engaged in scapegoating and fear-mongering and attacked our Constitution and democratic principles.  All the characteristics of a coward.  Donald Trump has revealed himself as a man who is deeply insecure and afraid.  The conservative author and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, David Frum, described Donald Trump as a psychological coward on April 24, 2020 during a television broadcast.  He said Donald Trump is a man who is terrified and weak and that people need to understand his fear.  He was spot-on.  I’ve been saying this for some time now.

Donald Trump