Donald Trump is the greatest menace the world has ever seen. He’s a thin-skinned, smarmy and above all deeply stupid man who is likely to get us all killed.
That doesn’t give anyone the right to attack or ridicule his 10-year-old son, Barron.
This week, a Saturday Night Live writer, Katie Rich, tweeted this shocker:
Forget that Barron isn’t even homeschooled – he attends a posh New York private school – but in any even the tweet is tasteless and simply cruel.
Rich quickly apologised for the tweet and has been suspended from the show indefinitely, according to TMZ.
Journalists have unspoken understanding that you can verbally attack an elected official until they lay beaten and bleeding and begging for mercy. The theory is they are there to do the bidding of the people who put them in office, so they must take every punch coming their way. But that leader’s family, particularly children, are entirely off-limits.
Some years ago a prominent UK politician had a child dealing with a serious mental health issue for the entire time he was in office. Who? We’re not going to tell you and neither will any journalist with a conscience. That child wasn’t elected and deserves none of the scrutiny that was afforded his father.
But outside of journalism spheres, the ethics around politicians’ children seem looser – usually to the detriment of the adult on the attack.
In 2014, GOP staffer Elizabeth Lauten learned this the hard way when she was forced to resign after she wrote a lengthy and savage Facebook post demanding that President Obama’s daughters Sasha and Mahalia show more “class” in the way they dressed, adding that she believed they looked like they were “waiting for a spot at a bar”.
She was talking about a 13 and a 16 year old, as millions angrily pointed out. She was shown the door soon afterwards.
It’s difficult to remember to “go high” with Trump when he routinely goes so, so low. The newly-minted President’s attacks on his enemies are so uniquely personal, vicious and public that it’s easy for all of us to forget ourselves and stoop to his depths in retaliation. It’s even harder to retain a level of decorum when his policies and beliefs are so wilfully damaging, such as today’s executive order that prevents the US funding any women’s program around the world that even indirectly supports abortion – a move that will likely lead to the death of countless women globally.
It’s been reported that he’ll be following that act up with a cut to women’s domestic violence programs. One can’t help but feel these actions are nasty and personal retaliations for the women’s marches that took place globally protesting this worm’s rise to power.
We get it. It makes all of us want to tear him to pieces, in whatever way would hurt him most.
But the best way to do that is at the ballot box or, for a man who is so pathetically desperate to be liked, slammed in the court of public opinion. As former first daughter, Chelsea Clinton, wrote in a measured and mature Facebook post, “Barron Trump deserves the chance every child does-to be a kid. Standing up for every kid also means opposing POTUS policies that hurt kids.”
Barron Trump is not fair game and should be left alone.
Besides, the kid has to grow up with the Mango Mussolini as a father. Hasn’t he suffered enough?
