America is strong. Trump, meanwhile, is looking more and more pathetic.

By Jennifer Rubin
June 22 at 9:15 AM

The great falsehood that was at the root of President Trump’s candidacy was that he was very strong and America was very weak. We were losing, having our jobs stolen, getting ripped off by allies, etc. We were supposedly awash in crime and illegal immigration, and the latter, we were told, contributed to the former. It was all untrue. We got a welcome reminder this week that both halves of that equation are false — Trump is weak and getting weaker by the day, while the United States has never been a basket case — and is regaining its strength in opposing Trump and Trumpism.

Trump cuts such a pathetic figure, so very desperate for approval from those who have always snubbed him. He still rants at the “elites” who never accepted him in polite society. “You ever notice they always call the other side ‘the elite’?” Trump asked at a rally in Duluth, Minn. “The elite! Why are they elite? I have a much better apartment than they do. I’m smarter than they are. I’m richer than they are. I became president, and they didn’t.” Actually, many of them are richer, have more tasteful homes and are smarter — and have no desire to bow and scrape before the crass Queens operator, even if he is in the White House.

Trump talks tough, but when criticism rains down, he blames others (the Democrats!) or lies that his hands are tied or that his predecessor did the same. And when he retreats, he pretends he never wanted what he implemented anyway. Because he does not know what he wants or what is in various legislative options, he cannot provide clear direction in Congress. The result was a lost vote on a hard-line immigration bill and two postponements (first until Friday, and then until next week) on a compromise that has no chance of passing the Senate.

Trump’s grasp of policy is so shaky that it’s far from clear whether he understands the current legal and logistical situation, the policy he tried to implement or the consequences of pulling the plug on what he tried to implement. And this time, the damage done to him and the anti-immigrant cause that is foundational to his presidency and the new Republican Party of right-wing populists may be considerable.

Meanwhile, the press did its job impressively — allowing Americans to see and even hear what was going on, definitively calling out Trump’s lies and doggedly pursuing Republicans to either defend or oppose the policy. Humanitarian groups, religious organizations, mayors and governors all stepped forward to denounce the president. Democrats were entirely unified and precise: Trump’s policy was inhumane and bringing disgrace on the United States. Certainly, any argument in which the suffering of toddlers and babies is tolerated (let alone sought as a deterrent) is going to lose and lose badly.

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