Ben Lowry: Donald Trump's lack of filter helps to lead him into abominable conduct, again and again
Yesterday I was discussing with a friend the comments made by President Donald Trump about the crash in Washington DC.
Normally I agree about politics with this friend, but we do not agree about President Trump. He is a fan. My pal pointed out that Mr Trump is just the sort of politician who is shaking things up in ways that I think are needed, and this is true. I wrote as much last week.
Mr Trump is already blaming DEI for the tragedy. Last week I wrote that I think positive discrimination should be scrapped. My friend thinks Mr Trump has no filter but says the western world has politicians who have so much of a filter they are too diplomatic to overhaul how things are done. This is a compelling defence of Mr Trump. The problem, for me, is that Mr Trump’s lack of a filter leads him again and again into abominable behaviour. Eg, he has stripped two former colleagues, Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, of bodyguards. These are foreign policy hawks who supported President Trump’s assassination of the General Qasem Soleimani of Iran in 2020, but have since fallen out with Mr Trump.
It is unpardonable for a US president to send a signal to a state as hostile as Iran that it might be able to kill such men, just as it is unseemly for a national leader to score political points over an air crash before the cause of the crash is known.
• Ben Lowry (@Benlowry2) is News Letter editor