Mike Magee
Trump posted his own post to himself the past week when the pope surfaced again, David French’s Classic Christmas, 2024, The New York Times column “Why so many Christians are so cruel?”
As I wrote at the time: “Since the Frenchman and his wife and three children publicly expressed opposition to Donald Trump during the 2016 presidential election. This led to threats from white supremacists to his entire family, especially against the Ethiopian daughter he adopted. Eventually, he was “cancelled” by his own church, Miss (about 400,000 million).
Over the past week, every striped American politician has debated Trump’s motives to belittle the Pope when Pope Francis was resting. Three main theories emerged.
1. As a vicious narcissist, Trump cannot bear the fact that Pope Francis is stealing his attention.
2. Trump calls on conservative Christian evangelicals who strongly oppose the Pope’s reasons.
3. Trump calls on conservative Catholics like New York Post columnist Charles Gasparino, who said: “…we respect Trump more than the socialist pope.”
Of course, there may be elements of truth in each of them. But I would rather go back to my New York City high school training and believe it is the product of a bully in a boring and witty school yard, which he thought was fun.
This is not to say he has the courage to claim ownership. (Obviously, this has not been released without his approval.) No. He lay on your face and said:
“I have nothing to do with it, somebody dressed up my photos, like the pope, and they threw it on the internet. That’s not what I did, I don’t know where it came from – maybe it was AI, but I don’t know where it came from.”
With his blessings, the image posted his Truth Social Account on May 2, 2025 at 10:29 pm.
David French may see accomplices in the shadows.
As he explained in 2024. “The frequency of ambitiousness is high. In our self-deception, we convince ourselves that not only is right, but that we are so clear that opposition must be rooted in arrogance and evil. We try to silence and destroy our enemies.”
He may be right. But when it comes to Trump, I think of another bully and another heroine. On June 1, 1950, a 53-year-old Republican senator was promoted from Maine to the Senate to face-to-face with Senator Joe McCarthy. Four months ago, McCarthy unleashed a populist attack in Wheeling, West Virginia, claiming he was a conspiracy of “205 card-holding communists in the State Department.”
What happened next proudly recalls the “Manifesto of Conscience” in the official Senate historical record. This story speaks directly to everyone who has enabled Trump in the current era. After the speech, it took four years to finally get rid of the American threat. It remains to be seen who will be our modern Margaret Chase Smith, and the time before we get rid of our modern tyrants.
Here is the official note of the Senate Chase effort recorded by U.S. Senate historians:
‘gentlemen. The President “She Begins”, I want to put it simply, is just about the serious national situation… The U.S. Senate has long enjoyed respect from the world, and it is the greatest deliberative body… But recently, deliberate character…has been degraded…a forum for hatred and character assassination. Smith expressed McCarthy’s opinion in her 15-minute speech, and Smith recognized every American’s right to criticize, protest and hold unwelcome beliefs. “Free speech is not what America used to be,” she complained. “It was abused by some people so that no one else exercised it.” She asked fellow Republicans not to win political victories on “Four Calumny’s Calumny, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear.” As she concluded, Smith introduced a statement signed by herself and six other Republican senators, “Her Declaration of Conscience.”
“Smith’s declaration of conscience did not end McCarthy’s domination of power, but she was one of the first senators to stand. Over the next four years, she continued to oppose him at a huge personal cost. Finally in December 1954, the Senate fought against the Maccarthy for Conteconial’s model and agreed to the Senate’s opposition to the opposite tradition. McCarthy’s career ended.
Mike Magee, MD, is a medical historian and regular contributor to THCB. He is Code Blue: Inside the American Medical Industry Complex. (Grove/2020)
