Trump dishonors Veterans Day

Donald Trump’s scheduled appearance at today’s Veterans Day parade in New York City mocks every man and woman who has ever worn the uniform of our armed forces.

A man who got out of serving in Vietnam by getting a doctor to write a phony letter about “bone spurs,” a man whose two able-bodied sons never bothered to enlist, a man who was just fined $2 million for using money from a fund-raiser, purportedly for veterans’ groups, for his own expenses – THIS is what’s launching a parade in our largest city on a day when all the focus should be on those who didn’t have rich daddies to get them excused.

Trump’s presence is also a tiny upraised middle finger to the city and state of New York, just weeks after he changed his official residence from Manhattan to Florida. The heightened security needed to protect a president on a parade route is now the responsibility of a city that never wanted him in the first place.

He’s also planning to be an irritant to city and state officials, with whom he has often clashed. Mayor Bill De Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo, both Democrats who have been the subject of 45’s insulting, childish tweets, will march in the parade as planned, but of course Trump won’t have a good word to say about either of them. Former city Mayor Mike Bloomberg, who was a Republican when he lived in Gracie Mansion, is entering the presidential race as a Democrat, giving Trump even more fuel for his ire.

As for his speech before the parade, we can only speculate it will be less about the sacrifices our brave troops make, and more about what poor wittle Donnie is going through at the hands of those who’d like to keep our democracy intact.

One last thought: The parade route proceeds along Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Let’s hope Trump doesn’t stop the motorcade so that he can shoot into the crowd. Otherwise, he may literally get away with murder.