On Feb. 12, 2015, President Obama made a selfie-stick video for BuzzFeed. You may remember it — or perhaps not — because if there’s one thing Barack Obama delivered during his eight years in office, it was plenty of celebration of himself. The country was treated to Obama slow-jamming the news with Jimmy Fallon, sharing his Final Four brackets, fantasizing about what superhero powers he’d most like to have, and on and on. Except the selfie day was different — because it was just hours after the president learned that another one of Islamic State’s American hostages had been killed.
Kayla Mueller was a 25-year-old idealist from Arizona. A committed Christian, she felt drawn to aid to those most in need. In 2013, among the most desperate people on earth were the people of Aleppo, Syria. Mueller traveled there from Turkey to volunteer for Doctors Without Borders. She was kidnapped by IS outside a hospital. What followed was the worst nightmare imaginable.
Her frantic parents attempted everything they could to secure her release, only to be threatened by the Obama administration with criminal liability for aiding terrorists if they paid ransom. (There was an attempted military rescue, but it failed.)
There is a good argument for not negotiating with terrorists, obviously. But the Obama administration was inconsistent. The principle seems to have escaped them when they exchanged five terrorists held at Guantanamo for deserter Bowe Bergdahl.
On Feb. 10, 2015, the Muellers learned that Kayla had been killed — and that was the week that Obama clowned around at the White House for BuzzFeed’s amusement.
Why mention this now? Well, his elevation to the presidency, and the fact that his narcissism received relatively little mockery, seems to be the malady of our time.
Donald Trump is Obama’s rival in the narcissism sweepstakes. Many of Trump’s early decisions — most of his appointments — have been reassuring. But that ol’ devil of vanity keeps tripping him up. He might want to consider how badly the trait served his predecessor.
Regarding Vladimir Putin, Trump’s nearly unyielding praise for the strongman may arise from his misinterpretation of an anodyne remark Putin offered in 2015. He called Trump “colorful” and “talented.” Trump passed this through the translator in his head and converted it to “Putin called me a genius.”
He didn’t. But so what? Even if Putin had called him a genius, Putin remains Putin, i.e., a ruthless, bitterly anti-American international menace and killer. Is whether one praises Trump the only yardstick of people’s worth?
This is deadly serious business. The realm of reality-show one-upmanship has no place in international affairs. In some ways, particularly his choices for heading the Departments of Education and Defense, and perhaps most of all in reaching out to Gov. Nikki Haley (who opposed him), Trump has shown signs of shedding some of his old skin for his new status. The example of Barack Obama, who arrived in office on a cloud of goodwill and squandered it due in part to delusions of grandeur, should be cautionary.
About the Author
