Warren Zevon
Warren Zevon

President Trump, the master of distraction, has now rolled out the need to reopen schools in his latest bid to divert people's attention from his mind-blowing failure to take action in January against the threat posed by the COVID-19 crisis and his silence about his dear buddy Vladimir Putin putting bounties on the heads of US soldiers in Afghanistan.

The master of distraction though met his match at the Supreme Court.

In his losing argument that he enjoyed absolute immunity and wasn't required to hand over financial documents to a New York DA Cyrus Vance, the tweeter-in-chief resorted to maximum presidential chutzpah.

He trotted out this gem: Trump claimed subpoena distracted him from his duties in the White House so he could ignore it. That's rich as it the president puts the people's business over his own.

The Supreme Court shot down the Trump's hubris. Writing for the 7-2 majority, chief justice John Roberts said: "The president next claims that the stigma of being subpoenaed will undermine his leadership at home and abroad.

"But even if a tarnished reputation were a cognizable impairment, there is nothing inherently stigmatizing about a President performing “the citizen’s normal duty of . . . furnishing information relevant” to a criminal investigation."

Trump's tax returns will be even more fascinating read than his niece's book about her dysfunctional family.

Woe is me. They are all out to get me. Trump tweeted the Supreme Court decision represented "prosecutorial misconduct" and a "political witch hunt." He sure has run that witch hunt line a zillion times.

Trump claims political opponents want to keep elementary and high school closed to hurt him in the election. “They think it’s going to be good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed,” snapped the president on July 7. “No way.” Local school boards across the nation respond--as kids argue in playgrounds, "Yes way." Trump fails to understand or even cares that children and teenagers are ideal carriers of COVID-19.

The Washington Post reported July 10 that Trump wallowing in self-pity and victimhood these days. Perhaps sensing that he's doomed at the polls, Trump is telling anybody within earshot that he's the victim of COVID-19 (vs. 130K-plus dead Americans), the collapsed economy, (43M Americans filing for unemployment) and racial unrest (nationwide protests)

The president needs a new theme song for his rallies to drive home his sense of victimhood.

"Poor, poor, pitiful me" written by the late Warren Zevon in 1976 and made into a Top 40 hit by the incomparable Linda Ronstadt fits the bill. The chorus goes:

"Poor poor pitiful me
Poor poor pitiful me
Oh these boys won't let me be
Lord have mercy on me
Woe woe is me"

Team Trump might like to fine tune the third line, swapping out "boys" for "Fake News."