Donald Trump, a congenital liar who hides his tax returns, is in one small sense the most transparent president ever: Ignoring a pandemic that has killed nearly 150,000 and trailing Joe Biden in all polls, he is brazenly attempting to terrify the electorate over a largely non-existent threat, conjuring an image of urban America brought to its knees by a tsunami of chaos and violent crime only he can stem.
Thus, his Department of Homeland Security has dispatched federal troops (a mishmash of U.S. Marshals, Customs and Border Protection and other agencies) to Portland, Ore., without clear identification. They have shot protesters, arrested alleged rioters and spirited them away in unmarked vans.
Portland, last we checked, was still America.
Yes, the city has been protest central for months. In recent weeks, a federal courthouse was vandalized and a federal employee assaulted _ ugly, unacceptable acts. Yet there is no indication that local police were unable to handle the situation.
Indeed, Portland crime has been on the decline.
Never mind that, Trump Monday threatened to send troops to other Democratic-run cities, pointing to murders in Chicago, a favorite rhetorical punching bag.
Two lessons here: First, rising crime in some big cities, not a figment of Republicans' imagination, is a potent political weapon for the demagogue as he tries to frighten the nation into re-electing him, a la Richard Nixon in 1968.
Second, there are no lengths to which Trump will not stoop. Voters must see through his gambit _ and Congress must call him to account.
