Vinay Menon: There would be no George Santos without Donald Trump

Can Pfizer or Moderna not invent a vaccine to inoculate us from Donald Trump?

The man is an itchy rash that refuses to go away. He is herpes. He is Hepatitis A, B, C, D and E. If there were a Hepatitis Z, he’d be that too. Trump is gonorrhea, rabies, monkeypox and Ebola. And I felt my vitals tank on Wednesday after reading this NBC scoop: “Donald Trump Prepares for His Return to Facebook and Twitter.”

It was like getting a call from the cops after the guy who tried to kill you with an axe had escaped from prison. It was like hearing the Terminator is joining TikTok.

Impeachment, lawsuits, criminal probes, election losses, the Jan. 6 hearings, midterm endorsement duds, a failed coup d’etat, tales of gross incompetence from all former associates — Trump keeps doing jiggly cartwheels around reality while regrouping and recalculating his sinister plan to stay in the spotlight.

What I don’t get is why the Republican party keeps supplying the electricity.

If you had a friend who was a pathological liar, grifter, narcissist and backstabber, that relationship would quickly dissolve. You wouldn’t keep lending him $20 for Big Mac runs. You wouldn’t humour his delusions of grandeur or even trust him to water the plants on vacation. You would recognize this person is damaged beyond repair.

But the GOP still can’t bring itself to tell Trump to GTFO.

This abusive relationship is well beyond facts and stats.

Trump is the only one-term U.S. president this century. Under his leadership, the GOP lost the House and Senate. It’s a good thing Americans don’t get to vote on shoes or Trump would now be barefoot on a Saudi golf course. If Trump thought he could make a few bucks harvesting your organs, he’d now be kneeling on your stomach and fumbling with an X-Acto knife. The man only cares about himself. It will never change.

He vows to run again in 2024. I am willing to bet anyone a McChicken this will never happen. He’s pretending to be a political contender in the misguided and desperate hope this will blunt any possible criminal prosecution.

In the interim, Trump keeps dry humping the GOP into the hinterlands of crazy.

Look at what’s become of the party of Lincoln and Reagan. All honourable and rational members, including Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, were driven out by the deranged MAGA tiki-torch cult as if this were a low-budget remake of the Salem witch trials.

In their esteemed place, you have newcomers like congressman George Santos.

I didn’t think anyone could ever swoop in and claim Trump’s title as the biggest Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire. But this Santos guy has got him beat up the yin-yang. He has allegedly lied about where he went to school. He lied about where he worked. He lied about his mother dying in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. He lied about losing employees in the Pulse nightclub massacre. He lied about being Jewish. He lied about his grandparents being in the Holocaust. He lied about running an animal charity.

Some past friends have said he is even lying about his name.

On Wednesday, protesters called for Santos’ passport to be confiscated because they believe he is a flight risk in the face of ethics investigations. Yes, he’s probably planning to seek asylum in Wakanda to start a crypto exchange with Pikachu.

On Tuesday, Anderson Cooper’s brain was truly scrambled as a former roommate of Santos claimed the newly elected politician stole his Burberry scarf and wore it to the Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally. Also this week, a military vet came forward to claim Santos — using the alias “Anthony Devolder” — stole $3,000 from a GoFundMe in 2016 that was set up to help the vet’s dying dog. If true, this is beyond despicable.

But here’s the thing: there would be no George Santos without Donald Trump.

Do a 23andMe on all the GOP dipsticks and the genealogy will be Trumpian.

That’s why the former president’s looming return to Twitter and Facebook is such a kick in the teeth. It used to be that everyone was entitled to their opinion.

Now everyone is entitled to their facts.

Trump weaponized social media so that unpleasant truths could be morphed into mendacious allegations. He was never tweeting — he was gaslighting. And the MAGA rubes fell for it every time, lapping up his BS and regurgitating it into a polarized ecosystem that values party loyalty over objective reality.

If Trump championed origami to his supporters, there’d now be a global shortage of Kami paper. You don’t think lunatics like Santos watched this mind control unfold and got any ambitious ideas? Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, another GOP whackjob, was just named to the House committee on Homeland Security. Incredible. Someone now overseeing national safety has previously suggested Sept. 11 was an inside job, claimed Q is a real person, and gone on wild-eyed rants about global Satanic pedophile cults and Jewish space lasers?

Entrusting Greene with Homeland Security is like hiring Ye as your life coach.

But the GOP no longer cares about doing the right thing so long as it can do anything for power. And Trump returning to Twitter and Facebook will only exacerbate this moral cowardice and descent into madness.

George Santos was just named to a committee that oversees NASA.

Even the extraterrestrials are in disbelief.

SHARE: