'Out of touch' Trump is 'detached from the difficult reality the country is living': ex-GOP lawmaker

According to a report from the New York Times' Peter Baker, Donald Trump has done nothing in the past week but fan the flames of discord at a time when the country is reeling from the coronavirus pandemic that has claimed the lives of over 100,000 in the U.S. and protests have broken out in the streets over police brutality.

According to one former GOP member of the House, the president is completely detached from what is going on in America.

Baker wrote, "With a nation on edge, ravaged by disease, hammered by economic collapse, divided over lockdowns and even face masks and now convulsed once again by race, President Trump’s first instinct is to look for someone to fight," before adding, "Over the last week, America reeled from 100,000 pandemic deaths, 40 million people out of work and cities in flames over a brutal police killing of a subdued black man. But Mr. Trump was on the attack against China, the World Health Organization, Big Tech, former President Barack Obama, a cable television host and the mayor of a riot-torn city."

Reviewing the president's week, the Times reporter wrote, "While other presidents seek to cool the situation in tinderbox moments like this, Mr. Trump plays with matches. He roars into any melee he may find, encouraging street uprisings against public health measures advanced by his own government, hurling made-up murder charges against a critic, accusing his predecessor of unspecified crimes, vowing to crack down on a social media company that angered him and then seemingly threatening to meet violence with violence in Minneapolis."

According to former Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), the president is living in a bubble while he stirs the pot and makes things worse.

“The president seems more out-of-touch and detached from the difficult reality the country is living than ever before,” the ex-lawmaker stated. “At a moment when America desperately needs healing, the president is focused on petty personal battles with his perceived adversaries.”

Presidential historian Timothy Naftali agreed.

“I am daily thinking about why and how a society unravels and what we can do to stop the process,” he explained. “The calamity these days is about more than Trump. He is just the malicious con man who lives to exploit our vulnerabilities.”

As Baker noted, the president seems to be enjoying the chaos going on in the streets.

"Mr. Trump, who this past week retweeted a video featuring the line 'the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat,' picked up the theme on Friday night," he wrote before ending, "After crowds attacked CNN’s Atlanta headquarters with rocks, the president offered no sympathy or condemnation. Instead, he made clear he thought it was just deserts for a network that has aggravated him so much, retweeting a message that said: 'In an ironic twist of fate, CNN HQ is being attacked by the very riots they promoted as noble & just.'"

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