By Brittany Greve
The Angry Creamsicle. Agent Orange. The Human Tanning Bed Warning Label. You’ve heard him called by many names, but regardless of what he’s called, he happens to be our President, Donald Trump. He is not only famous for frequently supporting politicians across the country via Twitter, but for also viciously attacking those who do not agree with him: the NFL, Stephen Curry, ESPN and, in short, everyone who doesn’t kiss his ass.
Recently, Luther Johnson Strange III, the predecessor to the now-U.S. Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, has become the center of President Trump’s attention (up until recent events, but we’ll get there). After getting Sessions’ spot, Strange continued to have higher aspirations and joined the race to become Alabama’s Senator. This, as you can imagine, meant that Strange needed a group of trusted politicians that would vouch for him.
Who better than President Donald Trump? Luckily, Trump was approached by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who had consolidated establishment GOP support behind Strange and convinced President Trump to aid Strange in his race. While Trump had little faith in his chances of winning, he continued on because Strange had been loyal during the campaign.
At a rally in Alabama on September 22, the Friday before the election, President Trump freely spent the first 25 minutes of his talk explaining and defending his decision to endorse the Republican establishment’s pick for the Alabama Senate race. But there was nothing that even slightly looked like President Trump was rallying for Strange. On the contrary, he was allowing himself an opening so that he could be right, regardless of the outcome of the election.
The president’s rambling speech lasted nearly 90 minutes. He repeatedly mocked the leader of North Korea, jokingly threatened to fire a Cabinet member who endorsed Roy Moore, Strange’s opponent for the Senate position, called on professional football team owners to fire players who kneel during the national anthem and repeatedly relived the 2016 election.
As per President Trump’s routine, he shortly set off to Twitter after the rally to suggest that the people of Alabama should “Finish the job” that Trump started and vote Strange into office. However, Tuesday night after Strange was projected to lose the Republican primary runoff for a Senate seat, Trump was quick to delete those tweets.
It can generally be agreed that at times Trump’s actions are deceitful, ignorant and uneducated, which should make a person question what that means about the people he likes and supports.
What kind of person is Luther Strange? He is certainly not a noble man, but instead a coward who must seek shelter behind those with even larger egos.
When he was appointed to fill the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, he received nearly $11 million in campaign funding — 300% more than his competitor, Moore. While this doesn’t necessarily denote an evil, it creates a causal relationship between his involvement with President Trump and exponentially large sum of campaign funds. In his earlier days, as it continues to be, Strange is an opponent of same-sex marriage. He expressed disagreement with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges which found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. As it can be seen, Trump supports and keeps people around who are like-minded and those who are not, are quickly kicked out.
Brittany is a sophomore Philosophy major and Italian minor.
