Trump projects many laughable images of himself: One is as a devout Christian attending the odd service or selling Trump endorsed Bibles.  Another is as a great American patriot and hero

Probably the most iconic photograph in American history, as celebrated in their 3¢ stamp, was the raising of the flag on the top Mt Suribachi on the Japanese island of Iwo Jima in WWII.  This was the second last island to be conquered in their island-hopping campaign leading up to an assault on the Japanese homeland which luckily was not needed.  Iwo Jima proved to be their costliest assault in terms or percentages with 28700 casualties.  The casualty rate for the Marines was higher than 50%.  Of the six Marines in the photograph, three were killed within a few days.  Those men were patriots.  They were heroes.  Maybe they were reluctant, but they did what their country asked of them.

Is Trump a hero?  Categorically no.  In the 60’s during the depths of the Cold War, America was increasingly pulled into the shitshow that was Vietnam, part of the ex-French Indochina.  After the Korean War had stalemated in the 1950’s and the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962, this was where the rubber hit the road in stemming the spreading of the dictatorial dead hand of communism.  Did Trump heed the call to defend American values?  No.  He dodged the draft with the ludicrous and spurious claim of suffering from bone spurs put forward by a tame (or paid off) podiatrist.  My dad had his left leg visibly withered by polio.  Did that stop him from volunteering in WWII to serve in the Army and subsequently fight Rommel in the North African desert?  No.  It did not.  Men like that can be called heroes while Trump calls prisoners of war, losers.

79 years after Iwo Jima, Donald Trump was shot at during a campaign rally, a slight occupational hazard for politicians.  Being a school kid is probably more dangerous in America.  Boy, did he play it up!  Apart from Biden’s mumbling and stumbling, this signature event probably did more than anything to cement his second term.  He made sure that the image of him being covered by secret service agents, his blood-flecked ear and a flag in the background was publicised far and wide.  He subsequently hyped it by appearing at rallies with a huge white rectangular ‘wound’ covering, making sure that even people in the back rows could see what a hero he had been.  Was he a hero?  No.  The secret agents were.  For a pretty standard government salary, they are asked to become their charge’s live body armour and they did it without question.  And as for the ‘wound’, it was no more serious than a nick.  How can I say that, firstly, ears bleed profusely and there was scant evidence of that and, secondly, within a few days he had removed the over-the-top wound protection to reveal little sign that anything had happened.  Perhaps he is the Orange Jesus or has superpowers after all as a lot of his superhero images try to proclaim.  He also stated that he felt the hit against his head.  No such thing.  That was the sonic shock wave of the bullet.

And now we come full circle to the man whose patriotism is as fake as his bone spurs.  He recently claimed that Ukraine’s heroic defence against the invasion by a far larger foe intent on its destruction, and who targets its civilians as a matter of strategy and tortures them and prisoners of war, is merely like kids fighting.  This is truly a new low, even for him.