This week at a press conference, #45 asked for a “friendly reporter” and this happened (see video on link)

The young Orthodox Jewish man kindly phrased the question; and asked what the government planned to do about the increase in threats and violence against the Jewish community.

Not only was the young man told, essentially, to sit down and shut up, 45 never answered the real meat of the question and instead made it all about himself.

Politics aside, whether you voted for this President or you didn’t – this is not how a leader acts. This was not respectful behavior; he complains about the treatment he’s getting, but look at what he’s doing. He didn’t listen; or, more appropriately, he stopped listening as soon as the reporter stopped praising him personally. He didn’t respond to the question. He berated the reporter.

This is not an isolated incident. Shepard Smith at Fox News called out this behavior with another reporter over questions about Russia. 

Do we have issues with fake news? Absolutely. People are being paid to write inflammatory articles – better called “clickbait” – that stir folks up and get shared across social media for the sole purpose of advertising. The writers (I will not call them authors) of these articles don’t care what they’re writing, so long as the websites get clicked and they get paid.

I have been dismayed by the lack of leadership quality that #45 repeatedly showed during the election cycle. I’m more dismayed that he got the job and his lack of leadership skills are still prominent.

I taught my Boy Scouts to evaluate their own leadership, and the leadership of others, based on the 12 points of the Scout Law.

Trustworthy

Loyal

Helpful

Friendly

Courteous

Kind

Obedient

Cheerful

Thrifty

Brave

Clean

Reverent.

I would remind them that no one gets all 12 of them right all of the time. Some of the points may be more of a challenge to one person than another. It’s a key skill for a Scout to learn to evaluate their leadership performance in a given situation against the Scout Law and determine where they can improve.

In the video above, I can’t acknowledge that any of the points were executed very well…if at all. In fact, I’d say 45’s been breaking just about all of them.

Except, maybe (see the movie A Hard Day’s Night to reference this joke if you don’t get it) “He’s very clean.”

I do hope that he can evaluate and learn. We need a leader, and not this childish behavior. We need to not be silent, or we may find ourselves and our world in chaos, as Mr. Tyson so eloquently stated below.