I know what many want at this moment: to denounce him, to impeach him, to send him back to where he came from -- a career of eluding debtors.
Sorry, but this time I'm going to thank Donald Trump.
Were it not for his unconscionable racist screed, I would not know U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley.
Because of what Trump recently said about her and three other congresswomen of color, I got to meet her on the other side of our TV screen as they held a joint press conference.
Pressley said Trump's comments are but a "disruption and a distraction from the callous, chaotic and corrupt culture of this administration." Tell it.
I wouldn't know about Pressley at all were it not for this distraction. I'm glad I do.
The Massachusetts Democrat couldn't be more eloquent and couldn't be more devoted to her job, which is to focus on matters that matter to her constituents.
Health care. Gun Violence. College debt. Income inequality. The environment. Infrastructure: You know, issues which largely have been spit upon by the Party of Trump.
Again, though, we should thank Donald Trump at this very moment and for that particular rant. Because of him, U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar was greeted at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport last week like she has the Vince Lombardi Trophy in her hands for Vikings fans.
Thanks to our president, I now know more about Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the firecracker whose utter devotion is to Michigan's 13th Congressional District and not to religious-right charlatans and foreign dictators.
I didn't need an introduction to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. We've all been hearing about her.
(If you want to get woozy quickly, turn to Fox News, haul out the schnapps, and take a belt every time AOC is brought up.)
Yes, she's a communist out to destroy America. You'd think she had the entire 1,000-plus-person Russian Internet Research Agency backing her election effort. Oh, wait, that was Donald Trump.
Ocasio-Cortez is a force of nature – human nature. She is as genuine as Donald Trump is phony.
She works for the victims of unfettered greed in her borough in the Bronx and across America. You may disagree with her policies, but you can't call her a shape-shifter or wonder what she stands for.
Trump says he's the most transparent president ever. Well, he's right on that. Every gesture he makes is a transparent bid to retain the love of the angry white voters.
Coal? Beautiful coal? Talk about a see-through play for misbegotten loyalties in the Rust Belt. Sir, that train has left the station. Didn't they discuss market forces at Wharton? With its polluting properties, coal is as in-demand today as K-cars.
A friend of American manufacturers? Trump talks that way while his family exploits overseas labor.
A friend of the middle class? His tariffs (taxes) have wiped out the pittance that sector got from his tax cuts. (We know which sector benefited, by the way.)
A foe of illegal immigration? He wasn't so fierce while undocumented workers staffed his New Jersey properties.
Judeo-Christian values? He mouths a serviceable code for the benefit of Bible Belt voters. But my goodness: With his lying, his philandering, his coarseness, his gesticulating to voices of hate -- in his hands the stone tablets of Moses are rendered to pea gravel.
Then you have a true American like Rep. Omar, who gained citizenship at the tender age of 17 – amazing for someone three years removed from a refugee camp. Then she had the resolve to run for Congress – and the eloquence and vision to win.
It was heartening to see Minnesotans shouting to her, "We got your back."
So again, thanks to Trump for helping shine a light on four courageous women who serve in the public sector, an excellent reminder of why we must return him to the private sector.
Longtime newspaperman John Young lives in Colorado. Email: jyoungcolumn@gmail.com.
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