SAN NARCISO, Calif. (Bennington Vale Evening Transcript) -- During the annual Holocaust remembrance ceremony at the Capitol on Tuesday, President Trump attempted to send a forceful message to critics who have doubted his commitment to fighting discrimination and anti-Semitism. But Trump also indulged in his penchant for deviating from prepared remarks to interject rambling, incoherent and often bizarre anecdotes about deceased historical and public figures. While bestowing honors on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Trump veered off script and issued a puzzling call to recognize Frederick Douglass, implying that the famous abolitionist was still alive. He recently lavished similar present-tense accolades on Luciano Pavarotti, who died in 2007. But the confused commander-in-chief stunned Israel’s ambassador to the United States when he delivered a stern warning to Adolf Hitler, whose life ended 72 years ago.

President Who Can’t Remember History Honors Holocaust Remembrance

Trump’s tough words about the slaughter of six million Jews by Nazis struck an uncharacteristically presidential chord at the beginning of the event. His tone was somber. His condemnations of genocide, harsh.

But by surrounding himself with far-right racists and white supremacists, despite his strong ties to members of the Jewish community, Trump has courted a befuddling controversy. The president’s speech seemed designed to downplay his allegiances to people like Steve Bannon and distance him from paradoxical composition of his cabinet.

“The president, who was slow to denounce campaign endorsements by racists including David Duke, made an unequivocal statement of support for Israel and pledged to ‘confront anti-Semitism’ in a speech attended by lawmakers and survivors of Hitler’s war on European Jewry,” wrote the New York Times.

Since January, when he failed to mention Jews in the observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Trump and his administration have come under attack for endorsing or enabling anti-Semitism. In February, the president suggested that Jewish people had committed anti-Semitic hate crimes themselves to make their detractors look bad. Trump denounced a spate of such crimes as false flag operations carried out by Jews. He also illustrated the scriptural story of Pontius Pilate, who was coerced into killing Jesus at the exhortations of angry Hebrew politicians. Steve Bannon reasoned that we cannot discount, with absolute certainty, that Jews did not mastermind the holocaust for similar gains.

Earlier this month, Press Secretary Sean Spicer sparked fresh outrage when he invoked a defense of Hitler to suggest that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s atrocities surpassed those of the Nazis. In a disastrous attempt to apologize and clarify the insensitive remarks, which occurred during Passover, Spicer fumbled again by defending Darth Vader and Lord Sauron.

Meanwhile, Trump’s supporters reference the president’s relationship with members of the Jewish community to discount allegations of anti-Semitic posturing. Trump grew up in a predominantly Jewish part of Queens. Powerful executives in many of his businesses, before those enterprises spiraled into ruin and bankruptcy, were Jewish. More importantly, First Daughter Lady Ivanka Trump married a Jew and converted to Judaism. The president is deeply, madly, passionately, eerily in love with his daughter -- and to a different, lesser extent, her family. It therefore makes no sense to brand Trump an anti-Semite, his supporters reason.

The President’s Pantheon of the Undead

Brushing aside Trump’s strange rhetoric, the weirdest aspect of his ceremonial speeches is an inexplicable tendency to discuss deceased public figures as though they continue to walk among us.

During his "Some of My Best Friends Are Black" History Breakfast, the president suggested that Frederick Douglass was alive and active in the civil rights movement. Trump also seemed uncertain about the identify of Douglass, an escaped slave and influential abolitionist.

“Frederick Douglass is an example of somebody who has done an amazing job and is being recognized more and more, I notice,” Trump said at one point. “He’s a real up-and-comer. I’ve got my eye on him. We anticipate great things to come.”

Last Thursday, while meeting with Italy’s prime minister, Trump not only embellished his friendship with Luciano Pavarotti but appeared unaware that the legendary tenor has been silenced by the grave for a decade. But Trump astounded the audience at the Holocaust Remembrance when he leveled a direct threat against long-dead German Chancellor Adolf Hitler, who took his own life on April 30, 1945.

“We pledge -- never again,” boomed Mr. Trump. “Six million Jews, two-thirds of the Jews in Europe, murdered by the Nazzy [sic] genocide. They were murdered by an evil that words cannot describe, and that the human heart cannot bear. They were murdered by Adolf Hitler, a bad mensch, sick guy. Sad. Stupid moustache. No more genocides, Mr. Hitler, no more anti-Semitic attacks on my watch. I tried to build a relationship with your cow of a prime minister, Angela Merkel, but when I learned that you had killed six million Jews, well Germany is looking for trouble. This is just another example of Islamic extremism threatening Europe and America. If Russia decides to help, that would be great. If not, we will solve the Nazi problem without them. I’ve got battleships with cruise missiles off the coast. I will give Germany a final solution to the Hitler problem. U.S.A.! JEW-S.A.!”

Trump then praised humanitarian, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel for his “ongoing efforts” to expose the true horrors of genocide and intolerance, and prevent their recurrence through awareness and activism.

“I also want to commend Elie Wiesel for her [sic] tremendous work in fighting anti-Semitism,” added the president. “She is an incredible person, a powerful ally to the Jews and a great friend. Just a terrific friend. I think I see her over there near the hall. Take a moment to thank her for her bravery and chutzpah, if you run into her.”

Mr. Elie Wiesel passed away on July 2, 2016.

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