USA Today: Donald Trump is "not fit to clean the toilets"

SCREEN CAPTURE / USA TODAY

Reporter Roger Yu interviews members of the USA Today editorial board, Bill Sternberg, editorial page editor
and Thuan Le Elston, operations editor explaining the board's unanimous position to oppose Donald Trump. 

USA TODAY is not known for hyperbole or sensationalizing headlines or articles, but its fiery editorial today (Dec. 13) bears reading.

The editorial makes no bones about how they view Donald Trump, the current Oval Office occupant. Trump's tweet response to New York's Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand's call for an investigation of the sexual misconduct allegations vs. Trump.

The opening paragraph reads:

"With his latest tweet, clearly implying that a United States senator would trade sexual favors for campaign cash, President Trump has shown he is not fit for office. Rock bottom is no impediment for a president who can always find room for a new low."

It goes on to say:

"A president who would all but call Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand a whore is not fit to clean the toilets in the Barack Obama Presidential Library or to shine the shoes of George W. Bush."

The editorial recounts the lies and misleading statements he has made since he took office, a flawed and racist immigration policy, Trump's endorsement of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, and his overall ineptness in fulfilling the job of the most powerful man in the world.

The editorial was published after the editorial board were unanimous in that decision, explains Thuan Le Elston, member of the board and operations editor for the national newspaper.

Read the entire editorial here.  

Last year, for the first time in its 35 year history, USA Today took a position on a presidential candidate when it urged its readers to not vote for Trump. Staying true to its policy of not issuing an endorsement for president, the paper did not endorse Hillary Clinton but made it clear to the reader to vote for anybody, but not Trump.

No doubt that Trump will respond in his usual blustery and uncouth way and call USA Today fake news, attacking the source rather than the allegations. He probably cannot distinguish between the positions taken by the editorial board and the fire wall between the board and the newspaper's news gathering operations as explained by Elston, who was born in Vietnam and a refugee, escaping that country just prior to the U.S. departure.

As a former member of a newspaper's editorial board, I know that sometimes, we have to step out of our personal comfort zone and take positions that may make some people uncomfortable or angry. Sometimes we have take positions not only after investigating an issue or a person, but we also have to look into our souls because we sincerely want what is best for our community or what's best for our country. 

In the case of Donald Trump, just when you think he can't go any lower, he proves you wrong. Trump's only consistent policy or strategy is to sow chaos and my fear is that someday, in a childish fit, he may go even lower in a desperate attempt to save his "brand."

Fake news, no. Fake president, yes.
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