Joel:
Poor Donald Trump! As he whined during a commencement speech to the Coast Guard Academy, he, no politician has ever been treated worse.
Since Donald Trump is no historian, let’s help him out by making a list of politicians who have, indeed, been treated worse.
I’ll get started with US presidents:
- James Garfield
- William McKinley
- Abraham Lincoln
- John F. Kennedy
Above, Lincoln’s hearse. Below, the White House decorated to honor the death of James Garfield.
Above, the. body of William McKinley lies in state. Below, First Lady Jackie Kennedy weeps over the casket holding the body of her husband, John F. Kennedy. 
I think it’s also fair to add
- Theodore Roosevelt
- Ronald Reagan
Andrew Jackson, Trump’s presidential model, was also the target of an assassination attempt. Our first president to face one, Jackson successfully defended himself against his attacker after the man’s guns—two of them–misfired.
And though we don’t have any news stories of bullets flying at Mr. Obama, the secret service somehow let a potential assassin sneak into the actual White House and get close to the president. Plus, Obama had to deal with years of racist hecklers showing up to his events. Unlike Donald Trump, he somehow coped with this without hijacking the graduation of the Coast Guard in an effort to garner pity.
We might even argue that the slobbering of Republicans during the unnecessary, expensive impeachment of Bill Clinton was a form of harassment to him. It was surely embarrassing to the rest of us, even if Newt Gingerich didn’t have the decency to sense his own hypocrisy.
To this list, we might add some international figures, including
- Nelson Mandela
- Vaclav Havel
- Indira Gandhi
- Benazir Bhutto
Of course, we should not expect a man who won’t read a briefing that doesn’t mention him a lot to read history. And we shouldn’t expect a known narcissist to be able to put his own experiences into a larger context.
Who would you add?
