A few months back, I happened to spend some time with a gentleman from Cuba. He had spent the first 30 years of his life there before immigrating to the U.S. about ten years ago.
Whenever I meet someone with a wildly different background from my own, I enjoy picking their brain and learning about their experiences. I took advantage of the opportunity, probably to the point of annoyance.
I asked my Cuban friend what it was like growing up there, asked questions about the people and the culture and educational system. I asked him about the vintage cars in Cuba and how hard it is to buy a car there (answer: very). When I found out he was a bird guy, I asked him if he thought the Cuban subspecies of the ivory-billed woodpecker was still around (answer: sadly, it’s probably gone). I also asked him stupid questions, like if Cuban people actually eat Cuban sandwiches (answer: they just call them “sandwiches,” but also, they’re more of a Miami thing).
In addition to discussing topics like cars, birds, and sandwiches, we discussed heavier topics. He said he was always worried about his family back in Cuba. The Cuban government isn’t great, but it’s a country filled with good people with rich traditions, and it has been suffering under sanctions for decades.
This conversation took place mere days after the U.S. launched a military strike on Venezuela and captured President Nicholas Maduro and his wife, killing 32 Cuban officers in his security detail in the process.
For almost 30 years now, Venezuela has traded oil to Cuba in exchange for the services of Cuban professionals in Venezuela. It’s been a mutually beneficial partnership that was upended with the U.S. strike on the Venezuelan capital.
To make matters worse, President Donald Trump has enacted a strict oil embargo on Cuba since the military operation in Venezuela, which has caused the Cuban power grid to essentially go dark.
And then, at the Future Investment Initiative summit in Miami last week, Trump spoke about Venezuela and Cuba’s future.
“We have been very, very successful,” he said. “You know, when I went into Venezuela … I built this great military, I said, you’ll never have to use it, but sometimes you have to use it. And Cuba’s next, by the way, but pretend I didn’t say that please. … Please disregard that statement, thank you very much. … Cuba’s next.”
If asked, I’m sure White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt would dismiss that nonsensical word salad as “a joke,” and then get very angry at the reporter for even asking such a ridiculous question, and then a month later we’ll take Cuba by force because that’s how this works every single time. Just as Robert Johnson sold his soul to the devil to become a great guitar player, Leavitt sold her soul for the supernatural ability to demand to speak to the manager of our shared observable reality.
I’ve long felt that the way we should elect our President is by scouring the nation for some beaten down, kind-hearted civil servant who absolutely, positively does not want the job because they fully understand the weight of the responsibility. This person should then be dragged into the White House kicking and screaming and be tasked with doing the best job they can, until such a time as they keel over from a peptic ulcer. It would be pretty rough on that one guy or gal, but I genuinely think it would result in the best governance our nation has ever seen.
Being the President should be a crushing burden. With every decision, you should be thinking of the people you’re helping and the people you’re hurting. With every military operation, you should be haunted by the dead you’re leaving in your wake. And if you can internalize all that and weigh it against the benefits of your actions and still believe you’re making the right call, then you’re probably doing a decent job.
Whether you agree with them or not, I believe plenty of Presidents have felt that weight on both sides of the aisle. You can tell just by looking at them. Compare Bill Clinton in 1992 to Bill Clinton in 2000, or George W. Bush in 2000 to George W. Bush in 2008. Barack Obama aged so much between 2008 and 2016 that he looked like he drank from the wrong Holy Grail in “Last Crusade.”
I challenge anyone to say with a straight face that Trump internalizes the weight of his own decisions. I don’t believe he expends a moment’s thought on the innocent lives in Cuba, or Greenland, or Venezuela, or Iran, or, for that matter, the U.S. It’s all merely a global game of Risk that he can brand with his golden image.
Being the President is a serious job. We can only hope that one day, the office will again be occupied by a serious person.
