Donald Trump’s Reaction To Hamilton Booing Flap Is Also Awful

Was there ever a time when a Broadway musical has caused so much consternation in the political world? I don’t remember this happening in the 1980’s with Cats and La Cage aux Folles!

In this entire mess, the only one with clean hands is Mike Pence. He didn’t react to being booed, and he didn’t say a word after the cast chose to lecture him from the stage. He made no comments to the press. He didn’t lash out. He did what politicians do on those rare occasions they do something right: He stayed quiet.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of our future President. Donald Trump is not known for his self-control. Still, it’s reasonable to think he’d understand the enormity of what he’s facing and decide to cool it with the Twitter spats. Much to the chagrin of Pence and others, I’m sure; Trump went all in on Twitter over what happened. Early Saturday morning, Trump tweeted the following:

Our wonderful future V.P. Mike Pence was harassed last night at the theater by the cast of Hamilton, cameras blazing.This should not happen!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016

Shortly after that, this one followed:

The Theater must always be a safe and special place.The cast of Hamilton was very rude last night to a very good man, Mike Pence. Apologize!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 19, 2016

Instead of a story that ends with the audience and cast of ‘Hamilton’ looking like petulant children, President-Elect Trump extended the story through the weekend and likely into next week.

This is standard Trump pablum, but naturally, people are falling over themselves to reach the fainting couch first. Brian Stelter of CNN tweeted the following:

“Harassed” by “the cast of Hamilton.”

“This should not happen!”

THIS is why people fear that Trump will trample on free speech. https://t.co/P9aW8y4CGc

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) November 19, 2016

Relax, Brian. Nobody is going to be running you off ‘Reliable Sources.’ Trump’s tweets are not a threat to free speech at all and if people are going to get up in arms over harmless comments directed at the cast of ‘Hamilton,’ then it is going to be a very long four years.

The real problem (for anybody that wants to climb down from their freedom soapbox) is Trump had the opportunity to do one of two things. One, say nothing. Do what Mike Pence did which was to keep quiet and go about the day. Two, Trump could have gone the high road while at the same time, defend his running mate. The latter scenario requires some careful thought, and Donald Trump simply cannot be bothered with such trivialities.

That leaves Trump in a bind. While it is an overreaction to think he’s going to start putting people in gulags for speaking out against him, it is not overreacting to say he is the one that looks petulant, playing the role of the schoolyard bully instead of the Commander-in-Chief.

Trump promised to bring people together during his victory speech on election night. That is going to require not lashing out on Twitter at people over every perceived slight. During the campaign, Trump had a license to get into Twitter wars. He was the underdog.

But now, Trump is expected to lead. 

Maybe Trump thinks that since he is still only President-Elect, he’s not concerned about the responsibilities of being President until he takes the oath of office. If that’s the case, we have two more month’s of Trump’s tweets to read. Hopefully, just like Kellanne Conway did with the campaign, somebody can step in and talk sense into Trump about the seriousness of the office and keep him from venting on Twitter.

It won’t take long to see where this goes.

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