“A little learning is a dangerous thing.” Alexander Pope obviously never knew Donald Trump when he wrote this famous quote in his poem “An Essay on Criticism” in the early Eighteenth Century, but he was obviously familiar with the type of person who is currently residing in what’s-left-of-the-White House.

President Trump did it again today. In a meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, Trump was questioned by a Japanese reporter about why he hadn’t given our allies a heads up about our attacking Iran. His response was that we “went in very hard” and that we “wanted surprise.” Of course, he was enjoying his clever choice of the word “surprise” as he was alluding to Japan’s surprise attack of Pearl Harbor. And he wondered out loud why Japan hadn’t given him a heads up about that attack that took us into WWII. That was an absurd notion since he wouldn’t be born until four and one-half years after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

Equally absurd is the fact that his historical analogy is ominously stupid. He’s likening his surprise attack of Iran to Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, a “date which will live in infamy,” according to then-President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The self-described “very stable genius” with the closely-guarded scholastic records seems to be unaware of “the rest of the story” as Paul Harvey used to enlighten his listeners. Spoiler alert! The country guilty of the unprovoked, surprise attack wound up on the receiving end of two atomic bombs. The President likely has never heard of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and he definitely would not want to attempt pronouncing them with his diminished speaking capacity.

As warped as are his sense of right and wrong, his impulse control, his sense of responsibility to the American citizenry, etc., is his sense of humor. The guy is an embarrassment for our country, and more Republicans than Joe Kent have to wake up to that fact. Invoke the Twenty-fifth Amendment.

Keith R. Klawitter

Morgan