At the end of May, U.S. President Donald Trump visited a ventilator factory in Michigan. This was one of the few times he was seen wearing a mask, but only because it was a requirement imposed by the company management.
With his usual verbal inconsistancy, he said he felt like "The Lone Ranger" -- a fictional character who fought outlaws in the American Old West.
By the way, the Lone Ranger was always accompanied by an indigenous sidekick named "Tonto" -- a distinctive feature of racism, although they changed the name to “Toro” in the Spanish version as a futile attempt to avoid hurting someone’s feelings ("Tonto" is "Stupid" in English).
There’s no certainty that Trump has ever read comic books or has seen the infamous television series or the movies made about that story. Probably not, because he would know that the main character wore a mask to hide his identity that covered his eyes, instead of a mask over his nose and mouth, as the legendary bank robber Jesse James did.
However, there was some truth in the statement, not for the Ranger as such, but for the meaning of loneliness -- a condition in which the controversial political figure is increasingly finding himself, even among many leaders of the Republican Party.
We know about the Lincoln Project and the Never Trump movement, but there are many more examples. Almost one hundred government officials who served in the administration of former President George W. Bush expressed their discontent towards Donald Trump and declared that they will not vote for him next November.
Furthermore, the influential American politician and retired four-star general in the U.S. Army, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Secretary of State, General Collin Powell, said he will vote for Joe Biden.
Also Trump’s former Secretary of Defense General James Mattis sharply criticized the president’s threat to send in army troops to suppress the protests against racism and police brutality. Mattis said: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people, doesn't even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us”
Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski entirely supported these statements. The tendency to oppose Trump’s ideas may increase, not only because of his natural arrogance, but also because many senators, representatives and other elected officials see him as bad company.
On November 3rd, apart from electing a president and vice president, they will also vote for 435 members of the House of Representatives and one-third of the 100 senators. As a whole, 220 Republican seats will be at stake that day and many of them no longer see the president as an ally,
but as a potencial danger.
It is highly likely, then, that in the coming months, the president will truly see himself as the “Lone Ranger” -- either with or without a mask.
