New York Times Columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner Tom Friedman has been a globalist activist and thought leader of the left for nearly 40 years. He has become increasingly progressive and partisan, but now he’s reached the point where he’s resorted to calling a man elected as president and supported by 62 million Americans as “a demented man.”

Yes, he actually said this. Friday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” Friedman also said, “We have a disturbed man as president. That’s very clear.”  Whaat?  No, Tom, a reasonable person can see it’s your mental issues that you have clearly exposed here. This sort of slander and name-calling should be beneath someone at your level. Obviously it’s not. Friedman has morphed into just another left wing political hack. But as we increasingly see from all across the landscape of the progressive left, there is little trace left of decency and objective fairness among the left anywhere.

At least half of America recognizes that in President Donald J. Trump what we really have is a true patriot, a man who has sacrificed a great deal of his own wealth, who works without a salary, who has been insulted and slandered well beyond any sense of fairness, a man who has been under daily attack by the Deep State and the left since his inauguration, who is trying to save our country from the ravages of far left liberal group think and the unbelievable hypocrisy that Friedman now sadly represents and supports.

In fact, Friedman’s latest musings make it clear the level of left wing hypocrisy has now moved well beyond delusional. We have to wonder how such a seemingly intelligent, well-connected and well-traveled guy can be so totally out of touch that he can’t even see how ridiculous his own comments are.

“What worries me now is we’re threatening our institutions.”  Whaat? This presumably refers to some unspecified actions by Trump. Well, Tom, you’re almost right, but not in the way you mean it. Some of America’s most revered institutions were broken if not shattered by the Obama presidency. The challenge to our institutions has for some time been well beyond just threatening. 

How is it that Friedman somehow failed to notice or at least mention how President Barack Obama and his minions thoroughly corrupted the IRS, the FBI, the Justice Department and the CIA? During the Obama administration, conservatives and conservative groups were under constant threat and harassment by the IRS and Lois Lerner who has never been charged with any crimes. The damage to the international reputation of the FBI caused by the blatantly unethical and probably illegal actions of disgraced James Comey, Peter Strzok, Lisa Page, Bruce Ohr, Andrew McCabe and Robert Mueller will take years to cure. Meanwhile, Obama’s Justice Department under Attorneys General Eric Holder and Loretta Lynch was almost certainly the most cynical and political in our history. John Brennan, with his pro-Muslim agenda and his role in the FISA warrant scandals damaged the CIA in ways that are tough to calibrate.

The so-called investigation of Special Counsel Robert Mueller into alleged collusion by the Trump campaign with Russia is beyond ridiculous.  Start with the fact that the criminal investigation of alleged “collusion” was launched despite the fact political collusion is not a crime. The entire Mueller investigation is built on a fraudulent premise. But even after two years of “investigation,” which has ignored the apparent crimes of Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others while ruining the lives of several men who had been associated with Trump, nothing has been found against Trump. The primary result so far has been to destroy the confidence that millions of Americans have in our justice system. Again, it will take years to overcome this.

Somehow Friedman can’t grasp that the emperor has no clothes. “Look, what he (Trump) did describing the judges as Bush judges and Obama judges. Thank God John Roberts said, there aren’t Obama judges and Bush judges. They’re just judges.”  Whaat? If that’s the case, why is the left in an obvious panic over the frailties and health issues of 85-year-old Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg? If she dies in the near future she is likely to be replaced by a third justice nominated by President Trump. Look at the circus created by the Democrats over the nomination of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, one of our finest and most decent Americans. He and his family were threatened and slandered well beyond any sense of shame or ethics by the left.  If judges are just judges, what was that all about?

Nevertheless, Friedman was on a roll. “Look what he (Trump) has been doing with the military.” Whaat? Tom, if you haven’t noticed, Trump has supported and worked aggressively to strengthen our military that was seriously crippled during the Obama years. I can only assume Friedman was making an obscure reference to the departure of Defense Secretary James Mattis, a revered and highly accomplished Marine Corps general. Remember when President Harry Truman fired General Douglas McArthur?  Presidents and generals sometimes disagree. In our form of government, the president is the commander-in-chief. As he did when he moved our embassy to Jerusalem, Trump fulfilled a promise he made to the American people, in this case to get our troops out of Syria, a dangerous war zone where ultimately they were in a high-risk situation with little possible gain or benefit for the United States.

“These are our institutions,” Friedman continued. “What makes us unique as a country is that we have a judiciary, we have a non-partisan military, we have a true state, not some nefarious deep state. Whaat?  Is Friedman not paying attention to what has gone on for the past two years or is he just another cynical part of the left wing media cover-up? The vicious and disgusting uninterrupted assault on Trump and the Trump presidency from day one by people at the highest levels of our government has been thoroughly documented. Hello, Tom. This is the Deep State, resisting at multiple government levels together with allies in the media and the judiciary everything that Trump has done or tried to do simply because they lost an election or just don’t like him. Fashion magazines even refuse to put our beautiful first lady on the cover of their publications. It was the excesses of the Obama administration’s heavy handedness and damage to our institutions that led to the Trump revolution and his election. How can Friedman not see that?

“The biggest crisis we have right now is in the Oval Office. We have a president who does not appreciate the institutions that make our country unique,” Friedman said. Whaat? It’s precisely because President Trump understands and honors what makes our country great and unique that drives Trump and motivates him. It’s also the reason he was elected. The Obama, Clinton, Kerry administration pushed us closer than ever into a third world banana republic style of government that featured lying, racism and some of the most cynical levels of behavior our country has ever seen. Think of the multi-billion dollar payoff to the Iranian mullahs. Think of Obamacare that promised Americans they could keep their doctor and plan and their insurance rates would go down. Think of the approaches made to the Muslim Brotherhood by Obama. Think of the lies and cover-up of the Benghazi debacle that resulted in the deaths of four Americans including an ambassador. Think of the millions of unborn slaughtered by those on the Planned Parenthood payroll. Think of Obama’s blatant racism displayed in the cases of Henry Louis Gates, Trayvon Martin, Freddie Gray and Michael Brown.

“The world envies those institutions. They want to be in a place that has those kinds of institutions. That’s precisely what this president is attacking. That’s a threat.” Whaat?  Tom, that’s miles beyond ridiculous. Illegal immigrants want to be in a place where they are immediately fed, housed and given medical treatment well beyond what they can expect to get in their native countries.  If they are able to get in front of a judge, they are quickly released and make their way into our country generally permanently. Apparently Friedman hasn’t heard about the criminals, drug runners, gang members, rapists and possibly terrorists flooding the border on a daily basis in direct challenge to American law and the safety of ordinary Americans thereby insulting legal immigrants and thousands around the world waiting to come to America legally. Sadly, illegal aliens have been responsible for the deaths of and damage to thousands of Americans. What kind of institutions permit that?

Envy? Whaat? Ask the heads of state in China, Japan, Austria, Poland, Hungary and other European countries threatened with floods of illegal immigrants about their envy of our open borders.

Finally, Friedman can’t resist at taking a shot at Republicans all across the country. “It’s really sad. This is a party that has simply laid down for a demented man. They have been laying down for anyone who would energize their base, going back to Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, and now it’s Trump.”  Sorry Tom, good Americans are not buying this drivel. We Republicans are behind Trump’s efforts to Make America Great Again. Your comments make it clear the only dementia showing is yours.

Frank Hawkins is a former U.S. Army intelligence officer, Associated Press foreign correspondent, international businessman, senior newspaper company executive, founder and owner of several marketing companies and published novelist.  He currently lives in retirement in North Carolina.