Commentary: A friendly walk turned less so when Donald Trump came up in conversation

Over the weekend, I had a walking political conversation with a long-time friend. However, we do not see each other much these days.

I had stopped by his home on my way to my son’s house. He is a physician and well-read person who I would say has high moral integrity.

I was absolutely flummoxed when he told me he voted for President Trump. I tried my best to point out all of Trump’s lies and false promises, but he would have none of it.

There is always the pursuit of false equivalency. Of course, my bringing up the meeting in June 2016 in Trump Tower was out of the question.

He asked me if I believed in Russia’s collusion in the 2016 election. Where was I to go from here?

There was not much for us to agree on, but it was friendly and respectful.

He is going to call me to line up a game of pickle ball.

Meanwhile, Trump’s false promises are being unmasked on many other fronts. Trump was supposed to defy GOP economic orthodoxy by securing a huge infrastructure expenditure — not happening.

He was going to drain the swamp, and now we have Scott Pruitt, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Trump embraced GOP orthodoxy with his huge tax cuts, and even though the market is at an all-time high, it is primarily resulting in stock buybacks, huge corporate payouts and no job-creating investments.

The draconian immigration crackdown is supposedly about protecting U.S. workers from an elite cosmopolitan/globalist plot to import cheap labor, but all it is really producing is the cruelty of more family separations.

Then there is the petulant Trump taking on Canada and snubbing our allies at the G-7. It is so much more likely that tariffs will ultimately hurt workers and the economy. The viral photo at the G-7 was an important moment of deep rot of bad faith and fraudulence at Trump’s core.

Then he says at the nuclear summit what an honor it was to meet Kim Jong Un, a ruthless dictator.

Folks, can’t you see we are being played? So, we’ll see what happens.

DENNY OSBORNE lives in Newport Beach.