To paraphrase a famous line from the filmography of one of our president’s least favorite people, Donald Trump can’t handle the truth — about the country, the Constitution or himself.

If he studied history, the current leader of the free world would discover that the truth will out, and eventual judgment is harsh for those who tried to bend the world to their will, to erase history instead of learning from it.

Ultimately, cruel strongmen end up looking very weak indeed.

However, until the truth comes back to bite them, they can do a lot of damage. And, unfortunately, what Trump can’t handle, he tries to control with the power he now wields, backed by compliant sycophants in the halls of Congress and across powerful institutions.

Using “alternative facts,” Trump has created his own truth, with January providing the perfect opportunity for maximum outrage. He and his followers started the year trying to cast the violent mob that attacked law enforcement and stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as “patriots.”

How else could he rationalize pardoning criminals while calling himself the law-and-order president?

Though Trump fancies himself an original thinker, in his recent transgressive tirade attacking the progress that the civil rights movement ushered in, the man who has shown he is interested in leading only selected Americans didn’t say anything that hasn’t been said before.

But that doesn’t matter if he says it loud enough for his supporters to get the message.

Trump leaned on the tired rhetoric of the insecure that surfaces every time privilege is threatened. Plus, he got to mark the upcoming Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day by trying to grab attention from a legacy he could only dream of earning.

It’s sad how much the president is obsessed with the assassinated civil rights leader, removing the........

© Roll Call