For the last eighty years presidents have taken part in the National Boy Scout Jamboree, where they’ve extolled the virtues of citizenship, service and community, and of course staying far away from politics, an area which Donald Trump promised to avoid in his recent address. Naturally politics played the largest part of the all-purpose campaign fest and brag bonanza.
Trump encouraged the 40,000 scouts to boo President Obama, who was a Boy Scout, by asking if the President had ever attended the Jamboree, while Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, standing on stage behind Trump laughed and clapped. In actuality,
Obama addressed the Jamboree via video in 2010 for the organization’s 100th anniversary. It’s a fair bet that Obama presented a well-thought out address in keeping with the spirit of the scouts. When Trump said he would “kill” Obamacare, the healthcare law officially called the Affordable Care Act, scouts in the audience began chanting “U-S-A.”
The unfairness of fake news and other Trump gripes were interspersed with tales of the perks of being wealthy which includes romps with playmates. Clearly in campaign mode – and crazy as a s**house rat, Trump assured the Scouts – regardless of their religious leanings, that “under the Trump administration, you will be saying ‘Merry Christmas’ again,” yippee, a declaration he routinely made on the campaign trail.
Outraged parents many of whom have supported the Scouts for years, have been voicing their outrage, and choosing to part ways with the organization which clearly does not stand for the values it once represented.