Trump Doesn't Feel Your Pain

Yesterday afternoon, Donald Trump held a "listening session" on gun violence in schools, during which he had some great ideas, like arming teachers "and other school employees so they can react before law enforcement arrives."

During the event, Washington Post photographer Ricky Carioti took a photo of the notes Trump was holding in his hand:

President Donald Trump holds notes during a White House listening session with students and parents affected by school shootings. (AP Photo by Carolyn Kaster) pic.twitter.com/Z0lZbSVaoF

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) February 21, 2018

On the content of Trump's notes, the WaPo's Aaron Blake writes:

Yep, right there at No. 5 is a talking point about telling those present that he was actually listening to them. After what appear to be four questions he planned to ask those assembled, No. 5 is an apparent reminder for Trump to tell people, "I hear you."

Even No. 1 is basically a reminder that Trump should empathize. "What would you most want me to know about your experience?" the card reads. So two-fifths of this card is dedicated to making sure the president of the United States assured those assembled that he was interested in what they had to say and their vantage points.

That's at once pretty striking for a president and not at all striking for Trump. Through tragedy after tragedy, empathy has been the quality clearly missing from Trump's reactions. He has focused on first-responders rather than victims. He has joked around when he probably should have been somber. He has attacked a political leader who wasn't appreciative enough.

And, as I extensively documented at Shareblue and BNR, Trump has routinely greeted acts of public violence with ghoulish touchdown dances, prioritizing crowing about how he's "right" to hold bigoted views over expressing sympathy for victims.

"Through it all," writes Blake, "it's been clear that expressing that he feels others' pain just isn't his strength."

That's a polite way of putting it.

There are a whole lot of reasons that Donald Trump is unfit to be president. Chief among them is his appalling lack of even the merest traces of empathy.