On days like this, the reality of Trump seems especially stark

“It goes without saying.” . . . People use that phrase when they’re about to state something everyone within earshot knows. Or they might start a sentence with, “Needless to say,” which bears the same meaning. Usually, one word will do: “Clearly,” for instance, is a common starter. “Obviously” is the most direct way of saying that the following statement is self-evident, widely acknowledged and commonly understood.

As in:

Obviously, President Trump had no intention of attending the funeral for former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark. 

Former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris joined more than 1,000 mourners at the Basilica of St. Mary in Minneapolis. But Trump didn’t make the trip.

It goes without saying that the current president of the United States is a soulless man who likely detests funerals because they’re never about him, and he would rather be somewhere else on a Saturday, probably on a golf course. 

Needless to say, Trump is so stridently partisan that he was not about to attend a funeral for a Democrat, even if she was the victim of an assassination. Trump survived an assassination attempt last summer. Because of that, you’d be tempted to think he felt a connection with the Hortman family. Maybe, at some point, he experienced a there-but-for-the-grace-of-god moment and wanted to staunch a trickle of survivor’s guilt by paying his respects in Minneapolis. Maybe, for one day, he felt compelled to step into the role of mourner-in-chief, offer remarks at the funeral and ask the nation to pray for an end to political violence.

But, clearly, Trump is incapable of that. Empathy is not in his bones, sympathy a foreign emotion.

And we all know this about Trump, don’t we? We have no expectations that, at any time, he would use the authority of the presidency to reach out, as so many presidents have done, to help a family, a state, a nation heal from a tragedy. Pardon me for stating the obvious. On days like this, the reality of Trump seems especially stark.