Donald Trump’s Olympian lunges merit fool’s gold

“I love Paris in the summer when it sizzles.”

So wrote Cole Porter in 1953. This week and last, athletes from around the world are writing their own music as they sizzle with talent, athleticism and good sportsmanship — with a notable exception or two — as the 2024 Olympic Games are played out for the entire world to witness, to cheer for, to marvel at and to enjoy.

I, like millions of Americans, have always enjoyed the Olympics. They give us an opportunity to cheer for the incredible personal stories of achievement both on and off the field of these young people who give all they have to their sport and their country.

And, in the end, it doesn’t hurt that the United States more often than not leads the world in the medals race. It is also heartwarming when a small country from out of nowhere unexpectedly wins a medal and the respect of the world.

To me, that’s how life should be.

We work hard, play by the rules and achieve based on merit. Even if that doesn’t happen all the time it is nonetheless a worthy goal. One might say, to put it in terms Americans should understand, the Olympics show us how to pursue a more perfect world.

So, why in the middle of what should be a time to enjoy good sportsmanship and great sportsmen — and women — do we have to be interrupted by the continued ugliness of bad actors?

I refer, of course, to the bad sport-in-chief, Donald Trump.

Why can’t he run a political race without demeaning the race of his opponent?

Yes, telling an audience of Black journalists that he isn’t sure whether Kamala Harris is Black or Indian — thereby proclaiming his ignorance about race and ethnicity in one stupid sentence — is not only ugly politics but also unsportsmanlike conduct. Forget the American voters, even the Russian judges would score him at or near zero for that ridiculous effort.

And why can’t he play by the rules of a democracy — which demand that elections be held for the presidency every four years — instead of pleading with Christians to place their faith in him so they don’t have to vote ever again after they elect him?

In case you missed it, Trump told people of the Christian faith that if they vote for him in November, they never have to vote again because he will “fix it,” meaning the United States. What that also says is after he “fixes it,” he may never let them vote again!

He isn’t running for president with that statement. He wants Christians to put their faith in him — just this one last time. As if he were running for God!

You see what I mean ?

It is almost as if at the height of the Olympic Games and all the good for which they stand, we have to witness the flailing about of a man and his movement who may be faltering in the stretch before our very eyes.

Is that really too much to wish for?

To love Paris when it sizzles and the fall of MAGA as it fizzles?

Brian Greenspun is editor, publisher and owner of the Sun.