President Trump’s Partisan Boy Scouts Speech Met With Fierce Blowback

Oscar-winning filmmaker Michael Moore joined a growing chorus of criticism against President Trump’s campaign-style speech at the National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia Monday, saying it amounts to “child abuse on a massive scale.” Moore said in an overnight Facebook rant that Trump used “30,000 Boy Scouts tonight as props in his own Triumph of the Will.”

“He called for their loyalty as he screamed one lie after another at them,” Moore, an Eagle Scout during his youth in Flint, Michigan, wrote. “He paused for them to cheer, and they did. Child abuse on a mass scale.”

Parents and former Scouts also blasted Trump on social media for violating one of the founding tenets of the Boy Scouts of America organization: that its mission for service is above partisan politics. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Flint Patch, click here to find your local Michigan Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Despite an opening promise to “put aside all policy fights in Washington, D.C.,” Trump peppered his speech to the Boy Scouts with perceived slights to his presidency by the “fake news” media, which he joked would underestimate the size of the crowd that “looks like about 45,000 people” and “report it at about 200.”

The promise to rise above the political fray didn’t last long.

“You know, I go to Washington and I see all these politicians, and I see the swamp. And it’s not a good place,” Trump said. “In fact today I said we ought to change it from the word swamp to the word cesspool or, perhaps, to the word sewer.”

He talked about Tuesday’s expected vote on repeal of the Affordable Care Act, and the Boy Scouts cheered. He recalled “that incredible night with the maps and the Republicans are red and the Democrats are blue, and that map was so red, it was unbelievable, and they didn't know what to say,” and the Boy Scouts cheered.

Chants of “USA! USA! USA!” were interspersed throughout the 38-minute speech. References to Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama elicited boos.

Reaction came swiftly on Twitter. Former Scout leader Chris Murphy said the speech was “downright icky.” Former Scout Ted Genoways tweeted that he was “taught never to make our service about politics.” Eagle Scout parent Deb Bakes said she was “horrified” to see the organization politicized.

Eagle Scout Scott Presler said he was “thrilled” the president spoke at the Scout Jamboree.

In a statement Monday, the Boy Scouts reiterated it is a non-partisan organization.

“The Boy Scouts of America is wholly non-partisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy. The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition and is in no way an endorsement of any political party or specific policies,” the organization said. “The sitting U.S. President serves as the BSA’s honorary president. It is our long-standing custom to invite the U.S. President to the National Jamboree.”

President Obama didn’t attend personally during his eight years in office but did record a video message for the 2010 National Jamboree observing the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts. In it, he recalled the history of the Boy Scouts and the organization’s service to the United States.

Watch Trump's speech:

Moore seemed to announce in the post that he has decided to run for president. “When I defeat him in 2020, my first order of business before any sort of plea bargaining negotiations with his attorneys will be for him to issue an apology to all of these children and to admit to them he told them numerous lies. Let's Take Back America from this dangerous, sick clown. It was, after all, already ours to begin with.”

Here are more tweets:

Image: Whitehouse.gov video