Category: Commentary

With my daughter and her two daughters, I attended the Christmas Eve service and carol singing at the Congregational Church in Wellfleet, Massachusetts.  The church was founded in 1721.  Listening to the Gospel readings on the birth of the baby Jesus and singing the old familiar carols, I found my mind spontaneously unfolding in a new direction, most likely responding to reactions on our new world order of wars – combat and trade – and more craven submission to the will of the strong and the domineering.

The message of Christmas Eve presented to us was most traditional, in keeping with my memories of Unitarian Christmas Eve services in decades past: God sent Jesus to be our savior; God’s word was thus made flesh; his will was incarnated in human form.  Our role in the service and in life – like that of the shepherds invited by the angels to go and worship the newborn babe and the wise men delegated to bringing him incense and myrrh – was to celebrate Jesus’ power, goodness and glory.

Part of me started to ask: how will Christ bring peace to Ukraine and Gaza?

Is that his job or is it ours?

After all, we have agency.  After all, our flesh is not forbidden from internalizing the Word of God and also making it present in our human form.

In his grace, the God of Jesus has also enabled us to receive his gift in ourselves.  With our power, our grace, we can be the peacemakers.  We can accept, at any time, responsibility and act. God is waiting for us to step up.  He has made it possible for us to make things right.

Something of God has been incarnated in each of us – but can we find that within ourselves?

The Christmas carols affirmed: “So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven; Christ enter in and be born in us this day” (“O Little Town of Bethlehem”); “Let every heart prepare him room” (“Joy to the World”).

As Rabbi Hillel asked: “If not us, then who?”

Christianity is not alone in its expectations that we, ourselves, must serve and do what is right.

The Buddha taught us to keep to the middle path and be righteous.  His Noble Eightfold Path, open to us at any time upon our opening ourselves up to possibility, is: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness and right concentration.

Qur’an reveals that each of us was born invested with the breath of God in order that we serve as his khalifa – steward – in his creation.  As God is merciful and compassionate, so too are we made also to be merciful and compassionate.

Confucius was certain that, “To see what is right and not to do it is want of courage.”  He added that, “A person with inner quality thinks of virtue; the small-minded person thinks of selfish advantage.”

Singer Bonnie Raitt put it this way in one of her songs:

You step out on the track in the pourin’ rain.
And when you get run over, well, you blame the train.
… And don’t you think that you had enough?  Ain’t it time to get a different view?
Can’t just wait around for what you want, it’s all about the way you choose.
Ain’t nobody else that can make things right.
Baby, it’s down to you.

So, please celebrate not just the story of the baby Jesus, but your story – the story of your grace bestowed upon you to make this a better world, the good news of how you will employ your goodwill to bring about more peace on this earth.

Sincerely yours and Happy New Year,

A few days ago, I listened to President Trump’s speech to the American people.  I thought he was trying too hard to make a sale.

I then reflected, but only very briefly, on the Caux Round table’s advocacy of “discourse” as a fundamental moral parameter for good public governance.  With Trump’s speech in mind, I wondered if we need to add to our recommendation more definition.  Just what is moral discourse?

As a child, I heard the common American saying, “There’s a sucker born every minute” or “There’s one born every minute.”  In junior high school, I think, I first read Mark Twain’s allegorical novel about Americans – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  I took it as a call to be self-reliant and curious, but also as a warning to always be on your guard.

The novel has Huck Finn and his friend, Jim, run into two traveling salesmen, who it quickly becomes clear are con men profiting from duping the kind and the decent – but gullible – among us.

One presents himself and performs as the king of France, the pretender to the throne and his sidekick passes himself off as the duke of Bridgewater.  The king is persuasive, smooth-talking and opportunistic.  He sells The Royal Nonesuch (a fake theatrical performance which will come to town) and the Wilks inheritance, where he pretends to be an English heir selling a false claim to an estate.

Twain uses these satirical fictional characters to expose gullibility, greed and moral blindness on the part of naïve and well-intentioned, small-town and provincial Americans.

In real life, there was P.T. Barnum, who ran a traveling circus going from town to town making money by selling entertaining acts and the chance to see unusual animals.  He is remembered for advising: “Nobody ever lost a dollar by underestimating the taste of the American public” and “No one in this world…has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”

In the December 19 edition of the Wall Street Journal, Joseph Eptsein published his assessment of Donald Trump as very much in this American tradition of traveling salesmen, who might be just con men.  Epstein’s take on Trump is that he is a slick salesman with big claims and few deliverables.

Here are excerpts from Epstein’s essay:

President Trump’s recent commercials for Trump wristwatches have caught my attention.  In one commercial, three watches are shown, one with a red face between the other two.  All three have the name Trump on them.  Mr. Trump wears the red-faced watch and urges us to buy one, which, along with putting money in his pocket, would show support for him and his movement.

I don’t know for certain if a president’s selling his own merchandise is unprecedented, but it strikes me as extraordinary.  A billionaire, he surely doesn’t need the money.  What I suspect he does need is the action.  A real estate man, builder though he has been, he is also a salesman.  My guess is that it’s through selling, closing the deal, that he gets his true kicks.

Mr. Trump seems to me a particular kind of salesman – the kind once known as a “borax man.” In the Chicago of my youth, a borax man was an especially slick salesman, aggressive and relentless, usually specializing in home-improvement products.  These improvements didn’t improve anywhere near so thoroughly as the borax man promised.  The term derives from the white crystalline powder used in cleaning, soldering, glass making and in pesticides, which in centuries past was sold as a cure-all.  Soon it came to mean tawdry and second-class goods. …

Mr. Trump has been called a fascist, an authoritarian, a dictator and more.  None of these terms has seemed to me anywhere near a good fit.  All are too elevated.  Mr. Trump, not the most learned of men, may never have even heard of some of these words before he was called them.  A borax man seems a finer, near-perfect fit.

As a borax man, Donald Trump is attempting to sell the greatest of all products: the promise to return America to its former greatness.  Like all borax men, he doesn’t really deliver the product.…

Like the good borax man that he is, Mr. Trump is always congratulating himself, telling Americans about all the good things he has done for them – with lots more on the way.  My father used to say that a salesman first has to sell himself.  Mr. Trump attempts to do this, hiring only cabinet members who will flatter him, over and over again telling us of all the wars he’s stopped, the economic growth he’s caused, the crime he’s prevented.  Boraxian.

I find it helpful to think of our president as a slick and aggressive salesman.  His modus operandi generally is better understood when he is so considered.  His claims are more easily examined and, often necessarily, refuted when understood as coming from a high-pressure salesman.  Doing so also clears away, at least for me, any remaining aspects of Trump derangement syndrome.  I intend to view him as the ultimate borax man for the remainder of his time in office and I invite you to do likewise.

The misuse of taxpayer’s money, a form of theft, by many in the Somali community and others who masterminded fraudulent diversions of public funds, is a Minnesota governance scandal and abuse of private power.  Guilt belongs on those who wrongfully diverted the public monies and those in government who stood by in silence and apathy while the theft continued.

A moral question has been raised, asking if it is uncalled for racism or malign bias, based on nationality or religion, to ask that culpable immigrants be called to public account for their actions?

If those asked to account for their behavior in the misuse of public funds are Somali Muslims, the answer is clear: such theft violated Qur’anic standards for righteous conduct on the part of faithful Muslims.

First, let’s consider the Qur’anic prohibition of “corruption.”

“Do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly, nor use it to bribe authorities to sinfully consume part of others’ wealth.” (2:188)

“O you who have believed, be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah.” (4:135)

“Allah does not love those who spread corruption (2:205) and promises severe retribution for the unjust.” (2:279)

“Who break the covenant of Allah after contracting it and sever that which Allah has ordered to be joined and cause corruption on earth.  It is those who are the losers.” (2:27)

“O you who have believed, do not consume one another’s wealth unjustly, but only [in lawful] business by mutual consent.” (4:29)

“Give just measure and defraud none … do not cheat your fellow men of what is rightly theirs; nor shall you corrupt the land with evil.” (26:183)

In the Qur’an, the word usually translated as “corruption” is fasād, which comes from a root word meaning to spoil, ruin, decay, become disordered, go bad or act wickedly.  Depending on context, fasād can refer to: moral corruption – wrongdoing, injustice, oppression, spreading vice; social and political disorder – destabilizing society, rebellion, civil strife, breaking public order. Environmental destruction – harming the earth, wasting resources, causing ecological imbalance; economic injustice – cheating, fraud, usury, exploitation.

Thus, in the Qur’an, “corruption” (fasād) is a comprehensive term meaning: any act that damages moral integrity, social harmony, justice or the natural world.  Those who commit fasād, no matter their race, ethnicity or gender, are culpable of wrongdoing and may be justifiably called out in public to account for their transgressions.  If they are Muslim, their claim that others owe them acquiescence with regard to their wrongdoing is absurd.

The Qur’anic standard of rectitude derives from Abrahamic religious values.  Thus, the Ten Commandments demand that “thou shall not steal.”  Jesus said: “You know the commandments: You shall not murder; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal…” (Mark 10:19 (cf. Matthew 19:18)  “Take care!  Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.” (Luke 12:15)  “For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: theft, murder, adultery…” (Mark 7:21–23)

Secular American law has always criminalized theft.

Thus, Qur’anic guidance for Somali Muslim immigrants to America largely tracks American standards of virtue, making it quite easy for Somali immigrants to assimilate to traditional American standards of justice and fairplay, even though those standards were originally more Christian and secular than Islamic.

In addition, Qur’an records that Allah created all human persons – men and women equally – to be his stewards in creation – khalifa.  Thus, from a Muslim standpoint, every person born has fiduciary responsibilities to do right in benefiting God’s creation, just as God has instructed.

Those who steal, commit fraud and/or pervert the laws and the course of justice are not stewards, but rather self-seeking abusers of their God-given powers and talents.

For me, it is the solemn responsibility of Somali imams to conscientiously instruct their community in the correct behaviors expected of khalifas, just as I expect rabbis, Catholic priests and Protestant pastors to instruct those of their respective religions in the teachings of the Ten Commandments and Jesus.

There is a worrisome quality about Donald Trump’s temperament which is drawing attention.  To me, his incivility is also driving his new, isolationist, beggar-thy-neighbor national security strategy, as I argue here.

In concordance with the World Bank’s “World Development Report 2015: Mind, Society and Behavior” on the foundation for economic wealth creation lying in social and human capitals, the Caux Round Table has been advocating a wholistic approach to enhancement of global standards of living – start with human and social capitals – living out values and ethics, if you will – in order to build financial and economic capitals – property derived from the wise use of life and liberty.

The U.S., in recent decades, may have turned off the road leading to future social and economic happiness by not developing human and social capitals for its citizens and its economy.

Former Senator Ben Sasse made this damning assessment of public education, at least in California, in the Wall Street Journal.

I read these comments with alarm:

The number of freshmen entering the University of California San Diego (USCD) whose math skills fall below a high-school level has increased nearly 30-fold over the past five years, according to a shocking new report from the university’s Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions.  Worse still, one in 12 entering freshmen have math skills below middle-school levels.  That means college students might struggle with questions such as this: “7+2=6+__?”  Or this: “Sarah had nine pennies and nine dimes. How many coins did she have in all?”

The UCSD revelation likely means the U.S. has millions of recent high school graduates and 20-somethings who are unprepared to navigate modern work and life and lack the logical problem-solving skills with which algebra has traditionally armed adolescents.

But it gets worse: The students admitted to UCSD were, on average, receiving “A” grades in high school math classes that supposedly built multiple years beyond algebraic and arithmetic foundations.  This was a fraud.  High schools have clearly been inflating grades beyond what many students earned or deserved.  How could schools do such a disservice to taxpayers and more important, to these students?

What now is to be done?

This past weekend, Pope Leo XIV visited Lebanon.  His remarks, to me, captured the grace of concern for others with which the Prophet Muhammad framed his covenants to respect and protect Christians and Jews.  I, myself, perceive a resonance between the Pope’s vision for humanity and of inter-religious dialogue and cooperation and the texts of those historic Islamic covenants, promises given in the name of Allah.

The Caux Round Table, for five years now, has done its best to study carefully, with leadership from our Muslim colleagues, the historicity of the Prophet’s covenants and to then bring the best scholarship on the covenants to wider audiences, especially in Lebanon and in the Vatican.

I quote for you here the relevant thoughts of Pope Leo:

It is in light of this authority that I wish to address to you the words of Jesus that have been chosen as the central theme of my journey: “Blessed are the peacemakers!” (Mt 5:9). …

Your resilience is an essential characteristic of authentic peacemakers, for the work of peace is indeed a continuous starting anew.  Moreover, the commitment and love for peace know no fear in the face of apparent defeat, are not daunted by disappointment, but look ahead, welcoming and embracing all situations with hope.  It takes tenacity to build peace; it takes perseverance to protect and nurture life. …

May you speak just one language, namely the language of hope that, by always starting afresh, draws everyone together.  May the desire to live and grow in unity as a people create a polyphonic voice out of each group. …

This brings us to a second characteristic of peacemakers.  Not only do they know how to start over, but they do so first and foremost along the arduous path of reconciliation.  Indeed, there are personal and collective wounds that take many years, sometimes entire generations, to heal.  If they are not treated, if we do not work, for example, to heal memories, to bring together those who have suffered wrongs and injustice, it is difficult to journey towards peace.  We would remain stuck, each imprisoned by our own pain and our own way of thinking.  The truth, on the other hand, can only be honored through encountering one another.  Each of us sees a part of the truth, knowing one aspect of it, but we cannot negate what only the other knows, what only the other sees.  Truth and reconciliation only ever grow together, whether in a family, between different communities and the various people of a country or between nations. …

At the same time, there can be no lasting reconciliation without a common goal or openness towards a future in which good prevails over the evils that have been suffered or inflicted in the past or the present.  A culture of reconciliation, therefore, does not arise only from below, from the willingness and courage of a few.  It also needs authorities and institutions that recognize the common good as superior to the particular.  The common good is more than the sum of many interests, for it draws together everyone’s goals as closely as possible, directing them in such a way that everyone will have more than if they were to move forward by themselves.  Indeed, peace is much more than a mere balance – which is always precarious – among those who live separately while under the same roof.  Peace is knowing how to live together, in communion, as reconciled people. …

Finally, I would like to outline a third characteristic of those who strive for peace.  Even when it requires sacrifice, peacemakers dare to persevere.

In remarks to a gathering of religious leaders of many faiths, Pope Leo said:

In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Medio Oriente, signed here in Beirut in 2012, Pope Benedict XVI emphasized that “[t]he Church’s universal nature and vocation require that she engage in dialogue with the members of other religions.  In the Middle East, this dialogue is based on the spiritual and historical bonds uniting Christians to Jews and Muslims. It is a dialogue which is not primarily dictated by pragmatic, political or social considerations, but by underlying theological concerns which have to do with faith” (n. 19).  Dear friends, your presence here today, in this remarkable place where minarets and church bell towers stand side by side, yet both reach skyward, testifies to the enduring faith of this land and the steadfast devotion of its people to the one God.  Here in this beloved land, may every bell toll, every adhān, every call to prayer blend into a single, soaring hymn – not only to glorify the merciful Creator of heaven and earth, but also to lift a heartfelt prayer for the divine gift of peace. …

Yet, in the midst of these struggles, a sense of hopefulness and encouragement can be found when we focus on what unites us: our common humanity and our belief in a God of love and mercy.  In an age when coexistence can seem like a distant dream, the people of Lebanon, while embracing different religions, stand as a powerful reminder that fear, distrust and prejudice do not have the final word and that unity, reconciliation and peace are possible.  It is a mission that remains unchanged throughout the history of this beloved land: to bear witness to the enduring truth that Christians, Muslims, Druze and countless others can live together and build a country united by respect and dialogue.

May we all be peacemakers.

Here is another thought experiment about what we can expect from our times as stimulated by Hexagram 53 in the Yijing (Book of Changes).

Free markets have a much-overlooked moral function, perhaps their most important moral function – providing retribution for hubris – unwarranted pride, arrogance and blindness.

In Greek mythology, Nemesis stepped in to correct excessive exploitation of one’s dominion, one’s failure to align with Aristotle’s golden mean, one’s going much too far beyond the square footage of good sense and due care and concern for others.

Consider Icarus, who flew too close to the Sun and so lost his ability to fly.

Consider Narcissus, who, because of his vanity, Nemesis led to a pool where he saw his own reflection, fell in love with it, could not turn his eyes away from the floating image and eventually died alongside the water.

Free markets in crypto currency have just acted as Nemesis to investors in Bitcoin.  Here is the story from the Wall Street Journal:

The crypto market turmoil only intensified this week, with bitcoin shedding more than 10% and over $10,000 in value.  In the 24 hours leading up to Friday morning, more than $2 billion worth of leveraged crypto trades were liquidated, pushing bitcoin below $81,000, according to data from CoinGlass.  The largest cryptocurrency is now on track for its worst monthly performance since June 2022, when the collapse of crypto lender Celsius Network plunged the market into what became known as its crypto winter.

Some traders have said the drop in bitcoin may be forcing some other selling in the traditional markets, which swooned this week.

“Every group chat I’m in, everyone wants to know who blew up,” said Nic Carter, founding partner at Castle Island Ventures.  “You can’t make sense of it all now.  There’s a general malaise with no exact catalyst to say this is why.”

This was supposed to be crypto’s year.  There was a perfect storm of a crypto-loving White House, Wall Street adoption and friendly legislation that put a close to more than a decade of antagonistic U.S. regulation and prosecutions.

In a sense, it worked.  Divisions between traditional and crypto finance seemed to blur.  Portfolio managers are modeling cash flows based on the yields of stablecoins.  BlackRock and Fidelity, among many others, hoovered up bitcoins for ETFs.  Banks like Bank of New York Mellon and JPMorgan Chase wanted to put funds on the blockchain, while digital token companies like Ripple tried to become banks.

“Gateways are being opened every single day,” said President Trump’s son, Eric Trump, who has co-founded two crypto companies.  “This dam is cracking.  The two were becoming one and I think it’s very exciting.”…

“When Trump got elected, we were saying ‘gosh, finally we’re going to get all the institutions, ETF approvals, pretty much all the headlines that we dreamed of in crypto,’” said Santiago Roel Santos, a longtime crypto investor and chief executive of Inversion.  “The market just has not reacted the way that you would have thought.”

Instead, crypto continues to struggle to break free of its reputation as the deranged, foul-mouthed little sibling of Wall Street, too volatile to trust, too entertaining to look away.

Donald Trump is on YouTube saying, “I only care about one thing… will we be number one in crypto?”

Nemesis came for the Trump family too.  According to the November 19 edition of the New York Post:

Trump Media & Technology Group, the crypto and social media company controlled by members of the first family, has seen its stock price plummet to all-time lows – wiping out more than $5 billion in wealth for the Trumps as cryptocurrencies continue their slide.

Shares of Trump Media, which trades under the ticker DJT, have fallen nearly 70% this year – 34.6% of that just the past month, according to Barron’s. …

The family’s holdings, which were worth nearly $6.5 billion at their peak in mid-May 2024, have lost more than $5.3 billion in value since then, according to Barron’s.

The company’s nosedive is tied to a broader meltdown in the crypto market.

Cryptocurrencies have taken a big hit since Trump Media said in August it bought $2 billion worth of Bitcoin.

Bitcoin prices on Tuesday briefly dipped below $90,000 for the first time in months – wiping out the asset’s gains for the year.

Could even the Trumps be narcissists?

If so, Nemesis awaits.

In free markets, the “others” stand in for Nemesis.

As Sartre told us: L’enfer, c’est les autres – “Hell is others.”

Other market players are not docile subordinates waiting for instructions.  They have free will and independent power.  They decide what’s best for themselves.  They need not follow the herd or succumb to trendy delusions about what the future holds.  They set prices with their decisions to buy and sell.  They can foreswear “irrational exuberance” and cause markets to crash.

This is morality in action – consequences imposed for being out of line.

The formation of monopolies and cartels attempts to drive this free-thinking morality from markets by controlling supply or demand and so setting prices.  But such collaborations, in time, also fall prey to Nemesis.  Others – innovators, creative destroyers – find workarounds to devalue what is controlled.

Pride goeth before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. – Proverbs 16:18

Since the Caux Round Table begin its study of the covenants given by the Prophet Muhammad to respect and protect Christians and Jews, I have, from time to time, reported to our community insights and historical facts which have emerged in our study of those covenants and discussions of their contents and what their terms imply for our times today.

Recently, the interim president of Syria, a country long burdened with brutal repression and civil war among its citizens, met with the Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X.  The patriarch showed the president a recension of a covenant given as a work of grace by the Prophet Muhammad to Christians.  The document dates to Ottoman times.

Here is a picture of the two with the recension:

Our colleague, Ahmed El-Wakil, now at Oxford, who has contributed so much to the finding of recensions of the Prophet’s covenants and to our understanding of their terms and of the circumstances in which they were given and received, has sent me the following email about the meeting, which I wish to share with you:

On Sunday, 26 October 2025, Syria’s transitional president, Aḥmad al-Sharaa, visited Greek Orthodox Patriarch John X Yazigi at the patriarchal residence in Damascus – a gesture that carried more than diplomatic weight.  It was his first official visit to a church since taking office and it unfolded as both reassurance and reminder that Syria’s plural identity, frayed by war, still had roots deep enough to hold.

During the meeting, Patriarch Yazigi presented al-Sharaa with a copy of a manuscript of the covenant of the Prophet Muhammad housed at the Monastery of St. George al-Humayra, which promises protection and freedom of worship to Christians.  This particular document was studied by Ibrahim Zein and Ahmed El-Wakil in chapter 3 of their book, The Covenants of the Prophet Muhammad: From Shared Historical Memory to Peaceful Co-existence, who identified it as a copy of the covenant the Prophet gave to the Christians of Najran, whose text was faithfully transmitted until the Ottoman period, to which the manuscript belongs.  By invoking it, Yazigi appealed to a moral memory within Islam itself – one that links faith to justice and protection, not coercion.

Al-Sharaa responded in kind, writing in the patriarchal guest book a verse from the Qur’an describing Christians as “nearest in affection to the believers” and adding in his own words that Damascus is “the cradle of the first coexistence known to humanity.”  His inscription framed coexistence not as political rhetoric, but as a duty inherited from the city’s own past.  The moment thus echoed older gestures of mutual recognition, such as the one embodied in the Najran covenant preserved at the Monastery of St. George al-Humayra before the war.

Seen together, the patriarch’s presentation and the president’s response wove history into hope. They recalled that the idea of a just order in Syria has never rested solely on conquest or power, but on an older moral claim: that peace endures only when protection is shared.

Kind regards,
Ahmed

What are we to make of Donald Trump from the perspective of moral governance?

A couple of weeks ago, lots of Americans – some estimates put their number at 7 million – turned out in crowds to express their animosity towards Trump for his kingly analogy in his style of putting America to right, as he alone sees the right.  Their demand was “No Kings”!

A decision to do away with kings was made by the English House of Commons in 1649 as follows:

And whereas it is and hath been found by experience, that the Office of a King in this Nation and Ireland and to have the power thereof in any single person, is unnecessary, burthensom and dangerous to the liberty, safety and publique interest of the people and that for the most part, use hath been made of the Regal power and prerogative, to oppress and impoverish and enslave the Subject; and that usually and naturally any one person in such power, makes it his interest to incroach upon the just freedom and liberty of the people and to promote the setting up of their own will and power above the Laws, that so they might enslave these Kingdoms to their own Lust; Be it therefore Enacted and Ordained by this present Parliament and by Authority of the same, That the Office of a King in this Nation, shall not henceforth reside in or be exercised by any one single person; and that no one person whatsoever, shall or may have, or hold the Office, Stile, Dignity, Power or Authority of King of the said Kingdoms and Dominions or any of them, or of the Prince of Wales, Any Law, Statute, Usage or Custom to the contrary thereof in any wise notwithstanding.

Now, in somewhat regal fashion, Trump is “Trumpifying” the White House:

The White House is demolishing the entirety of the East Wing to make way for President Trump’s $200 million ballroom, a construction project that is far more extensive than he initially let on, a senior administration official said on Wednesday.

The tear-down should be finished by this weekend, according to the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the plans.

And then he has personal attorneys seeking damages from the federal government to compensate him for losses in defending cases brought against him by the Biden Administration.  If successful, he, himself, might have to decide whether or not to pay himself several hundred million dollars of taxpayer’s money.

President Donald Trump acknowledged to reporters Monday that he’s seeking up to hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation from the federal government for its scuttled investigations and prosecutions of him.

“As far as all of the litigation, everything that’s going to go, yeah, they probably owe me a lot of money,” Trump said when asked about a New York Times report that he’s filed administrative claims seeking $230 million in damages from the Justice Department.

Asked about the $230-million figure, Trump said, “It could be.”

“I don’t know what the numbers” are, Trump said.  “I don’t even talk to them [the lawyers] about it.”

He also said he’d ultimately be the person approving the payout and that, if he granted it, he’d “do something nice” with the money.

“And you know that decision would have to go across my desk and it’s awfully strange to make a decision where I’m paying myself.  In other words, did you ever have one of those cases where you have to decide how much you’re paying yourself in damages?  But I was damaged very greatly and any money that I would get I would give to charity,” he said.

He also said he could give money “to the White House while we restore the White House.”

“We’ll see what happens,” he said.  “I guess they owe me a lot of money.  I’m not looking for money.  I’m looking for really, it’s got to be handled in the proper way.  We don’t want it to happen again,” he said, before adding, “You have to ask the lawyers about that.”

To put Trump in a perspective not widely discussed, we might consider Confucius’ distinction between the Junzi  (君子) – the “lordly one,” the honorable man of good temper and correct behavior and the Xiao jen  (小人) – the “little, small, mean man” who “struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. … a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”

Now, let’s translate Confucius into Trumpese: the lordly one we will call a “winner” and the little man a “loser.”

Confucius proposed that:

See what a man does.  Mark his motives.  Examine in what things he rests.  How can a man conceal his character?

He who acts with a constant view to his own advantage will be much murmured against.

What the winner seeks is in himself; what the loser seeks is in others.

The mind of a winner is conversant with righteousness; the mind of a loser is conversant with gain.

The winner acts before he speaks and afterwards speaks according to his actions.

The winner is not a partisan; the loser is a partisan.

The winner thinks of virtue; the loser thinks of comfort.

The winner is satisfied and composed; the loser is always full of distress.