Trump exploits 9/11 for crass self-promotion

Donald Trump has an extensive record of making inappropriate and self-serving remarks about terrorist attacks, and his tone-deaf comments in a recent interview with The Associated Press was no exception.

In one of the more shocking moments of the interview, which was full of shocking moments, Trump used the attacks of 9/11 as a yardstick for ratings success as a television news guest:

AP: And that’s one of the difficulties I think presidents have had is that you can have these personal relationships with people from the other party, but then it’s hard to actually change how people vote or change how people —

TRUMP: No I have, it’s interesting, I have, seem to get very high ratings. I definitely. You know Chris Wallace had 9.2 million people, it’s the highest in the history of the show. I have all the ratings for all those morning shows. When I go, they go double, triple. Chris Wallace, look back during the Army-Navy football game, I did his show that morning.

AP: I remember, right.

TRUMP: It had 9.2 million people. It’s the highest they’ve ever had. On any, on air, (CBS “Face the Nation” host John) Dickerson had 5.2 million people. It’s the highest for “Face the Nation” or as I call it, “Deface the Nation.” It’s the highest for “Deface the Nation” since the World Trade Center. Since the World Trade Center came down. It’s a tremendous advantage.

Trump’s remark came just before met with a serviceman who was wounded in Afghanistan and offered his “congratulations” for receiving a Purple Heart.

This is this not the first time Trump has invoked 9/11 to brag about himself. Here he is, mere hours after the collapse of the World Trade Center, noting that the tragedy bumped his property at 40 Wall Street up in the tallest building rankings:

TRUMP: 40 Wall Street actually was the second tallest building in downtown Manhattan, and it was actually, before the World Trade Center, was the tallest, and then, when they built the World Trade Center, it became known as the second tallest. And now it’s the tallest.

No, the context does not make it better.

Trump’s exploitation of the 9/11 tragedy to brag about his success in TV ratings was another all too common demonstration of his unfitness for office and utter lack of decency.