5 Things President Trump Can Learn From Dr. Seuss

When First Lady Melania Trump regaled a crowd of sick children at a New York hospital with Dr. Seuss verses during National Read Across America Day last week, the presidential metaphor that she wanted to convey was so clear that a first-grader could have picked up on it.

With her copy of the Seuss classic “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!” in hand, the first lady hit her stride at one of the book’s most recognizable lines:

“Fame! You'll be as famous as famous can be, with the whole wide world watching you win on TV.”

But if politically outspoken author Theodor Geisel — better known by his pen name of Dr. Seuss – was alive today, what advice might the beloved scribe have for President Trump?

THE LORAX

The plot: Geisel’s environmentalist tale – which he once called “straight propaganda” – tells the story of the greedy Once-ler, who lets his desire to create a business empire blind him to the fact that he’s poisoning the environment and clear-cutting the land’s trees.

Quote: “I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees.”

Why it’s relevant to Trump: Trump has pledged to revive the coal industry, open federal lands to oil and gas drilling and eliminate the Obama administration’s “harmful and unnecessary” climate action and expanded water pollution rules.

YERTLE THE TURTLE

The plot: A tyrannical, despotic turtle creates a stack of his subjects in order to reach the moon and become ruler of all that he sees. When the stack of turtles eventually collapses, Yertle falls into the mud, ending his reign.

Quote: “I know up on top / You are seeing great sights / But down at the bottom / We, too, should have rights.”

Why it’s relevant to Trump: Human Rights Watch has called Trump a threat to human rights and a “vivid illustration of the politics of intolerance.” After one of the president’s many tirades against the media, former Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain quipped that such talk is “how dictators get started.”

HORTON HEARS A WHO!

The plot: Horton the Elephant discovers a tiny civilization that he vows to protect, despite suffering ridicule and harassment from the other jungle animals. The book has been called “a parable about protecting the rights of minorities and urging ‘big’ people to resist bigotry.”

Quote: “A person’s a person, no matter how small.”

Why it’s relevant to Trump: The president’s controversial executive order banning immigration from several Muslim majority nations inspired waves of national protesters in its wake, many of whom alleged that Trump was violating human rights.

THE SNEETCHES

The plot: An allegory about the general absurdity of racial bigotry – in particular Jewish persecution during World War II - the book chronicles the saga of the “star bellied” Sneetches and their otherwise-identical but starless countryfolk. When a profiteering man named McBean sets the status-seeking Sneetches against each other with a machine that can remove and add stars to their bellies for a cost, the resulting rush of cosmetic surgeries leave the Sneetches unable to differentiate just who had a star to begin with.

Quote: “With their snoots in the air, they’d sniff and they'd snort / ‘We'll have nothing to do with the Plain-Belly sort.’”

Why it’s relevant to Trump: The president should have reread this Seuss classic before sending out a much-criticized Tweet depicting Hillary Clinton with a six-pointed star that many pundits said evoked anti-Semitic stereotypes.

THE BUTTER BATTLE BOOK

The plot: This parable about the dangers of the doomed strategy of "mutually assured destruction" tells the story of the Zooks and the Yooks, each of who live on opposite sides of a great wall. After a constantly escalating battle of military might that parallels the Cold War, the Yooks and the Zooks are left teetering on the edge of annihilation.

Quote: “Everyone cheered and their cheers filled the sky / ‘Fight! Fight for the Butter Side Up! / Do or die!’"

Why it’s relevant to Trump: During his candidacy announcement speech in 2015, Trump famously promised, “I will build a great wall - and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me.” The president’s militaristic “America First” style of foreign policy was lampooned by Geisel decades earlier in several of his political cartoons.

Main Photo: Flickr Commons and Wikimedia Commons

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