When Will Trump Get Serious About Being President?
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During the election I had written that if Trump became president I would respect the office he held, just as I did with George W. Bush, and I would give him a chance which is something the Republicans never gave President Obama.
That, however, is becoming more of a challenge and I would love to wait until he actually gets into office before I make judgements. Unlike most president-elects Trump has chosen to continue to act like a teenager with his twitter account and his endless criticism of individuals and businesses. It’s as if he has a personal vendetta against them. If he continues this while president, it will not sit well with a lot of people.
Mr. Trump clearly does not respect the office or doesn’t realize what an impact his Twitter words have on so many different things. There is a huge difference between what Donald Trump the businessman tweets and what the president elect (or president) tweets.
As one of his transition staff said, “it is his hobby so he will probably continue to do it as president.” The POTUS does not need a hobby that causes ripples across the world in 140 characters or less.
When will Trump actually take his new job seriously? At this point he really reminds me of an episode of the early series “The Little Rascals” with Spanky, Alfalfa, Buckwheat, Darlene, and the others where they are trying to put on a stage show. Everyone thinks they know what they are doing but in reality no one really has a clue.
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Trump said he was going to drain the swamp, but he is refilling it with people who are not exactly on track. I doubt the the CEO of a fast food company is going to help increase the wages of those flipping burgers. Exxon oil was, and may still be, in negotiations with Russia to drill for oil in Russian areas of the Arctic. I cannot see the new secretary of state pushing to curtail that. Putting a person in charge of the Department of the Interior that does not believe in climate change or man’s role in global warming is like putting a fox in the hen house and locking the door.
We all know Donald Trump. He did not reveal his taxes so the public has no idea the extent of his business holdings outside the United States. They are presumed to be many.
Regardless of how he chooses to word things he is not divesting himself of his businesses. All he has said is that he will turn his them over to his children. This he assumes gets him by the conflicts of interest problems, but not really. His children have been involved in his transition team and the selection of his cabinet from day one. His daughter even sat in on a meeting with the leader of Japan. There is no question that they will stay in constant communication with Trump during his presidency. Is there any question, really, that if a country wants to curry favor with the president a sure way will be to grant every convenience to his business partners. It was noted last week that Ivanka Trump was calling congressmen about several issues important to her and her father. The fact is she is not supposed to be involved with the government, but only his business. Well, so much for that idea.
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Look, folks, we as Americans really have no choice in this matter. Donald Trump is to be the 45th president of this country. Even though I think he needs to toughen up and realize that every president has always been a target of criticism. But he will be our president. He is due the respect for his position and the office he holds. That does not mean I have to like him personally, nor do I have to agree with how he handles the job. Hell, I did not agree all that often with President Obama and I do like him. But, I will live up to my words.
Now there is an “if” here. If, as president, Trump begins to essentially give America away by being too chummy with the Russians, China, or any other country, I will be one of the first to call him on it.
John Kennedy brought us to the brink of war because of Russian aggression. To answer one of Trump’s questions, “No, it would not be nice if we could get along with Russia, because they are who they have been (at least the leaders) since Stalin. The Kremlin is made up of a bunch of brutal killers and thugs who will do anything to stay in power. Putin loves his power plus he is getting rich. According to Rachel Maddow, Putin may be the richest man in the world by siphoning money from Russia to secret accounts around the world. Russia represents everything this country has been against. While they claim to be a democracy it is no such thing. Putin got into office by violence and stays in power through violence regardless of their claims otherwise.
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It did not surprise me that Donald Trump already knew that the ethics laws against conflicts of interest did not apply to the president. As he always has done, Trump plays an onion skin width on this side of the law most of the time. However, he may get a surprise if and when he or his organization receives an enumeration or gift from a foreign country and he has to face impeachment charges. Not that I think the Republican Congress would actually do it but it is likely that on the day he takes office he will be in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the constitution. He is also, of course, capable of running afoul of the Federal Criminal Code for bribery.
For the sake of the country I hope that he is as good as he says he is because we need to continue building the economy. But, if he thinks he can pull the shade over people’s eyes like he did with the Carrier deal or his claim that he got Ford Motor Company not to send jobs to Mexico that were never going there anyway, he has another thought coming. He will not be hiding behind a private corporate veil any longer and in the cold harsh light of day his golden shine may get a bit tarnished to even his most fanatic supporters.
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As a former infantry officer, I know well that respect is earned, not automatic. It is earned by competence, intelligence and an abiding effort to take care of those who are subordinate. Donnie Boy is a self=aggrandizing asshole of privilege who is unfit for the office. The sad fact of an electorate scammed by his b.s. bodes ill for the Republic.
Well, if this goes down the way I think it will Trump will be blaming everyone except himself when things do not go well for the next four years. Thus, when the budget deficit starts to skyrocket, and ISIS and Al Queada are still around, plus we will likely get hit again somewhere by one of those groups, and they screw up healthcare, Medicare, and Social Security it may take down the Republican party for some time to come. The Republicans that have been anti Trump all along and still try to make him an honest broker will be the only survivors of the Republican Party. They will do a lot of damage in the next four years and this is an opportunity for the Democrats to get their act together and become a true progressive government.
While “respect” is arguably due to the Commander-In-Chief, I would like to add something which I saw float around in social media, which is a quote from none other than that great populist, Theodore Roosevelt. He states:
“Patriotism means to stand by the Country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the Country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he sufficiently serves the Country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the Country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the President or anyone else.”
I bring this to the dialogue only due to my having a similar belief as the writer here. I too believe the Commander-In-Chief should be respected, however as I watch him lack self-restraint, by sending out Tweets regarding, for example, the issue which took place with the Chinese government and their taking our submarine, only for our current Administration to work things out, and have that same vessel prepared for return, then in turn leading Mr. Trump to send out the Tweet, that “they can keep it,” makes it extremely difficult to respect him.
Furthermore, his acceptance of the call from the Taiwanese President – in light of our national posture on this matter for the previous forty plus years – is also emblematic of Mr. Trump’s lack of self-restraint. But for him to proceed to criticize the One-China policy which this nation has not only recognized but agreed to, seems wanton to me at best. Adding insult to injury was his Tweet questioning precisely “why he shouldn’t criticize the One-China policy especially as it relates to trade.”
But that is just the problem: the recognition of the sovereignty of China, while accepting their policy which appears to be a take it or leave it deal, demonstrates a lack of understanding on Mr. Trump’s behalf and makes Kate McKinnon’s skit on SNL all the more truthful: he will get us all killed, should he take this sort of approach with world leaders.
Everyone from a political analytical view, realizes that foreign powers nearly always test our nation during times of changing the guard with a new administration. They did so under Bush, continued under Obama, and countless other administrative changes, and will do so while we get settled with a Trump presidency.
This is where his statement regarding how he would deal with an Iranian naval vessel with sailors shooting our sailors a bird, makes me worry deeply! Does Mr. Trump have the capacity to exercise self-restraint, or will he do precisely what he said he would do in those debates? “Blow them out of the freaking water?” If the latter, we all had better strap ourselves in, because it is going to be a rough four years. >
Dr. Bear, I could not agree with you more. I do not believe Trump nor his supporters yet fully understand the magnitude of the job he will be faced with once he walks into that office as “the president”. I had listened to several former presidents say that the job is a sobering experience when suddenly the weight of the world really is on one man’s shoulders. Trump has gotten by to this point in life by always passing the buck but after January 20th he is where the buck stops. There will be no more, “Well, I did not know what that was all about”, or, “I did not say that was OK”. Everything that occurs, he will find comes back home to roost in the oval office. And, since he never apologizes for anything or feels that nothing he does is wrong, he is going to have a pretty short honeymoon with his adoring fans. He has said that he does not intend to be hands on president, in other words, let his cabinet and the other political appointees do their thing, the responsibility still comes back to him. I fully expect to see corruption begin soon after he takes office and it is only a question of how long congress will let it go on before it gets to be too much.
The U.S. and perhaps the entire planet are well and truly screwed until the impeachment – may it come quickly after the swearing in.
One can only hope. Personally I’d like to see the prick arrested in the Oval and hauled off to jail, then impeachment.
Mike, I would too, but I don’t think that congress has the balls to do it.
Bill, then it’s up to “us” to pressure them into doing it. The elected officials served at the pleasure of the people, not corporations, organizations, the rich. Time they learned the hard way.