When are Americans going to wake up and realize that Donald Trump is like any other guy in a bar with an opinion and limited facts? That he’s essentially a guy who went into dad’s business, spreading his money around to anyone who would spell his name correctly in big neon letters, and that he knows virtually nothing about how the American political system works or the ideas on which it is based? As for his defensiveness and inability to take blame, that makes Trump not just the first snowflake president; it makes him a virtual blizzard.
Realizing this makes it easier to dismiss 95% of articles that are written about him, articles that register shock–shock!–at the things he says and the things he does.
I have no doubt whatsoever that Trump asked, indeed demanded, that James Comey stop the investigation into Micheal Flynn. I have no doubt that Trump knew virtually nothing about how his travel ban violated basic American values and legal norms. I have no doubt that he is unschooled in any of the vital public issues that confront our nation at this moment, including, but not limited to health care, the environment, taxes, job creation, roads, bridges, airports, technology information systems, the Internet, immigration or foreign relations.
He, and I assume many of his shrinking support base, sees himself as the great disruptor, when in fact he is clueless about how his words and actions damage him and even more, damage the country. Just in the past few days Trump has finally affirmed that the US stands firmly behind our NATO allies and that we will defend them under every circumstance. And he has said that he will address the issue of whether there are Oval Office tapes of his conversations with Comey and others.
But why wait? In the first case, Trump’s waffling and non-commitment in Italy only served to heighten mistrust of the US as a staunch ally. In the second, and under the same circumstances, you or I would immediately be accused of withholding evidence in a criminal investigation. What Trump is doing is not disruption or draining liquids or statecraft. It’s an ignorant guy in a bar watching cable news and spewing his uninformed opinion.
And it’s not going to stop.
The White House staff was able to keep Trump occupied throughout Comey’s televised testimony, which, if you have any experience with children who have been diagnosed with ADD or ADHD, is a Herculean task, and he generally stayed off Twitter for the day. But he came roaring back with venom, calling Comey a liar and offering to testify himself under oath with nothing more than…himself. And he’s his own worst enemy. Comey has witnesses and written notes. Trump has…beer and pretzels.
As I’ve said, my life has become lighter and less fraught since I committed to the obvious and judged Trump, correctly, to be nothing more than an uninformed blowhard. The real problem with my assumption, though, is that the other people in the White House and in Congress must step up and make sure that Trump’s worst excesses do not become law.
What happens when Rex Tillerson and others with some modicum of knowledge resign because Trump has contradicted them one too many times? What happens if Senate moderates can’t defeat the ruinous Trumpcare bill now in front of them? What happens if Paul Ryan continues to excuse Trump’s behavior because, essentially, he doesn’t know any better?
Obviously, the first thing is that I will become heavier and more fraught, but it will also mean that the country will be in an even more spectacular danger. That’s why those who oppose the administration’s direction must organize and coalesce around candidates that will take back the House and/or Senate in 2018. That’s got to be the one indivisible goal for those of us who see the danger that’s plainly in front of us.
Otherwise, we will continue to be buried under the billions of snowflakes already descending upon us.
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