TRUMP'S DONE, PUT A FORK IN HIM

TRUMP'S DONE, PUT A FORK IN HIM

By:

LeRoy Goldman

July 18, 2018

Actually Trump was done before he threw his hat in the ring in 2015, before he won the Republican nomination, before he defeated Hillary Clinton, and before he took the oath of office about a year and a half ago. What's not yet clear is the manner and the timing of the ignominious end that awaits President Trump. The manner could take one of many forms: forced resignation, the workings of the Constitution's 25^th Amendment, Special Counsel Mueller's report, impeachment by the House and conviction by the Senate, inability to win the 2020 GOP presidential nomination, or defeat in November of 2020.

But, however it plays out, Donald Trump will not have a second chance to take the oath of office. What's less clear is whether this nation and its unique form of representative government will survive the firestorm. That is, by far, the more consequential question.

Trump's demise was baked in long before he embarked upon his political career. The hard fact of the matter is that he does not have the capacity, temperament, or the inclination to full fill the oath of office he took 18 months ago. You don't need to take my word for that. You only need look with clear eyes at his behavior as a candidate and as President.

The bill of particulars that indicts Trump is literally one for the history books. Prior to his stunning and utterly unexpected victory on election day in 2016, Trump had the advantage that accrued to him simply because no one, including Trump himself and his campaign team, believed he could win the Republican nomination or the presidency. Thus, with the perspective that he had nothing to lose Trump took the low road, the road he had traveled much of his life. Call it the wrecking ball road.

During the GOP primaries he disparaged all of his rivals in personal and humiliating ways. He trashed members of the written and electronic press. He vilified women, Blacks, and Hispanics all in the name of Making America Great Again. And, whether to his surprise or not, he learned that his scorched earth strategy worked.

Having won the nomination handily, it was predictable that Trump would step on the accelerator in an effort to destroy Hillary Clinton just as he had destroyed his Republican rivals for the nomination. The polls and the mainstream press kept up their self-serving drum beat that Trump would be a certain loser in November. By the narrowest of margins in three normally Democratic Rust Belt states voters proved them wrong.

In the greatest and most stunning upset in American political history Donald Trump had won. Whether you like it or not matters not much. What did and does matter much is what sort of president Trump would become.

Now we know, and none of us should be surprised. Trump could and should have signaled a fundamental course correction in his Inaugural address. It takes no more than average intelligence to know that the American people have become dangerously polarized over the last quarter century. It is commonly understood that the longstanding paralysis at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington is a reflection of that polarization.

Trump could have and should have used his Inaugural address to tell the nation how destructive that polarization had become, how urgently necessary it was to stem its tide, and how he intended to accomplish that healing process. He did just the opposite. His deeply dystopian address doubled down on divisiveness, energized the Never Trump movement, and made starkly evident that America could expect more of that which had brought Trump to power. He forfeited his best and perhaps only opportunity to become a successful president. He should have fired the aide who wrote that speech, instead he's turned him into a senior adviser in the White House.

And then he staffed his White House and his Cabinet with a collection of individuals who have who have been unable and/or unwilling to serve either him or the nation well. Their collective incapacity is understood once one understands the prime directive they share and that assures their job security. Their Prime Directive is to be subservient, to be a yes-man/woman, to tell Trump he's right, brilliant, all-knowing. And it's a Prime Directive with razor sharp teeth. Cross the Boss and you're fired!

And it gets worse. It's not simply that Trump has browbeaten his handpicked advisers whose principal duty ought to include an ability and a willingness to forcefully challenge him when necessary. It's that Trump has also largely neutered Republicans on Capitol Hill. Starting with leaders like Senator McConnell and Speaker Ryan and including most of the GOP congressional foot soldiers the Republicans on the Hill have cowered in silence as Trump has taken steps with which they profoundly disagree. The list is eye popping. Here's a sampler: free trade and international trade agreements, the imposition of tariffs, health care reform, sanctions on Russia, the Iran Nuclear Agreement, relations with America's allies, Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and the Mueller investigation. Trump sycophants in the Executive Branch and on Capitol Hill have given the term “Lemming” a whole new meaning.

Over the course of the past several weeks Trump has taken his carnival act to Quebec, Singapore, Brussels, London, and Helsinki. No American can draw comfort from the trail of detritus, false bravado, and cowardice that litters Trump's wake.

In June Trump attended the G-7 meeting in Quebec on his way to the meeting in Singapore with North Korea's Kim Jong-un. Trump's opening move in respect of the G-7 gathering was to float the idea that Russia should be allowed to rejoin the group. Russia had been expelled following it annexation of Crimea and its military incursion into eastern Ukraine in 2014.

The G-7 meeting struggled unsuccessfully with the problems arising from Trump's imposition of steel and aluminum tariffs on nations including G-7 member, Canada. Following the meeting Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke out against the tariffs. Trump, en route to Singapore, struck back with a vengeance. He called Trudeau's comments, “very dishonest and weak.” Trump's Trade adviser, Peter Navarro said, “There's a special place in hell for any foreign leader that engages in bad faith diplomacy with President Donald J. Trump.”

Having trashed one of America's longest and strongest allies Trump met with the North Korean tyrant and came away all smiles. As yet there is nothing of substance to show for love-in between Trump and the North Korean dictator.

At NATO's annual meeting in Brussels not long ago Trump was again on the attack. Although the NATO leaders agreed to boost their defense spending in order to better address potential Russian aggression, Trump openly castigated our NATO allies for not paying their fair share. He then turned on Germany and called it a “captive” of Russia because of its reliance on Russian natural gas. Behavior like this goes way beyond simply being boorish and stupid. It raises real doubts in the minds of our NATO allies respecting whether America will be there in the event of Russian aggression. We know that Putin felt emboldened enough to march into the Crimea and the Ukraine in 2014. What if he next marches into the Baltic states, and NATO isn't sure where America stands?

From Brussels Trump flew to England to meet with Prime Minister Theresa May. For reasons that only the demented could comprehend Trump began the visit by giving an interview with the British newspaper the Sun. In it he attacked Prime Minister May while supporting her rival. He made use of inflammatory language concerning immigration, and was critical of May's handling of the intensely divisive Brexit issue. Americans and Brits have long taken pride in their “Special Relationship”. Today that relationship has a new and far different meaning. 77% of Brits have an unfavorable opinion of the President of the United States.

Having trashed this nation's allies on both sides of the Atlantic Trump lands in Helsinki to meet with Vladimir Putin. That meeting on July 16^th was the low point of Trump's world travel. He refused to challenge Putin on Russia's effort to manipulate our 2016 election. He stood on foreign soil and made explicitly clear that he believed Putin and not this nation's intelligence services concerning Russian interference in our election. He stood on foreign soil and characterized the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller as disgraceful and a witch hunt. Senator John McCain described Trump's behavior as, “one of the most degrading performances by an American president in memory”.

In Helsinki Putin played Edgar Bergen, and Trump was his Dummy, Charlie McCarthy.

Trump's a proven failure. Worse yet he doesn't care and is incapable of a beneficial course correction. Worst of all he's imprisoned in a cocoon of narcissism from which there is no escape. That he has no way out of the mess of his own creation is small potatoes. Whether America has a way out of a quarter century of polarization now made incomparably worse by Trump is not small potatoes.

Trump's done, and it's likely that Special Counsel Mueller, A Republican and a Marine, will put the fork in him. Semper Fi.

Please contact me with comments at:  EmailMe

LeRoy Goldman (F.O.G.I.E.)

July 18, 2018