THE WOBBLY TRUMP SHOW HITS THE ROAD

The POTUS inaugural weekend has come and gone amidst drama that had it been scripted it would have been laughed off as being off the wall. The ritual passing of power on the Mall, where Trump made no attempt to enjoin the many that hadn’t supported him, was not the most noteworthy event. What followed the next day in the same historical arena, in the shadow of the Capital, was the emergence of an unprecedented sized crowd of women protestors - a circumstance that was mimicked, simultaneously, in nearly a hundred towns in the United States. 

Trump then visited the CIA headquarters ostensibly to make peace with the agency having mercilessly attacked their findings that the Russians had hacked the election to his advantage. He falsely blamed his conflict with the CIA on the media using the occasion to declare that he was, “In a running war with the media and they were the most dishonest people”. He illustrated his point by spending most of his speech arguing that that they had deliberately fabricated the lower attendance at his induction. His visit was labelled a disgrace by the outgoing director of the CIA. His Press Secretary then hastily called a briefing which was characterized by the Press Core as a succession of blatant lies to back up The Donald’s claims that he had been sold short on the crowd estimation. 

Just in case you thought amateur night was over Kellyanne Conway, who is also up for the 2017 Goebel’s Prize, claimed that there were “alternate” facts about the crowd size at the inauguration. Then she argued, in the teeth of polls that reflect that seventy - four percent of Americans believe that Trump should reveal his taxes, that he needn’t fulfill his promise to release them as that was not what the people wanted.

Trump also signed a number of executive orders one of which supported the repeal of Obamacare without putting anything in its place. Others followed in the next week which were in sync with his campaign message to create American jobs.

DONALD ASKED NOT THAT HE BE CRITICIZED 

In his brief inauguration speech the Donald, true to form dispensed with no sophistication, and told it the way he told on the trail - America had gone to hell in a hand basket but, “believe me” he was going to set it straight again. His America was only vaguely recognizable to the group that had lost manufacturing or mining jobs and had changed sides to give him the Presidency. They were those who had worked in coal mines, in factories whose jobs had been automated or had been outsourced oversea. But for the rest of the population his America was unrecognizable as, unemployment was at record lows, public companies had seen their profits rise to the accompaniment of a soaring Obama stock market, inflation was non existent, interests rates were low, twenty million more had medical insurance, the LBGT group were gaining more and more equality, to list just some of what America appeared to be most of the electorate.

So while the speech was dark, in tune with the campaign dirge, it did temporarily dispense with the immigrant scapegoats. It resonated with the public perception as to how the fat cats of Washington were feathering their own beds at the expense of “We the people”.  Regardless of where the populace was in life there was a belief that their elected officials were blind to their needs and subservient to the greed and avarice of the one percenters. 

Making no sense was the fact that his cabinet picks were not in line with his populist message. To add to the POTUS confusion was rather than draining the swamp he was filling it with financiers - several from Goldman Sachs whom he had attacked daily on the campaign, other one percenters who wanted to eliminate Medicare and public education for example and some generals. 

THE REAL CROWDS WERE THE WOMEN PROTESTORS

The next day saw protest crowds which had been heralded as the Women’s March on Washington. The vast numbers in Washington were akin to those that The Donald had fantasized for himself. In fact Donald can claim one historical first - the largest protest against an elected President ever. The total participants of the over a hundred gatherings, which included those throughout  the world, from Zimbabwe to London, from Serbia to Iceland and from Melbourne to Tel Aviv, was close on three million. No one had expected the depth of the anger to the Trump Presidency as hundreds of thousands descended on Washington just a day too late to hear the message. The media, who had given the protest scant coverage, were taken back at the numbers. Trump snarkily queried as to where these ladies were in November and missed yet another opportunity to let this mostly women assembly know that he was their President too. But the extent and intensity of the antagonists emphasized the narrowness of the Trump victory making his insistence on just rah rahing to his base, that were numerically three million less than garnered by his opponent, incomprehensible.

TRUMP’S CENTRAL FOCUS IS WAR AGAINST THE MEDIA

For whatever reason the Trump team elected to make the issue of the weekend an attack on the media. Rather than celebrate the fact that he had, after all, won the presidency and had been given an opportunity to “Make America Great Again”, war was declared against the “dishonest” media. The issue de jour was that the media had misled the world as to the fact that The Donald’s “historical” inaugural  address had not been witnessed by the greatest audience ever, as Trump had predicted. 

What really upset the media was that at the first briefing called by Press Secretary Sean Spicer the latter angrily backed up what was accepted as the tissue of lies spewed by Trump on the size of the crowd. Insightful of the process and pressure on Spicer was Arie Fleischer, George Bush 43’s Press Secretary. He had the distinct impression that he had been instructed by Trump to parade out the garbage. Fleischer stated that a Press Secretary’s only currency was credibility and he now had his work cut out to gain trust. 

For whatever reason the media went ballistic over this tissue of lies on crowd size and the allegation that they had created the division between Trump and the CIA. You might have thought they were immune by now to eighteen months of lie after lie. Somehow a threshold had been passed as panel after panel sat and discussed the gravity of Presidential lying. He now could lie on anything including whether there had been hacks or not or what Kim Jung Un was saying or not saying were typical laments. There was resolve to stick to their ethical guns and report accurately the Presidency wherever that might take them.

It is an irony that without the media Trump wouldn’t have been President. They unashamedly covered every word he spouted for eighteen months. The other sixteen candidates for the Republican nomination were virtually starved of oxygen and then in the Presidential election they dutifully followed him around lapping up the ratings that his unconventional behavior generated. So they have a responsibility to set the record straight. At the end of the day the First Amendment will  protect them from Trump’s desire to legislate against them.

THE CIA VISIT

This unscripted appearance to the CIA where Trump waxed incoherently, in front of the wall honoring those operatives who had died for their country, was a disaster. There he played to the small crowd that obviously had preselected themselves as attendance on that Saturday afternoon was voluntary. Having compared the CIA assessments to that of Nazi Germany the agency needed to hear a lot more than his usual campaign conscious streaming of thought. The discussion devolved about his good self and how he had been victimized by the dishonest media. "His estimation of the crowd was a million to a million and a half" - and on and on. Outgoing CIA Head Brennan, who had served both Republican and Democratic Presidents, showed an unaccustomed lack of restraint in criticizing the POTUS.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Then he was conducting foreign affairs with American allies United Kingdom and Israel. The latter is going to turn out to be a big hassle as he is dealing with a leader whose ego is up there with Trump’s. Netanyahu is not really interested in the POTUS’s sop to create a Jerusalem Embassy he wants the Iran deal reversed. Its just not going to happen and Trump, regardless of his meaningless promises is not going to deliver even if he could. His number one ally in the world Russia has indicated that Iran is their partner and Trump has far to much invested in that liaison to fight Comrade Putin on this issue. The rationalization, will be is that Iran is needed to wipe ISIS out.

In case G-d forbid one area would not be tainted by insanity The Donald once again put his foot in his mouth. He opined that the winner was entitled to the spoils of war and maybe there would still be an opportunity to go and claim the Iraqui oil. 

AT THE END OF THE DAY

* Nobody knows where this is all going. There are of course islands of normality where, for example, he meets with the captains of industry and promises to promote their American operations. Even that doesn’t create too much excitement because most of these companies are multinationals and don’t need their foreign operations taxed to oblivion. These islands are short lived as next on the agenda he is arguing patently ridiculously to the leaders of both parties that he would have won the popular vote had not five million illegals voted for Hillary. 

* As far as Jay H. Ell is concerned he seriously wonders how this dysfunction can continue for four years. However like everyone else his predictions on Trump have been way off the mark so stick around and watch this space. 

* There are movements growing to oppose him, some of them offshoots from the Womens’ Marches. There is also serious litigation under the emoluments provision in the Constitution. There has to be an extensive infrastructure in the social world that has vowed to organize and continue the struggle. Evidence of this grass roots opposition is the fact that three million people just don’t pitch up, in concert, without extensive preperation. Whether this is all translated into political change remains the question. Both Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are two recognized leaders who could channel this into the ballot box and were in evidence on the day. Whichever way you look at it the Women’s March movement is the story of the Trump Administration thus far.