It is increasingly more evident that Donald J. Trump is becoming a danger to America and the world with his ignorant unpredictable contradictory chaotic tweets on governance, economics, trade, foreign relations and the issuance of totalitarian and illegal edicts. All this raises the question as to whether he has the competence to last out his full term of government let alone have a second term. The burning question is why are the Republican legislators not cutting their losses and dumping him before it is too late to salvage anything from the wreck?
TRUMP DISPLAYS ABNORMAL BEHAVIOR AT THE G7 WORLD FORUM
The POTUS’S “inappropriateness” was on display at the G-7 World Forum where his main agenda item was admitting the rogue nation Russia which was expelled from that august company for illegally seizing Crimea. Trump stated that he would unilaterally invite Putin to the club meeting in 2020 and try and make it once again the G8. All this added fuel to the narrative of the four hundred page Mueller report where he welcomed Russia’s illegal assistance in electing him President and then obstructed the enquiry that documented the fact.
Some of the Trump behavior at the world forum of the most powerful nations was bizarre even by his own standards. The world watched agog as within a space of three days he turned the Chinese President from an enemy to a personal friend. All this to the accompaniment of the vertiginous response of American and world stock markets. Trump whose fantasizing reached monumental proportions claimed he had two calls from the Chinese who were desperate for a trade deal. He could not provide any evidence for this fact when the Chinese denied that they had contacted him.
He gave several reasons as to why he missed the climate discussions including that he was having a meeting with the Indian and German heads of state. The problem being that the latter were photographed at the climate session. This response was even worse than his initial answer that his inattendance was because the session hadn’t yet begun when it was already over. Inter alia he claimed that The First Lady had a favorable opinion of Kim Jung Un whom she “had gotten to know”. The bewildered Melania Trump issued a statement that she had never ever met the North Korean dictator.
He went on and on attacking President Obama at least a dozen times including blaming him for the Russian annexation of Crimea. Trump then claimed Obama was outsmarted by Putin so he punished Putin by chucking him out of the then G8 making it the G7. The POTUS then put in a plug for the G7 meeting to be held in 2020 at one of his properties claiming among other features that there was a large area for parking and colossal ballrooms. This infomercial in soliciting business for his own private account is against the Constitution and contravenes The Emolument Clause.
Emmanuel Macron, the President of France who has taken over as the leader of the free world, a position that has been occupied by the President of America since World War II, treated The Donald like the spoilt brat of the family that had reluctantly been brought to the party. Macron deferred to him with great respect to forestall him imploding and embarrassing his kith and kin. The French President publicly agreed that China’s trade practices needed regulation but his solution differed wildly from the “spoilt brat” in that it lay with the World Trade Organization. Macron put Trump on the spot by inviting the Iranian Foreign Minister as a guest to the meeting. The “outsmarted” Trump then stated he would meet the Iranian President Rhohani without preconditions. Bibi Netanyahu must be pulling his hair out.
Just to show that Trump was not neglecting the home front he tweeted that Jerome Powell who he had appointed to Head the Federal Reserve was an enemy of America - presumably like Xi Jinping was before he was reassigned to respectability.
He then mooted a solution to the hurricane bearing down on Puerto Rica and his properties in the South Atlantic - an atomic weapon to nuke it.
“TRUMP THE PRESIDENT” THE SEQUEL TO “THE APPRENTICE”.
Jay H. Ell has to confess that he now bursts into peals of laughter at Trumpisms. He is real first rate stand up comic. He should have chosen that career rather than reality TV after he failed three times in real estate ventures. However he still fancies himself as both a real estate developer and reality TV star. All that in addition to being the greatest President in the history of America whose inaugural was attended by the largest audience ever.
As the Trump one man reality show chaotically bounces on on all channels for over twelve hours a day the exhausted public are unable to escape watching him. This is not because they are enchanted or even addicted, rather the reason is that what shows impacts their daily lives. Unlike in “The Apprentice”, the reality TV President’s first show, it cannot be taken off the air for lack of viewer interest. “The Apprentice” only ran from September to May. (Season one’s finale had a viewership of twenty - eight million and the tenth rendition of the monumental sadistic bore’s finale the viewership was down to four million.) One might have thought that Fox would have got the message as they follow up at night with commentary and sycophantic critique of the spin off sequel of “The Apprentice” namely “Trump The President” a fourteen hour one man daily show. As a result there is close on twenty - four hours of the POTUS. The electorate are exhausted. Fox must be reeling at Trump’s latest injunctive to his cult followers to find another channel as Fox has deserted him for too much coverage of the Democratic Primary.
The problem with the sequel of “The Apprentice” is that “Trump The President” is the real deal for nearly four hundred million Americans and the rest of the world. Donald Trump is not just dishing out a two hundred and fifty thousand job at the end of mercifully a six month term he is in charge of budget of close on four trillion dollars. Much like in The Donald’s business ventures America is running at a record deficit of close on a trillion dollars this year.
THE QUESTION OF WHETHER TRUMP IS WITH THE PROGRAM OR NOT
The problem however is not only that Donald is playing games with planet earth, its climate and its peoples is that he is far from the top of his game. A New York Times best seller has thirty - seven mental health workers diagnosing him from being a malignant narcissist to suffering from progressive senile dementia. While it should be almost treason to call him a sociopath the fact that he displays several of the characteristics does not pass unnoticed. The one conclusion of all the normally cautious psychiatric professionals is that he is dangerous, hence the title of their book, “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump”. It is common cause that he is a pathological liar and The Washington Post have documented over twelve thousand, about twenty a day, at last count. His enablers and supporters don’t even bother to argue that he is lying they defend the indefensible by mouthing the talking point, “Don’t worry about what he says just look at what he does”. The fact that what he does is more or less what he says does not seem to bother them.
All this has led to the former Republican, but still conservative, Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin concluding that when he is not lying he sounds crazy. She gives as examples of the “craziness”, Trump discussing Iran and North Korea in relation to their real estate potential. She suggests that the media ask each and every Republican, for example, as to whether the trade negotiations are in good hands. Professor Roach of Yale and a former Chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia operations opined on CNBC that, “The President has become almost unhinged in dealing with China on a day to day basis”. A follow up question might be whether they are comfortable with the nuclear codes being in his hands.
The bottom line is when will the Republican legislators call it quits? They are leaders of their States and constituencies and can salvage some of what is left of the GOP. Congress is in recess but they will return on September 9 the GOP members are going to have face reality.
WHAT WILL MOVE THE REPUBLICANS WHO ARE IN DENIAL?
While the irresistable inference is that impeachment will impede Trump from completing his first term that is not Jay H. Ell’s only hypothesis. Rather as the insanity progresses the legislative Republicans will have to get rid of him one way or another. The Republicans deafening silence cannot be challenged till they return to Washington. The summer recess ends on the ninth of September and all hell should break loose. However the dam walls will only finally break when the Trump approval rate hits thirty percent. Currently it is slowly moving down - one poll reflecting his positivity rating at thirty-eight percent. Women voters are deserting him in even greater numbers than the 2018 midterms. What is more climate change and gun control are mobilizing the youth to come out and vote.
The prospect of facing fourteen more months of these rants has to be striking fear into the hearts of those Republicans standing for election in 2020. A record number of legislators have already bowed out. For the moment Trump has the caucus’s slavish support although it would be surprising if they are not huddling in corners whispering over their dilemma. It is patently obvious under the leadership of Mitch McConnell they are not going to take a stand on principle. The parameters they will use is their own reelectability are the numbers.
For the moment, although Trump’s approval numbers are slowly dropping they still hover around forty percent. They have to delude themselves that the Democrats can’t repeat their 2018 effort. Further they have to fantasize that the three key demographics that are moving away from them - the Hispanics, women and the youth will come back or at least that the hemorrhaging will stop. They can hope that the Democrats will choose Bernie Sanders who will not get any independents and for whom the African American turnout will not be optimal… . In short their faith is that 2018 is a one off fluke.
The numbers however don’t support their denials of reality. The generic vote still represents a large enough gap for the Democrats to win the Presidency, eke out the Senate and increase its majority in the House. Trump may supposedly be holding onto the Republican base but he is massively under water in all the key states. In the Midwest where he gained victory in the Electoral College by a total 70,000 votes he has gone from positive to a big negative - Wisconsin, (+6 to -14), Michigan, (+7 to -11), Pennsylvania, (+10 to -8), Ohio, (+14 - 6) and Iowa, (+14 to -6). Also every poll shows the top three Democrats beating Trump with Biden at a figure between the 15% to 20% which swing is reflected in the Midwest.
Still the Republicans stand around waiting for Godot. There are some elections in 2019 where matters look ugly. There are three Governorships in blood red states which are toss up and if anything they are leaning Democrat - Kentucky, Louisiana and Mississippi. Then the blue party is on the verge of flipping both State Houses in Virginia. Finally there is the rerun of North Carolina ninth district which was traditionally a strong Republican seat narrowly won in 2018 by the GOP. The result was declared null and void because the GOP winner was found to be put over the top by fraudulently manipulating absentee votes.
Jay H. Ell’s guess is that the Republicans are waiting for Trump’s approval rate to drop to thirty percent but then it will be too late. Georgia, Arizona and Texas let alone Florida will become dicey in those circumstances as will be some of those legislators that are hanging in.
CONSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS TO DUMP TRUMP
There are two constitutional mechanisms whereby Trump can be dispensed with both of which need widespread Republican support. The first is via the 25th Amendment which is exclusively a Republican prerogative to initiate. To set the process in motion the Cabinet have to move that the President is unable to perform his duties. The other is impeachment by the House of Representatives and then removal in the Republican controlled Senate. The wily and politically savvy Nancy Pelosi is not prepared to set impeachment articles in motion as the electorate have not read the Mueller report. They are fixated with the narrative Trump’s consigliere William Barr peddled for a month before the Mueller bombshell came out. Barr completely exonerated Trump.
So as matters stand unless the Republican legislators educate their constituents to the truth they will have to wince and answer for their “lying, crazy” President whose behavior becomes more and more erratic by the day. Can they tolerate another international embarrassment like the one they have just witnessed this time at a Trump Hotel with Vladimir Putin as his paying house guest? He is currently shamelessly ignoring Puerto Rica’s plight while paying the utmost concern fro Republican Florida in the wake of the pending hurricane. Maybe they just call it quits and pressure him to resign and persuade John Kasich to run. He will lose but will allow Republicans not to spend their campaign time defending the indefensible.
There is one lingering hope that might save the Republican legislators from taking any initiative that is if any of the multiple court decisions break against Trump. Whether it be on his taxes, subpoenaed documents or allowing witnesses to appear before Congress that expose what he is desperately trying to hide the outcome may well shock the Republican base forcing their representatives to dump Trump.
Finally if the GOP legislators are going to hang in there they should at least reassure their leader that he is not running against Barak Obama. Trump is confused and obsessed with beating him even though he is not on the ballot.
In this bizarre period in history nothing would surprise and what is there to stop him declaring WWIII - certainly not Mitch McConnell and his band of orchidectomized Republicans.
No comments:
Post a Comment