You would think that a newly elected president such as Mr. Trump would, upon entering office, present his plan, complete with specific priorities, for solving America’s many pressing problems. That hasn’t happened, and we won’t see it happen because this is not a president who operates from a plan. He simply reacts to situations and conditions as they confront him.
He stays very busy launching Twitter attacks on “dishonest” journalists, “lame” comedians, and even those “so-called” judges who dared to put a hold on his poorly conceived ban on immigrants from Muslim countries. His Twitter account is directly aimed at his rapidly increasing number of adversaries.
He says that guaranteeing the safety and security of this country and its people is his top priority. That’s nothing new, that’s in every president’s job description. As strange as it may seem Russia, which has been an adversary of the U.S. government for many decades, doesn’t seem to represent any real threat or concern to him and he has, in fact, spent a large amount of time defending the actions of that country and those of his friend, President Putin.
Trump’s benevolent attitude toward Russia and Putin is not really shared by the CIA and various other intelligence agencies, the FBI and the Congress. All sorts of investigations and inquiries are underway to determine what kind of relationship has existed between Russia and Trump, his aides and advisers. Stay tuned for a lot of intrigue and more controversies.
As Commander-in-Chief Trump has a lot of sophisticated weaponry in his arsenal with which to fight against threats to this nation. And, relative to his adversaries within this country, he has a very powerful weapon at his disposal. It’s that Twitter account which he uses to fire salvo after salvo of disparaging remarks against anyone who says something, anything that he doesn’t want to hear. He is a master of the art of using Twitter and has few if any peers.
Let’s talk about the primary targets of his verbal attacks, starting with comedians, a very influential element of the national media; their criticisms of presidents and other politicians can be very mean-spirited and sometimes devastating, as was the case with Richard Nixon.
Alec Baldwin must think that he has entered a comedic heaven, located on SNL, aka Saturday Night Live. Baldwin’s portrayal of Trump on that show is absolutely hilarious, like no other spoof of a presidency from the past. His act is extremely funny, but not to Trump who supposedly watches the show and isn’t laughing, but, rather, is seething with anger.
Baldwin will never, ever run out of comedy material relating to Trump. He will gather more and more each and every day as Trump and his band of neophyte government officials make monumental blunders and initiate all sorts of controversies. He will be so busy in the next four years that he will have no time for other aspects of his career which are many. He will become an entertainment icon and go into the comedy Hall of Fame.
SNL’s ratings are skyrocketing as are those of other comedy shows such as that of Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah, Bill Mahar and a host of others. With all the ranting and raving and turmoil emanating from the White House continuously, there will be no limit to the satire and sarcasm that these comedians will present. Comedy will, once again, be king in America.
We’ll see new comedy shows springing up based upon the daily adventures of Trump and company. This could be a revolution in the entertainment industry and Trump can then take full credit, as he loves to do, and say that it could not have been done except for his leadership. He “did it his way.”
For Trump to watch Baldwin mimic him is bad enough but then for him to have to watch Melissa McCarthy poke fun of his communications director, Sean Spicer, makes it all the worse. But, as we know, he has a way of striking back very quickly; he sends out more of his tirades on Twitter.
Things may get even worse since there are indications that Rosie O’Donnell, one of Trump’s hated adversaries, may join SNL in the role of Steve Bannon, Trump’s senior adviser, who some say is actually the de facto president. With Baldwin, McCarthy and O’Donnell and their cohorts all using the White House as their targets Trump and those around him are going to get themselves twisted into knots.
Now let’s talk about the national media, the reporters, talk show hosts, and analysts that Trump has stated are dishonest, have no integrity and cannot be trusted to report the news in a fair and objective manner. I have gained a greater respect for Jake Tapper of CNN who seems to be an objective journalist, one who pulls no punches and tells it like it is. But, if he continues to do that and confront various Trump surrogates like Kellyanne Conway, and expose her endless lies, then he will find himself at the top of the Donald’s list of Twitter targets.
Even the U.S. judiciary has come under verbal attack after Judge James Robarts of Oregon ruled that Trump’s ban on immigrants from seven Muslim countries was against the Constitution; and, thereafter, three other Appeals Court judges upheld his decision. Trump denigrated them by referring to them as “so-called’ judges.
This president who has no class whatsoever has gone so far as to call a U.S. senator, Elizabeth Warren, by the name of Pocahontas. Trump quite apparently cannot conduct his presidency without resorting to low-level name calling.
Trump and some of his staff, in particular his adviser Steve Miller, are even questioning whether the courts and judges have a right to rule on executive orders that he makes. Their attitude seems to be that the three branches of government, the presidency, the congressional and the judicial branches are not equal and that presidency is at a higher level. Obviously, they know more than the Founding Fathers.
Let’s change the subject, setting the issue of his Twitter verbal attacks aside and ask the question – doesn’t this president have far more important things to do than launch these petty attacks? Yes, he has and here are just a few that he should address, that is, if he can lessen his obsession with Twitter:
When is he going to do something about Job creation, restoration of the middle class, repair America’s infrastructure, overhaul the misguided U.S. foreign policy, do something about this stagnant economy, work with Congress to reform the corporate tax code, as well as finding ways to stop corporations from evading taxes by establishing headquarters in other countries?
When will he stop the twittering and spend time on doing something to vastly improve Obamacare or, better yet, initiate in-depth studies to see how all five of America’s healthcare systems, the ACA, Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance and even the VA system, which are not currently coordinated, can be combined into one universal system by which all Americans will receive medical coverage?
By spending much more time on presidential matters perhaps Mr. Trump can figure out how to significantly reduce the number of Americans, some 47 million, who currently live below the poverty line; or the like number of Americans who are highly dependent on food stamps.
And he could work with Congress to do something to alleviate the massive student loan debt, currently approaching $1.3 trillion, a monumental burden being carried by 44 million former and current students. Trump should look into the reason why the U.S. government, which administers this loan program, feels a need to continue to makes billions in profits off of it. Why is it doing that when, in many countries in Europe and Scandinavia, college students receive free college tuition or receive generous government subsidies?
Without question, Trump needs to be attacking America’s many festering problems. But there is a huge obstacle standing in the way of that happening, and that’s because he doesn’t have a clue on how to go about it. That’s Trump, that’s who he is. He’s a real estate mogul, terrific at attacking the media, comedians and so-called judges, but that’s all there is folks.
Right now Trump’s promise to make America “great again” isn’t proceeding very well and, unfortunately, as long as he is president, there is no way that this is ever going to happen.
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