It’s evident that this president considers himself a master facilitator; a man of action, one who gets things done. The problem, however, is that in a relatively short period of time in office, he has become a facilitator of divisiveness, suppression, and negative policies and actions that adversely affect America.
Can such a conclusion be supported by fact and evidence? Well, all one needs to do is take a look at how he has carried out the responsibilities of his office, and the effect his actions are having on this country and people.
Divisiveness
Trump has objectives that he says will make this country great again. But, based on what we have seen so far, an objective of uniting this country, bringing people of different races, nationalities and religions together, is most certainly not one of them. It seems as if he is determined to take the word “United” out of the United States
We’ve watched as he has taken the art of insulting others to levels never seen in any previous administration. He was quick to initiate a travel ban on certain countries with the clear intent to keep Muslims out of America.
In his short tenure he has disparaged important elements in this country; the judicial system, the FBI and other intelligence agencies, the U.S. military, its generals and has declared war on the national media. He has further divided an already greatly divided Congress and alienated his party’s leaders, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan, the leaders of the Senate and House respectively.
The area of sports in America has not escaped his venom as he entered into the midst of the NFL player protests over injustice, tweeting about “those SOBs” that needed to be fired. He has even urged Americans to stop watching the NFL as a form of punishment against those who refuse to bend to his will.
And then we see him at his worst as he attempts to deal with the crisis in Puerto Rico. The people of that small island, fellow Americans, are desperate; they are begging for supplies, food, water, fuel, and medicines. There are some 10,000 shipping containers sitting at various ports in that country that are not being unloaded and distributed nearly as quickly as necessary.
The mayor of San Yuan has been pleading for more help. He could have told this mayor “I hear you, I understand the desperation of your people and so I’m instructing FEMA and all other agencies involved in the recovery process to double their efforts; I’m ordering the military to send rescue ships into that area, to use a great many helicopters and military personnel to ratchet up our efforts. Hang in there, this government and the people of America are behind you.”
Unfortunately, he offered no such moral support. Instead, he created a series of tweets in which he did the opposite by verbally attacking this mayor, other leaders in that country and even took aim at the Puerto Rican people saying, ““They want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort.” And also “Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help.”
This kind of leadership is shameful. The people of the world are watching as this crisis unfolds and wondering how the American people could have elected an individual to the presidency that is so callous and unfeeling. This kind of behavior is repulsive and beneath the dignity of the presidency. But we must remember; this is not a typical U.S. president, this is Trump.
Suppression
Mr. Trump is a master of the art of suppression, i.e., if he had the power to shut up everyone who in any way disagrees with him on any issue he would do it. He uses Twitter in the attempt to silence those who dare to criticize him or even question what he says or does.
He once suggested that U.S. libel laws should be “opened up” so he could sue media organizations that he says falsely criticize him. He once suggested that the government should punish those who deliberately burn the flag as a form of protest and even take away their citizenship. He has complained that, under current law, “our press is allowed to say whatever they want.”
No question but that, if he had the power, he would have the entire U.S. media be no more than a subsidiary of the government, namely, his administration.
During his short tenure in office he has strongly questioned some of the principles of the U.S. Constitution, harshly criticizing judges who ruled against his original travel bans. It often seems that he either doesn’t understand those principles of the Constitution or he simply doesn’t agree with them.
He is taking one of the GOP’s most important objectives, voter suppression, and trying to greatly accelerate the process. He had Kris Kobach, the Kansas Secretary of State and the vice chair of his “presidential commission on maintaining the ‘integrity’ of elections” send letters to each of the 50 states requesting voter registration data, including Social Security numbers, party affiliation, criminal backgrounds and military history.
Republicans have learned that, because Democratic-leaning voters outnumber those who support the GOP, the fewer voters who go to the polls the better the chances of GOP candidates winning. If this isn’t a blatant attempt to suppress the votes of millions of Americans, especially those of minorities, then what else is it?
Negative, destructive policies and actions
Trump and, especially Republicans, would like to eliminate most or all of the rules and regulations designed to regulate businesses and prevent abusive practices against the public. Here are some of the most egregious examples of what they are trying to do.
It’s important to understand that it doesn’t matter in the least whether Trump was or will be successful in initiating these destructive initiatives; what matters is the fact that he had every intention of doing things that will have adverse effects on this country and its people.
In the presidential campaign he stressed that he was going to make certain that American workers would no longer be treated as second class citizens. However, this past September he announced that he was going to cut back on pay increases for federal workers; even though many of them had worked tirelessly to help the recovery after Hurricane Harvey smashed into Houston.
A few months ago we heard that Trump had directed the EPA to review its recent decision to further reduce auto gas emissions by mandating that automakers produce autos that average 50 miles an hour by the year 2025. Why do something that will bring more destruction to this planet?
He and his GOP colleagues did everything possible to destroy Obamacare and failed miserably. So what is their next move on this issue? Well, they are going to slash various areas of funding for this critically important program that millions of Americans depend upon. They are going to, in effect, attempt to starve it to the point that it dies.
Trump wants to increase production in the coal mining sector which, as most Americans know, is a dying industry. If anything, we should be phasing out the use of coal and going to natural gas and then solar power. Coal miners should be given training in new skills and helped to secure other jobs. His strategy of lowering safety and health standards in this industry would endanger miners’ lives. That makes no sense.
The entire world was aghast when this president decided that he would withdraw America from the Paris Climate Accord. As if that were not enough he is also aiming to roll back any number of Obama administration policies that were instituted to curb climate change and environmental pollution.
Trump wants to turn the “dreams” of those under the DACA program, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, into a living nightmare by making some 800,000 young Hispanics who were brought to this country as minors by their parents, eligible for deportation.
Shortly after he made that announcement he turned the issue over to the Congress to deal with, another one of the expeditious copouts that he does so well. This issue is now up in the air and who knows what will happen to these undocumented immigrants who did not choose to come here illegally.
These are only some of the examples of the damaging policies and actions that Trump has taken that are detrimental to this country and its people. Here’s a frightening thought; this president, if he is not impeached or found to be involved in collusion with Russia by Robert Mueller and his team, has 40 more months in office.
How many more of these detrimental actions can he take? And of even greater importance; how much more can this country and its people take?
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