The news has been dominated by the idiocies and excesses of the Trump administration ever since it took power in late January. During that time, Trump has shown the same relentless flair to gain media attention that he did throughout the presidential campaign last year. In fact, it sometimes seems like he is still running for president, as he still holds what amounts to pep rallies, and what feels like campaign stops, with surprising and alarming frequency. Have we ever had someone elected to public office who still seems to want to continue what amounts to campaign rallies, the way Trump is doing? Have we ever seen anyone brag to this extent about his election win (conveniently allowing himself to forget or ignore that he lost the popular vote by nearly three million votes), even to foreign heads of state, or to a boy scouts? Have we ever seen anything like the pettiness of his incessant tweeting, or the revolving door feel of this entire administration thus far? Has the United States ever had a "leader" who so clearly turns the stomachs of other world leaders, such as he did with the leaders of Mexico, Germany, and even the Vatican? Could even the most cynical of Trump detractors have imagined that quite a few foreign heads of states would so boldly and consistently declare that they no longer felt that they could rely on the United States as a fair and serious partner any longer?
Indeed, this is not even news anymore. So conditioned has this country become to the generally imbecilic nature of this administration, that the news itself does not have to be distorted or exaggerated to become a punch line around the world. For many Americans, such as myself, the fact that this man was even considered a serious candidate by so many was embarrassing, and his election victory served as a humiliating low point, exceeded only by his performance on the job thus far. It has been one disaster after another, from the loud and dramatic announcement that he was a climate change denier by he would be withdrawing his country from the Paris Accord, to his much quieter backing away on campaign promises, such as to force Mexico to pay for the wall, to the staggering levels of leaks from this administration, and the constant removal and resignations of high-ranking members, followed of course by news of brand new hires. Scaramucci was only one of the most recent and ridiculous, with the man seeming to be an even cheaper version of Trump himself. Despite his resemblance to Trump in many ways, the President liked him so much that he kept him on for all of 10 days!
Yet, his supporters continue to love this guy. Despite all of the obvious chaos, despite the embarrassments, and despite the obvious and glaring lack of any major wins for a man who, as candidate, promised to get the country to win like never before, they have been remarkably forgiving for all of his trespasses and failings. He is a loud mouth who always claims to be more of an expert than he really is, with just about everything, and he has easy and quick answers to complex questions, which is probably why he lacks both credibility and any distinctive achievements through six months in power. After all, the rest of the world, and their leaders, are a lot more demanding of serious answers apparently than the American voting public is, so Trump's shallow, hollow words and loud approach was bound not to work nearly as well once he was in the Oval Office and represented the nation, as it did in getting there by simply convincing enough people that he could actually do the job (which he has shown no capacity for thus far).
Still, so long as Trump fans continue to lend him their unconditional support, then this president will obviously just continues to lie, to tweet and betray his pettiness and immaturity in the process, and to show one and all how big of a mouth and how mean of a spirit he has. Unfortunately, in this day and age, someone with quick and easy answers, and a great big mouth with which to pronounce them and show off his false and undeserved sense of overconfidence in himself is enough to convince many less than objective people that he is right, and that the problem is with everything and everyone else, instead of with their man.
It has been seven months and change that this man has been in office, and in that time, he has offered nothing more than endless chaos with a revolving door White House cabinet, and ridiculous and unnecessary drama and controversies. He has flirted with white supremacy, with nuclear war with North Korea (and do any of us believe that China would not get involved at that point?), with insulting and/or extremely inflexible behavior towards other world leaders, with ridiculous speeches and/or comments, followed by a cleaned up speech clearly written by others with an eye towards cleaning up public relations, and more often than not followed by Trump sliding back towards idiocy once again.
Just endless nonsense and drama with this Trump White House, and yet he has assured us, and still most likely would, that it runs like a well-oiled machine.
Right.
It has been seven months and change that this man has been in office, and in that time, he has offered nothing more than endless chaos with a revolving door White House cabinet, and ridiculous and unnecessary drama and controversies. He has flirted with white supremacy, with nuclear war with North Korea (and do any of us believe that China would not get involved at that point?), with insulting and/or extremely inflexible behavior towards other world leaders, with ridiculous speeches and/or comments, followed by a cleaned up speech clearly written by others with an eye towards cleaning up public relations, and more often than not followed by Trump sliding back towards idiocy once again.
Just endless nonsense and drama with this Trump White House, and yet he has assured us, and still most likely would, that it runs like a well-oiled machine.
Right.
As I mentioned before, Trump has been so bad, that even several Republican members of Congress have started to criticize him, and that is really saying something! They almost never criticize a sitting Republican president. Yet somehow, Trump just rubs many people, both progressives and conservatives, the wrong way, often coming across as a pompous prick.
Gee, I wonder why they get that impression.
Honestly, I seriously believe that Donald Trump is likely the most arrogant human being alive today. Maybe there were other world leaders who could compare with this man's unbelievable ego, but only the most despotic tyrants can compare to this man's legendary hubris. What makes it worse is when you actually listen to this man speak, and see his actions, and then recognize that he is such a limited and limiting man in every way. Frankly, it is depressing. All that this man cares about is that he is the center of attention, one way or the other. You almost start to believe that he does not care what kind of news he makes, so long as he is at the center of it. It does not apparently bother him that the world as a whole rejected his announcement to withdraw from the Paris Accord, or that he seems to sympathize with Nazis and other white supremacists. If you look at history, it seems clear that he is addicted to being the center of attention and controversy on a daily basis. It is enough to make you wonder if this is indeed an addiction, or an illness. The idea that he might literally be insane has been bounced around, but he really does seem mentally unfit to hold high office. There is just a lack of stability with the man.
The thing is, that is something that cannot be fully confirmed. And in any case, his supporters will predictably disregard any criticisms of him, echoing the president's own claims that any and all criticisms are "fake news." We all know that facts seem to matter less than they ever have in modern times. That is part of the Trump legacy, and not a small part, either. Frankly, I believe that this will be the legacy of these sad times that we know of as the Trump era, or what I would refer to as the Trump error.
So, we cannot likely rely on people to be objective and, let's face it, intelligent enough to see Trump's behavior for what it is. But we can pound home the fact that this man seems to conduct himself, and the office he now represents, in such a manner that many find offensive and/or inadequate. The implications suggest - strongly suggest - that he is not fit to hold the high office that he now holds. That he is unworthy of it, and that his conduct has lowered the bar considerably.
I never got around to publishing this post, which includes some damning quotes by GOP Senator Jeff Flake, who recently wrote a book which took aim at some of President Trump's idiocies. In that book, titled “Conscience of a Conservative”, Jeff Flake wrote that the “strategy is difficult to detect” in the “tweeting life of our president”.
He goes on:
“Influencing the news cycles seems to be the principal goal; achieving short-term tactical advantage, you bet. But ultimately, it's all noise and no signal.”
Mr. Flake also added some more fuel to this fire when he went on a cable channel MSNBC:
“If we ascribe the worst motives to our opponents and demean them and call them clowns or losers, you just lose the ability to sit down and solve the big issues and actually enact conservative policy.
“That's the paradox of all of this. You know, somehow conservatism has become being mean or loud, and you can't enact conservative policy if you act that way.”
It is a pretty unimpressive resume that Trump brought to the presidential campaign. Yet, his campaign was successful because he did what he had done throughout his life, which was to disregard facts and greatly inflate his own grandeur. It is a sign of these times, and where the heads of millions of Americans are right now, that many people bought into it. Despite overwhelming evidence that this man hardly ever speaks the plain truth, and despite a shady past filled with lies and wild exaggerations, he had tens of millions of supporters.
So, if we as a nation could easily see this coming, and if indeed, the Trump administration can really only be defined thus far by staggering levels of incompetence, by lies, by unprecedented corruption, arrogance, crassness, and immaturity, then what does that say about us?
So, if we as a nation could easily see this coming, and if indeed, the Trump administration can really only be defined thus far by staggering levels of incompetence, by lies, by unprecedented corruption, arrogance, crassness, and immaturity, then what does that say about us?
Republican senator's claim Trump's tweets are 'all noise and no signal' could cost him his seat The Independent Alexandra Wilts The Independent2 August 2017
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