Donald Trump was not a candidate who should have been taken seriously.
Yet somehow, in this American society completely filled with hypocrisy and paradoxes, where adults act like children who refuse to grow up or take any responsibility, and where anger and a false sense of entitlement seems to govern the actions and political leanings of people on both sides of the political aisle, perhaps it was inevitable that the last man who should ever have been entrusted with the awesome powers of the White House wound up being elected President.
And so, we had a clown elected into our highest office, to be the voice and face of the nation for at least four years. Soon, once he actually took the oath, the circus came to Washington. Ever since Trump officially became President, it has been ridiculous drama and nonsense without end, as the bar for personal conduct and public persona for such a high ranking public official keeps getting lower and lower. He makes an ass of himself by boasting about his big election win to other world leaders, when everyone understands he lost the popular vote by nearly three million. Within hours of meeting Trump, heads of former allied nations publicly state that they can no longer trust the United States. He is condemned worldwide for refusing to strongly criticize Nazis marching on American streets. He is condemned the world over for pulling the United States out of the Paris Accord on the grounds that he does not believe in the science. He is condemned universally for referring to numerous other nations - mostly African and Central American nations, as well as Haiti - as "shithole nations." He has threatened to wipe out an entire nation off the map, before the United Nations, no less! And the White House has sure looked like a revolving door place of employment, with an astonishingly high turnover ratio. He has spent more time golfing and away from his Presidential duties than likely any other President in history, and this after he promised not to take vacations and, specifically, not to play golf, back when he was just a candidate!
Yes, Trump has brought all sorts of new lows and produced a stunning amount of lies. It seems that there are more lies, perhaps even far more lies, than there are truths coming from the Trump White House.
Indeed, the perception that many Trump detractors had, including myself, was that this man was actually an overgrown child. That meant that the big hope that many people had was that he would be surrounded with...well, adults, who would reign in his behavior. That's a sad statement, of course, but it also rang true. Look at how it was worded in an article for New York Magazone by Jonathan Chai just a few days ago:
"From the outset of his presidency, to which he was elevated with barely any preparation, Donald Trump was surrounded by a protective cordon of advisers, as a child monarch might. In return for absorbing his tantrums, they would educate their unsteady charge, who would wind up, after pratfalls and drama, inflicting no more ruin on the country than a normal modern Republican president might. (Which, to be sure, is quite a bit of ruin). Somehow it seemed we might muddle through."
Not exactly a note of praise there for our beloved leader, is it? Yet, that is exactly how most people felt the Trump presidency would be, if we were to survive it. That this highly volatile and explosive manchild would need to be kept in check, for all intents and purposes.
Well, with the revolving door nature of White House jobs clearly established, and with Trump's ego meaning that Trump would blame others and make them fall on the sword, as well as his obvious desire to show that he can put on his big boy pants and be the man in charge that he likes to pretend to be, maybe we should have known that sooner or later, he would get some equally dangerous people surrounding him.
And so it is that we now have a new Trump team, and these guys might not be as good as the previous guys at trying to keep Trump in check, which is a scary thought.
Case in point, here comes chickenhawk John Bolton as the National Security Adviser.
You might remember Bolton from about a decade and a half or so ago, right? He's the guy with the mustache which, at the time, reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut. Well, his mustache has not really changed and, unfortunately, neither have his views. At the time, he urged the United States to go ahead and invade Iraq, and said that he felt confident that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
This is a man who always seems to think that the military option - which is supposed to be the absolutely late resort - is the first solution that the United States should turn to whenever a nation displeases him, or this nation. He has suggested that there is only the possibility of war left with Iran and North Korea, and has publicly stated that the United States should have struck years ago.
With a man like that now advising President Trump, who himself is trigger happy and seemingly dangerously unstable, we might have some serious problems ahead.
Yet somehow, in this American society completely filled with hypocrisy and paradoxes, where adults act like children who refuse to grow up or take any responsibility, and where anger and a false sense of entitlement seems to govern the actions and political leanings of people on both sides of the political aisle, perhaps it was inevitable that the last man who should ever have been entrusted with the awesome powers of the White House wound up being elected President.
And so, we had a clown elected into our highest office, to be the voice and face of the nation for at least four years. Soon, once he actually took the oath, the circus came to Washington. Ever since Trump officially became President, it has been ridiculous drama and nonsense without end, as the bar for personal conduct and public persona for such a high ranking public official keeps getting lower and lower. He makes an ass of himself by boasting about his big election win to other world leaders, when everyone understands he lost the popular vote by nearly three million. Within hours of meeting Trump, heads of former allied nations publicly state that they can no longer trust the United States. He is condemned worldwide for refusing to strongly criticize Nazis marching on American streets. He is condemned the world over for pulling the United States out of the Paris Accord on the grounds that he does not believe in the science. He is condemned universally for referring to numerous other nations - mostly African and Central American nations, as well as Haiti - as "shithole nations." He has threatened to wipe out an entire nation off the map, before the United Nations, no less! And the White House has sure looked like a revolving door place of employment, with an astonishingly high turnover ratio. He has spent more time golfing and away from his Presidential duties than likely any other President in history, and this after he promised not to take vacations and, specifically, not to play golf, back when he was just a candidate!
Yes, Trump has brought all sorts of new lows and produced a stunning amount of lies. It seems that there are more lies, perhaps even far more lies, than there are truths coming from the Trump White House.
Indeed, the perception that many Trump detractors had, including myself, was that this man was actually an overgrown child. That meant that the big hope that many people had was that he would be surrounded with...well, adults, who would reign in his behavior. That's a sad statement, of course, but it also rang true. Look at how it was worded in an article for New York Magazone by Jonathan Chai just a few days ago:
"From the outset of his presidency, to which he was elevated with barely any preparation, Donald Trump was surrounded by a protective cordon of advisers, as a child monarch might. In return for absorbing his tantrums, they would educate their unsteady charge, who would wind up, after pratfalls and drama, inflicting no more ruin on the country than a normal modern Republican president might. (Which, to be sure, is quite a bit of ruin). Somehow it seemed we might muddle through."
Not exactly a note of praise there for our beloved leader, is it? Yet, that is exactly how most people felt the Trump presidency would be, if we were to survive it. That this highly volatile and explosive manchild would need to be kept in check, for all intents and purposes.
Well, with the revolving door nature of White House jobs clearly established, and with Trump's ego meaning that Trump would blame others and make them fall on the sword, as well as his obvious desire to show that he can put on his big boy pants and be the man in charge that he likes to pretend to be, maybe we should have known that sooner or later, he would get some equally dangerous people surrounding him.
And so it is that we now have a new Trump team, and these guys might not be as good as the previous guys at trying to keep Trump in check, which is a scary thought.
Case in point, here comes chickenhawk John Bolton as the National Security Adviser.
You might remember Bolton from about a decade and a half or so ago, right? He's the guy with the mustache which, at the time, reminded me of Kurt Vonnegut. Well, his mustache has not really changed and, unfortunately, neither have his views. At the time, he urged the United States to go ahead and invade Iraq, and said that he felt confident that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.
This is a man who always seems to think that the military option - which is supposed to be the absolutely late resort - is the first solution that the United States should turn to whenever a nation displeases him, or this nation. He has suggested that there is only the possibility of war left with Iran and North Korea, and has publicly stated that the United States should have struck years ago.
With a man like that now advising President Trump, who himself is trigger happy and seemingly dangerously unstable, we might have some serious problems ahead.
John Bolton’s Cozy Relationship With Anti-Muslim Hate Groups Should Disqualify Him From Public Service by Eli Clifton, December 14, 2016:
https://www.thenation.com/article/john-boltons-cozy-relationship-with-anti-muslim-hate-groups-should-disqualify-him-from-public-service/
Nobody Is Left to Save the World From Trump Now By Jonathan Chai, March 22, 2018:
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