President Donald J. Trump’s first week was pretty damn good.
He kept promises by signing a flurry of executive actions, as he promised. You may not like them, but he ran on them and followed through. Promises made, promises kept.
His inauguration day was also a triumph with him attending at least three balls and giving speeches or remarks at all of them. He looked as fresh at midnight as he did shortly after daybreak.
He was a whirling dervish at 78, and a remarkable contrast to his stiff-legged and sometimes slow-witted predecessor.
The following week, not so much.
Without going into too much detail, he fired almost 20 inspectors general, without giving Congress the required 30 days notice and reasons for the discharge.
Critics say he is deliberately testing two things — his power under the Constitution, and Congress’ willingness to put up with him big footing on its turf.
I know most Republican elected officials fear being primaried if they ignore Trump’s wishes, but at some point they are going to either assert their authority, or start wearing slave collars.
The question is when.
I felt the last two attempts to successfully impeach him was an example of wasted energy. Democrats didn’t have the votes to convict.
The next impeachment (if there is one) will succeed. Why? Because Republicans will join it because of Trump’s inability to control his emotions. He will go too far.
In an act of wilful vengeance, he removed security details from his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and his national security advisor John Bolton, both of whom are on Iranian assassination lists. They fell out of favor, and, basically, got a death sentence from their former boss.
Another example? Firing prosecutors and FBI agents involved in the investigation and prosecution of Jan. 6 rioters.
There probably were some excesses, but the vast majority of people charged were convicted, with many pleading guilty.
Unleashing fury against Jack Smith is understandable (if questionable) but targeting individual FBI agents who were following lawful commands? What kind of a commander does that?
A lot of law enforcement groups that favored Trump as a candidate got a real sour taste in their mouths when he pardoned people who had assaulted police officers.
Then there was the botched freezing of federal spending that was poorly thought out, implemented, and explained.
No need for details. It was a botch, as proved by the administration having to explain it several times.
It reminded me of Trump’s flawed appointees — Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kash Patel, and Tulsi Gabbard.
This I can tell you: When most of your time on the stand is spent refusing to answer, pretending not to understand the question, or denying what you had said in published or broadcast remarks, you are in trouble.
Doesn’t mean they won’t get the job, but this is an exercise in politics, not policy.
Shall I mention his brainless and clumsy attempt to connect DEI with an air tragedy when he should have been comforting victims’ families, and reassuring the narion?
Shooting from the hip, he’s like a pig on ice skates. There’s no telling where he will go next. In a few sentences he managed to spread blame on the air controller, the helicopter, and DEI.
Now, unjustified tariffs on our friends, Canada and Mexico, and our adversary, China.
On this one, the jury is out.
Most experts say tariffs raise consumer prices.
Some say they won’t.
Trump’s impetuous nature is putting his control of both houses of Congress on the line.
If prices (and inflation) do go up, that will be “promise made, promise not kept.”
That will almost certainly lead to Democrats taking the House in two years, effectively tying Trump’s hands.
And he will have brought it on himself.
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I am bewildered at how quickly things are deteriorating. Trump and Musk are conducting a hostile coup and nobody is stopping them. Trump’s tariffs are going to lead to a massive stock market sell off on Monday and price hikes are going to be shocking. At this point I feel like I’m staring into an abyss.
With the judicial system corrupted, the legislative branch a cult on one side and an utter void on the other, the White House bacchanal is just warming up.
And now Musk, a private citizen, has gained control of the nation’s purse strings. This is a hostile takeover of our nation’s checkbook. Trump has given the richest man ever the keys to the bank vault and access to all our personal information.
I used to like living in a republic. I wonder, has John Roberts awakened to what he has unleashed yet? Are the MAGAts happy at what they voted for? Or are they even paying attention?
How could you not be happy. The border is secure. We are deporting illegal immigrants. The country is getting safer every day. There is a cease fire in the Middle East and the hostages are coming home. And Trump makes it look easy. All of the death that could have been javoided but people like you voted for the incompetent Biden. Trump gets things done. You might not like how he goes about it but the country and the world should be happy we have a president that knows what he’s doing. Harris would have been a disaster.
Besides being unable to reason deductively, Daniel, can you also nor read? Stu outlined it all for you above. You choose to ignore facts. You are the perfect Trumper, and you would have gone right along with the crowd in Germany in 1933. I pity you.
It’s going to be a great 4 years hearing you whining and crying about Trump as he makes America great again.
Incapable and hopeless dear Freeze. I'm not going to bother reasoning with these fools.
This is shock therapy. And, of course, there are risks. Unfortunately, the body politic had deteriorated to such a point that anything less would have no effect. "Following lawful orders" is no excuse. Our public institutions are corrupt and need purging. I personally think the patient will live and be better for it.
You aren’t describing a great week
A couple of general thoughts, without getting into the specifics of what he's doing. One is the weak, spineless Congress that will put up with just about anything in an attempt to keep their jobs. The other is the incompetence of leadership in crisis. Pointing out the flaws, real or perceived, in first the LA fires and second to the midair collision over Reagan National Airport. A real leader would've reacted with concern for the victims, and held their tongue (definitely not his strong suit) and waited for investigations to be completed before his political pandering to his base and casting blame with zero evidence. Unfortunately, this is the idiot in charge and we're stuck with someone who plays politics, and is not a good businessman.
He has never taken responsibility for a single thing in his entire life. This is the exact opposite of true leadership. It's disgusting.
One other observation. Just like his buddy, Comrade Vlad, he's started, not a shooting war, but a trade war, with our neighbors to the north and south. What is it about these guys that just crave conflict, thinking they'll make the lives of the people they're tasked with leading better? There was no reason to just pull the trigger on this economic warfare this quickly.
You can’t think of a single reason why this could be a good time to trigger tariffs? No even one?
Please explain? Canada and Mexico are going to hit us with the same tariffs. What's it going to accomplish?
In his first term, Bannon was the main problem character & as soon as he was out of the picture, he had a decent term. This time Musk js the serpent that is creating this disastrous start. It is unbelievable how corrupt and illegally that guy has been abusing the government these past 2 weeks and he of course had the POTUS’ rubber stamp.
POTUS needs to lose Musk at the earliest possible if he wants a decent legacy & have some positive accomplishments like he did the first term.
You can't make an omelet without breaking the eggs.
But I ordered pasta. 😀
I would like to say that I told you so, when it comes to Trump and his merry band of delinquent narcissistic worshippers who mistake rash and sudden errors in economics and diplomacy seem relevant. But whether I did or whether I wasn’t heard is irrelevant as our national will crumbles under a blitzkrieg of bombastic and destructive political chicanery.
Projecting a future of problems has become easier this week for some as some continue to follow the mandates of the most absurd bunch of public appointments that our nation has ever had to suffer. An increasingly compliant congress whose majority considers their party before the everyday needs of ordinary humans abandons their sworn duty to protect our Constitution and serve with due dilligence.
They, in fact, serve nothing beyond their need to pretend they are following a great leader as they fail to understand that their role is to protect legislative prerogatives and change laws in an orderly fashion.
Their obedience to the executive branch indicates the present majority is inept and corrupted by their own self-interests.
Negotiation of interests is a function of good intellectual processes and doesn’t function well while bullies are wielding hatchets instead of appoint the art of studied compromises and orderly and considerate leadership in a Republic. They do not appear to be considering our futures as they seek to secure policies that are not legislative by abdicating their duty to provide objective, real time, oversight that the laws they created are carefully followed.
Factually, we lack a strong way for the public to re-call errant officials. The excuse for not having this tool is that such laws would be too extreme. Even as law officers are being persecuted for following their duty to investigate. The courts must understand their duty is to make sure that their prosecutors are protected as well as those who are charged are.
Where is due process?
What is extreme is punishing law officers by installing inept leadership and then ending programs without the debate of the congress who legislated their creation.
Moving fast to make questionable changes so that the damage cannot be undone in this present world of chaos is short sited and irresponsible in a democracy.
Our constitution and its meaning have lost meaning because those who swore and oath to protect this republic have trashed their duties in favor of being loyal to a man who acts as if he is the proverbial bull in a china shop!
Where I grew up, it was "a cub bear on roller skates." I like "a pig on ice skates," though.