Rating Game Fun
Terry H. Schwadron
Shall we do our own 100-day review of Team Trump?
With assessments and self-assessments from all parts of official Washington, it may seem as overkill, but why not. Perhaps it could be fun rather than just a grim list of awful personal, professional and Presidential acts and statements.
Team Trump, the narcissism kings, have been extremely busy this week in ebulliently and loudly claiming that he is the most different, dramatic and successful of presidents, with ideas big and less about shaking up officialdom, kicking appointees from future lives as lobbyists, a winning campaign with a friendly Republican majority of a more conservative-leaning Supreme Court justice, and a vibrant anti-immigrant campaign. Such things as changes in taxes, health, infrastructure and jobs all have been mentioned, if not enacted, and done in bullet points rather than in enforceable policy, apparently enough for loyalists still awaiting a turnaround in coal. Yet the economy remains more or less as it has been, jobs are up slightly, and he has sown the seeds of environmental decline.
The team makes a rather weak case for having signed 29 pieces of legislation, but those include several ceremonial things like building-namings and bills to repeal whatever regulations former President Obama had put into effect, particularly relating to the environment. The rest was all by executive orders, the procedure that Trump the campaigner had singled out as bad behavior by his predecessor. And much of those, probably the most important ones, got smacked down by courts.
Over the first three-four months, President Trump has become yet more corporate-minded, yet more of a traditional Republican ideologue, much, much more unpredictable than any President we have seen. Anyone who disagrees is subject to public insult and social media denunciations.
That’s pretty much it for the upside.
Accomplishments for The First 100 Days of the Resistance, including the courts, in this case, is far longer. Resistance in the Senate basically is stopping full repeals of Obamacare, an effort which actually has run aground among Republicans in the House, and has proved mostly united in various skirmishes over tax changes, elimination of money to Planned Parenthood and such.
The far bigger and more important Resistance achievement has been renewed vigor among those who would oppose Trumpism in its various forms. Mr. Trump and his policies have kindkled a public reaction through town hall meetings around the country that challenge or shame Republican congress members. As minority leader, Sen. Chuck Schumer has become as popular a television image for No votes as has the President, but he has to elbow aside Republicans who insist Mr. Trump is not conservative enough.
Perhaps Resisters are making a claim to regain the term “populism” wrongly assigned to Team Trump. In any case, it is now expected that street protests will continue to draw large numbers for the full Trump term.
Meanwhile, the President has proved that he is tone-deaf to personal ethics issues from nepotism to hiding his personal tax filings to doing business while in office. He has proved to be totally focused on helping himself and those in the top of the 1 percent through taxes, regulations and policy-making.
The President has no discernable foreign policy beyond bland repetitions of the America-First slogans and approaches issues as independent, in-the-moment opportunities for improvised deal-making. Allies and enemies alike are confused, and ready on both sides to test U.S. resolve. He has befriended all but one authoritarian leader, and, within 100 days, he has already spun material for a handful of scandals.
Where the President and Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions have proved that their bullying touch is strongest when the other side involves individuals and families caught up in a cruel immigration enforcement process. Lots of people are getting hurt along the way, though not a single employer or business has been prosecuted.
It has been 100 days of real frustration over trying to listen and follow the thinking of a child-like neophyte who doesn’t know his way around. It has been cringe-making to hear each new government announcement, forcing a look around the room the determine who is at risk now. It has been 100 days of attacks on women, on immigrants, on Muslims, Jews, the poor.
The President hates science and the arts, almost anything that is not military, at least where spending is concerned. He has allowed loose talk to bring war ever closer, and has done little, despite all of his talk, to make us feel more secure on any level. He speaks without thinking first, and he is clueless about policy, policy and politeness. He exudes petulance, isolation and an inability to be able to recognize or respect fact, not to mention gathering them in some orderly manner so that they are subject to analysis. He is chaos walking, and walks aimlessly towards ill-defined goals. He can’t pick, run or listen to a team; he certainly cannot work with foes to disarm and charm. He lacks trust from and for anything outside of his family.
The amazing thing is that he managed to cement all of this in only 100 days.
On the other hand, Mr. Trump has made Stephen Colbert and other late night comics successful and busy night after night. I’m thankful.
Now that I think about it, there is not a whit of fun in trying to summarize what this presidential experience is like. Each week brings an additional of new problems that will make daily life worse.
Let’s see what the Resistance can bring about in 200 days.
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