Answer: All Hat and Crazy Cowboy. Unfortunately, this is the role being projected by President Donald Trump. Hard times call for hard actions. Unclear direction calls for clear leadership. Nonsensical government calls for common sense in practice. These are the challenges that lay before Trump when he came into office like a hurricane. But if you want to be the badass…if you want to be the gunslinger…you best have your target zeroed, your guns fully loaded, and have a clear, confident, and committed intention to follow through after drawing your gun. Trump has demonstrated some of these with his rhetorical and blustery attack on the ridiculous four-year reign of foolishness foisted upon us by the Biden Administration. But he has yet to put them all in play cohesively.
The
Good Lord knows that the wreckage left in the wake of his predecessor was a
target-rich environment for shrinking, reforming, and refocusing our government
on its pure constitutional purpose. But
as I have written before…simply being right about something does not give one
the leeway to go about the rectification in any fashion they choose. To put it bluntly…Trump is not only killing
flies with a sledgehammer; he is creating serious collateral damage with his
wild swings and is oftentimes missing the intended target. Now some of these flies are bad characters
and need killing; but the table is set for Trump to go after them in a clear,
concise, and reasonable fashion that solves the fundamental problem without
creating a swarm of new ones.
A
leader with conviction and courage is to be admired…and that admiration will
flow accordingly when the leader demonstrates those qualities in a consistent
and reasonable way. But when the
conviction changes from day to day and when the courage is repeatedly adjusted
by moving the bar up and down, then the true quality of the courage and
conviction is understandably questioned.
There can be order in controlled
chaos; but there is only disorder in uncontrolled
chaos.
It
is abundantly clear that Donald Trump spent the four years following his first
term thinking seriously about what he would do if he were to regain the
presidency. Not only did he think about
it, he actually developed a list of people he wanted to recruit into that
mission. Many of the individuals that he
has taken into his Administration are thoughtful, intelligent, competent, and
honorable men and women who fully understand the wrongs that need to be righted
and how to develop an approach to that process.
But many of them are also thoughtful, intelligent, not so competent, and not so
honorable men and women whose primary
attribute was their willingness to kiss the ring of the president. Come on, Donald…do not repeat the Biden shame
of never firing anyone no matter how incompetent
they are. When things go south with
an appointee…man up, admit your mistake, and fire them. There are too many good ones out there and available
to put up with duds.
Break
the china. Shatter the glass
ceilings. Shake up the status quo. Rethink old and outdated attitudes and
practices. Bring onto your team people
you can trust and who share your vision.
Seize the opportunity and authority that you have been given to deliver
the promises you have made. But for
heaven’s sake…think about how to do
this. Taking sloppy, questionably-legal,
and sometimes slapstick approaches to solving problems that clearly need fixing
does not accomplish that which is
necessary. Sending out mixed messages on
a daily basis only confuses the citizens that support the effort. Putting multiple people forth as your
messenger who are not coherent and who sometimes openly disagree with each
other does not promote your policies. It only provides those who are invested in
opposing you at all costs with the openings they need to slow down the game,
run out the clock, sabotage the mission, and distort the image of what should
be a clear and honest effort to fix what ails our great nation.
In
no area has this type of behavior been more damaging to Trump than in the
chaotic implementation of his tariffs.
What was introduced as a cogent and sensible new approach to fair and
free trade has morphed into a shifting set of principles built on the sands of
uncertainty…sands that blow in different directions each day depending on the
source of the winds. Because he is
limited to one term in office, it is understandable that Trump feels immense
pressure to do as much as he can as quickly as possible. But he must soon come to terms with the fact
that he cannot change everything that is wrong with our government in the time
he has left in office. He must begin to
prioritize which issues are most important; take a calculated and legal approach
to that effort using not only his Executive authority but also his Legislative
support; and take every precaution possible that the fixes are accomplished in
a way that are as quick and efficient as possible, yet will endure because they
were done within the parameters of our Judicial branch. If he does not soon come to terms with these
realities, not only will he fail to accomplish a great deal of good works…but the good works that he does manage to
accomplish will fall prey to those who oppose him today…and in the
future.
I support Trump’s basic approach to
fair trade, reciprocal tariffs, and the use of economic leverage for worthy
foreign policy. But for the life of me,
I cannot fully grasp the logic in his “let’s
throw it all against the wall and see what sticks” tariff policy that he is
unfolding before us.
Our
largest and oldest trading partners have become far too comfortable with the entitlement
they presume when taking advantage of our decades-old and lax free trade
policies. That dynamic certainly needs to be reset. But shoving them into the arms of China will
only result in a brief sugar-high…followed by witnessing the tragic results of these
conceited globalists’ poor decision to climb into bed with the PRC. Then, all too soon, the whole world would
have to deal with the foreign policy and global/national security concerns that
would naturally flow from that catastrophic development. We should all keep in mind that the entire
tariff brouhaha is a subtext to the larger challenge of heading off the global
domination ambitions of China. Therein lays
the true threat.
https://amgreatness.com/2019/05/19/the-china-problem-or-is-it-the-joe-biden-problem/
https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/14/china-would-lose-a-trade-war-with-the-us-gradually-then-suddenly/
https://jamestown.org/program/the-prc-sees-window-of-opportunity-with-europe/
https://www.reuters.com/world/trade-crisis-china-courts-eu-hedge-against-trump-2025-04-11/
https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/16/trump-confronts-economic-and-geopolitical-reality/
https://reason.com/2025/04/15/are-trumps-liberation-day-tariffs-illegal/
https://www.yahoo.com/news/us-tariffs-could-eu-exactly-091640202.html
https://frontierview.com/insights/eu-china-trade-tensions/
https://justthenews.com/world/melonioa
How important is this? Educating
the next generation of our leadership…
https://www.nationalreview.com/2025/04/harvard-discovers-what-federal-money-costs/
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/04/harvard-says-no.php
https://www.city-journal.org/article/trump-harvard-funding-freeze-anti-semitism-race-dei
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/a-new-era-for-higher-education/
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/north-carolinas-reach-act-a-big-step-forward/
https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/16/the-latest-school-funding-freakout/
https://amgreatness.com/2025/04/14/we-need-to-start-a-revolution-in-every-school-district/
Combine the “Deep State” with opposition party “Lawfare” and you have one very noxious…and stupid…creation.
https://www.nationalreview.com/bench-memos/an-interbranch-commitment-to-the-rule-of-law/
Hey DOGE…you keep hacking
away. But maybe think about getting a
bigger axe?
https://americanmind.org/salvo/is-doge-enough/
Four quick notes on the world
around us…
The Dems, the Media, and the
Lib/Progressive collective keep screaming that the economic sky is
falling. Maybe so…maybe not…
https://mrctv.org/blog/craig-bannister/consumer-prices-fall-1st-time-trumps-1st-term
We have gone through four long
years of disinformation and quasi-censorship.
It needs to stop. But…we must be
careful not to go over the top and unconstitutionally censor the bad actors…
https://reason.com/2025/04/12/neither-trump-nor-the-a-p-controls-our-words/
There is a good pathway to
“partner” with Greenland and accomplish the dual goals of rare mineral
production and international security.
But perhaps the Trump approach of putting a rhetorical gun to their
heads is not the best way to accomplish these goals…
https://english.news.cn/20250329/d2de4fb229ea4b6fa826241ef1c16bfd/c.html
Boxing used to be a beautiful and
classic sport; not so much today. The
greatest action of all oftentimes took place in the middle and lightweight
divisions. Here was one of the greatest…
Here is a good summary:
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/40-years-later-hagler-hearns-003847050.html
Here is the fight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq38ne7GTdI
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