The Trump Dilemma: Present and Future

President Donald Trump’s ardent supporters put forth the premise that his many documented domestic policy accomplishments would not have been achievable without his unconventional, bombastic approach to governing.  Without a doubt, his art of the deal principles have aided him in his quest for keeping campaign promises and goals.  I cannot imagine that any of the dozen or so Republicans who opposed Trump for the Republican Presidential nomination could have achieved what Trump has.  It is becoming quite obvious to anyone paying attention that President Trump will not be changing his political disposition anytime soon and is, in fact, broadening its presence in his domestic policy initiatives and actually expanding its domain into the foreign policy realm.

The results of this combative and novel approach to foreign policy challenges are much more difficult to ascertain.  Material gains in foreign policy initiatives oftentimes take years, if not decades, to gauge and it is yet to be determined if his global adventures (and misadventures) will bear edible fruit or bitter rot.  Further complicating the comparison of this Trumpian style in each policy arena is the fact that Americans represent his culture while foreign nations represent their own unique cultures.  The Germans, the French, the Russians…none of these look at President Trump through the same lens as we Americans do.  Even though Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the United Kingdom may in many ways appear to be quite similar to President Trump, he is a uniquely different man in a uniquely different country populated by a uniquely different people and is facing uniquely different challenges. 

I continue to subscribe to the theory that Trump talks too much.  I honestly believe that even though his constant persecution (no…that is not too strong of a word) at the hands of the Democratic Party is inexcusable; he does himself little favor by gleefully jumping down in the mud with the Dems and joyfully slinging the slime at compensating levels.  In domestic affairs, I will yield to his apparent successes in his application of this strategy.  In foreign affairs, I will admit to significant unease with how this same approach will be viewed by our allies and our adversaries.  Will the same substantive success be realized in foreign policy as we have witnessed in domestic policy?  Time will be the ultimate judge of that question; but waiting for that conclusion is going to be disconcerting at best.

David French, who has been a reliable Trump critic, has written a very interesting article addressing this specific issue.  Here it is for your reading pleasure: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/more-evidence-the-guardrails-are-gone/ .  For myself, here are some of the instances that have given me pause when our President has seemingly gone over the top in his approach to executive leadership.  Nonetheless, I remain convinced that until a better option (Democrat or Republican) becomes available, we as a nation are resigned to the exasperating futility of hoping that President Trump may bend his modus operandi to one that is more civil and a bit more conventional.  

Item: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie.  James “Mad Dog” Mattis had respectfully declined to openly criticize President Trump because he was still serving as President.  Just as he criticized Obama after he had left office, he considered Trump open game…after he leaves office.  Unable to contain himself and under attack for his Syrian/Turkey strategy, Trump recently referred to Mattis as being over-rated.    Widely respected in a bi-partisan fashion, Mattis has now responded to Trump’s barbs in kind.  In his natural and direct manner, which is admirable in any man, Mattis has now skewered Trump and exposed the President’s blatant shallowness and hypocrisy in this incident. Mattis was content to remain silent; Trump was unable to.

Item: Nothing is Perfect.   President Trump’s stubborn description of his Ukrainian call with President Zelensky as perfect continues to be as indefensible as it was the day he first uttered it.  Trump’s mention of an ongoing U.S. Department of Justice investigation into foreign interference in the 2016 elections was a perfectly legitimate topic for discussion in this call; but it was extremely poor judgment for Trump to even deign a mention of Joe Biden, his son Hunter, or Burisma during this call.  Even though it clearly resides in the region of foolish error as opposed to impeachable offense and a solid case can be made that the Ukrainian President first brought up the Biden subject, Trump once again would have been well advised to keep his mouth shut.  His overt affection for the word “perfect” is proving to be a poisonous relationship.

Item: What is NOT Said is Oftentimes as Important as What IS Said.  The current Syrian/Turkey border affair is another instance where Trump’s instinctual policy is on solid ground (though some may legitimately disagree with it, it is nonetheless a reasonable and pragmatic approach that is defensible); but he weakens his case dramatically with his rhetorical bluster.  This is a pattern with Trump that we have seen repeated in the Immigration discussion, the North Korea nuclear discussion, and the China Trade discussion.  If silence is golden, then bluster is lead.  Trump would be well-served by hoarding more gold and dumping his lead.

Item: Overstating the Obvious.  Part of what strengthens the perception of President Trump as an arrogant and irresponsible egomaniac is his insatiable habit of overstating the obvious.  This behavior strikes me, and I am sure many others, as an insult to my intelligence.  Regardless of how perfect he might view himself, he needs to give interested observers (i.e. American voters) the rightful courtesy of making their own judgments on what is right and what is wrong, what is moral and what is immoral, what is ethical and what is unethical, and what makes plain old common sense.  Trump’s privileged life has led him to place excessive faith in his own wisdom, assume a sense of entitlement when it comes to leadership or discussion, and display a condescending manner that most reasonable people find disagreeable.  Donald Trump exhibits a painfully inadequate lack of self-perception.

Item: Incivility in Rhetoric.  No President in my lifetime has had to deal with more ridiculous and unsubstantiated criticism than Trump.  The unholy alliance of the Democratic Party and the Mainstream Media is an unreasonable and damaging arrangement that no President should have to endure.  Any reasonable person can understand the immense amount of frustration that President Trump must feel in having to contend with this barrage every hour of every day since his election.  One might even give him a benefit of a doubt when that frustration boils over and manifests itself in rhetoric that is coarse, uncivil, and full of hyperbole.  But Trump used up that benefit of a doubt long ago and anyone paying attention to current events cannot help but suspect that President Trump actually enjoys this type of back and forth.  That is not a good look for a President. 

The introduction of frequent crude language into political rhetoric began with the Democratic presidential candidates and has been gleefully joined into by Trump.  I am certainly open to criticism that I might be a hypocrite on this subject.  I am old school and harbor an intense dislike for the F-bomb; I consider it an indictment of our all-too-hip modern culture and totally unnecessary.  However, I too frequently drop a damn (never associated with god) or a hell or a shit in my own mutterings.  Although I try not to, I sometimes do this in the presence of my children and grandchildren.  That is inexcusable.  Anyone who knows me realizes I am not a model of social civility; but it should be a small hurdle for all of us to exercise civil language.  I need to do better and I am a simple, common man.  Is it too much to expect our elected, public officials to use civil language?  No…not in the least; and their failure to do so is largely to blame for the lowering of partisan incivility in this nation.  They are fully aware that the prestige of their positions confer upon them role model status.  You might think it is a small thing; but it has wide implications.  One’s failure to exercise personal restraint in such a small area is an indictment of our own lack of self-control. 

Whether he chooses to embrace it or not; President Trump is a role model for our nation.  We all knew of his ethical and moral record when we elected him President.  But that is not a free license for him to continue lowering the rhetorical standards for political discourse in this nation.  He needs to tone it down, clean it up, and think a bit more about what he is saying and how he is saying it.  Fighting fire with fire is an understandable defense and is occasionally effective…in selected circumstances.  But the adoption of this tactic as a full-time practice does nothing but escalate the irrationality of the discussion and it lowers the overall civility of the debate.  In my opinion, it is a sign of disrespect to anyone listening to use this type of speech and it comes very close to validating the Democrat’s hypocritical accusation of Trump espousing hate speech. 

Item: Gain Some Self-Awareness.  It is increasingly clear that President Trump does not realize his immense good fortune at being elected.  He was the beneficiary of being opposed by perhaps the weakest candidate in history and squeaking out an ultimate victory in winning by a razor-thin margin in a handful of states.  He is not President by acclamation nor by mandate.  He is not leading a unified nation with deep and broad bi-partisan support.  His own Party has many respected leaders who either openly oppose him or support him in an extremely passive fashion as a result of cold, political calculation.  He has benefited from extremely good fortune to rise to his office and has the extended good fortune of having idiots for political opponents.  All of these undeniable truths are apparently wasted on Donald Trump.  His arrogance and ego destroy any rationale presence of these concepts in his own mind; where he stands astride the American political world like a colossus.  Although the passage of time argues against it, we can only continue to hope that at some point in time, our President will gain some self-awareness and begin to express a modicum of appreciation for the privilege and honor incumbent in the office of the Presidency.  We can only hope that this obvious character flaw does not lead to his ultimate 2020 failure in the political arena.  The consequences of that outcome would be dire indeed.

Donald Trump has some pretty fervent followers.  Donald Trump is emphatically not a (S)avior.  Jesus was the son of God; Trump is the son of a man.  Jesus was born in a barn; Trump was born in a mansion.  Jesus was a child of poverty; Trump was a child of privilege and entitlement.  Jesus was the epitome of humility and servitude; Trump is an arrogant egotist.  It is questionable that Trump is even a (s)avior.  Rather than being the consummate leader; he is a cold, hard political calculation that just happens to be the most appealing choice on a very limited menu.  The sooner Trump can realize his deficiencies and fallacies, the better chance he will have in continuing to serve this nation as a Chief Executive.

BTW: Just to be even-handed in my political criticism, the Democrats from the House took a short break from their idiotic impeachment investigations to take a stab at foreign policy.  Think about that one for a moment; Speaker Pelosi and her band of fools conducting foreign policy.  Keep this in mind: President Trump was elected by all the voters in our nation; U.S. Representative Pelosi was elected by part of a single county and city in California (District 12, essentially the city of San Francisco).  I am very much amused by Pelosi attempting to sell this little field trip into one of the planet’s most contentious hotspots as bipartisan when the group is composed of eight Democrats and one Republican; a lame duck Rep from Texas.  Either this guy is a Democratic wolf in Republican sheep’s clothing or he is going to be very lonely on his overseas trip.

BTW II:  Sometimes, the stupidity of the Republican Party is simply astounding.  Reports are circulating that there are Republican Senators, supposedly led by Graham and Romney, who might consider convicting President Trump on impeachment charges if they are sent over by the House.  This should be qualified by the source of the media reports; but it is out there.  I have said it before and I will say it again: The U.S. Senate is as close as America comes to creating a royal class.  The entirety of this universe is insufficient to contain the ego masses that exist in the U.S. Senate.  For Republican Senators to even indicate a crack in the wall regarding something as serious as an impeachment conviction on the current accusations is the height of idiocy.  Every…single…U.S. Senator harbors a secret (some, not so secret) desire to be President.  You can rest assured that every Republican Senator that loudly and publicly criticizes President Trump goes to bed every night convinced that would be a better President than Trump.  The bald-faced ambition of these people is breath-taking. 

To ignore the multiple disastrous implications of a Democratically-controlled Senate is beyond the pale of naiveté.  For a sitting U.S. Republican Senator to do so is nothing short of an admission to self-serving hubris.  They should understand these implications better than anyone.  President Trump is fair game for criticism (see above) and certainly makes it difficult for Republicans in office to support him.  But Republican Senators had better step away from their mirrors long enough to appreciate that they are in the midst of a political war for the future of our nation and their leader needs every ounce of support (not blind loyalty) that they can muster.