![Is This Finally the End of Trump or Only the Beginning of the End?](https://fresnoalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/mike4augustGRAY-620x413.jpg)
By George B. Kauffman
My head is literally spinning! I simply canāt keep up with the frantic pace of events. The news is filled hourly or even at more frequent intervals with the hysterical, ignorant, illogical rants of Donald J. Trump, who now refers to himself in the third person as āthe President,ā but who contradicts what he tweeted only a few minutes previously. Here are a few of the mind-boggling events.
Bad news: Universally acclaimed hero Sen. John McCain (RāAriz.) was diagnosed with a virulent brain tumor. Trump has stated that McCain is ānot a war heroāI like people that werenāt captured.ā
On July 19, Trump said that he never would have appointed Attorney General Jeff Sessions had he known that Sessions would recuse himself from overseeing the Russia investigation that has dogged his presidency, calling the decision āvery unfair to the president.ā
Trump again made a claim that has been unsubstantiated, that he, not Hillary Clinton, won the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election. He cited illegal voter fraud.
Trump suggested that FBI Director James Comey tried to use an explosive Russia dossier as leverage to keep his job.
Trump set a red line for Special Counsel Robert Mueller probing Trump business transactions, and Mueller has reportedly crossed it.
Longtime conservative Republican Joe Scarborough of āMorning Joeā became an independent: āI did not leave the Republican Party. The Republican Party left its senses. The political movement that once stood athwart history resisting bloated government and military adventurism has been reduced to an amalgam of talk-radio resentments.
āPresident Trumpās Republicans have devolved into a party without a cause, dominated by a leader hopelessly ill-informed about the basics of conservatism, U.S. history and the Constitution.
Americaās first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, reportedly said that ānearly all men can stand adversity. But if you want to test a manās character, give him power.ā The current Republican president and the party he controls were granted monopoly power over Washington in November and already find themselves spectacularly failing Lincolnās character exam.
On July 17, Pulitzer Prizeā winning journalist Eugene Robinson, in an article titled āThis Country Deserves Much Better Than Trump,ā summarized the problem with Trump and his presidency: āItās exhausting, I know, but donāt let outrage fatigue numb you to the moral bankruptcy and gross incompetence of the Trump administration. This ugly departure from American norms and values must be opposed with sustained passionāand with the knowledge that things will probably get worse before they get better.ā
Heaven help us, look where we are. We have a presidentā commander-in-chief of the armed forces, ostensibly the leader of the free worldāwhose every word is suspect. President Trump is an inveterate liar. He dismisses provable facts as āfake newsā and invents faux facts of his own that bear no relationship to the truth. He simply cannot be trusted.
We have a president whose North Star is naked self-interest, not the good of the country. Trump cares about his family, his company and little else. He dishonors the high office he holds, then reportedly spends hours each day railing against cable news coverage that he finds insufficiently respectful. His ego is a kind of psychic black hole that devours all who come into its orbit.
We have a president whose eldest son, son-in-law and campaign chairman met with emissaries purportedly sent by the Russian government to deliver dirt on Trumpās opponent, Hillary Clinton. Trump claimed on Twitter that āmost politiciansā would have gone to such a meeting, which is another lie. Try to find politicians who say they would have attended.
We have a president who fired the director of the FBI for continuing to investigate āthis Russia thingāāa sophisticated effort by the Russian government, according to U.S. intelligence officials, to tip the election in Trumpās favor. Will he also try to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III? If he does, will Congress let him get away with it?
We have a presidentāwas he made in Russia?āwho has declared this to be āMade in Americaā week, despite the fact that so many of the retail products that bear his name or that of his daughter Ivanka are made in Mexico, China, Indonesia and Bangladesh. When asked about this irony by Politico, a White House spokesperson responded, āWeāll get back to you on that.ā They wonāt.
Trump has broken his promise to help the struggling middle class. After pledging health insurance āfor everybody,ā he supported legislation that would strip more than 20 million people of coverage. His approval rating, according to a new PostāABC News poll, has fallen to 36%āa historic low for a president at this point in his tenure. Yet Trump continues to enjoy strong support from self-identified Republicans, whose resentment against liberal āelitesā he plays like a violin.
His administration is in shambles. Members of his inner circle snipe at one another via anonymous quotes to reporters. They compete for the presidentās favor not by doing their jobs well but by showing a willingness to defend anything he says and does, no matter how ridiculous. In the space of a week, his surrogates went from āthe campaign had no meetings with Russiansā to āthere was a meeting but no collusionā to ācollusion is not actually a crime.ā One wonders how they sleep at night.
Trump presents the world with something new: In place of American leadership, there is a vacuum. In keeping with the pattern set at the Group of 20 Summit, adversaries will try to use Trumpās ignorance to their advantage while allies try to nudge him into doing the right thing. The āmadman theoryā of foreign relations can only be employed effectively by a leader who is actually steadfast and serious; Trump is neither.
There is no point in looking to Republicans for salvation. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (RāWis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (RāKy.) still hope to get Trump to sign into law massive cuts in taxes and entitlements. Many rank-and-file members fear Trumpās loyal support among the base. The former āparty of Lincolnā has adopted the moral code of the Oakland Raidersā late owner Al Davis: āJust win, baby.ā
So that is what Democrats and independents must doāwin. As long as there are pro-Trump majorities in the House and Senate, there will be no real Congressional oversight and no brake on an out-of-control presidentās excesses. Incumbency and gerrymandered districts mean that winning anti-Trump majorities in 2018 will be difficult. But not impossible.
The Democratic Party needs a plan, a message and a sense of urgency. Trump hopes to bully critics into submission, but the country is bigger than this one president. And much better.
On July 29, 2015, Trump stated, āThe American dream is dead. I alone can fix it.ā Presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin called Trumpās claim the antithesis of President Franklin D. Rooseveltās message that we are all in this together and we all need to work together.
When asked why they voted for Trump, his supporters said that they wanted something different. Theyāand unfortunately, weāgot it. However, by no stretch of the imagination can his antics and policies be considered ānormal.ā
If Trump is impeached, (His lawyers have already asked whether he can pardon himself and his family members (Lawyers differ on whether this is possible), then what?
We wind up with Vice President Mike Pence, thatās what! He may be even worse than Trump because he knows exactly what he wants. Heās anti-government, anti-abortion, anti-healthcare for all, anti-LGBT, among others. He opposes everything that progressives cherish.
Finally, I (GBK) ask: Is anyone considering moving to Canada?
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George B. Kauffman, Ph.D., chemistry professor emeritus at Fresno State and a Guggenheim Fellow, is a recipient of the American Chemical Societyās George C. Pimentel Award in Chemical Education, the Helen M. Free Award for Public Outreach and the Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution, and numerous domestic and international honors. In 2002 and 2011, he was appointed a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Chemical Society, respectively.