What strikes me the most about Donald Trump’s recent executive orders (EOs) is how badly implemented they are. For example, Trump’s ban on Muslims — definitely illegal (already stayed by four separate federal judges) and almost certainly unconstitutional. And mass confusion with even members of the Trump administration contradicting each other on what the EO meant.
Many other EOs have been walked back, like his hiring freeze — taken back after veteran’s groups erupted in anger that the VA hospitals were not allowed to hire the additional doctors they were promised. The remaining EOs seem to be things that are meaningless, like saying we are going to increase funding for our military when only Congress can do that, or ordering a plan to defeat ISIS (like, what does he think the military has been doing?).
Even Republicans recognize how clumsy Trump has been. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) said “You have an extreme vetting proposal that didn’t get the vetting it should have.”
After a federal judge issued a stay on Trump’s Muslim ban and even said that the ACLU’s lawsuit against it had a “strong likelihood of success”, the ACLU put it more bluntly, saying “I hope Trump enjoys losing. He’s going to lose so much we’re going to get sick and tired of his losing.”
It is almost as if Trump just wants to make a big show for his most rabid supporters and either doesn’t care when these orders fail or turn out to be meaningless.
But it isn’t just Trump who is losing. What’s really sad is that while putting on a big show, he doesn’t care how many lives he destroys (like the Iraqi man who worked as an interpreter for the US Army, who was detained at JFK airport, until a Democratic congressman intervened to free him). Or the students who won’t be able to attend classes. Or the families torn apart.
He also doesn’t care that the terrorists are already using Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric as a recruiting tool. Or that Trump’s actions will actually hurt our efforts to fight terrorism. According to two Republican senators, “Ultimately, we fear this executive order will become a self-inflicted wound in the fight against terrorism.”
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Clearly this is President Bannon designing these EOs, while PINO registered for reelection in the 2020 race. PINO will continue campaigning for the next for years, while Bannon continues to “Make this country White again.” Little do people know that some of the slaves who came to this country were already Muslim, some converted to Christianity for expediency sake. “Last Slave ship in Alabama”
PINO wants “extreme vetting” to give preferential treatment to Christians. What a joke, it’s easy to pretend being a Christian. Republicans do it all the time.
So true, Ralph, so true….
Trumplestiltskin only cares about Trump, money, fame, not necessarily in that order. He’s not very bright, but has that canny cleverness that a lot of con men have. At some point, after the reactions to last weeks EO’s, he might actually have to try reading one or two of them. There again, I’m not totally convinced that he can read. I think he might have been paying people for decades to read things for him. He had a lot of power and money and if they read them wrong, then they were out. Now it’s not that easy. Many of us who can read, are paying too much attention. And of course that pesky press knows how to read as well. We have already seen the beginnings of push back on the press. It’s going to get worse. I think that Putin has dirt on him, and now I’m pretty sure Bannon does as well. One or both have their hands firmly up Trump’s plump rump, pulling the strings. If I could draw, I would draw that as a cartoon.
“It is almost as if Trump just wants to make a big show for his most rabid supporters and either doesn’t care when these orders fail or turn out to be meaningless.”
I guarantee you that he doesn’t care, and when his initiatives falter or fail completely, he’ll claim that it isn’t his fault.
He’ll find scapegoats and initiate legislation and EO’s that go farther than what he’s introduced already.
The inmates have taken over the asylum. I’m not getting the feeling that the “brain trust” (I use that term very loosely) has a whole lot of real brain power left. What may have been their former levels of logic and insight have been greatly eroded by their years of ideological indoctrination they’ve put themselves through. They’ve drunk too much cool-aid.