It is desperation time in the Oval Office.
The bogus Mexican migrant/terrorist caravan scare, including deploying the Army at the border, didn’t turn the tide on the Mid-Term elections.
The Chief Executive’s urgent Address to the Nation, aired on TV, making a case for his beloved border wall, landed with a thud, not impressing anyone of it’s urgency or sincerity. Even the President admitted, later, that his heart wasn’t in it.
The President’s threat to use Emergency Powers to authorize the Corps of Engineers to construct a border wall using Defense Department funds didn’t pass muster…in either political party or with constitutional legal experts.
The Federal government shutdown, which Mr. Trump proudly claimed as his own, but later tried to pawn off as a Democratic Party debacle, has turned out to be as popular as a fart in church.
Hundreds of thousands of Federal employees (most of them “Democrats”, as the President gleefully commented) are going without paychecks. Most of them will, assuredly, vote in 2020, as will their relatives, neighbors, and friends. Not very astute politics, Sir.
Now, the President of the United States has resorted to a public mud-throwing
…to try and convince the Democrats to support funding the construction of a border wall…something that the Republican Party didn’t think was a priority when they controlled Congress in 2017 and 2018.
What gives? Why doesn’t the guy simply have the Mexican government pay for the wall…which Trump, the candidate, repeatedly promised would happen back in 2016? He’s the “Art of the Deal” master negotiator; make it happen!
Methinks that The Wall kerfluffle has very little to do with illegals and terrorists streaming across our southern border, but, more likely, it is a typical Trumpian diversionary tactic...to keep the public’s eyes focused in one direction while other unsavory news is cropping up.
For example, the stock market didn’t do so well in 2018. It was the barometer of Trump’s supposed economic brilliance when things were going well. Now, however, the
The advertised “big changes” in trade that the Administration championed, by tearing up trade agreements and imposing tariffs, have seemingly accomplished nothing, except pissing off important trade partners, allies, American companies and consumers. Trade deficits have not diminished.
Day by day, more information surfaces about the involvement of foreign actors (mostly Russian) in the 2016 Presidential election. Even the President’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, has stopped exclaiming “No collusion!”; he now says that there may have been collusion by the Trump campaign, but that Mr. Trump had no knowledge of it.
Sure.
(Of course, the President continues to refuse to be questioned in person by the Special Prosecutor on this subject. Why would that be? Probably for the same reason that Donald Trump doesn’t want anyone seeing his
Somehow, in some way, our President, who considers himself a “winner”, and who prizes “winning” above all other things in life (except money, perhaps), has got to come up with a win of some kind in the next few weeks.
It’s time for yet another Donald J. Trump Hail Mary Pass.
The schlemiel can’t use the “bringing the troops home from Syria” gambit again. That recent surprise announcement tanked when his own generals, our allies, and many hawkish Republican Party supporters had a fit…and Mr. Trump backed off.
Remember the North Korea-U. S. summit on nuclear weapons awhile back? That’s the one where our giddy President announced, after the meeting, that North Korea was “de-nuclearizing”, and his North Korean counterpart said, “Say WHAT?!” Well, this week, the Administration announced a second summit meeting, presumably so that the Master Dealmaker can get it right…and, again, claim “Mission Accomplished”.
The tariff war with China has failed to result in that country kowtowing to the U.S. What has actually happened over the past year is that China has expanded its trading partnerships throughout the world as America has torn up trade agreements and pissed off former trade partners with tariffs and bellicose language. So, the White House this week announced another round of talks with the Chinese, hoping for some positive movement, but “hat in hand” this time. China plays the long game; any perceived “win” by Trump will likely be a short-term gimme, with long-term negative consequences.
So, where does Trump turn for the “win” that he needs so desperately?
He could hold another pro-Trump rally, where he could again bad-mouth Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, dark-skinned immigrants, the Fake Media, and come up with yet another outrageous claim to keep reporters busy for another week or so. The problem is that he has lied so often that no one pays attention to him anymore, except Fox News and its viewers.
He could invade a Banana republic and overthrow a dictator. Yes, I know, that gambit has been used before, but there are plenty of dictators to go around. The problem is that our current President admires dictators. Which one of his friends does he stab in the back?
He could pick a fight with North Korea or Iran, egging them into some kind of armed conflict, which would drown out all other news. This one has potential. I’m sure Mr. Trump has the Pentagon working on a range of plausible scenarios.
Or, our President could simply claim victory in the Wall dispute, explaining that a physical wall was never his objective, but, rather, just a thorough examination of the topic…which is now addressed in the bill he will sign, backed by both Democrats and Republicans.
(Of course, it will be the same bi-partisan bill that he rejected in December, prior to the government shutdown.)
He might add that God counseled him on his decision, further enhancing his bonafides with the Born Again Christian faction of his political base.
After all, who can argue with God.