President Strawman
Hanging in by the hair of his chinny, chin, chin…
He huffed.
After 80 days in office Donald Trump had accomplished , well, very little. His executive orders banning Muslims written in crayon on foolscap was ruled unconstitutional by two federal court districts. His administration has been riddled with leaks and suspicions that he had won the presidential race with Vladimir Putin’s finger tipping the scale. His inner circle is at sixes and sevens with “Trump’s brain”, Steve Bannon, at odds with Trump’s son-in-law. Things are not going well.
Meanwhile, the ghost of elections past is lurking in the shadows. Still at issue remains a determination as to whether Trump coordinated with or, worse was complicit with Russian hackers and leakers during his run up to victory last November. This scandal has spawned additional troubles centering around Carter Page, Paul Manafort and others on Trump’s staff, meeting and, in the case of Michael Flynn, negotiating with their Russian counterparts in violation of U.S. law. The failure of the House Intelligence Committee hearing as Devin Nunes was being unmasked as a White House quisling when he met with White House officials clandestinely trying to provide cover for the president’s outlandish early morning tweet (almost lost in the fog of incompetence encircling this president, is the self inflicted injury that began his fateful downslide — -the Obama tweet) blaming the Obama staff for politically motivated interference in the Trump campaign. The accusati on was dismissed as total fabrication to all but his most faithful followers and led to his national support bottoming out in various polls at 35%. Almost on cue, James Comey agreed that the accusatory tweet was unfounded and that conversely Trump’s campaign was being examined for possible foreign entanglements. As the noose has tightened around his administration’s neck…
the president puffed…
Amid this chaos, Syria and North Korea predictably forced their way into the narrative. After all, not even Donald Trump could orchestrate world affairs as he had orchestrated his rise through the political wars in which he laid waste to Republican primary opponents and Hillary Clinton. In retaliation for Assad’s heinous use of chemical weapons against his own people, fifty-nine missiles were used against Bashar al-Assad’s regime, damaging the runway used by Assad’s military for the assault. This was truly a line in the sand. After months of posing and using the tactics of middle school bullies, Donald Trump decided to act. This was the opportunity for a total reset of this administration, a chance to change the narrative in its favor. No nation besides Russia and Iran could support Assad, and everyone, including his critics, could certainly support the president’s measured response. But it didn’t have that effect. Trump’s squandering of his presidential credibility on unwarranted tweets and missteps has taken its toll. The wasted goodwill every president carries into his first 100 days were wasted on needless posturing to a base whose affection was never in doubt but whose continual adulation and affirmation this president craves like oxygen.
The world has become a far more dangerous place over the past 80 days. Relations with Russia are now in question. North Korea is threatening a nuclear response to threats by Trump to “take care of” the North Korean problem unilaterally. After having tweaked China, North Korea’s lone sponsor, with campaign bluster about trade imbalances in an attempt to curry favor with Vladimir Putin’s regime ,Trump’s incompetence in diplomatic affairs have left the United States adrift in a world turned hostile. At a time when restraint and discipline were required, he resorted to bluster: “We are sending an armada. Very powerful…We have submarines. Very powerful. Far more powerful than the aircraft carrier.” And so he did, inviting a crisis that required diplomacy to escalate to a crisis threatening the use of nuclear weapons.
Could it be that his treatment of friends like Angela Merkel and Malcolm Turnbull and his criticisms of NATO and other world leaders have left Trump, and by extension our entire nation, more vulnerable than before his election?
For those who take Trump’s Syrian and North Korean gambits at face value, the question remains whether these actions are supported by policy or are simply the result of a president overmatched by world events. Trump has espoused an “America First” policy which seemingly precluded his recent policy shift. In the chaotic afterglow of their first international crisis, the administration shared a blissfully incoherent statement which promised United States’ intervention in the case of any chemical and barrel bomb attacks by the Syrian regime against its citizens, a remarkable policy statement considering the fact that Assad has been carpet bombing citizens with barrel bombs daily for 6 years. This lack of diplomatic precision and understanding has caused our allies to wonder whether the U.S has a serious policy or simply a policy du jour that is based upon the president’s mood and lack of restraint. This calculus is further clouded by the frequent back-pedalling Trump’s cabinet has had to perform to restate the president’s incessant faux pas.
As one who has praised his own naif-like practice of decision making “by the seat of his pants”, this practice has not proven to be a valuable asset on a world stage. This Trumpian virtue, in fact, has bitten him in the ass as his debilitating propensity to engage in this practice in the twitter world has shown. All the huffing and puffing is wasted on serious diplomats whose words and their meanings have consequences. Trump’s attempts at bluff and bluster at a time when coherence and clarity are required have introduced a new and dangerous element for serious world leaders to ponder — is this president credible? This, even as we ponder whether his administration is indeed legitimate.
Like the wolf who was preying on three little pigs, will he huff and puff trying to strongarm the world and be stewed in a pot of his own creation, or will the world learn to ignore his bluster and move on? Likely, time will tell. Likely, time is just another of Trump’s enemies as the more time he has, the worse harm he can create.
