During his campaign, President Trump, according to trumptracker.github.io, made 179 promises ranging from not taking a salary if elected to having a secret plan to defeat ISIS.
Of those 179, the web site says, he has achieved nine, has 17 in process, broken 13, compromised on two and not started 138.
Today is his 53rd day in office. Now, it’s not a surprise that a politician doesn’t keep his promises and he has kept some (mostly those he could complete with an executive orderl). Those include a hiring freeze, a requirement to eliminate two regulations for every one new one (of course, that’s a very tough one to carry out which we will see over the course of his presidency), and withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
I raise this not just to point out his record on promise-keeping (I’m guessing previous presidents’ records were not any better) but because of the braggadocio and bravado with which he announced some – like saying he had a secret plan to defeat ISIS but he really didn’t. And the naiveté he had regarding how much power a president really does have in a democracy.
As Jennifer Rubin pointed out in today’s Washington Post he is running the Administration like he ran his business – by his gut and with few employees. This is one reason I never thought a businessman was the right choice to run the government – each has different “rules,” require different skills and the bottom line is not about making a profit in the government. The President of the United States can’t just say “it will be thus” and it is thus. There are those pesky courts to keep a President true to the laws and the Constitution. There’s that pesky Congress that has an equal say in how most important things get done. And there's that pesky media that keeps an eye on your every move and utterance.
You don’t just issue an edict and a deadline and get the job done like you can in a family business, as Trump had (or, actually, still has).
It was like him promising to repeal and replace Obamacare quickly and then he learned that health care is “complicated,” something everyone else knew.
That promise to “deport criminal illegal immigrants within an hour of being sworn in” proved impossible
Or his promise to release his tax returns, which he never will, we’ve learned.
One would hope the President is learning lessons from his first 53 days in office but it’s hard to tell. Since being President he has said up to five million illegal votes were cast which is why he lost the popular vote. He has produced no evidence to support that.
He also accused his predecessor of “wiretapping” Trump Tower during the campaign. A conspiracy theory he could subscribe to when he was “just” a wealthy business man but an accusation he has to prove when he accuses his predecessor of doing it. And we have seen no proof thus far because it never happened.
He went too far with that one. That one will not be forgotten because he tweets some absurd other thing. If it really did occur, Barack Obama should be brought up on charges. If it didn’t occur…well, we’ll see what the consequences are for Mr. Trump.
Oh and there is that media thing – what he calls the “enemy of the people.” He can pronounce it and repeat it every day and some in this country will buy it. But most will not. Without the media all we’d know about what is allegedly happening in our government is what the President tells us.
And his telling hasn’t been the truth and nothing but yet.
Importantly, what happens when we face a real crisis? Maybe that nut in North Korea starts arming his test missiles, for example. What do we do, and who do we believe?
Several reporters asked that question in the White House press briefing yesterday, “when should we believe the president,” Sean Spicer was asked.
I don't recall ever hearing that question having been asked before. Maybe during Richard Nixon, but I don't think that's true either. Spicer said, you can believe the president all the time, “unless he’s joking.”
The joke apparently is on us.
Of those 179, the web site says, he has achieved nine, has 17 in process, broken 13, compromised on two and not started 138.
Today is his 53rd day in office. Now, it’s not a surprise that a politician doesn’t keep his promises and he has kept some (mostly those he could complete with an executive orderl). Those include a hiring freeze, a requirement to eliminate two regulations for every one new one (of course, that’s a very tough one to carry out which we will see over the course of his presidency), and withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
I raise this not just to point out his record on promise-keeping (I’m guessing previous presidents’ records were not any better) but because of the braggadocio and bravado with which he announced some – like saying he had a secret plan to defeat ISIS but he really didn’t. And the naiveté he had regarding how much power a president really does have in a democracy.
As Jennifer Rubin pointed out in today’s Washington Post he is running the Administration like he ran his business – by his gut and with few employees. This is one reason I never thought a businessman was the right choice to run the government – each has different “rules,” require different skills and the bottom line is not about making a profit in the government. The President of the United States can’t just say “it will be thus” and it is thus. There are those pesky courts to keep a President true to the laws and the Constitution. There’s that pesky Congress that has an equal say in how most important things get done. And there's that pesky media that keeps an eye on your every move and utterance.
You don’t just issue an edict and a deadline and get the job done like you can in a family business, as Trump had (or, actually, still has).
It was like him promising to repeal and replace Obamacare quickly and then he learned that health care is “complicated,” something everyone else knew.
That promise to “deport criminal illegal immigrants within an hour of being sworn in” proved impossible
Or his promise to release his tax returns, which he never will, we’ve learned.
One would hope the President is learning lessons from his first 53 days in office but it’s hard to tell. Since being President he has said up to five million illegal votes were cast which is why he lost the popular vote. He has produced no evidence to support that.
He also accused his predecessor of “wiretapping” Trump Tower during the campaign. A conspiracy theory he could subscribe to when he was “just” a wealthy business man but an accusation he has to prove when he accuses his predecessor of doing it. And we have seen no proof thus far because it never happened.
He went too far with that one. That one will not be forgotten because he tweets some absurd other thing. If it really did occur, Barack Obama should be brought up on charges. If it didn’t occur…well, we’ll see what the consequences are for Mr. Trump.
Oh and there is that media thing – what he calls the “enemy of the people.” He can pronounce it and repeat it every day and some in this country will buy it. But most will not. Without the media all we’d know about what is allegedly happening in our government is what the President tells us.
And his telling hasn’t been the truth and nothing but yet.
Importantly, what happens when we face a real crisis? Maybe that nut in North Korea starts arming his test missiles, for example. What do we do, and who do we believe?
Several reporters asked that question in the White House press briefing yesterday, “when should we believe the president,” Sean Spicer was asked.
I don't recall ever hearing that question having been asked before. Maybe during Richard Nixon, but I don't think that's true either. Spicer said, you can believe the president all the time, “unless he’s joking.”
The joke apparently is on us.
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