Susan Wright on the Right
I don’t think the presidency is a job I’d ever want to hold. The pressures, responsibilities, and crucial nature of the work is far above what I feel I could reasonably handle.
I wouldn’t take a job that important, unless I was well-versed in policy, and had some executive experience in running a government. That’s why I’ve always favored governors as candidates for the presidency.
The last one I would have picked would have been a reality TV huckster, and everything about the way Donald Trump is handling his job is proving me right.
When the end of this nightmare known as the Trump presidency comes, it may very well take with it the GOP, that so foolishly allowed this charlatan to set up his snake oil shop within their party walls.
The man has a long, well documented history of failed business ventures, from Trump steaks to Trump Vodka. I suspect the Trump Republicans will be condemned to the same perdition, and it will take a generation to wash away the stench.
It will be a party in ruins, and so many reputations will have been ruined along with it.
When the History books speak of this failed experiment, expect to see words like, “misogyny,” “corruption,” “incompetence,” and probably least surprisingly, “indifferent.”
That is the way that many who are trying to keep the ship afloat from the inside would probably describe kooky Uncle Best-Words.
Axios has uncovered some details regarding how aides prep a president who knows nothing and abhors learning, in order to do his job.
At the core of President Trump’s on-the-job education is something insiders refer to as “The Book.”
“The Book” is a specially designed binder of briefings that are sent to Trump each evening, tailored to fit his short attention span and cater to his oversized, yet, fragile ego.
It’s basically homework, and every president has had some version of it, in order to prepare themselves ahead of time for the coming work days.
For Trump, it may come in a notebook, a stack of papers held together by paperclips, or in folders.
Separately, the press and communications staffs assemble clippings — often positive, to contrast the bad news he may be seeing on cable news.
“If he reads something in the press, like if he sees it on TV, that grabs his attention,” said a source close to the president.
SQUIRREL!
There are even screen grabs of cable news chyrons within the packet, those scrollers that run across the bottom of your TV screen.
I’m going to guess they all come from Fox News.
The information in “The Book” is brief, given that Trump’s attention span can’t sustain any lengthy unfolding of details. Apparently, the lack of brevity in presentations by former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster was a real problem.
McMaster took the job seriously, and rather than come in with one or two pages of abbreviated points for the day, he’d bring in PowerPoint slides, by the dozens.
“He used complete sentences!” said one person who saw the briefings, and knows better about how Trump likes his information.
Trump got so exasperated with McMaster that he’d look at other papers on his desk while the national security adviser was talking — his view of an alpha male move to show that the general was failing to interest him.
I wouldn’t really call that an “alpha male move.” More like a doofus with his priorities in the wrong place drifting away from important material.
Trump works better with bullet points, clipped to appear more like slogans than actual detailed information.
Trump may flip through “The Book” during his “executive time,” the hours of the morning reserved for tweeting and watching TV.
Somehow, I doubt he’s absorbing much while basking in the glow of Steve Doocey adoring him from his “Fox and Friends” perch on the curvy couch.
Trump has this “executive time,” which normally lasts until 11am, because White House Chief of Staff John Kelly added it. The president was complaining about the job of being president, apparently. He was too busy.
Who knew?
Aides would like to see the time shortened, for the very fact that the schedule that goes along with the job of the presidency is very full, at least, for those who run for the position with some intent of actually doing the work. They shouldn’t get their hopes up, however.
Trump did not take the job to do a good job. It’s not about controlling the border or fixing the economy. He’s made no significant progress in either respect.
The border is as chaotic as it ever was.
The economy isn’t as awesome as Trump and his defenders would have you believe, with a rising deficit that has been exasperated by the recently signed tax bill that cut taxes without cutting spending.
The trade war is already hurting the Midwest, and is alienating allies in the world.
No, history will not be kind to this president or the low-info, reality TV-engorged base that brought him to power.
Donald Trump and the MAGA movement will be seen as the movement that weakened the inner-fabric of the nation, exposed, then killed the Republican party, and eventually set the nation adrift in the world, no longer a world superpower, anchored by allies that trust us or foes that fear us.
As we speak, our representative to the world is going into the G7 economic summit as an obstinate child, and the only ones happy with him are our geopolitical foes and his devotees, who would let him shoot a man on Fifth Avenue and get away with it.
Those of us who saw the danger ahead sounded the alarm early. Some caved, unwilling to maintain the struggle against the alt-right tide of destruction. They became “joiners” and hoped that somehow, they could avoid the worst of it.
They won’t.
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely any of us will, because we have been saddled with an incompetent, unserious man, whose self-interests far exceed our nation’s best interests.
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