He’s a shameless name-caller. If he were an actual third grader, rather than simply acting like one, he’d be in the principal’s office.
He comforts our enemies and afflicts our allies.
He can act presidential for about half of a standard coffee break.
He takes credit for everything and accepts blame for nothing.
Anything critical of him is “fake news.” For example, he has called reports of embarrassing things he has said, captured on tape, as fake news.
He makes foreign policy with his opposable thumbs and it shows, as in North Korea and Venezuela. Most of the world, including our allies, thinks America has lost its way, if not its mind.
He breaks treaties that America has made like they were his wedding vows.
He has repeatedly attacked a deceased war hero.
He heaps praise on live dictators.
He doesn’t read books (or write them, by the way); he watches TV.
His lies like it’s his full-time job.
Here’s a whopper: As a candidate he vowed to “get rid of” the national debt in eight years. By the end of last year it was nearly $22 trillion, more than $2 trillion higher than when he took office in 2016. That tsunami of red ink is unprecedented when the economy is healthy. The bleeding will continue for the next decade, thanks largely to his $1.9 trillion tax cut that went overwhelmingly to the all-set set.
So much for promises made, promises kept.
How about repealing and replacing Obama Care “from day one,” thereby “making all groups better off.” At this writing it is day 872 of his reign.
He promised to release his tax returns when the IRS finished its apparently never-ending audit. Of course, he never had any intention of releasing them.
Maybe it’s because he is what he calls others so often: a big loser. In one decade, he reported losses of more than a $1 billion, according to partial tax records obtained by The New York Times. This literally qualifies him as a leading candidate for the title of America’s Biggest Loser.
Actually, revealing that he is a big loser would be the most benign explanation for why he won’t release his tax returns.
With alarming manifestations of global warming proliferating, from unprecedented wildfires and mega-storms to melting glaciers, he wants to burn more coal and roll back auto emission standards. The latter proposal is so idiotic that even its intended beneficiaries, car manufacturers, oppose it.
In his defense, his supporters point to the stock market and their bulging 401Ks. They should remember that their man owned enterprises that filed for bankruptcy six times. He ran casinos into the ground.
He’s been in office less two and a half years. Give him time.
David Holahan is a freelance writer from East Haddam.
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Donald Trump is definitely not who I want my children to miss their behavior after, but your article speaks very little to any issues with the results of Pres. Trump’s leadership. You mention N Korea as if he has been a failure there – when is the last time we saw Kim testing rockets the way he was on an almost monthly basis when Pres. Obama was in office? For anyone who deals in international business, you know how completely unfair China’s business practices are to the US, and yet we had a generation of presidents sitting by doing nothing while China gutted our capabilities and resources and built up their economy on our funding to ultimately be able to leverage that towards their totalitarian ends. For those of us who appreciate constitutionalist behavior from our Supreme Court rather than legislative action, I greatly appreciate his fortitude to push through the slanderous, libelous attacks on his Supreme Court nominee to get him seated. You mention the debt and Obamacare repeal – both of those are in control of our do-nothing Congress, and while unfortunately Trump does not seem inclined to slow down the deficit increase himself, that is not something firmly placed on his responsibility. For many of us, Trump is a small blip on the US’s unfortunate slide from a society with purpose, culture, and success into a stagnant, purposeless, morally and economically decayed society not unlike the Roman Empire of old or the Western European nations of the more recent past. He had achieved success in some of those areas, and has been infinitely better than Hillary would have been about standing up for America’s interests on the world stage and here at home. I would vote for him again in a heartbeat.
Well, just for starters:
North Korean missile launches, 2008 till now:
April 5, 2009
July 4, 2009
April 13, 2012
December 12, 2012
May 18–20, 2013
March 2014
May 9, 2015
February 7, 2016
April 9, 2016
August 24, 2016
October 15, 2016
October 19, 2016
February 11, 2017
March 6, 2017
April 4, 2017
April 15, 2017
April 28, 2017
May 13, 2017
May 21, 2017
May 29, 2017
June 8, 2017
June 23, 2017
July 4, 2017
July 28, 2017
August 26, 2017
August 29, 2017
September 15, 2017
November 28, 2017
November 15, 2018
May 4, 2019
May 9, 2019
Anon,
N. Korea stopped its tests because they had completed their arsenal, not because of Trump. Also, Trump claimed he has solved the threat of nuclear N. Korea. He hasn’t.
I worked in China for a year and we all agree that their practices are unfair. Trump has made many threats, taken some action, but there has been no concrete progress. It is unclear that his tariffs will achieve anything positive and may cause significant damage to our economy.
The Tax Act of 2017 was initiated by the Republican members of Congress then touted and signed by Trump. It has significantly added to the current deficits and the “dynamic budgeting” (GDP increases yield tax revenues exceeding the decreased tax rates) has yet to appear.
As an independent fiscal conservative, I have tallied the “accomplishments” of the 2.5 years of the Trump reign, find no significant achievements but rather, a significant loss of national respect, and rising internal and external threats to our democracy. I place the blame of the deteriorating moral leadership at the head of the attempted Trump dynasty..
Thanks for sharing these facts…though they are facts that hold no weight in this administration. It’s a combination of Brave New World and 1984 out there – though more Brave New World vs. 1984 – particularly as it relates to “man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions”:
Social critic Neil Postman contrasted the worlds of Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World in the foreword of his 1985 book Amusing Ourselves to Death. He writes: What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egotism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance. Orwell feared we would become a captive culture. Huxley feared we would become a trivial culture, preoccupied with some equivalent of the feelies, the orgy porgy, and the centrifugal bumblepuppy. As Huxley remarked in Brave New World Revisited, the civil libertarians and rationalists who are ever on the alert to oppose tyranny “failed to take into account man’s almost infinite appetite for distractions.” In 1984, Orwell added, people are controlled by inflicting pain. In Brave New World, they are controlled by inflicting pleasure. In short, Orwell feared
that our fear will ruin us. Huxley feared that our desire will ruin us.*
I think I am going to reread all three of these books!
* extracted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World
More name-calling and one-sided rants….
There is certainly much to criticize about President Trump but he has also had some successes. I long for a time when balanced editorials were the norm.
Anon – “debt and Obamacare repeal – both of those are in control of our do-nothing Congress”. Trump and the Republicans had two years to pass a budget that reduced the debt and to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. They couldn’t get it done, and as the article noted the debt is soaring. Unfortunately, the “fiscally responsible” Republicans don’t seem to care. Your “constitutionalist” Supreme Court has gutted campaign finance, unleashing blatant “pay to play” forces at every level. If you’re really concerned about a “morally and economically decayed society”, you should be very worried about this. I too have “dealt with international business”, actually living and working abroad for over ten years, and I agree that China is a huge problem. Trump’s approach is to withdraw (or threaten to withdraw) the U.S. from every major stabilizing trade and security arrangement so patiently built up over the past seventy years, leaving our Allies bewildered and our adversaries on the front foot. He’s “in love” with a North Korean monster who has nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles to deliver them, trusts Putin rather than our own intelligence services, praises tin pot dictators around the world, and thinks that our own home-grown nazis are “very nice people”. He’s an embarrassment, he’s a disaster, and we can only hold our breath for the next eighteen months and hope he doesn’t start a war with Iran. We’ll be extremely fortunate if, in the end, he does turn out to be a “small blip”. He’ll certainly go down as the worst president ever by a wide margin. Hopefully, he doesn’t take us all down with him.
Thank you, Mr. Holahan. I certainly hope that we never get numb. What a list. This is a man who thinks California wildfires could have been prevented if only they had raked the forest. And to the list I would also add the latest example: Trump has said that he would not have a problem accepting information on a political opponent (“dirt”) from a foreign power. I guess I’m not numb yet. I’m gobsmacked.
I’d say we’re comfortably numb at this point. Numb from a press that is largely the public relations arm of the DNC, a do-nothing Congress that investigates the President non-stop, free-stuff Dem candidates who want to dumb-down the country (even more), a porous border that lets in undocumented Democrats by the thousands, a Fed that hands out the candy (interest rates) to keep the stock market juiced, and an out of control national debt without end.
Yes indeed. Neither political party has anything to be proud of, and both have plenty that they should be — but aren’t — ashamed of.