It’s hard being president
Richard Fulton
President-elect Donald Trump and his team continue a whirlwind of activity, tweets, and decisions.
He is filling his cabinet at a faster pace than most recent presidents while basking in the adulation of his fans by way of his “thank you” tour. His tweets continue to make news. It appears he will be a president that loves the spotlight and revels in the attention.
Much of this tends to distract from the troubling features of his activities and the problems that surround his appointments.
Take, for instance, the case of his National Security Advisor. This is a role that demands careful thought, reasoned advise, and a neutral approach to the problems that will arise in the dangerous areas of national security.
Yet his choice for the position, Michael Flynn, has been a highly partisan advisor and has shown questionable judgement at times. His tweeter format has been used to perpetrate what has been called “false news” which is used to unfairly attack those who disagree with him.
Example, he tweeted during the campaign a false news report that Hillary Clinton and those around her were part of a child sex ring centered round a pizza parlor called Comet Ping Pong. This motivated a recent shooter to go there to punish these child abusers. All of which was false, of course, and Flynn knew it.
Now his son is taking the blame for it all, but Michael Flynn knew about it and said nothing until caught by the press. This is our National Security Advisor.His credibility is already undercut.
About that swamp in Washington. The head of a conglomerate, SoftBank, that Trump says will invest $50 billion in the U.S. to create jobs, was granted an interview with the future president. It’s a feel good story.
Job creation is a Trump goal. He’s willing though to let the public pay companies to keep jobs in America, at least some jobs, as illustrated by the Carrier deal They get $7 million and promises of tax breaks for 800 jobs. They can still ship 1000 jobs to Mexico though.
What does SoftBank want? Well, seems they own most of Sprint that wants to merge with T-Mobile. The Obama administration has stopped this as a monopolistic practice that would hurt the consumer. Is SoftBank buying the merger with the $50 billion promise?
They said previously that they would invest $100 billion in America, so this all was a PR sop to the future president. Now, about that merger, Mr. Trump.
Welcome to the swamp Mr. President-elect. Oh, and remember that call from the president of Taiwan that has all the Asian nations wondering about the Trump policy in the area most of all China? That seems to have been arranged by Bob Dole whose law firm is a registered foreign agent (lobbyist) for Taiwan. His firm gets $140,00 from Taiwan. Rather swampy, isn’t it.
Less swampy, but just as curious is the choice of Ben Carson for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. What experience does he have for the job? None. Oh, he grew up in Detroit so that should be sufficient. But this is a large bureaucracy and Carson has no experience at this level of administration anywhere.
In making the appointment Trump said: this “is part of ensuring that this is a presidency representing all Americans.” In short, he’s black and that is enough.
Don’t get me wrong, Dr. Carson is an admirable man with many fine accomplishments. But none to prepare him for this job; he’s being used.
Mr. Trump you need to realize that you need level heads around you because everyone in Washington wants a piece of you and your policies. Tweets are not long enough for thoughtful expressions on you strategic thinking and do more to muddle the waters than to project a presidential bearing.
