A Warning
In September of 2018, a highly-placed source working in the west wing of the White House submitted an article to the New York Times about the presidency of Donald Trump. The Op-Ed piece was critical of the President, revealing many of his questionable job practices that stemmed from his deeply ingrained personality characteristics.
The author of the piece asked to be anonymous. The reason was simple; the source was a close confidant, working on the Presidents’ staff and dealing with him on a regular basis, helping with the most sensitive matters of his presidency. Were he (or she) to be unmasked would be the end of his employment and the end of his ongoing effort to help the President and the Republican party avoid some of the most disastrous decisions the inexperienced President often tried to implement.
The anonymous author now has a book on the same subject. This piece is a review of that book. I am providing this book report in the belief that American voters should be informed about the current occupant of the White House and candidate for re-election to the highest office in the land before they cast their votes less than a year from now.
The anonymous author is a patriot. He explained that he went to work in the White House full of hope and enthusiasm for Republican policies that he supported along with the new President. He found that some wheels began to fall off the train before the transition team had completed their work and the new Administration was in place. The source soon learned that the reason for many of the problems was the boss – the inexperienced politician who had never before held office and who knew virtually nothing about the government and how it functioned.
So, enough about the author and his motivation, sit back and take in this view of the President of the United States, he who was elected to the highest office in the nation despite losing the popular vote of the people.
A Warning
The book begins with a recitation of Donald Trump’s character traits that became apparent to the senior staff early in his new Administration. The most important character flaws that were quickly apparent were Trump’s inattentiveness and impulsiveness. Despite their care in explaining how government agencies worked, it seemed that Trump intentionally didn’t listen and/or didn’t understand his aides who were trying to help. Over and over he proposed policies that were unlawful or impossible to implement. His intent to overturn all the executive orders that former President Obama had implemented was his announced policy and aides scurried to prepare new orders that the President needed to sign to overturn Obama policies. The support staff soon found that any decision by the President was never actualized until the deed was done in front of television cameras. Before that step, the President’s incessant Tweeting often overturned decisions that might have been taken just hours earlier. The office was in chaos. That was the beginning and it has continued until the present due to the President’s inability to set a course and keep it for more than a few hours or days at most. “I always second guess things,” he says.
Communication with the President was always problematical since the President didn’t listen very well. His favorite means of obtaining input came from watching television, specifically Fox News and other extreme right-wing media. Government agencies with their highly-trained, skilled and educated personnel seemed to matter to him not at all. The staff soon learned that the President’s impulses and sometimes wrong information was all he needed to make important decisions. Often these sudden decisions obviated months of work by the military and other agencies.
Staff agencies like the CIA, State Department and others were advised to dispense with planning and briefing books for the President. He didn’t read them. Oval Office, face to face briefings were requested instead. Initially the officers of agency staffs brought their briefing books with them. The President often became angry at the affront of the mere sight of their books. “They don’t mean anything,“ the President fumed.
The senior staff swung into action. “Bring pictures,” they told the agency heads, “he likes pictures. And don’t bring up too many points to discuss or he’ll get confused and angry.” Before the briefings were cancelled altogether, the President’s staff suggested to agency heads that they should bring but one picture and plan to discuss only a single issue at each visit. That worked better for awhile until some visitor happened to stop by the President’s office with a different point of view. Often that would become the new policy especially if the President seemed to like the latest visitor. Senior staff were forced to explain the latest policy decision and hope that it could be implemented at lower levels of government despite the flip flop in direction.
Trump does not have a set of Conservative policy positions. He flip-flops from liberal views to conservative depending upon the last visitor to his office or what he sees on television. Surprisingly, (to many readers) he has been ‘pro choice’ (allowing women to decide if they want an abortion) for much of his career. He suddenly changed his view when he decided to run for president, becoming “so deeply pro-life [against abortions] that he believed there has to be some form of punishment for women who have abortions.” Of course, there was a political angle to his sudden flip flop. Complicating his new policy position were the rumors that some of his previous lovers had used the abortion card at his expense.
In fact, through much of his life, Trump identified as a liberal. During his real estate career, Trump changed his political party affiliation five times.
“Over the last three decades, Trump has changed his political party registration five times. He has been a member of the Independence Party, the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, a registered independent, and then decided he was a Republican again. In 2004, Trump confessed to CNN, I probably identify more as a Democrat. In 2007. He praised Hillary Clinton and said ‘I think Hillary would do a good job [as President]’.”
Of course, Mr. Trump disavows these statements now and continues to disparage Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama despite the fact that Hillary was cleared of all legal missteps and Trump’s vilification of Barack Obama’s birth was also disproved several years ago. {Mr. Trump’s most obvious lies like the Obama birthplace seem to have little influence on his supporters]. Mr. Obama seems an especial thorn in Trump’s side as he continues to disparage the former President for no apparent reason. Perhaps it is because Obama had more success in achieving Republican goals than has Mr. Trump as noted below.
One of the touchstones of Republican policy has been the size of government and its seeming largess in handling our money. To assure that I characterize this story correctly, I decided to quote this passage directly.
“The US federal budget deficit was actually declining under the Obama Administration, from $1.4 trillion when Obama took office, to $587 bIllion in 2016, just before he left office. Credit for the downward trend goes to Congressional Republicans who forced a stand-off with the White House in 2011. They demanded a budget deal that would bring the deficit under control. The result was the Budget Control Act, a law that would slash federal spending, … and place a cap on [federal spending.]”
“Donald Trump was not interested in penny pinching. He may try to project the image of a man trying to save taxpayer dollars, and its true he can be talked out of stupid ideas if they cost too much. But that’s not because he is trying to save money that can go back to the American taxpayers. He still wants to spend the money, just on things in which he’s personally interested such as bombs and border security. Today he is sparing no expense on the executive branch, spending so freely it makes the money burning days of the Trump organization look like the five-dollar tables at a Vegas casino. Trump recoils at ‘people who are cheap.’ As a result, the budget deficit has increased every year since Donald Trump took office, returning to dangerous levels. The president is on track to spend nearly a trillion dollars above what the government takes in annually. Just look at 2019. The President proposed a record breaking 4.7 trillion-dollar budget.”
Since Trump took office, the US debt has grown to $22 trillion. Each of us taxpayers would owe the equivalent of $400,000, an amount that only a tiny minority of rich Americans could manage and those who are least likely to pay their fair share. Donald Trump has America back on the road to bankruptcy. This, despite the fact that he promised to eliminate the entire American debt during his first term in office. It seems he didn’t really mean it when he was campaigning or he was too ignorant of the magnitude of the task.
Trump has also reneged on other Republican Party principles. While Reince Priebus was head of the National Republican Party the top staff released a report indicating the steps needed for the party to regain dominance in American political life. The report urged conservatives to broaden their base by being more inclusive of “Hispanic, Black, Asian, and gay Americans, and especially women.” Trump seems to have no loyalty to the Republican Party as he harps against minorities and immigrants despite its effect on party membership.
Lack of loyalty is a part of Trump’s personality as must be concluded from his martial history: a man who paid hush money to a porn star he’d been sleeping with while married to his third wife who had recently given birth to their son. This followed the failure of his two previous marriages due to infidelity on his part and the claims of sexual attacks on scores of other women. Not much of a loyalty record you would want for one who has promised to do the bidding of the electorate.
Trump’s ignorance of how the US government works is topped only by his apparent disregard and or ignorance of the law. He has confessed multiple times to instances that most pundits think are examples of law-breaking such as his televised remark that he would take foreign intelligence about his political rivals anytime. When told it was against the law, he becomes angry. His practice is to force his lawyers to say that such violations are acceptable. He browbeats, then presses them to get to yes on his behalf. Many are reluctant to face his withering attacks. “We can tell when Trump is preparing to ask his lawyers to do something unethical because that’s when he starts scanning the room for notetakers.”
“What the f**k are you doing?” he screamed at an aide who was scribbling in a note book. The room went silent as the aide seemed confused at what was taking place. “Are you f**king taking notes?” Trump continued, glaring at the aide as another low in interpersonal relations was reached.
Trump’s disdain for the law extends to judges and the lawsuits that he loses. When Trump was found guilty of fraud in the case of his Trump University scam, he screamed his vitriol at the judge who ruled on the case. Trump said the judge was biased because of his Mexican heritage. It’s in the record since the exchange was captured on live TV. By the way, the judge came from Indiana.
The failures of the current Administration in diplomacy have been dramatic. Trump has exploded the long-standing US policy of refusing to meet with dictators who have long records of human-rights abuse. His apparent adoration of Vladimir Putin, Saudi Arabia’s Prince who arranged the murder of journalist Khashoggi, and the dictator he fell in love with, Kim Jong Un, are instances where Trump’s meetings and visits have yielded no good results. Trump’s Intelligence Chiefs and Staff aides all warned him of the hazards of meetings with these villains, but Trump ignored their advice, preferring instead to do as he wished, including inviting emissaries of these leaders into the Oval Office. Adding insult to expected injury, Trump invited Russian journalists into the office while excluding American journalists. No one has ever given an explanation for this extraordinary behavior, although one top national security aide offered his explanation, “The President sees in these guys [Putin, etc.] what he wishes he had: total power, no term limits, enforced popularity, and the ability to silence critics for good.”
Our national security experts are worried about Trump’s lack of a foreign policy beyond his love affairs with dictators. China is of ongoing concern. The current US policy toward China it totally focused on tariffs and trade, a topic that the President doesn’t understand and is unwilling to learn. The view held by our foreign policy experts is that skilled diplomats from many other nations recognize the President is a simplistic pushover, easily swayed by outsized flattery putting the US at risk.
Perhaps the most serious concern about Mr. Trump is his proclivity to demonize anyone who differs with him on any issue. Using crude language, he encourages his supporters toward mob behavior. Watch any Trump rally and you’ll hear crude language delivered to cheering crowds who want to “lock her up” or “send her back” or dozens of other aggressive taunts. The consequence of this mob mentality can be frightening. Trump optimizes these occasions and invariably the truth becomes the first casualty. At an event in Florida, Trump was in high gear, egging on the crowd about the so-called risks of immigration. “How do you stop these people?” he asked rhetorically. Someone shouted, “shoot them.” The President smiled his encouragement.
This type of behavior was not new. During the 2016 campaign, candidate Trump displayed some of the same type behavior during the debates. Several Republican competitors and leaders in the party found the courage to comment calling Trump a “race-baiting xenophobic.” Nothing about his attitude has changed, he is still the same racist as before except that his Republican associates are now afraid to label his offenses for what they are.
The book comes to a close with a lengthy warning concerning the possibility of Trump being re-elected in 2020, again with Russian help as in 2016. The “senior official in the Trump Administration” warns that after his re-election, Trump will feel empowered to give rise to his worst impulses as he interprets his re-election as a mandate from the masses for doing whatever he chooses. The warning is that our democracy may not be able to survive eight years of Trump as he works to devolve our nation from a free, representative form of government depending upon the assent of the governed to a dictatorship where the President is all-powerful, free from oversite by the Congress or the Courts. The President has said as much publicly. He will not exit quietly or easily. He is already commenting that ’coups’ are afoot and ‘civil war’ is in the offing if he is forced to leave his office. He is setting the narrative for his followers to justify some action that would end tragically for us and our children.
Will we let him continue his shenanigans past the next election?
