A reader reacts to my post concerning the motivations of President Trump:
Trump didn’t have a five star meeting or press conference after meeting with Putin. I don’t think it is alright to put all the blame of president Trump. I give some of the problem to Putin, the thug, who I think came to town to humiliate the President. Second, the President was maybe being to Polite, maybe he should have Chris Wallace do the press conference for him.
Another reader reacts to the first:
“Polite” isn’t in 45’s vocabulary or standard behavior patterns.
If he can’t hold his own against Putin, then he is not qualified to be Commander in Chief.
He is 1) compromised or 2)in way over his head and destroying our democracy.
And the first replies:
So the guy had a bad day, and that makes him a bad President. It’s time for the liberals to lighten up. There constant badgering is giving them less credibility if possible. I understand constructive criticism, but this non stop nonsense over a few remarks made in a press conference is taking it over the top. Putin has one thing in mind agreeing to meet with President Trump and he thinks he succeeded. Next week all this will be water over the damn, I hope.
My problem is that it’s hard to find President Trump having good days, and the fact of the matter is that engaging in a summit, whether it be with Putin or Kim, requires you to be having one of your best days, backed with exhaustive preparation – because we all know that respectable world leaders will be prepared. But it’s been well-reported that Trump doesn’t engage in preparation, he thinks he’s good enough to do things off the cuff, a reflection of what appears to be how he does everything. Thus, he continually fails.
Additionally, as the most powerful country in the world, we shouldn’t look like we’re engaging in “abasement” in front of another country’s leader, not even China – and most certainly not Russia.
But, as an independent, I will ask myself whether this is just a problem of the liberals being too partisan, as the first reader implies. The answer, to my mind, comes ironically from the conservatives.
I remain a proud conservative and Republican, but I resigned today as Belmont Co Ohio GOP Chairman. I did so as a matter of conscience, and my sense of duty.
— Chris Gagin (@cgagin)
The President is entitled to GOP party leaders, at all levels, fully committed to his views and agenda. Following today’s press conference with Pres. Putin, as well as certain policy differences, most especially on trade, I could no longer fulfill that duty. Thus, I resigned.
— Chris Gagin (@cgagin) July 16, 2018
[Twitter / WaPo / The Daily 202 ]
Another:
Former congressman Joe Walsh, a Republican from Illinois who has previously supported the president, called the surreal 46-minute news conference in Helsinki “the final straw for me.”
Look, I’m no big deal, but today is the final straw for me. I will never support Trump again. If that makes me a NeverTrumper, so be it.
I am a tea party conservative, that will never change. But Trump was a traitor to this country today. That must not be accepted.
Speak out.
— Joe Walsh (@WalshFreedom) July 16, 2018
More conservatives jumping ship, recognizing a truth and – far longer after they should have – exiting the sinking intellectual vessel. How many just exited without the publicity?
James Hohmann, author of The Daily 202 post from which I extracted the above quotes, expresses a belief that the President’s actions, easily interpreted by dispassionate observers as treasonous and self-serving, will have no effect on the Trump supporters, but I think we’re going to continue to see a steady bleeding from the body of supporters as many factors come together to illustrate the fruits of incompetency. His “easily won” trade war, if he doesn’t avert it himself in the face of overwhelming retaliation from China and other countries, will bring economic distress to rural Trumpists; the tax change bill, despite the claims of conservative that it serves the middle class, does not and everyone knows how to read a paycheck; fiscal hawks, whether or not you approve of them, will see the deficit sky-rocket (already has begun) despite the claims of Laffer Curve true believers who fail to trouble themselves with the details of how taxation interacts with the economy, as we’ve already seen in Kansas; and those Trumpists dependent on the ACA for affordable health care premiums are beginning to realize that TrumpCare, which is the ACA minus some important mechanisms, is not affordable unless, to use a memorable phrase from a colleague in my first couple of years of employment, you buy the “shavetail” insurance plan.
Here’s the unfortunate part of the ugly and ongoing debacle: No doubt President Trump has tapped into some legitimate concerns. But his dubious relation with the truth, his thirst to win at any cost, his apparent racism, his abuse of the Office, all of these traits are obscuring these important points. Are illegal immigrants really a problem? Maybe so, but his absurd claims about rapists and gangs and his decision – HIS DECISION – to kidnap children from their illegal immigrant parents (to quote a member of my extended family) will bury the entire issue when he’s out of office. Should we reform legal immigration to use a meritocratic approach rather than the current approach, as he advocates? That issue will be tainted with Trump’s name in the future, and it will take a tremendous amount of work by honest advocates of the meritocratic approach to remove that taint before they can even hope to wage a successful campaign to change it.
Pick your favorite topic that Trump has addressed with his lies, boasts, and braggodocio, and realize that if he, accidentally, advocated a good position that happened to please his supporters, now that position is tainted with his bad name.
Think about it.
This is part of our future. Even as a past President, he’ll affect our lives in ways we’ll regret, even if we immediately reverse every single one of his decisions.
