If you’re wondering just how we ended up in a government shutdown, WaPo (among others) has a serviceable description which actually makes me laugh. At one point, Trump was ready to accept that he couldn’t have funding for the wall. Then this happened:
But on Fox News Channel and across conservative media, there was a brewing rebellion. Prominent voices urged Trump to hold firm on his wall money and warned that caving would jeopardize his reelection.
Rush Limbaugh dismissed the compromise bill on his radio program as “Trump gets nothing and the Democrats get everything.” Another firebrand, Ann Coulter, published a columntitled “Gutless President in Wall-less Country.” Trump even found resistance on the couch of his favorite show, “Fox & Friends,” where reliable Trump-boosting host Brian Kilmeade chided him on the air Thursday.
The president was paying attention. He promptly unfollowed Coulter on Twitter. And he pecked out a series of defensive tweets blaming congressional leaders for not funding the wall, while also assuming a defensive posture. He suggested that a massive wall may not be necessary in its entirety because the border already is “tight” thanks to the work of Border Patrol agents and troops.
Trump proclaims that he’s the branding master, which is all about image and messaging and television, and yet there he is, being brazenly manipulated by his masters at Fox and allied media outlets. At this juncture, we’re seeing policy being made by television personalities, people whose expertise is not in budgeting, immigration, or anything relevant – but how to look pretty and speak articulately on TV.
That’s it.
The Reality TV star that Trump used to be is caught in his own trap, and, worse yet, he doesn’t even realize it. For him, television is reality. For the rest of us on the ground, it’s not, and that’s going to be the worst for us.
There are so many adjectives applicable here: vacillating, manipulable, unfocused, and unintelligent simply arise from this one episode alone.
But added to what we’ve seen over the last three years, including the campaign, we can quite validly say that the best adjective is simply this:
He’s weak. The weakest President the United States has ever seen.
