The last six months in the White House have been chaos. Multiple firings, no organisation, legislation failures, policy confusion, media hatred. No action. All led by Donald Trump, someone nobody in mainstream (or even fringe) politics ever expected to become President. I hoped he would prove his critics wrong; that he would become Presidential and lead like a statesman – for America’s sake. Regrettably, I was totally wrong. While journalists may find the drama exciting, for the citizens of America, the situation is worrying. Trump, if anything, appears even less Presidential. Who would have thought that was possible?
From all the firings and resignations, you would be forgiven for thinking Donald Trump forgot he no longer hosts ‘The Apprentice.’ For over a decade, he became so used to getting rid of people: why not continue in the White House? Run the place like a Saturday night TV show, getting rid of one person per week – last man standing wins. In all seriousness (though Donald Trump is hardly a serious person), the lack of unity among senior White House figures is astonishing. Anthony Scaramucci, the former director of communications, lasted just 10 days after threatening to sack all his team. Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security adviser, survived 23 days after lying about links to Russia. Sean Spicer, the former Press Secretary, resigning from the job after not performing well. You couldn’t write it – maybe that’s why Trump is treating the whole affair like a show, livetweeting events as they unfold. At the helm of America, the amount of infighting, backstabbing and removals is not dissimilar to Game of Thrones; each member aiming for the top. Despite the chaos, Trump tweeted ‘’Today was great.’’ Where was he? Playing golf? The whole point of being the President is surely to keep people safe and improve their lives. Trump’s key election campaign pledge was to make America great again: socially, militarily and economically. Whether you agreed or disagreed with his policies, they certainly promised action to regenerate left behind areas. Anyone can promise things. Trump has discovered, on a whole range of policies, that actually delivering them is far more difficult. On health, the Senate narrowly voted against the Republican repeal of Obamacare, which would have taken away insurance from 16 million and increased premiums by 20%. Even Republicans like John McCain recognised the repeal bill did not deliver safe, affordable healthcare. Trump then tweeted that, instead of repealing Obamacare, he would let the system implode itself. To me, that shows inaction from a supposedly radical president. Trump’s migration policy is one of the areas I most fundamentally disagree with him. As I have written before, banning all citizens from six majority Muslim nations is ridiculous beyond belief. It assumes firstly that all citizens in those countries are Muslims, all of those citizens are terrorists and that all Muslims are terrorists. I have been very critical of radical socially conservative Islam, but the idea that all 1.6 billion Muslims pose an imminent threat to the United States is just stupid. Trump faced nearly 50 legal cases to this Executive Order, with even the, allegedly ‘watered down’ version facing legal fights. Trump pledging to ban all transgender people from the military was rightly condemned, especially given Trump’s support for the LGBT community during the election. 56 former generals signed a letter requesting transgender members ‘’were not dismissed.’’ His reason for banning them, “tremendous medical costs’’, was soon refuted because, even in the most extreme case, the money required is one tenth of the annual $84 million that the military spends on medication for erectile dysfunction. Thankfully, the legal fights and protests show that Americans are willing to stand in the way of such atrocious policies. Long may that continue. Trump seems to show nothing but love to some forms of media and no love at all to others. While his preferred use of twitter to communicate makes Trump appear more accessible than previous Presidents, his timeline is filled with scathing remarks about the ‘fake news media.’ I can’t believe I’m saying this: I agree with Donald Trump. Genuine fake news must be exposed, stamped out and have no place in our society. It misinforms people, giving them false information and negatively impacting the way they perceive various people or policies. However, Trump’s definition of fake news has exploded like a volcano. The meaning of fake news has changed from fake to presenting truthful news that is critical of the Trump administration. This is shown through Trump beating up the CNN logo – a network that isn’t so aligned with Trump’s vision. While this would be humorous if he were just a celebrity, as the President, it is deeply shocking. Surely the whole idea of the media is to ask difficult questions, in the interest of both the viewer and the country? The chaos of left and right US media factions makes a strong case for the BBC: an organisation that aims for impartiality, even if it does not always succeed. Readers of this blog: you may laugh. Why am I so surprised that Trump’s presidency has been a disaster? Wasn’t this inevitable, given his, though successful, deeply offensive campaign? Well, yes. A campaign focused on discriminating against those who are different to us and deliberately offending just about everyone was sure to be chaos if enacted. I, naively perhaps, assumed that Trump would become Presidential, that the role and responsibility of being so powerful would make him suitable (though still dislikeable). Trump’s political record, however, is non-existent. Having never served in the Senate, House of Representatives or any political role, his record was blank. In a way, this helped him, as he had no political failures that could work against him (unlike Clinton). However, having no political experience meant it was inevitable he would make his mistakes in the biggest, most important role. Yes, it is important people outside the political sphere and establishment (though Trump was hardly anti-establishment) are encouraged into politics, but, for the top job, some experience is surely essential. In 2016, the American people didn’t seem to think so. What happens next? Like British politics, you would be a fool to predict anything. With Trump, his administration changes so spontaneously that one thing will have been announced and the next day, it will be reversed. Hopefully, at future elections to Congress, the failures of Trump mean the Republicans lose their majority, making it even harder for Trump to enshrine his damaging legislation into law. This inaction could hurt Trump in 2020, or make his re-election more likely, due to anger at Democrats for continually blocking Trump. It’s a double edged sword. Then again, even with Republican majorities, there has been little progress. In terms of polling, Trump’s latest net approval ratings of -19% are lower than every President since Truman, at the same stage into their administration. Gerald Ford, the second lowest, was only -3% at that same stage. This polling does give hope that Trump will soon be ejected. Then again, a major event could work in Trump’s favour, making him unassailable. Also, who would believe polls in this political climate? Politics shouldn’t be about personalities. It’s the policies that will truly affect the country. Like most matters, Trump is an exception to that rule. With such a wild, uncontrollable, unsuitable person as head of state, it’s hard not to examine how Trump’s personality will affect American at home and abroad. Nearly 200 days on, I haven’t got used to such a dangerous figure being in charge. I hope the lack of action combined with growing frustration will result in Americans pointing the finger at Trump, showing him the exit, come 2020.
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