President Donald Trump should be settling into the latest role in his storied career as the leader of the free world. But that seems a situation beyond his greedy, litigious grasp. Surrounded by scandals, apparent unconstitutionalities and lying surrogates, the imbroglios appear almost daily only to be eclipsed by the next embarrassing disclosure.
Leaks from inside the White House are rampant and reports that he’s not happy with his new job have emerged. There also appears to be dissatisfaction with his staff but the word is it’s to early for wholesale change. Really? He’s reluctant to make changes? Staff members are obviously the only thing in the White House he isn’t changing. But the recent revelations about Mike Flynn and his discussions by phone, intercepted and transcribed by our intelligence services, may force his hand.
As Mr. Trump uncomfortably strains at the limits of his power, the other two branches seem to relentlessly beat upon him at every turn. The man who invites, incites and revels in conflict has no shortage of enemies, foes and ever more reluctant supporters. “I’ll see you in court!” was his recent rejoinder to the legal blockades erected to his Muslim ban. With as many judicial actions taken against and for this individual he may find himself there ubiquitously.
DJT suspiciously is reacting as if he had been elected king, not president. His celebrated ignorance seems to spring from a decided lack of curiosity about anything not connected to building Brand Trump which includes his re-election. His unwillingness to disclose, divest and even understand the underlying reasons why these are important is ominous. His goals are loudly stated, but as any negotiator knows, red herrings can be dragged across the trail and easily distract the baying hounds while the true objective and the actions building toward those can be obscured and clouded as the goal is sought.
I grew up in a newspaper-rich household. My Father owned and published The Fishermen’s News, we subscribed to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and the Seattle Times. When my wife and I made our home in Portland we continued the tradition with subscriptions to The Oregonian, The Oregon Journal and regularly read The Oregon Times and Willamette Week. I love our free press and find it quite curious that the constant drumbeat from Trump and the right wing about how dishonest the press is just assumed by a large part of our citizens as de facto.
This is the insidious poisoning of the well from which our vital Fourth Estate springs. To those who buy into this trust-destroying claim I ask you: If you don’t trust the press who is it you place that most important belief in? Government? And by press, let’s face it, there are news organizations dedicated to reporting vetted and substantiated facts and those that deal in fake news. Politifact is but one source battling the propagandists but they’re not alone:
https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/2016/07/20/the-10-best-fact-checking-sites/
We all are entitled as free citizens in a country where free speech is chipped into the igneous stone of the Constitution to our opinions. And they do and must vary widely. But at some point we must share the facts or we have literally nothing to talk about. Any citing of reporting facts as tainted as its source is the “main stream media”, as if that river is polluted, is generalization writ large into a lie. When a recent Facebook post noted the dishonesty of the “media” I requested some names so I could defend them. Still waiting.
So we are left to watch President Trump and his administration seek the limits of presidential power over immigration, regulation and media intimidation. And watch the curious attacks on corporations and individuals. The president is simply acting in the same boorish manner he employed in private industry. And he’s run his personal ship onto the rocks before. His supporters might think the stories of his crash in the late eighties with billions in corporate debt and a personal guarantee attached to $900 million of it is false; yet they’re pathetically mistaken. It’s part of the public record. The past is, at times, as the saying goes, prologue.
Trump’s shown a reluctance to criticize Putin. Michael Flynn’s done business with Russian media, dined with Putin, and is now saddled with records that show he lied about his pre-inauguration phone calls to the Russian ambassador to the United States. Paul Manafort’s record of doing business in Ukraine on behalf of the Russians is well known and documented.
Trump’s secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, is the former CEO of Exxon and signed a $500 billion dollar joint oil venture with Russia and Putin. Flynn’s documented conversations touched on the dropping of sanctions imposed by Obama that brought that to a screeching halt. If those sanctions are dropped, with no apparent change in Russian behavior in Crimea, Ukraine and elsewhere, the quid pro quo of helping Trump get elected will gain currency. It should have long ago.
The reality is our president is not a king. Our Founding Fathers intentionally designed our Constitution to prevent that. Arbitrary, unilateral lines of action are open to the person occupying that office, but they’re far from limitless. And no matter how deft one is at getting elected, using the power of the office gained to shield one of our most brutal enemies and aid them in economic expansion is treasonous. But there’s more to this story and given time, that story will be told.
Who authorized the call originally and its intent will ignite a firestorm that the White House will not be able to control. Trump’s presidency will deny, obfuscate and relentlessly attack the press for trying to thwart the will of the people. But no presidency is immune to the law, and no presidency can survive the disclosure that it was aided in gaining the White House with the help of our arch-enemy Russia. The poison pill’s been taken; no amount of media manipulation can stop the fatal effect of emerging facts. Trump is doomed.
We are at our best as a nation when each one of us recognizes that none of us are above the rest. We all are equal under the law. And the actual monarchical power needed to keep order in a nation rests not with a king but with the Constitution. Hail to the Constitution! The ruler who presides over us as a nation and will when each and every one of us alive today is dead. Long live the Constitution.
Reflex Blue 