President Trump: the lame duck

A lame duck in a presidency is when the president is in the final year of the presidency and accomplishes very little during that final stage of the presidency.

Donald Trump is an inappropriate President and has not delivered anything more than that of a Potemkin Presidency.

Grigori Potemkin erected phony portable settlements along the Dnieper River to deceive Czarina Catherine the Great that her reign was creating prosperity. After she died, the structures were disassembled and re-assembled to lengthen the delusion he had created.

Just like Potemkin, Trump’s tenure as president has been a string of phony executive orders that cannot be enforced, tweets without substantiation, photo opportunities about health care and other laws that won’t pass, and a few rallies spouting unattainable promises to bolster his ego and seeking support from fools who actually believe his rantings.

Not long ago, Trump waddled his way through Europe and the Middle East like the lame duck he is and bragged that the U.S. would pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement and negotiate a better deal for everyone.

Trump’s so-called better deal is strictly for the United States and no-one else.  He has already stated that the coal industry in the U,S, will continue to function. That is certainly a better deal for the American coal miners. He also wants to increase oil production so that cars will have fuel to operate on. That is also good for the American oil industry. Is this dummy aware that within ten years, most cars will be electric?

Trump’s version of a better deal will result in an increased climate change to the extent that eventually, the ice in Greenland and other  northern  parts  of  Earth  will  gradually  melt and  raise  the sea water metres above normal, thereby flooding coastlines around the world.      

Trump believes that his recent foreign trip was a triumph when it actually wasn’t and, as for Paris, he won’t get a new deal from France and other nations fighting climate change because the movement behind climate change won’t end.

For the first time in history, polls show that vice president Pence is more well-liked than the president. “According to a recent Fox News Poll, 42 per cent of voters approve of Pence, while 43 per cent disapprove. Fifty-three per cent of voters disapprove of Trump, while 40 per cent approve,” as stated in Newsweek.

I believe that if Pence can keep himself aloof of Trump’s ravings, the poll figures in favour of Pence will climb much higher while Trump’s numbers in his favour will sink much lower. 

As Trump tramples all over his turf, Pence has all but disappeared and remains untainted by the Russian or obstruction of justice scandals involving the firing of the FBI director. By contrast, Trump is lawyering up because of the serious threats against him—which may actually be true.

If Trump is criminally charged and later convicted or his closest associates are found to have been in collusion with the Russians, Vice President Pence may be forced to take action. He, along with the vote of a simple majority of the Trump cabinet, can force the President to resign immediately for being unable to carry out his duties, under the 25th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

The U.S. Constitution is 230 years old and yet, its existence has created a system that is dysfunctional. Fortunately, a full impeachment process by Congress is not required if most of the cabinet believes that the President is unable to do the job; physically, psychologically, or legally. If Trump is found guilty of a criminal wrongdoing by the Department of Justice, he can be fired by his own cabinet.

The first bombshell exploded when on June 9^th, former FBI Director James Comey testified about his firing by the President. He stated before a Congressional committee that Trump fired him only because he refused to stop the Russian probes. Interfering with justice is enough to turf Trump from the White House.

Checks and balances in the governments in the United States have become open warfare in the U.S. and the Supreme Court decision in 2010 has worsened the situation by allowing vested interests, foreigners, and wealthy donors to buy politicians and dictate agendas to them even when they are against the politicians’ own views.

The decision by the Court which is referred to as Citizens United, bypasses the two-party system and replaces it with dozens of factions, both right and left, who advance their own individual, regional, or ideological agendas. There is no party discipline nor any interest in consensus building and compromise. This means policies can be created and abandoned on the fly by Presidents with fixed terms irrespective of them being in their mid-terms.

The result of all this is that the United States today has a head of state who doesn’t care about discourse or compromise, who has shown disdain for institutions and treaties and statesmanship, and who has become the first Presidential lame duck at the beginning of his term instead of at the end of his term.

In September 2016, Gov. Mike Pence stood on the tarmac at Atlantic Aviation after one of the campaign’s last rallies and talked about the goals of a Trump administration. “It all begins with Donald Trump’s contract with the American vote.” Pence discussed tax reform, ethics reform, infrastructure improvements, better trade deals and a cheaper replacement for Obamacare. At That time, there was no mention of building walls, rounding up illegal immigrants or banning Muslims. It was too early in the election campaign to scare off potential voters.

Was Spence just playing the role of grace and steadiness to contrast Trump’s more outrageous rhetoric? Maybe he was. But Pence’s outline was not exactly the hell and brimstone that critics issued warnings and Trump often promised—a Trump presidency that would bring to Washington’s institutions. Nor did it sound like it would furnish the radical break with the status quo that Trump supporters said that they wanted from Trump as was continuously portrayed in so many news stories.

A president like Trump is remembered by the promises he didn`t keep.  Many a president is as good as his word but Trump doesn`t keep his word. When he promised that he would make public his tax returns, his promise was like that old saying—Here today, gone tomorrow.

Here is an analysis of Trump’s statements and policy proposals prior to his swearing-in ceremony. He made at least 663 promises to the public. After his first day in office, Trump failed to keep 34 of his promises. Later, he had also broken 30 more promises, yielding a total of 64 broken promises that Trump didn’t keep by the time he was in office in the first month. Just 100 days of what would be 1,461 days of a first term, Donald Trump had broken 80 promises he made before he was sworn in. Trump is like the rhetorical bull that ran into a china shop. Imagine the china in the shop being Trump’s promises. Need I go farther?

Even the cynics in his own party are willing to endure some of the stupid statements of Trump providing that they don’t have to  continue enduring his ridiculous statements too long.  This blundering president is like an itch that won’t go away no matter how hard and how many times you scratch it.

What follows are some of his stupid statements.

“All of the women on The Apprentice flirted with me—consciously or unconsciously. That’s to be expected.” Expected by whom?

“It’s freezing and snowing in New York. We need global warming!”  It’s flooding in New York. We have to move inland.

“My fingers are long and beautiful, as  are various other parts of my body.” Is he bagging about his penis?

“I think the only difference between me and the other candidates is that I’m more honest and my women are more beautiful.”  He thinks?

“My IQ is one of the highest and you all know it! Please don’t feel so stupid or insecure; it’s not your fault.” I for one feel smarter than this fool thinks he is.  

“The only card [Hillary Clinton] has is the woman’s card. She’s got nothing else to offer and frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don’t think she’d get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she’s got going is the woman’s card, and the beautiful thing is, women don’t like her.” She actually got more votes than Trump did.

“You know, it really doesn’t matter what the media write as long as you’ve got a young, and beautiful, piece of ass.” He always complains about the media. Is he referring to the butts of his womenfolk?

These are just a few of his many stupid statements.

This blundering fool’s phony presidency is as phony as his university was. I wonder if those Republicans who voted for him feel a bit silly now that they have seen their emperor with no clothes.