Ten days ago, Donald Trump threatened to close the American-Mexican border. Then he reversed himself, saying he would give Mexico a year to comply with his demands -- but he held out the prospect of 25% tariffs on cars imported from Mexico. Max Boot writes:
The good news: Trump did not carry out an ill-advised ultimatum. The bad news: The president of the United States has once again been exposed as a very bad poker player. Trump is the maestro of empty threats. The pontiff of broken promises. The bard of bluster, bluff and BS. You cannot take him seriously — and increasingly, few do, either at home or abroad. Both foreign governments and savvy Americans by now know to discount most of his rhetorical effusions.
Indeed, at the very time that Trump was retreating from his threat to close the border, he was also backtracking from his promise, also made the week before, to produce a health-care bill. Now, he says, that will happen right after the 2020 election if voters simply hand back control of the House to Republicans. Vote Republican to find out what’s in the health bill! So, at some point in the future, the GOP will produce a bill with better coverage and lower costs than Obamacare. Yeah, right. Of course, in 2016, Trump vowed to unveil such legislation on his first day in office. More than 800 days into his presidency, a Republican health-care bill remains as chimerical as a good 5-cent cigar — or Trump’s tax returns.
There are lots of other promises he hasn't kept:
He has not locked up Hillary Clinton. He has not forced Mexico to pay for a border wall. He has not kept the government shut down until Democrats funded the wall. He has not rained “fire and fury” on North Korea. He has not torn up NAFTA. He has not pulled U.S. troops out of Syria. He has not loosened the libel laws.
Boot believes it's a good thing he didn't keep these promises. But what does that tell us about the man?
With his empty verbiage, Trump is decreasing his own bargaining leverage with adversaries such as China, Iran, Venezuela and North Korea, while raising the risk of a fatal miscalculation in an international crisis. A president’s words can mean the difference between war and peace. Even if Trump means what he says, how would anyone know? Being a fabulist may be acceptable for a real estate developer. It’s destructive and self-defeating for a commander in chief.
And there is the distinct possibility that Trump is in the early stages of dementia. That should scare the hell out of all of us.
Image: Capitol Hill Blue
2 comments:
if he could move from the early stages to the late stages this week, I'd feel so much better.
Trump doesn't have a filter. and that can be the early stages of dementia. He tries to bully and when it doesn't work, well he doesn't have Cohen to go and "follow up".
No one pays much attention to Trump these days, they're just waiting for him to go. there are those who support him, his base and he may have the help of Putin and Xi meddling in the American election, and some old white politicians . However, as he becomes more unhinged there are fewer people who will listen to him. the end was clearly signaled when Ethiopia sent the black boxes to Germany and not the U.S.A. The U.S.A. may still have its military, but its truly a country in decline. It has a decent economy, but people just don't make enough money to live well.
Last evening PBS from Washington State aired a documentary about health care in Las Vegas, New Mexico. Followed 3 health care providers, who work in a clinic, which serves everyone. What struck me was the amount of poverty, the poor living conditions the people had in the area. The average income was $20K a year. One of the doctors said she came from the county which had the most PhDs in New Mexico to live and work in a county which had the highest death rate due to drugs. Living in Nanaimo, B.C. we do have the highest death rate in Canada, due to fent. over doses, but the difference between how we live and they live is just stunning.
The United States has always been a country of stark differences, e.a.f. But those differences are getting starker. And Trump glories -- or wallows in them.
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