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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Most Personal Presidency Ever
https://prospect.org/blogs/tap/trump-the-most-personal-presidency-ever/The Most Personal Presidency Ever
by Harold Meyerson
November 5, 2019
President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un walk together at the border village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone, in North Korea, June 30, 2019.
The fundamental difference between Donald Trumps presidency and those of his 43 predecessors is that his is all about him. Not policy, ideology, or even rudimentary orientation. Him. Him and his interests, as he sees them.
Consider his criteria for U.S. support and opposition. Putin and his oligarchs have helped him, so they merit support wherever possible. Ukraine has been arrayed against Putin since it overthrew his puppet there, whom Paul Manafort was soaking for a not-small fortune. Manafort then told Trump that Ukraines new leaders were opposed not just to Putin but to himTrump. The New York Times has reported that that was enough to enrage Trump, and then, with Joe Biden leading the Democratic pack, it was all but automatic that Trump would condition aid to Ukraine on its helping his own political prospects.
This pattern repeats itself in Trumps domestic policiesmost recently, in his threat to withhold assistance from California in the wake of its fire epidemic, because the state is home to more anti-Trump Americans than any other and he viscerally hates it. When California has fires, he tweeted, it looks, like every other state when hit by natural disaster, to the federal government for help. No more, Trump tweeted.
Such personalization of policy doesnt mean that Trump doesnt have a range of what appear to be policies as suchanti-immigrant, anti-minority, anti-science, as well as antihis critics, be they real or imagined. These policies reflect his deep biases and insecurities; they are directed at those he believes are his political enemies, current or potential; and reward, at least at the level of symbolism, his supporters. But the degree to which the personal eclipses basic policy considerations is unprecedented. Kim Jong Un takes Trump seriously, so were OK with North Korea. California irks him; let it burn. By such criteria are matters of state decided.
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The Most Personal Presidency Ever (Original Post)
babylonsister
Nov 2019
OP
Thomas Hurt
(13,903 posts)1. very polite way of saying....
Trump thinks the presidency and the country is his to exploit for his own personal gain......you know, like any dictator.
Yavin4
(35,434 posts)2. Simply put, this is tyranny. n/t
lunatica
(53,410 posts)3. Trump thinks the taxes we pay are his personal money
Hes tried a number of times to use it illegally for whatever. To build his wall, to cage children, to deny aid to Puerto Rico, to bargain with the Ukraine, and now to withhold disaster funds. He wants what he wants and fuck everything and everyone else.