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The Daily 202: What Trump didnt want you to see him signing
The Daily 202: What Trump didn’t want you to see him signing
By James Hohmann March 3 at 11:26 AM
With Breanne Deppisch
THE BIG IDEA: The deconstruction of the administrative state will not be televised.
Donald Trump is eager to look like a man of action, pulling the levers of government and re-directing the ship of state. The president has had a photo opp to reinforce this narrative nearly every day since taking office. A steady procession of guests, from steelworkers to congressmen and the presidents of historically-black colleges, has flanked him as he rolled back environmental protections, took aim at Dodd-Frank and killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Ever the showman, Trump even postponed his second attempt at a travel ban, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, so that it could get a news cycle to itself.
With that in mind, it should speak volumes when Trump does not invite camera crews into the Oval Office to film him taking action. Three recent examples illustrate this:
MAKING IT EASIER FOR MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE TO GET GUNS:
On Tuesday, Trump participated in a flashy photo opp to sign two feel-good resolutions. The “Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act” authorizes the National Science Foundation to encourage females to become entrepreneurs. The “Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers Women Act” says NASA should urge young girls to study science. Neither of these measures provides even one dollar to help advance these worthy aims, which is why they passed Congress unanimously by voice votes.
During a lunch with the anchors from all the major networks, meanwhile, Trump suggested that he could get behind a grand bargain to enact comprehensive immigration reform. This turned out to be a big head fake, but it nonetheless dominated the conversation during the run-up to his maiden speech before a joint session of Congress that evening.
While the press corps was distracted and the cable channels aired footage of Trump surrounded by a bipartisan group of smiling women, behind closed doors and with no fanfare the president quietly signed a measure that killed a regulation enacted by the Obama administration to tighten gun background checks.
....
James Hohmann is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. Follow @JamesHohmann
By James Hohmann March 3 at 11:26 AM
With Breanne Deppisch
THE BIG IDEA: The deconstruction of the administrative state will not be televised.
Donald Trump is eager to look like a man of action, pulling the levers of government and re-directing the ship of state. The president has had a photo opp to reinforce this narrative nearly every day since taking office. A steady procession of guests, from steelworkers to congressmen and the presidents of historically-black colleges, has flanked him as he rolled back environmental protections, took aim at Dodd-Frank and killed the Trans-Pacific Partnership. Ever the showman, Trump even postponed his second attempt at a travel ban, which had been scheduled for Wednesday, so that it could get a news cycle to itself.
With that in mind, it should speak volumes when Trump does not invite camera crews into the Oval Office to film him taking action. Three recent examples illustrate this:
MAKING IT EASIER FOR MENTALLY ILL PEOPLE TO GET GUNS:
On Tuesday, Trump participated in a flashy photo opp to sign two feel-good resolutions. The “Promoting Women in Entrepreneurship Act” authorizes the National Science Foundation to encourage females to become entrepreneurs. The “Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers Women Act” says NASA should urge young girls to study science. Neither of these measures provides even one dollar to help advance these worthy aims, which is why they passed Congress unanimously by voice votes.
During a lunch with the anchors from all the major networks, meanwhile, Trump suggested that he could get behind a grand bargain to enact comprehensive immigration reform. This turned out to be a big head fake, but it nonetheless dominated the conversation during the run-up to his maiden speech before a joint session of Congress that evening.
While the press corps was distracted and the cable channels aired footage of Trump surrounded by a bipartisan group of smiling women, behind closed doors and with no fanfare the president quietly signed a measure that killed a regulation enacted by the Obama administration to tighten gun background checks.
....
James Hohmann is a national political correspondent for The Washington Post. Follow @JamesHohmann