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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWho Knew Trump Would Be Such a Weak President?
October 26, 2017 at 8:07 am EDT By Taegan Goddard
Elizabeth Drew: This depiction of Donald Trump as a weak president would no doubt shock his ardent followers, especially since Trump usually covers his retreats with bluster. It might also be a surprise to those who have worried that hes a would-be autocrat. It turns out that Trump has neither the wit nor the grit to seize power, and he may be too lazy and too uninterested in governing to make much of it if he did. (He can, however, empower by default cabinet officials who do know what to do with the power at their disposalfor example, Sessions.) But, except for his use of executive orders (often to countermand ones by Obama) and his cyber-bullying, Trump is essentially a passive participant in his own government.
His campaign against the press is of concern, but thus far hes not taken action to curb its independence, nor have his threats to do so had any discernible impact on the rigorous job the press is doing of holding his presidency to account. In fact, all things taken together, it begins to seem as if the strongman of the rallies was a convenient deception, a figure that Trump invented but couldnt maintain when it came to making actual decisions in the Oval Office.
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https://politicalwire.com/2017/10/26/knew-trump-weak-president/
enough
(13,235 posts)no matter how "weak" he may be.
LonePirate
(13,386 posts)unblock
(51,974 posts)A strong president would get laws passed to defund or dismantle the parts if the beauracracy he didn't want. Donnie is just not hiring, or hiring do-nothings and know-nothings.
That's damaging, but it's a very weak way of going about it. It shows he can't lead.
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,080 posts)Dismantling longstanding treaties, laws and executive agencies and having an itchy finger on the button isn't really "weak" in terms of his impact.
In terms of his abilities and the traditional roles and powers of President, he's weak. But he never really wanted to play that game in the first place.
unblock
(51,974 posts)First, he's too weak to get laws passed even through a congress with same-party majorities. That's unheard of weakness for a republican president.
Second, even his executive actions fall short of the damage he wants to inflict. Look his travel ban has been blocked what, three times now?
And all the treaties, he campaigned not on just dropping them, but in renegotiating better deals. Ok, so he's walked away from deals, but he has yet to even begin to work on anything better. Not to mention it seems deals like the Paris accord and the Iran deal may well simply proceed without us.
This is damaging to us, sure, but there is no sign of strength in any if this.
Imagine a weaking dragging a sledgehammer through a china shop. He can do a lot of damage just by barely dragging it around on the ground, but you wouldn't call it a show of strength.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,355 posts)Not that the things that are happening are great or anything (far from it) but imagine how much worse it would be if we had somebody like Pence or Putin as POTUS, both of whom are both evil AND relatively more competent as POTUS right now?
unblock
(51,974 posts)it would be far worse than it is.
i knew he'd be incompetent (though i didn't expect *this* degree of incompetence) but i expected republicans in congress to be more unified. i'm amazed they didn't pass a tax cut first thing and truly stunned that they couldn't do more damage to obamacare.
LonePirate
(13,386 posts)I believe he told Kasich (or in reference to Kasich possibly being selected as VP) that he would turning the governing reins over to his VP while he spent his time with MAGA bullshit (speeches and rallies).
It is clear to me that Pence and maybe Bannon and Miller made every single Cabinet appointment along with the Gorsuch pick. Pence and the Cabinet are running the government and they are destroying it in the process. Its a mix of willful negligence and deliberate sabotage with 45 only appearing for photo ops, speeches and interviews. He has zero policy or governmental knowledge and he has no interest in acquiring any.
unblock
(51,974 posts)Just imagine what this last year would have been for him had he narrowly lost, as expected.
He would have been a celebrity in right-wing circles, free to get anti-hillary speeches to adoring fans, and the media would not be constantly on his case for all his lies and ineptness.
He could be milking his notoriety for millions and millions without investigations or scrutiny.
Instead his life is majorly constrained and under a spotlight. He has to worry about enemies in a way he doesn't know how to deal with. And he he can no longer surround himself solely with sycophants. He has to hear insults to he fragile ego on tv on a daily basis.
This is not what he wanted.
lpbk2713
(42,696 posts)I never thought the American voter could be that colossally
stupid. Especially after two terms of Dumbya.
Vinca
(50,168 posts)I knew he was nuts, but I had no idea he was this nuts. It's like a bad dream you never wake up from.
rock
(13,218 posts)OK, to be fair, I thought he would be just a leetle bit better. Very leetle.
Thor_MN
(11,843 posts)Building things takes strength, maintaining things takes strength, destroying things is relatively easy.