It should not come as a surprise that the controversy, inflammatory rhetoric and utter nonsense that propelled Donald Trump to victory would find their way into his White House.
Take for example some of Trump’s recent appointments to high level positions within his government.
President-Elect Trump’s chief strategist is a guy who openly courts fringe groups populated by white supremacists, racist, bigots, xenophobes, homophobes and anti-Muslim extremists. Beliefs that are also shared by Trump’s pick for Attorney General. His National Security Advisor is by all accounts a hot headed firebrand who does not believe that Islam is a religion. His Deputy National Security Advisor’s claim to fame is a stint as a talking head on Fox News. Her resume’ found to be populated with numerous false claims including that she wrote Ronald Reagan’s famous “Star Wars” speech. She did not.
Yet to be filled are Secretaries of State, Defense and Treasury. In the mix: Mitt Romney, a guy who as a presidential candidate dissed 47% of the country. David Petraeus, a former general who is currently under probation for having been convicted of miss-handling sensitive top secret documents. John Bolton, one of the key proponents and architects of the disastrous war in Iraq; and Rudy Giuliani, a man who has made a fortune giving speeches and counsel to foreign governments opposed to America’s national interests, including groups formerly listed on the United States’ terrorist watch list.
(Allow me a moment to make a point of personal privilege. One of the main tenants of Donald Trump’s presidential campaign was that Hillary Clinton should be incarcerated for her reckless handling of sensitive classified documents and for using her position and power as Secretary of State to peddle influence and access for personal gain. Trump hammered this point at virtually every campaign stop he made. Given those statements…should President-Elect Trump choose to appoint Rudy Giuliani or David Petraeus to a position of power with in his government; he owes the country and Hillary Clinton an apology.)
Then there is the matter of President-Elect Trump’s vast business empire and the possible conflicts of interest that his business dealings may have with his duties as president.
As President, Donald Trump is under no legal obligation to distance himself from his business operations. Armed with that legal knowledge, President-Elect Trump says that he has no intention of divesting himself of his business assets other than to turn the day-to-day operation over to his children under what he refers to as a blind trust.
First off handing the day-to-day operations over to his children is not a blind trust. Trump will still know the assets exist and will be well aware of the effects any presidential policies would inure to the detriment of his business and his children.
Secondly, any notion that President Trump will be able to keep his hands out of the dealings of Trump International is utter nonsense. We have already seen several instances during this transition period of President-Elect Trump using his new found influence as leader of the free world to pressure visiting foreign dignitaries to act favorably on matters of importance to Trump International projects.
It is therefore apparent that over the course of the next four to eight years we will find ourselves considering no only if President Trump’s policies are good for the country but how they impact his business empire as well.
Finally, we have the ridiculous case of an incoming president questioning the validity of an election that he won.
It is apparent that Hillary Clinton’s winning the popular vote by a margin in excess of 2.4 million votes is serious burr up the backside of a man than cannot stand losing at anything. Adding insult to Trump’s injured ego is the fact that Clinton’s 2.4 million margin of victory is the largest popular vote defeat handed to the winner of the Electoral College in 140 years.
Trump is so incensed by the beat down that he took to twitter to claim facts not otherwise found in evidence. Trump claimed that he won the popular vote because millions of voted illegally:
“In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who votes illegally….It would have been much easier for me to win the so-called popular vote than the Electoral College in that I would only campaign in 3 or 4 states instead of the 15 that I visited. I would have won more easily and convincingly (but smaller states are forgotten)
The strength of our democracy resides in the validity of our electoral process and the peaceful transition of the most powerful office in the world as ordered by the will of the people. For a newly elected president to question the validity of our electoral process is at once historic, dangerous and demented.
Donald Trump promised that if elected he would shake up Washington. Based on the first three weeks I’d say he is living up to his promise.
The American people should be careful what the wish for.
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