Because so many of us got it so wrong in 2016, there’s a tendency among many commentators to reflexively assume that President Trump possesses some kind of hidden sway over the political environment that we’re all missing.
But if there’s anything that should shatter this illusion, it’s the events of this particular moment.
When Trump brashly proclaimed “total exoneration” based on his attorney general’s 4-page summary of the special counsel’s findings, it was widely proclaimed that Trump and Republicans were now “turning the tables” and going “on offense” against the media and Democrats for supposedly blowing the Russia scandal. Some in the media flagellated themselvesupon Trump’s demand, and others https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-won-the-mueller-war-but-democrats-still-have-a-lot-to-focus-on/2019/03/25/9d7ba06c-4f31-11e9-88a1-ed346f0ec94f_story.html?utm_term=.0dd5e3345c41 (absurdly overstated) the scale of Trump’s new command of the political narrative.
Yet now https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/04/04/complete-total-exoneration-team-mueller-nope-not-so-much/?utm_term=.d4a9a9134d2d (new reports have badly damaged that storyline by revealing) that some of Mueller’s investigators say William P. Barr’s letter underplayed just how damaging their findings really are for Trump -- and that they prepared summaries of their findings, expressly for public release, that Barr did not divulge.
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On health care, Trump abruptly threw in with a quixotic lawsuit that, if successful, would unleash immense damage throughout the health care system, triggering anxiety among Republicans who just got wiped out in an election all about preexisting conditions. Trump then blithely suggested Republicans would come up with a plan that would keep those protections, which unleashed further dread among them.
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On immigration, Trump dramatically threatened to close the border if Mexico doesn’t stop “letting” asylum seekers reach our southern border. But after being persuaded that border closure would unleash great economic damage, Trump https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-backs-off-threat-to-close-southern-border-immediately-says-hell-give-mexico-one-year-warning-on-drugs-migrants/2019/04/04/5fd35dfa-56f6-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html?utm_term=.a26fd8bc0a84 (backed down).
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The serious point here is that all this is happening for the same reason the health care mess happened: There’s an enormous gap between what Trump thinks his base wants -- toughness and threats, or really action of any kind -- and policy reality.
In a rage over the spike in asylum families, Trump has to do something. But closing ports of entry wouldn’t do anything about the problem, since asylum seekers https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/national/a-look-at-why-a-wall-wont-stop-immigration-surge/?utm_term=.7eb426d8770d (could still set foot on U.S. soil) and then exercise their legal right to apply.
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Trump is floundering around disastrously on multiple fronts. We need to see what’s right at the end of our noses.
