Trump Timeline ... Trumpocalypse

Want to survive another 100 days of Trump? Don’t get complacent
Want to survive another 100 days of Trump? Don’t get complacent - The Globe and Mail

On April 27, U.S. President Donald Trump sent out a missive congratulating himself on his "100 days of accountability," boasting he had implemented "tough ethical standards to ensure his administration works for the American people and not itself."

Two days prior, Mr. Trump had sent out a text asking "the forgotten people" to bid on "five incredible photographs of our massive inauguration." For the low price of one dollar, and total disregard for the emoluments clause, you too could have a slice of history from the Grifter-in-Chief! Mr. Trump's text message shakedown did not make the news, overshadowed as it was by the fact that U.S. tax dollars are being used to pay for the President's Florida golf trips, security for his wife to live in a golden tower and the business ventures of his daughter and son-in-law, who, like their father, are abusing executive power to enhance family wealth.

In return for funding this budding dynasty of kleptocrats, the Trump administration promises to take away the public's health insurance, national parks, public schools, environmental protections, civil rights and most social programs benefiting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Under President Trump, the American Dream is a going-out-of-business sale.
 
Want to survive another 100 days of Trump? Don’t get complacent
Want to survive another 100 days of Trump? Don’t get complacent - The Globe and Mail

On April 27, U.S. President Donald Trump sent out a missive congratulating himself on his "100 days of accountability," boasting he had implemented "tough ethical standards to ensure his administration works for the American people and not itself."

Two days prior, Mr. Trump had sent out a text asking "the forgotten people" to bid on "five incredible photographs of our massive inauguration." For the low price of one dollar, and total disregard for the emoluments clause, you too could have a slice of history from the Grifter-in-Chief! Mr. Trump's text message shakedown did not make the news, overshadowed as it was by the fact that U.S. tax dollars are being used to pay for the President's Florida golf trips, security for his wife to live in a golden tower and the business ventures of his daughter and son-in-law, who, like their father, are abusing executive power to enhance family wealth.

In return for funding this budding dynasty of kleptocrats, the Trump administration promises to take away the public's health insurance, national parks, public schools, environmental protections, civil rights and most social programs benefiting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Under President Trump, the American Dream is a going-out-of-business sale.
No offense but will YOU guys survive 8 years of Trump presidency without a NERVOUS BREAKDOWN?
 


President Trump’s election provoked extraordinary fears that he would become an American strongman in the mold of authoritarian leaders he admires such as Vladimir Putin of Russia or Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey. Unlike those countries, however, the United States has a very robust set of institutional checks and balances that are supposed to prevent any one individual from acquiring excessive power. The empirical question, then, is whether that system would successfully contain a president who displayed little respect for legal or ethical constraints.

At the 100-day mark, it seems clear that the system is working properly and that Trump is more likely to go down in history as a weak and ineffective president than as an American tyrant. Apart from the appointment of Neil M. Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, he has failed to carry through on any of his major campaign promises such as stopping Muslim immigration or building his “big, beautiful” wall. His most abject failure was the effort to replace Obamacare with the American Health Care Act, which had to be withdrawn for lack of votes. This absence of winning (is it called “losing”?) unfolded even as the Republican Party controls both houses of Congress and the presidency.

There are multiple sources of this weakness. Most immediate is Trump’s own ignorance of the workings of the U.S. government and the inexperience of the advisers he chose to surround himself with. He seems to have come into office believing he could run the country the way he ran his family business, through executive orders. But the American system puts Congress in the driver’s seat for any major initiatives, and presidents are powerful only to the extent that they can build legislative coalitions. Trump failed to do this on health care, and he is no more likely to succeed with tax reform or infrastructure.
 
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