Regular readers of this page are well aware of this editor’s objections to President Trump. He’s too self-centered, too thin-skinned, too rude and insulting in his criticism, and too willing to lie if it suits him.
In short, he is un-presidential, or at the very least uncomfortably unlike any other president the United States has ever had. Which makes the content of a new book that’s critical of Trump so interesting, amplified by the fact that it includes disparaging comments about the president by many people who are (or were) close to him.
The remarks in Michael Wolff’s “Fire and Fury” by Steve Bannon, who was Trump’s campaign manager and followed him into the White House last year, are surprisingly harsh. The president responded in kind, and it appears that most of the influential people on the Trump-Bannon axis, forced to choose, took sides with the man who got elected in 2016.
If we are to believe the stories in the book, Trump is an uninterested, unintelligent ignoramus. This gives fuel to the president’s biggest critics, who believe he’s incapable of carrying out his duties as chief executive, and that a majority of his Cabinet should invoke the Constitution’s 25th Amendment and remove him from office.
Yahoo Finance columnist Rick Newman makes an effective case for the other side of this debate: “If Trump is as obtuse as his many critics and even some supporters seem to think, then how did he outsmart a huge field of experienced and well-funded candidates, including the inheritors of the Bush and Clinton political dynasties?”
There’s only one possible answer to the question: Trump figured out how to connect with the large number of voters who were fed up with the way things are in Washington. He claimed the ground as a “drain the swamp” alternative. He alone could fix what was wrong.
And it worked. The other candidates seeking the Republican nomination seemed helpless against Trump. His victory over them had to be easier than even he expected.
As for the general election, it certainly helped that Trump ran against a deeply flawed Democrat, Hillary Clinton. Her knowledge and experience was never in question, but as a candidate she redefined the term “uninspiring.”
All this is not meant to praise Trump. He is his presidency’s own worst enemy, a man whose actions and reactions can’t get out of the way of anything good that happens.
The 25th Amendment talk is Trump’s “birther” issue. You remember how Trump and many others insisted that Barack Obama was not born in the United States. The 44th president eventually released his Hawaiian birth certificate to prove his citizenship, but even today there are plenty of people who still refuse to believe it.
It’s the same thing with the 45th president. His antics will continually give his critics ammunition to contend that he is unfit for office. And they will never believe otherwise.
There is a better way to remove Trump or any other public official. It’s called an election, and there’s one in 2020. A majority of voters in 31 states put Trump in office, and their voices will be heard again soon enough.
Jack Ryan, Enterprise-Journal
