The Relentless Failures of Trump – And Republican Protection (#264)

The bosses of the famed Cosa Nostra (the Mafia) would be envious of Donald Trump as they couldn’t dream of retaining the loyalty of their serving members, as sycophant Republicans have shown to Trump, in the face of his relentless failures. And as Trump falls down in just about every competent human and presidential aspect, not to mention economic, political, foreign policy and American global supremacy (Russia and China having taken the lead), the Republicans remain blindly loyal in their consistent efforts to defend and shield him, and in doing so, they expose their own remarkable lack of ethics, competence, truthfulness, and corrupted sense of un-patriotic loyalty.

Let’s be quite clear, Donald Trump has failed miserably as US President in most of what he set out to do, and has actually done – in spite of having the absolute backing of an overwhelming majority Republican government for most of his term thus far.

His most recent, albeit predictable failure, was with Kim Jong-un of North Korea; where in spite of all expert advice, which Trump ignored as usual, he tried his special brand of childish strategies of flattering the despotic Kim into agreeing to denuclearizing his arsenal. It all ended in sudden and spectacular failure as he had to ‘walk away’ from the much ballyhooed second summit in Vietnam.

His special appeal and immature tactics seem to mesmerize American Republicans, but have zero effect on others in the World, where he is increasingly looked upon as an embarrassingly incompetent, tragically unsuitable, and in some respects, a comical individual. Some of his other well publicized but equally miserable failures (like ridding North Korea entirely of nuclear weapons) as US President are:

On the economy, Trump promised exceptional growth (4-6% per annum), so far he has barely matched Obama’s peak rates of just above 3%. And in spite of inheriting a sound growing economy from Obama, Trump’s tariff and trade wars have threatened to derail a carefully husbanded economy that grew for Obama’s entire two terms. Now there is absolute evidence of Trump policies jeopardizing not only the global economy, but also the American economy.

Return of manufacturing jobs to America – hardly. In fact now the exodus seems to be on, as American corporations once again bow to business fundamentals rather than Trump threats, and move their manufacturing factories off-shore and close some significant ones at home.

Exceptional job creation – to say that job creation is not ‘exceptional’ in the current economy is to state the obvious. The historically low unemployment trend which Trump loves to brag about is almost unbroken from Obama’s two terms.

Health-Care for all Americans, ‘cheaper and better’ - this particular promise has been a fiasco, resulting in absolutely no gain - but definite pain - as Trump and the Republicans wilfully destroyed the existing healthcare plans, with more Americans losing their healthcare, or some aspect of it, than gaining any.

More security for Americans – some of the very worst shootings, with the greatest losses of lives, have happened under Trump’s watch - especially the one in Las Vegas on October 1st, 2017, when 64 year old Stephen Paddock killed 58 and injured 400 with automatic gun fire (total injured were over 800), making it the ‘worst’ mass shooting in American history.

And on February 14, 2018, 17 students and teachers were shot, and 17 more injured, by a student shooter at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, in Parkland Florida. This was also the worst high school massacre in American history, and it was also under Trump’s watch; and so it has gone, regular shootings that have continued to claim a steady toll of innocent American lives, with no actions taken, minimal gun control and therefore there is no end in sight.

(Mean while, Trump and his ever supportive Republicans have done their best to deflect the public attention from the greatest danger to Americans, regular shootings by other Americans, to the almost non-existent threat from illegal immigrants at the borders, in spite of concrete proof to the contrary.)

A ‘big, beautiful concrete border wall’, paid for, entirely by Mexico. This has been Trump’s most publicized failure, with bizarre twists and turns (and with Mexico telling Trump where to stuff the hopes that it will pay for it) which have made this ‘Wall’ almost as infamous as Pink Floyd’s ‘The Wall’, but not half as popular or productive. And, Trump’s ‘big beautiful Wall’ has undergone so many changes in description that nobody knows what he is talking about now when he says ‘Wall’.

The Trump and Republican tax cuts ‘for ordinary Americans’, turned out to be almost solely for the wealthy and the corporations, and their economic stimulative effects were short lived as they now turn into economic liability with soaring Trillion dollar deficits and record government debts.

And one could go on …

Additionally, Trump’s personal style of conducting himself, now and in the past, have produced an inarguable image of a pathological liar, a con man, an unethical amoral man, racist, bigoted and a proven misogynist.

And, with his public display of steel clad loyalty and unseemly affection for the most distasteful of dictators, such as Russia’s Putin, North Korea’s Kim Jong-un, Duterte of the Philippines, Erdogan of Turkey and others - and with his equally open contempt for American intelligence agencies, American institutions of Democracy, and the Rule-of-Law, Trump borders on the treasonous, and a real danger to America.

His unethical and deeply flawed character have forced a slew of investigations into his 2016 Presidential Campaign, his business dealings, past and present, and his personal financial status, which is suspected to be as false as most of all else he has claimed to be true about himself.

There has never been a US President who has had as many of his inner circle of advisors and associates, criminally charged and indicted, as Donald Trump. And in spite of a growing number of Trump associates going to jail, after having worked with Trump, the Republicans continue to support and defend him while attacking all who oppose him.

This strange behaviour of defending and protecting the un-defendable character and performance of Trump is mystifying and infuriating the majority of Americans, stunning the rest of the civilized World, and providing endless fodder for newscasters and comics. But the Republicans continue to be as mindlessly committed in their support of the ‘daily failing Trump’, as Trump has been consistent in his lying and failing to deliver on anything significant.