As the second month of the Trump administration draws to a close, one thing is abundantly clear: the Trump whose outrageous behavior we observed during the presidential campaign is the same as the Trump currently residing in the White House.
Anyone who expected Donald Trump to display a temperament more appropriate to an occupant of the Oval Office has had those expectations dashed.
So what to make of outlandish behavior not previously exhibited in the more than two centuries of our nation’s history, behavior that causes expressions of dismay and bewilderment to so many Americans and our allies while serving as an unending source of material for the entertainment of late night television audiences.
Defenders of the outrageous behavior tend to say that there is no reason to expect any change given that this is what got Trump elected and this is what those voters expected.
In other words, it’s worked so far so why stop now.
However, polls showing Trump with the lowest approval ratings of a newly elected leader in our history suggest that by far the majority of the electorate is unhappy with the conduct of the Tweeter-in-Chief.
So is Donald Trump the prisoner of his own psychological monsters, so thin-skinned, narcissistic, paranoid and egotistical that he is unable to cope with the legitimate criticism that any political leader must expect and that he simply cannot help himself?
Or is his behavior the product of a devious mind, calculating how best to avoid a bipartisan inquiry into Russian intervention in the election, the Trump campaign’s connection with the Russians, business and financial connections between the Russians and the Trump Organization and the very legitimacy of Mr. Trump’s election?
Viewed from the latter perspective, Mr. Trump’s baseless tweet about President Obama’s tapping Trump Tower is a huge distraction, paving the way for his call to investigate the Obama Administration and diverting attention from the Russian connection and the potentially explosive conflicts of interest that may be contained in his tax returns.
Method or madness?
You decide.
In another vein, Mr. Trump has continued his attacks on the mainstream press which has been working overtime to counter the lies, falsehoods, bogus claims, baseless assertions and delusions masquerading as truth emanating daily from the Trump administration.
Undermining the legitimacy of the mainstream press serves to create a false equivalency with the publishers of fake news, alternative facts and conspiracy theories.
No longer content to limit our disagreements to opinions, we are free to choose whatever “facts” we believe support our opinions and let truth and science be damned.
Thus, the devastating report of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office on the Trumpcare proposal to replace the Affordable Care Act is denounced by the Trump administration when it reveals the callousness at the heart of the Republican Party, not the compassionate conservatism it likes to tout.
Under Trumpcare, millions of Americans will lose their health insurance (14 million next year and even more in later years, leaving 52 million uninsured by 2026) while providing $600 billion in tax cuts for the wealthy over the next 10 years.
In fact, as reported by Politico, the Trump administration’s own Office of Management and Budget projected even more Americans would lose their health insurance under Trumpcare than forecast by the CBO.
But, you won’t hear about the CBO and OMB numbers in the fact-challenged alternative media which, aided and abetted by the Trump administration, remain oblivious to the truth.
So, method or madness?
You decide.
Jay N. Feldman
Port Washington
