Donald Trump's Report Card: A Paralyzed, Scandal-Plagued Presidency That's Only Getting Worse. By Heather Digby Parton
He’s packed in more
scandals, lies, errors and gaffes during this short period that any five
presidents in their full four-year terms. I feel like I’ve aged at least
a decade since January. Each day is like a month. But it’s true. We are
only at the six-month point and it’s time to take stock. Trump’s plans may not
have had to come to full fruition but we can certainly judge whether or not
this central promise of his American Carnage speech has born out:
In America, we
understand that a nation is only living as long it is striving. We will no
longer accept politicians who are all talk and no action, constantly
complaining but never doing anything about it. The time for empty talk is over.
As usual, he was
projecting his own weaknesses onto others. I think most people who had followed
the presidential campaign understood that this was a very bold comment coming
from Donald Trump. No one has ever complained or cast more blame on everyone
but himself than he has, including a room full of wailing preschoolers badly in
need of a nap. He is paralyzed, unable to take action because he has no idea
what the job is, much less how to do it. His talk isn’t just empty, it’s
completely unintelligible.
On inauguration day we
didn’t yet know whether maybe the majesty of the office would change him or the
institutions under which he had to operate would, at least, constrain him.
There was always a suspicion that maybe he was more of an act than he let on.
Now we know. It wasn’t an act.
President Donald Trump
is exactly the same person he was on the campaign trail and in the many years
of celebrity that preceded his entry into the race. To those who said
they liked him because “what you see is what you get,” he has fulfilled their
desires. In their book the consistency of his dishonesty is a testament to his
authenticity. The rest of us are horrified and appalled and it gets worse all
the time.
For six months the
White House has been in a nonstop rolling crisis. The gush of leaks from inside
the administration is unprecedented. We still don’t know exactly what went on
with the election interference but Trump and his associates seem to spend a
whole lot of time with Russians — and the president now seems extremely
agitated to find out that investigators are looking into his finances. His
interview with the New York Times on Wednesday was shockingly
incoherent but did seem to imply that he was seriously considering firing
special counsel Robert Mueller and was pushing Attorney General Jeff Sessions
to resign. On Thursday we found out that Trump is contemplating using the presidential pardon power for
himself and others (presumably his family). None of this is behavior one
associates with a powerful leader who has nothing to hide... read more:
