The Trump presidency continues to unravel. This weekend, the federal government shut down over a lack of approved funding, and The New York Times reports that rather than proving concerned about the ever growing tumult, President Donald Trump prefers to sulk and stomp around the White House — only barely figuratively speaking.
According to the publication, even as the White House faces serious issues that could basically topple it, Trump prefers tactics like leaning back in his chair and slamming his aides as “fucking idiots” when he disagrees with them during meetings. He spends an only growing amount of time in front of the television, according to The Times — which certainly squares up with the angry tweets he posts all the time. He consistently occupies himself with staying on top of the news headlines, groveling to aides about his distaste for the direction of national media coverage of his administration.
This is the guy who’s supposed to be trusted to lead the United States not only out of a government shutdown but into the next two years of whatever comes next. Issues sit on the horizon like yet another economic meltdown, North Korea’s nuclear arsenal, climate change — and, of course, Russian aggression as expressed through means like their cyberwarfare.
And where’s the United States’ leader? He’s at the White House, cursing out his aides and his television screen. The Times based their latest report on the president’s handling of the various situations of the day on conversations with some 30 people in the president’s orbit.
Situations that the administration and country have a stake in are only intensifying.
As longtime GOP adviser Michael Steel put it:
‘Nothing [Trump’s] going to face in the next two years is going to be like the challenges of the previous two years. Given the staff turnover and the increasing feeling that the president is encircled or cornered by legal and political enemies, it’s entirely possible it gets worse, not better.’
The Russia investigation, for instance, continues at present under the leadership of Special Counsel Robert Mueller — but it can only go on for so long.
With each box Mueller’s checked, he’s gotten closer to closing up shop — and he’s been checking a lot of boxes lately. Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen was just recently sentenced to prison for three years for crimes including lying to Congress about the Trump Organization’s business interests in Russia — a development the president’s said to be furious acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker allowed to proceed.
Trump continues his quest to treat the United States as some kind of far flung dictatorship where the justice system serves political expediency as easily as it serves right and wrong, apparently.
Trump can’t whine his way out of the mess he’s found himself in. For one, next month, Democrats will formally become the majority party in the U.S. House and thereby have the power of the subpoena, which they’ve indicated they’re willing and ready to use against the president’s corruption. Only time will tell where that leads.
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