Trump Administration is off to a Rocky Start
It’s early into the first full week of President Donald J. Trump’s administration, following his inauguration on Friday, and things are off to a surprisingly rocky start. Newly minted Presidents typically possess a large amount of political capital with which to coast on the good will of the people, and the press, for the first 100 days, until more challenging times arrive. But President Trump’s facing rough sailing right now, largely of his own making, and that’s unusual for a President so early in his first term.
1984
In fact, the weekend was so bad for President Trump and his camp that, as a direct result, George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, originally published in 1949, catapulted to the top of the best seller lists! This shocking turn of events followed Kelly Ann Conway’s disturbing invocation of “alternative facts” during a key interview on NBC News’s ‘Meet the Press.’ That’s disconcerting news for a democratically elected President of a great republic.
Video: NBC News / Youtube
Protest and Riot
During his inauguration on Friday, a large protest was underway in Washington D.C., very close to the ceremonies. Out of this large group a much smaller number of protesters (about 100) started to riot, throwing bricks at police and breaking windows of major companies, like Starbucks and Bank of America. These rioters were reported to be members of an anti-capitalist anarchist group.
The Women’s March
And the following day, he Women’s March, an organized event which brought about half a million people, including men, women and children marching together in unity against the new President and his policies, rocked the nations capital, while large sister marches in multiple cities across the U.S., and other countries too, left no doubt that a sizable opposition to President Trump is alive and well.
Crowd Size
But the Administrations biggest political threat comes from the President himself, and his closest advisors. In an inexplicable display of arrogance, or perhaps incompetence, the administration made a number of factually incorrect statements about the size of the crowd at Friday’s inauguration, opening a particularly messy can of worms. In his first press conference, Press Secretary Sean Spicer insisted that inauguration crowds were the largest in history, but it was painfully obvious to the press corps, and those who studied photographs of both events, that this was a falsehood. It was painful to listen to, but Trump and his advisors doubled down on this stand. Kelly Ann Conway, the following day, issued her now infamous explanation, that Spicer had offered “alternative facts,” a term that sounds a lot like a creepy euphemism for lying to most thinking people.
Voting Allegations
And now, if that’s not bad enough, in an absurdly inane move that defies logic, the President, and his team, are claiming that he lost the popular vote in the general election because millions of illegal aliens voted. There is zero evidence for this claim, so it’s not surprising that the administration has failed to back it up in any way what so ever. But why on earth are they even mentioning the popular vote at all? The election is over, and Mr. Trump won it. He is in power now, and has begun the business of governing this great nation. How will bringing up this petty issue help the nation that he’s now charged with protecting? The answer, sadly, is that it only serves to massage his bloated ego, and nothing more. Bringing up these petty issues and grievances won’t, in any way, help the United States unify, heal or move forward.
Bust Of MLK
Instead of working with the White House Press Corp to inform the American People, a vital and indispensable task, President Trump is choosing to make an enemy of the Press. He is misrepresenting a minor misunderstanding regarding an historic bust of Martin Luther King, Jr., which a press reporter had incorrectly reported missing from the Oval Office, apparently in order to paint the press as hostile.
But in reality, the reporter quickly corrected his error, and apologized for his mistake, less than an hour after, and no story was published with the incorrect information. But Trump, with the help of Sean Hannity at Fox news, and other boosters, is twisting this minor incident into a scandalous conspiracy.
What’s the problem here?
What is wrong with Donald Trump? Why is the President behaving in this manner? This is a time when the new President should both reassure and inspire the nation. The President should lay out his vision for the country, clearer and more passionately than ever before. He should explain what needs to be done, and how he’s going to do it, with clarity, and enthusiasm. He should revel in the challenge that lies ahead, sharing his joy with the American People via inspiring oratory. Instead, he chooses to blow up small grievances into major affronts, and perpetuate factual errors in a brazen manner indistinguishable from the telling of lies.
Dear Mr. President, for the sake of your country, change course! Take the high road, and leave this undignified bickering behind.
Photo: By Sean Spicer (Press Sec., White House) – https://twitter.com/PressSec (22 January 2017), Public Domain, Link
Photo: Screen capture of Wikimedia Commons video (Public Domain)
