“We have met the enemy and he is us.” —Walt Kelly, Pogo.
The Republican Party both stirred up self-righteous anger among many struggling people and embraced coastal carried-interest rent-seeking plutocrats. DJT faithfully embodies both of those contradictory influences: he’s a tea party plutocrat who built his businesses on tax breaks and loans, and stuck his workers and creditors with the costs of failures. Erratic? Irrational? Yes. Of course. Different from the 21st century Republican mainstream? Only because he’s so forthright about it all.
Both Douthat and "Trumpist Anonymous" seem to be colluding in trying to make sane, intelligent, and patriotic Americans feel foolish for sounding the alarm and condemning the aberrant, ignorant, dangerous presidential behavior they plainly see with their own eyes and hear with their own ears. Much as both establishment Republicans and Democrats and the political intelligentsia portrayed candidate Trump as a buffoon and a joke who couldn't possibly be elected. And that is why the evening of November 8, 2016 was such a shock. Mr. Douthat would lull us into the same safe stupor and set us up for another shock. As long as he holds the title "president" he is strong enough to order the almost instantaneous killing of millions of foreigners and countless American soldiers and to purposefully incite civil war and pogroms in our own cities and towns with his lies and rhetoric. Almost every American president who was more rational, moral and trustworthy than he is has started a "little war" or escalated one to escape their domestic troubles and failures. Trump has two more years to show us just how powerful he is. Mr. Douthat is a praying man, I believe.
7
"...We’re just babysitting the most impotent chief executive we’ll ever see…[But it] assumes that Trumpian weakness will never breed Trumpian desperation...[And] we still have two years and four months left..." [op cit]
--
Well said—a note of cautious optimism—like a cup of cold water, from one of the media's steadier hands.
—
Kudos then, to one of the cooler head[s] of print journalism, for standing further back, and taking a longer look at events unfolding. And for not being driven to distraction, as the President:
…Prowls among the corridors of power,
“[S]eeking whom he may devour…”
--
And I’ll also try to be savvy, and a bit more optimistic. And in the end I suppose, Mr. Trump:
…Like an old weakened lion, will have lost his ‘Pride,’
Deserted, alone, with nowhere to hide…
The hardest test will come when he’s loses his bid for re-election, when people call him a “blowhard that makes Jimmy Carter look effective”, and when he cites a deep state voter fraud and relentless media conspiracy as the reason. That’s when Trump will invite rioting, violence, and revenge, a tribal reaction similar to what we witness in fledgling African democracies.
This ends badly people, but then again: this is what we’ve sown.
8
Why does anyone continue to tolerate this insanity? It is obvious to anyone with two neurons to rub together that the WH is out of control, the President is out of control, and the US ship of state is rudderless. The Republicans in congress pretend that nothing is wrong. The white house staff apparently undermine the President frequently. The Trump base thinks all of this is good and Trump is the Best President Ever. What happened to the American people? When did so many of us take total leave of our senses?
13
Sooner of later, Woodward is going to put another notch in his typewriter next to Nixon's. At his point, one way or the other, it's inevitable.
4
Risk can be priced and monetized. Uncertainty can't be. Cruel but steady leaders (think Vladimir Putin) can be addressed because their actions fall within a frame that can be modeled. The moment you have a fickle and uncertain leader (Trump, Mugabe in Zimbabwe etc.), dealing becomes all the more problematic.
The irony of this article is what Ross Douthat is terming as weakness, Trump might as well dubbed it his greatest strength as the president. That he keeps everyone honest and on edge all the time.
I believe most of the people have modeled Trump's behavior incorrectly. We believe he goes on Twitter rants because of impulse. I believe he dos it deliberately. We need a different human behavioral model to analyzeTrump's actions because he keeps beating the standard model day in and day out.
4
The day that Trump took office, the United States immediately lost credibility, respect, influence and much of its power to shape world events. The United States is now seen by the majority of foreign countries with disgust, pity and disbelief. Don't believe our own "fake" news. Check out the news from around the world. With one election America has dropped out of the league of respected leading nations. His actions since the election, if anything, have brought us even lower.
8
"But we still have two years and four months left of this administration. And before it ends, I suspect the harder test will come."
The harder test would have been if the Electoral College had not voted for him. He did not receive the majority vote in America. Yet because of the Electoral College and the way our system works, a manifestly unqualified man who lies, cheats, steals, feels up women, is a racist, and a failed businessman wound up in the White House.
An honest GOP, an oxymoron, would not have nominated Trump, would now be working to remove and replace him, and would serve Americans, all Americans. I have no faith in this incarnation of the GOP when it comes to protecting our civil rights, the right of women to control their reproductive lives, our environment, or anything.
Trump is far from impotent when it comes to the ability to disrupt relations with our allies, supporting racists, fascists, Nazis, etc. In fact much of his behavior reminds this reader of a bully, a warlord, or a small time thug. He and his family are running this country for their benefit, not ours. If that's not directly counter to our best interests as a nation and grounds for removal I don't know what is. He swore an oath to protect and serve. He is doing neither.
14
Loved the title! I am sure POTUS would go crazy from just reading the title. NYT, please keep America great- need more like these to drive Trump to a mental asylum.
2
"Impotent" is certainly a painful word for this particular president to read. I wish I could believe it, politically that is. Yes, if you strip away all this tweets and rally rhetoric, his bragging and bullying, his taking credit for anything good and casting blame for everything bad, his accomplishments are pretty meager. It's easy to get a Republican Congress to cut taxes -- their entire reason for being. Signing executive orders is easy. Even a fifth grader could do it. But the power he retains is the power to make or break a Republican candidate for Congress, derived from the loyalty of his voter base. How his endorsed candidates fare in the general elections will be the true test of his power.
4
Trump didn't staff the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies? You mean, other than Pruitt, Zinke, DeVos, Carson, Mnuchin, Ross, Perry, Michael Flynn, Kavanaugh .... Oh, right, that last one isn't quite in yet.
5
I'm writing this after the Anonymous credited op-ed piece was published by the Times, authored by a "senior administration official."
The Impotent Executive, as Mr. Douthat titled his latest column, turns out to be more impotent than we knew when the column was published. Thank goodness Trump has been thwarted, to use Anonymous's term, by the White House resistance (not to be mistaken for the larger and big-R Resistance outside the White House).
Assuming Trump's amoral, unhinged, and derelict actions continue to be blocked, ignored, or altered by the White House resistance, what needs to happen prior to the mid-terms in less than nine weeks is to get Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing postponed, canceled or the Senate confirmation vote falls short of the 51 votes needed to seat Kavanaugh at the Supreme Court.
4
Ross, please stop writing as though conservatism has nothing to do with all this. Everything you have ever stood for has led to this: Birtherism. Patriarchy, tax-cuts-in-a-time-of-war, deficits in the name of subservience to the plutocracy, the invasion of Iraq, Opus Dei-style "Catholicism"...You are the epitome of the morally unexamined life.
3
While I generally disagree with your views they are usually thought provoking and worth consideration. This piece differs on the first and merits more of the second.
Yesterday's anonymous op-ed on the heels of the advance reviews for Woodward's new book paint an increasingly clearer picture of the dysfunction that reigns in the highest office.
Many parallels have been drawn to Watergate. The famous question posed by Howard Baker - "What did the president know and when did he know it?" - needs to be asked again, but substituting 'Republican leadership' for 'president' and 'they' for 'he'. With the exception of Lincoln and (maybe) Reagan, 'Republican leadership' qualifies as one of the great oxymorons of all time.
One can understand why a tenet of Republican policy is 'the less government, the better'. Look what happens when Republicans are in control? Bush II would be considered the worst in history if not for the current president. Who in their right mind would want a government led by such fools and incompetents?
3
Wait a second; time out. Did you say "no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies" ? Is one of us living in an alternative universe?
17
He's hurt the norms of society with things like - lock her up, little Marco (and I despise Rubio), Lyin' Ted (another no good Senator)...there are good white supremacists, immigrants are rapists and murders....
9
the exact moment you lost me:
"no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies,"
9
I think you are supposed to think of it “backwards”, like he said he would not import cronies but he did.
2
Since this essay from RD says practically nothing worth reading let me offer an alternative view. We have today learned that the Trump White House is, in effect, an assisted living facility for an addled president, unmoored from first principles and unhinged from reality. Would we let a wobbly granny fall and break a hip before checking her into a nice place with constant attendants? No, and we should not let this Caesarian numb skull blow up the world before we hand him back to the Trump Tower enablers who can best cajole him into the harmless rants he specializes in. 1600 Pennsylvania Ave should not become Shady Rest assisted living facility. Send him home, people, before he does something his enablers can't walk back. To the anonymous resistance in Trump's administration, I implore you to take up some measure of courage and stand up and be counted as American patriots. Put him out to pasture and out of our misery. Now.
5
Oh we all know that Textbook Generic is...oh, not THAT kind of impotent? Darn. *puts away book of tiny-hands jokes*
Sadly, no. He's very much potent, because simply occupying the White House allows the men (because of course it's men) who foisted him on the office—the GOP he rules, and the putin who rules him—to ram through their choice of judges and policies by exploiting our freedoms, legalese, and parliamentary norms.
The toddler's twitcolic is awful. The policies are exactly as much, if not far worse. The latter is ALL that matters for his lackeys and his boss. He is the phylactery that binds those liches.
That, and the Anonymous Op-Ed Writer Who's, Like, Totally Not Mike Pence In "Conservative"-Win Humblebrag Mode Or Anything, is exactly why a resaneified Congress needs to impeach down the line—occupant, Pence, and the Cabinet, and even of fellow GOP congresscronies (kick name-changing door slammer Rafael Cruz first, pweeease?). Left in the Oval Office in ANY capacity, "covfefe" (like any GOPer) is bound and wont to exploit every power in his tiny hands' grasp to set off even more unpresidented[sic] chaos and horror, and the GOP have taken full advantage to make themselves look like the Good Guy on screen while gloating about their even more Supremely Stolen Court in private.
...or, at least as private as the dotard's own big mouth and Woodward, Mueller, Cohen, Stormy, Omarosa, and the rest of the heroic and not-entirely-heroic whistleblowers will allow.
2
Despite being ineffective in a traditional sense of Presidential conduct, Trump has nevertheless caused major changes both with the tenor of American politics, with our allies, and domestic policies (tax cuts, immigration, EPA deregulation, etc.). Regardless of whether you like or dislike the policies, the litmus test for whether Trump is 'impotent' is whether you think Presidential powers are too expansive or too restrictive. If Trump truly is impotent then no one should be concerned; I doubt that is the case.
4
The impotence of our executive is immaterial in light of this Congress's willingness to shamelessly exploit Trump's pointless and empty allegiance to the Republican party.
In effect the Republican Party IS Donald Trump.
All of the damage he does is damage they do. It's a point of law that if I know of another's willingness and ability to commit crime, and enable and facilitate it, I'm guilty as an accessory.
Mr. Douthat's essay is hollow rhetoric. The impotence is that of the entire GOP.
2
We are now governed, not by a confederation of dunces, but by an “incompetence” of idiots.
4
Another garbage piece.
7
This column is an object lesson in what is wrong with not just trump but the gop and the republican conservative movement. What the the heck does "notional" mean? Is that even a word? No, it isn't. It's something people like Ross Douthat made up to make those who don't bother to think about it think he sounds intelligent.
It is made up and it's rather stupid, not to mention that either choice of his also made up false dichotomy of choices proffered in the first paragraph.
Weakness, the appearance of weakness? Really? That is your most important concern? Is that all you got? Really?
On the face of it, that would be a yes since that is, evidently, the subject of this column.
When you finally decide to focus on real, important issues like how many tax paying citizens are dying due to lack of access to basic healthcare, or how many tax paying citizens were killed by the Moron In Chief's failure, aided and abetted by your conservative party, then maybe, just maybe you might be finally becoming a responsible adult. Until then, you are a mere adolescent, Lord of the Flies like, gop koolaid drinking sad excuse for a human being, Ross Douthat, someone who can't even live up to their own last name, some one who can't take action that actually does, well, anything.
3
No impotence here. Trump is a man of steel.
Two of Trump’s tweets in response to the NYT op-ed “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration”:
“Does the so-called ‘Senior Administration Official’ really exist, or is it just the Failing New York Times with another phony source? If the GUTLESS anonymous person does indeed exist, the Times must, for National Security purposes, turn him/her over to government at once!”
“Treason?”
Reminds me of Josef Stalin in his days of heightened paranoia shortly before his death.
Silly me. I thought Trump to be merely a Silvio Berlusconi or Mussolini.
5
The worst thing about him is he is not an American: not in his soul, not in his vision of himself in this country, not in his aspirations, hopes, goals. His soul is programmed differently and can never grasp what it means for us to be Americans. He can never get how starved we were for the homecoming celebration of McCain's funeral service. Homecoming. Coming home to the people, the hymns, the prayers and the words that mattered in a fundamental way to what we thought we knew about ourselves, to what we remembered as greatness, to our attempts to improve and be better humans to each other and to the world. We were starved for that experience of coming home to America again for a few hours, filling our souls with truths, breathing the air of these same longings from others, listening to words that healed. He has dumped a dirty, petty, scheming, grubby little country on us and told us he's making America great again. Shame on him!
3
As stated in other comments, I am quite sure that the conservative establishment never intended that Trump would run the show. They would have taken him down in the primaries if they thought that he was anything but vain, ignorant, weak and controllable.
Just as Bush Jr. was similarly not intended to run the show - his administration was packed with holdovers from his father's presidency. W was a pushover for those guys, though, and Cheney ran the White House. Trump has proven to be much harder to control than W.
This column is just wrong when it states that Trump didn't appoint cronies to key positions. And it utterly ignores the unraveling of executive agencies and the significant damage being done as a result of rolling back regulations and forcing out those with the most institutional expertise.
I'm lucky to work at an agency that has (mostly) skated under the radar and has public support from the White House. However, we've only had Senate-confirmed leadership for a few months. Leadership is already directing significant changes to our programs without taking the time to really understand the impact of what they are directing us to do and I suspect we will be in a worse place in two more years.
7
A weak man doesn't need to (keep) telling us how great he is.
2
Essentially Mr. Douthat is suggesting Trump is a puppet of his own making; he's strung by his colossal ignorance, crippling narcissism and oblivious emptiness at his core. I'll buy that.
But It makes him no less dangerous or destructive because the puppeteers that manipulate him are hidden from view as they prosecute an agenda more wicked than what Trump himself can conjure on his own.
A useful idiot is ideal for an Oval Office run on the secret agenda of market-rigging, consumer and environment-be-damned corporate interests and the insatiable greed of the .01 percent.
He's Elvis gyrating his hips at red state political jubilees while his dastardly managers cut shady deals and pad their own bank accounts. They let him fulminate on twitter and use the White House as a war bunker. They humor him with chocolate cake and cheeseburgers while they pose heroically as "adults in the room" while they raid the US Treasury and govern by ideological paint-by-number instructions.
He's the exception to all rules so his appointed minor league Machiavelli's can rule in his stead in furtive stealth.
Is any of this true? Is Trump non compos mentis, a victim of himself? Not fit to stand trial by mental defect? The Mayor of Crazy Town?
Democracy shouldn't be a Hobbesian Choice. Or a Grand Guignol media spectacle that we can't walk out on.
No more puppet shows lest Pinocchio comes to life.
Cut the strings this November and it all falls.
4
Wow, what a cliff-hanger! Will all the lemmings in the administration follow the Lemming-in-Chief as he runs off the edge of the cliff? Stay tuned for the next Twitter episodes!
This "reality" show has everything you've come to expect: stupidity, cupidity, a person who doesn't know what "treason" means (yet who still shouts the word at every opportunity), PLUS a huge cast of people who've misplaced their spines.
3
Impotent, yet, his administration keeps implementing policy every week, that his voting base was promised, and that disassembles the travesties of the Progressive collectivists.
Policies that the author and his statist-socialist cohorts cannot abide because they return the nation to the path intended by the founders.
I'll take that kind of impotence any day.
1
Earth to Mars
Policies that hurt the middle class, the poor, the environment, education, etc. Policies that help the rich, all his cronies. Policies that show lack of ethics, moral, vision, compassion.
11
I can see a point to evaluating Trump’s behavior in terms of a weakness/strength dimension, but my concern lies in the fact that a person that I regard as both irresponsible and erratic now acts out through his role as president of the United States.
Would it make sense to give a six year old a loaded gun and then let him bring it with him when he goes out to play with his friends?
We’ve handed the power of the power of the presidency to a self-centered spoiled narcissist and are letting him run with it. It frightens me.
7
Trump is doing everything by executive action, therefore the House and Senate are playing NO role in restraining him.
He is destabilizing our alliances around the world and emboldening our enemies.
He can make or break the political career of any Republican with a single tweet.
Douthat's "no" list has to be meant as sarcasm.
"... no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies,..." I mean, really?
Instead of ending tariffs so our farmers can sell their soybeans to China, Trump borrows money FROM China to pay farmers NOT to sell their soybeans to China.
THIS is the cost of American political conservatism.
THIS is the folly of the conservative ideology, failed throughout human history.
THIS is conservative logic writ large.
5
No one should ever vote for any Republican ever again.
9
One thing I want to see happen in the Dems take the house/senate or Trump is indicted or wounded sufficiently from the ongoing investigations, is for one of his Supreme Court nominee/justices to resign to make room for Merrick Garland! I'd like to see a searing punishment for McConnell & the GOP for their traitorous and shameless behavior in 2016. I hope if the Dems take the White House they will punish the Russian colluders and financial tricksters without mercy. Obama was too kind to the Wall Street crooks who caused the 2008 meltdown. Dems shouldn't be stupid again on these things!
4
No one but Trump is responsible for his public self-destruction. If he had stayed in private life as a reality show presence, most likely no one would know about Paul Manafort and Rick Gates and Cohen. Nor would most people have understood what Roger Stone does behind the scenes. If he had stayed in private life, he wouldn’t have a need to pay off Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal and god knows who else. If he had stayed in private life Putin would never be able to keep him corralled with some sort of mysterious hold which is most likely some very damning videotape of Trump doing something stupid in a Russian hotel room. If he had stayed in private life, he would have been in touch with the Russians to hack the DNC and get dirt on Hillary. And he wouldn’t have to do so much explaining to Melania and Baron every evening. I have ZERO sympathy for anyone who would sell out the USA for his ego. Let him self-destruct and good riddance. He deserves everything happening to him.
5
The part about Trump not appointing unqualified cronies was pretty funny.
9
A weak leader held at bay by even weaker subordinates? Seems unlikely. Even if this were true, God help us all: the man may be a bully, a craven coward, and a draft dodger, but he's still the most dangerous person in the world. When he gives in to his worst impulses, who will tell him no?
3
Let's not pull any punches here, shall we?
We have a president whose own people think he's unfit to serve. Do they say so? No - they cover for him, lie to him, and usurp his authority to carry out their agenda while letting him serve as front man. He's not just Putin's puppet, he's the puppet of the oligarchs that run the GOP.
The country is being run by a cabal of conservatives who never stood for election and answer to no voters - and the Republican Congress is fully complicit in this. They're busy packing the courts with right-wing zealots who will be in place for decades. All they care about is keeping their grip on power. They have all betrayed their oath to the Constitution. The entire party is rotten to the core.
Right-wing media will do anything to keep the tax cuts coming and the regulations falling for their corporate owners, while continuing to spread propaganda and incite division.
2016 marks the year the American experiment went off the rails. At this point the entire Trump administration is illegitimate, as is the Republican Party. The only way to restore America is to sweep them all into the dustbin of history.
Make America America Again
"GOPus delenda est!" - Kevin Drum
5
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin is far from impotent. Having effectively and malignly worked to select Donald Trump President of the United States , Putin is still smiling and smirking at his handiwork and dreaming of making more American mayhem in 2018 and beyond.
Leading an aging and shrinking nation of 143 million, Putin has made Russia great again. Even though the nominal American GDP is 15x Russia's and America annually spends 9x Russia on it's military. Bush imagined Putin has a soul. Obama dreamed of a Russian reset. Trump is grateful for Putin's help and scared of Putin's wrath.
2
Ross, my guess is you write about DT because it increases the numbers of those read your column. Then you hypothesize and speculate. Can you not see this president is nothing more than a madman and needs to be removed? Step up and cut to the chase!
2
What could be worse for a narcissistic despot with illusions of grandeur than realizing he is being undermined by those around him, and that they think him an idiot?
3
Your logic (or lack thereof) is getting more difficult to follow by the day. It's becoming discouraging.
2
I'm in rare agreement with Ross Douthat on Trump's weakness. He's always been weak; can't fire somebody in person, demands loyalty without question, uses fear instead of respect, uses brinkmanship instead of facts and leverage, and is too incompetent to prevent his aids from being insubordinate and subverting him.
The only things he's accomplished are those things the GOP lets him do when they are in agreement, or things he can do by executive order (assuming it doesn't disappear of the Lincolns desk when somebody points out the Oval Office window and cries "squirrel!").
The anonymous op-ed (presuming it was authored by Pence) and Bob Woodward's book only support what we've been able to observed from afar.
Trump is also weak because he is a compromised tool for the GOP and Putin.
2
A general question to Richard Luetgen and other Trumpublicans:
Should we all take heart that Trump’s marvelous accomplishments justify the weirdness, danger, incompetence, corruption and cruelty that characterize his presidency?
5
The Republican Party -- that is, "conservatism" -- prepared the way for Trump by playing for decades to the prejudices of the least educated and most angry segments of America -- stirring these folks up, promoting division and hatred of "the other."
Trump is the (wholly unsympathetic) monster born of Republican tinkering in the dank basement of politics.
4
Yes, Trump displays his fundamental weaknesses multiple times a day through his tweets, which are classic examples of what psychologists would call 'projection', and his complete lack of any coherent legislative vision. But the claim that the Republican-controlled Congress and many of the White House staff are somehow doing the country a favor by constraining his most dangerous impulses is pure smokescreen. Just look at all the rollbacks that are being made in labor rights, women's rights, student rights and to the environment virtually behind the scenes by this very same Congress.
The Republicans are no heroes here, and no one should derive comfort from the fantasy that they are not being as totally enabling of Trump's impulses as they could be. The true test, as Mr. Douthat implies, will come when the combination of Trump's frustration, fears, anxieties and insecurities cause him to do something that cannot simply be walked back.
4
Impotent people, Conservatives, enabled an impotent President to be thrust on us. Now they accuse him of impotency. I call it impotency coming a full circle.
4
So Ross, how are YOU voting on November 6? Do you feel comfortable leaving tRump in "control" without true oversight or investigation? Wouldn't a party not invested in his success (the Democrats) be more motivated to look behind the curtain and see what he's really done financially with the Russians by getting his tax returns? And if he's innocent of Russian involvement, wouldn't you like to know that? C'mon, man up in November and put your guy to the test! I'll bet you $500.00 (not a lot to you, but big money to the average American whose actual wages are LOWER today than they were in 1979) that the Orange Lizard fails the Maxine Waters stress test!
4
"But we still have two years and four months left of this administration. And before it ends, I suspect the harder test will come."
Sadly, the GOP-controlled congress has failed all the "quizzes" so far. Why would anyone imagine that they'll do any better on the final? God help us all with the likes of McConnell and Ryan to "protect" us from an unhinged executive! How do they sleep at night? What do they tell their children?
4
"no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies"
Name the qualified non-crony cabinet members.
4
Timely considering what else your newspaper published today. I’m in agreement with your concluding statements. This seems to be coming to a tipping point and just doesn’t seem like it can continue much longer one way or another. I fear the situations you describe are upon us.
1
@DouthatNYT Ross, you wrote in you latest column "The Impotent Executive" the following:
"Among the list of immoral and destabilizing moves that Trump promised . . . almost none had actually happened ...no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies . . ."
Wherever did you get that idea?
A number of people might disagree with you when it comes to Betsy DeVos, a totally unqualified cabinet appointment whose charter school initiatives have failed in Michigan. Her only qualification was marrying into the Amway family and being a member of the donor class.
Ben Carson had no qualifications for his appointment to HUD either and has thankfully only remodeled his office & kept a low profile.
A simple Google search of the question "Has trump staffed his cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies?" brings up your column first followed by dissenting opinions from The New Republic, Slate, Vox, and Newsweek. Change the search to replace the word cronies with people, and even more examples present themselves.
Former Democratic National Committee chairman and Vermont governor Howard Dean said. “The Trump cabinet is mostly a collection of incompetent doofuses,” .
While not members of the cabinet per se, let's not forget the ultimate cronies, Jared & Ivanka and even the do nothing Amarosa.
This column isn't up to your usual standards. Perhaps with the Labor Day holiday and a looming deadline, you just wrote this column in a hurry and without much thought.
4
No amount of babysitting is going to maintain the Republic with some semblance to 2016. Worse, the next 2.3 years could possibly destroy our Democracy as we know it.
Trump may be impotent, but Trumpism is flourishing.
3
As of mid-afternoon, Mr. Douthat, we've discovered just how "impotent" Donald Trump is as president.
The "deep state" that he and his enablers have abhorred was found to be in the very nest in which he presides: his own West Wing.
An anonymous administration official has gone on the record with the Times as to the ongoing interference of the president's duties because he is so inept and "off the rails" and is a present danger to the Republic. While No. 45 may take some credit for dubious legislative initiatives--mostly in the area of de-regulating industries to free them up to pollute the air and the water we breathe and drink--there appear to be many in the White House who fear this loose, astray, wandering, witless chief executive.
Of course, this could all have been forecast as long ago as 2015 when he descended his gilded escalator and later figuratively blew the smoke from the barrel of a six-shooter after declaring that he could "shoot someone on Fifth Avenue" and walk.
But where this presidency is stuck in the mud is in the Oval Office. Donald Trump hasn't the first clue as to how run a government. He has fired or has seen high-level officials leave because they've seen that it's not going to work and they don't want the guilt associated with the tainted failure.
North Korea; trade and tariffs; G-7; NATO; the satellite state he would hand over to Vladimir Putin's Russia. All these non-starters for any modern present are his high-water marks.
"Impotent?" You bet.
3
first time I have a violent disagreement with Mr Dothat.
"no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies"
has he looked at the cabinet recently?
3
My fear is that if he feels his re-election is threatened he will drop a bomb somewhere to create the impression that we have to leave him in office alla George Bush. I fear that newly elected young energized congressmen/women will try to impeach him. Pence would be so much worse - except we probably wouldn't have as big a risk that he would use a nuclear bomb somewhere or start an unnecessary war. But who knows. All we know is he's sold his soul to the devil. I think Pence is secretly behind the impeach Trump movement.
4
Why are these choices mutually exclusive? Trump’s weakness is his personality - dominated by his narcissism and venom. As President, however, he is truly dangerous. His dismantling of our democratic institutions and common humanity is enabled by the GOP, who are getting what they want (tax “reform”, deregulation, corporate domination), and are willing to prop up a truly weak and dangerous tyrant.
3
Mr. Douthat states the following, as a sign of Trump's weakness:
"The child-separation policy, for instance, was abandoned scant days after it was publicized, ..."
I guess that may be true, but ... the enormous damage is done. Children and parents are still separated.
No one in administration gives a whit.
Weak or strong ... who cares? It's a crime, or it should be ... and I hope he and Stephen Miller and all else behind this policy one day get their richly deserved comeuppance.
4
“no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies”
Surely you jest, Mr. Douthat. Betsy DeVos has been patently unqualified from day one. Ben Carson even admitted he was unqualified for his cabinet position, although he took it anyway. And what of DJT’s Mar-a-lago cronies who are, in effect, dictating veterans policy? The GOP has given DJT a free hand. Even now, Mitch McConnell maintains silence as DJT rails that Republican politicians, especially “popular” ones, should not be prosecuted for crimes before an election. You know if a Democrat said this, Republicans would call for impeachment. You also know very well that Republicans would gleefully impeach a Democrat for being “erratic, dangerous, unfit, and bigoted.” Stop lying to yourself and everyone else. If DJT is impotent - in many respects, he certainly is - it is because of his ignorance, fragile ego, stupidity, and unwillingness to learn. The GOP has coddled him through it all; and will be ensconced in historical infamy as a result.
6
Amazing column.
1) "Trump hasn't staffed his cabinet with cronies". I guess Betsy DeVos, Wilbur Ross, and Scott Pruitt are respected in their fields. And let's include the senior aides who attend Cabinet meetings but don't require Senate confirmation. Those would include Kushner, Bannon, and Conway. Not in a crony in the bunch.
2) "No exit from Nafta". Didn't we just negotiate a new (and worse for us) deal with Mexico? And didn't the President say "don't call if Nafta?" And haven't we pulled out of our agreement with Canada? Whoops. Pay no attention to the man with the goatee.
The world sure looks different through Ross's eyes than it does on the news pages.
3
"no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies".
Really, Ross? I'd have to say that the staffing situation of the cabinet is the most miserable I have ever seen in my long life. It seems that the staffing was done to tear down the country, and give it over to big business interests. I can't wait for impeachment.
6
The most appalling apologia for the traitorous Republican party and the criminal Trump administration I've yet to read.
8
"...We’re just babysitting the most impotent chief executive we’ll ever see…[But it] assumes that Trumpian weakness will never breed Trumpian desperation...[And] we still have two years and four months left..." [op cit]
--
Well said!
Like a cup of cold, clear water:
A note of cautious optimism, from one of the media's steadier hands.
—
Thanks then, to the cooler head[s]:
1. For standing further back, and taking a longer look at events unfolding.
2. And by not being driven to distraction, as I have, watching the President prowling up and down among the corridors of power, “…seeking whom he may devour…”
--
So from now on, I’ll also try to be savvy, and a bit more optimistic.
And in the end I suppose, Mr. Trump:
“Like an old weakened lion, will have lost his pride;
Deserted, alone, with nowhere to hide.”
—
Together as a nation, we're going to make it!
2
Yes the president is weak yet his weakness is not a guarantee that he will not do irreparable harm to our nation, its people and our legacy while failing to lead us. It is wild to see so many members of his reality show audience respond positively to Trump's projections about fake news, lying Hillary and witch hunts when in every case the president is actually identifying his own egregious behavior. This show can't last another 2+ years for the sake of our children.
3
"he’s pursued a family-separation policy at the border that’s exactly the kind of cruelty that his campaign promised and that many Republicans promised to restrain."
Oh please it's hyperbolic nonsense like this that makes it nigh impossible to view today's anonymous op-ed as anything more than Trump Derangement Syndrome. He didn't pursue a "family-separation policy" he attempted to fully enforce the immigration laws that Congresses passed and refuses to change. The sane and compassionate thing to do would be to immediately deport whole families together. But thanks to open borders activists and left wing activist judges that's not possible.
Really a pathetic apologia for the Republican Party. Saying he is weak because he can’t fire Sessions, ignores the fact that he is trying to use the justice department for his own purpose, which is clearly to protect himself from the storm that is rightfully coming for him. This is easily one of the worst if not the worst periods in American history.
54
Trump's weakness is Trump. He is devoid of morality, common sense, any grasp of the 21st-century world, the Constitution, the role of the presidency and much more.
If he is hobbled in his attempt to rewrite America in his own twisted and failed style, then I say, "Hobble on!"
1
No staffing of the cabinet...with unqualified cronies? Betsy DeVos? Rick Perry? Tom Price? Ben Carson? Wilbur Ross? Sonny Perdue? Scott Pruitt? Etc.!
26
The danger in this sort of opinion piece, not to mention the anonymous "Resistance" piece in today's Tmes, is that Trump may be inspired to show they are wrong by doing something unhinged just to show who's in charge. Now that would be scary.
29
@Jon Orloff It's likely that he'll never see them.
The salient political thing about Trump is that he can't distinguish reality from entertainment: I don't think he really wants to be a fascist despot, he just wants to play one on TV. His primary goal being to entertain his followers with outsize versions of their own hatreds, fears and ignorance, he's a success. In terms of actual accomplishment--aside from the GOP same-old of throwing money at the powerful, he's not impotent, he just doesn't have the attention span.
The only issue where reality rather than ratings is the point for Trump is self-enrichment, and this unites him with the Republican establishment. In fact I would argue that Mr. Trump is the ideal, or at least the inevitable, leader for a GOP which has turned a narcisstic confusion of their own material interests with the good of the world into a matter of principle. This confusion, now bizarrely treated as a legitimate political ideology, first gave us, in Reagan, a spokesmodel instead of a leader, and then a right wing ''news'' industry for whom ratings are the standard of objectivity, and now a president who treats government as a vanity project. But, as Mr. Douthat suggests, reality very well may bite Trump and his GOP troupe back. If the state of the world, or the economy, or the environment, takes some spectacular hit, or, worse, if his followers and the gaggle of Fox demagogues turn against him, he will no doubt use any means available in the presidential arsenal to seize the narrative.
4
Impotent? Republicans who console themselves by believing they have Trump contained are confusing impotence with incompetence. Clearly, he is the most incompetent president of the modern era. But I would hardly call anyone with the nuclear codes “impotent.” He is impulsive, irrational and spectacularly ill-informed, which makes him exceptionally dangerous.
3
If Mr. Trump gave a damn about anyone or anything beyond himself, he would resign for the good of the nation. Clearly that's not going to happen unless he's under threat - of what I'm not entirely sure. (Insert picture of orange jumpsuit here). The Republicans are not going to do anything - they've already proved that. If the Democrats succeed and take both the Senate and the House, we get stuck with Pence - another altogether questionable figure. God help our nation!
3
Shorter Douthat : “ Don’t Worry, He’s on a leash “. Sure, Ross. And I’m sending my thoughts and prayers.
8
Bet you can smell that desperation now. I suspect at some point he will implode and there will be no hiding his psychopathy. How republicans deal with it is the big question, what will they do? By any indication they are spineless.
3
"The child-separation policy, for instance, was abandoned scant days after it was publicized ... "
Yes. Let us rejoice. The President stopped caging brown children. And sometimes they hide paperwork from the Trump hoping he'll forget. Let's marvel at the constraints.
Mr. Douthat, you assert the "project of containment has been much more successful than its critics feared"
Would you feel that way if you were black or brown and see that 40% of their country support an openly racist President who governs as a racist to the cheers of millions?
Would you feel that way if you were one of any number of loyal allies who can lno longer trust the U.S. because we elected an ignorant authoritarian and may do so again?
The list goes on, safety net soon to be cut to pay for the Trump deficits, international agreements threatened or torn up, more time lost in combating global warming ... these things matter to many.
And finally. One of two major parties exposed as cravenly complicit in repeated attacks on the rule of law, attacks on a free press, attacks on the concept of facts.
How many years will it take to repair the destruction of trust caused by this "constrained" President?
Feel free to round to the nearest decade.
18
This is a very dangerous and misleading article. Mr. Douthat seeks to make a case that Mr. Trump is impotent, that he has been prevented from having an impact. But Mr. Douthat conveniently ignores all the ways his heads of the EPA and the Department of Education have made terrible decisions that make things worse for our environment and our students. And he ignores the deleterious financial impact of the tax bill on the vast majority of Americans. And he ignores the horrible impact of his border and immigration policies. I could go on and on but Mr. Douthat's intentional omission of all the areas in which Mr. Trump and his underlings have been toxic to America is a sin.
12
What many people who are furious that the high level officials who considered invoking the 25th article but chose not to, haven't taken into consideration is the extremist 30% who believe Trump is a god. Unless FOX turns against him, it would be unwise to directly bring on a constitutional crisis. Trump would not hesitate to urge a Mao style Cultural Revolution. The extremist 30% have guns and are belligerent.
I don't like that it has come to pass that Conservative Republicans have to shield us from Trump's worst behavior, but I do understand it. I'm not sure it is wrong. However, as Ross Douthat points out it may get worse as time goes on. Will there be enough adults in the room when he really goes off the rails?
4
@SharonThose numbers are wrong. Trump NEVER had 30% of ANYTHING. 62,000,000 of 240,000,000 registered voters isn't 30%.
2
@Sharon -- The non-extremist 70% have guns as well, and will use them if necessary to protect their nation from a takeover by the crazies among us.
2
ROSS DOUTHAT Correctly observes that Trump is extremely weak--another way of saying that he is incapable of performing his official duties. Impeachment is not the way to go; but the invocation of the 25th Amendment is. There is a glaring inaccuracy that Ross includes throughout his article that must be corrected: The policy of tearing families apart did not discontinue. It will be in place until the very last of all the children so cruelly, traumatically removed from their families is returned. Until that time, Trump's actions constitute TORTURE. The constitution Crimes Against Humanity. Speaking up about Trump's extreme limitations is courageous and the right thing to do. Omitting the fact that Trump ordered and continues the torture of innocent children, women and men is clearly NOT the right thing to do. Yet the all across the spectrum remains silent. Why does Trump get a free pass from being a TORTURER? Yes, it's true that there are myriad problems he generates every day. But to be silent about a crime against humanity is beyond not talking about the dead elephant in the room. It's talking about the dead elephant herd in the middle of the room. The anguish, suffering, abuse and torture doled out to the families who dared to request asylum from the US constitute a huge number of crimes against humanity. Weakling or not, Trump signed the order, so he gets the blame first and foremost. By omitting all that, Ross is aiding and abetting crimes against humanity!
3
It is only a matter of time before Trump goes.
The real resistance is the American people who reject
Trump's racist and sexist agenda, that uses fear and hate
as a political weapon to divide and remain in power.
Can't wait for the Midterm elections - the real RESISTANCE.
4
Let the record show that the supine columnist didn't object when the President trampled on democracy. "It felt therapeutic actually. Besides, we have the brave and wise Republican party closely monitoring and thwarting his every misguided move."
3
Over the next two years how high are the odds that Rump will make at least one CATASTROPHIC move? How can Congress realistically sit back and wait for that to happen? Dereliction of duty. Impeach now. If Pence turns out bad, impeach him, too.
8
Is it becoming apparent that "mainline" republicans are beginning to see the fallacy of supporting the unhinged dotard, or, were they always in the closet?
I believe Ross may be one or the other. Either way, he is only affirming what I, and others, thought of Trump from the first day of his candidacy-no morals, no ethics and no intelligence.
8
WEAKNESS ?
Oh, Brother Dothan, thou speakest like a mouse, thou roarest not like a lion !
The major story of Bone Spurs' presidency is not called weakness.
It is called stupiditymadnessselfineshenessincompetencegreedhubrisvanity,
in short.
3
Trump is the cancer. The GOP at rock bottom. Ryan running for the exit while firing the chaplain. Rationalizing or normalizing Trump remains folly. Gaining judgeships represents a deal made with the devil. Is a runaway deficit produced by his massive tax inequity bill worth it? Trade wars and bailouts, 12 billion and counting for farmers? A loss of standing around the globe, okay with you? Consumers left in care of the wolves again, a good plan? The climate and the health of our oceans left unprotected? Repeal and replace equaling depriving health insurance to those in need? No response to our infrastructure needs? And finally no effort by Donald to protect our elections. Gorsuch and Kavanaugh and a deep bench of the like minded not worth it.
Post-Trump does anyone believe the GOP hits the reset button or flips the switch back to reality, to political sanity? Repudiating Trump is on the only way out of this trap. In so doing a large chunk of voters will not be amused. Good luck.
3
This essay, when read alongside the op-ed in these pages today by an anonymous member of the "Resistance" inside the White House and the recent book by Bob Woodward, makes one thing clear: America is in the midst of a "rolling" coup d'etat. We are a country being led by a man who is being used to push a radical political agenda; a leader who isn't really "leading" at all.
5
Unfortunately, there is not a Viagra for the Brain. Priorities, I guess. Seriously.
4
This entire article is based on a false contrast, for DJT is both a dangerous, enabled authoritarian AND a weak and constrained executive.
And, given that he has also shown himself to be simultaneously venal, corrupt AND a sociopathic narcissist does not exactly give a wary nation reasons to feel reassured - and the latest revelations from Woodward and the anonymous OpEd contributor today highlight that it is worse than we even knew!
In addition, nowhere in this article does it mention the possibility that DJTJr, and likely DJT himself, have engaged in criminal conspiracy or worse, and the the pressure is going to be increasing exponentially over the next few months. His Republican enablers and defenders are complicit in all of this.
DJT has never been in a situation he hasn't been able to lie or cheat his way out of before. This is definitely going to get much, much worse. The nation's only hope is that voters rise up and elect a Democratic Congress - at least the House - and start to bring this administration to ground before a truly epic crisis unfolds.
9
Glad that Mr. Douthat has left off defending this monster. Ready to join the resistance, brother?
1
So I guess we have to wait until Trump craziness does something seriously bad to white Americans. The ~3000+ dead Americans killed by Maria in Puerto Rico don't count because they are Hispanic. The 500+ immigrant kids whose lives are headed down the drain since they were separated from their families don't count because they are Hispanic. The millions of black Americans who will be deprived of their votes and/or health care don't count because they are black.The only question is what's it going to take.... economic meltdown? an epidemic? terrorist attack? war? Thanks GOP and your deplorables.
5
The thing that Trump has done that is most damaging to the U.S. , and is in violation of his oath of office, is to act as an agent of Putin, refusing to take any steps to prevent the russian sabotage of the american electoral process. The election of the representatives of the american people ultimately determines ALL of the activities of the government (including those of the Supreme Court) and so corrupting it undermines this country more than anything else (even more engaging in war). For this alone, Trump should be impeached.
3
Far too easy on the republicans who have been all too supportive of the president. Cannot bring himself to call it like it is.
3
This President is in Office TECHNICALLY because of continuing rules born out of our compromises aimed at uniting slave holding and non-slave holding Colonies about 250 years ago.
FACT: He decidedly lost the popular vote!
FACT: He won Electoral College vote (the arcane construction that gave him the Office) because of a slim margin in a few key States.
FACT: He and his Party have no mandate to do as they please. They're the MINORITY by any legitimate modern measure or poll.
FACT: They have power!
Mostly because of their clever trickery (some legal and some that should be illegal) that reduces opposition turnout or shews value of votes in their favor. Like gerrymandering and voter suppression tactics
And a well oiled propaganda machine to undermine real fair universal democracy with misinformation and rebel rousing.
Cultivates a rabid base while confusing others so they do not vote or vote against their best interests.
Brilliant GOP!
And since they have POWER they are NOT impotent in the least.
Any spin that suggests that is ignoring reality. The GOP with or without Trump will ruin this Nation. Take about any GOP policy or action - clinically analyze it and you can see it is diametrical to an egalitarian society and a fair democracy.
But 42% will not see or will like GOP's dangerous path to authoritarian Plutocracy.
The 58% must save our Nation via vote. Not Mueller, not staffers, and not the wolves in sheep's clothing we call GOP Congress people.
5
Ross, you just live in La La Land. Everything about this man is impeachable. Dereliction of duty is impeachable. He is not making any of his own decisions, people are making them for him. He isn’t even trusted to do the right thing by his own people. How is that not impeachable? You Republicans have a funny idea on what impeachment is all about. It is all about protecting this country from a tyrant or someone totally incapable of being President. It is there because some times an electorate will install a person totally unfit for office. It is not just about murder or treason. Why is it that Catholics are always so much more supportive of tyrants? Is it the hierarchical nature of the church? Stop coddling this Mistake of a President. Yes, he should be impeached!!! Mistakes were made. Time to fix them.
3
I just hope someone has disconnected the nuclear bomb switch.
35
"...no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies..." Mr. Douthat, have you ever LISTENED to Betsy DeVos? Or read up on what Ben Carson has been doing? And what about Cabinet-Members-Without-Portfolios Ivanka and Jared? Exactly WHAT do they bring to the table?
84
My guess is the Trump presidency doesn't feel week to the children who were ripped away from their parents at the border, or to the grieving parents still missing their children, or to the parents trying to cope with children traumatized by their experience in US custody.
7
I have to admit that I was surprised by this innovative argument that Trump isn't so bad because he's an impotent executive. Clearly Ross does not read the news or pay attention to the coarsening tone in the country--the invitation to violence, the denigration of public servants, the flaunting of the law, etc. Couple that with the administrative damage done to environmental safety, climate strategy, European and NATO relationships, trade and so forth and you have a policy less president who is wrecking damage across the landscape supported by a feckless and weak Republican legislative body.
The greater sin of this piece is justifying the legislators' in action, Ryan and McConnell in particular, as though they could sit and take the small, parochial wins at the cost of major damage to the world. Ross takes an innocent's view of Trump--he can't believe that things are as bad as they are so things much be OK. He is simply refusing to see, or worse, actually relishing the damage as political gain, just like Ryan and McConnell.
64
"No staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies". With that one sentence, Mr. Douthat has willingly thrown away his last shred of credibility. DeVos all but paid for her cabinet post on live tv and this administration gave us Matthew Petersen as a nominee for a lifetime judgeship who could not answer basic legal questions posed by a Republican Congressman that thought he was giving Petersen softball questions. I fail to understand why the Times publishes a Douthat piece that contains such glaring fiction. Truth matters. Facts matter. In these dangerous days, there must be a standard of truth here. If Mr. Douthat can maintain that standard, then, by all means, run his column. If he cannot, it's time to try to find a conservative columnist that will.
7
It remains a complete mystery to me why anyone thinks any of the loathsome trump cabinet appointees would want or be willing to invoke the 25th and begin the impeachment process. Not to mention the complicit congress which approved these miscreants.
Everyone of these officials has their own personal agenda which in no way concerns the well being, equality, or rights of the citizenry. Their actions are based on self enrichment, accumulation of power, and a poisonous stew of prejudice and ethnocentrism. May they someday choke on it.
7
Trump is weak in governance, strong in destroying governance.
5
The worst is yet to come. Just ask Germany how much damage that a weak and impotent little man can do,..... and we'll have no Marshall Plan to help us rebuild, literally or figuratively. The human damage seeps in much like a metastatic cancer.
7
Mr. Douthat omits how Mr. Trump has ginned up a wide variety of bigots and other extremists. Look at the statistics of hate crimes - occurrences pumped up with the advent of the hater-in-chief. Now, THAT's dangerous, mobilizing the dregs.
5
After “I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration“ one is at a loss when considering Douthat’s vile characterization of McCain’s funeral as “Resistance-y”. Irony? No, just a cheap shot at John McCain and the sentiments of his family and normal Americans who agree that “America has always been great”.
Some may think that Douthat has been courageous to take the side of Donald Trump and opposition to the Pope until one considers history.
Anonymous Senior Officials may be responsible for“no return to waterboarding, no exit from NATO or Nafta, a hackishly implemented travel ban that only gestured at the promised Muslim-immigration shutdown, no change to the libels laws to shutter hostile newspapers, no staffing of the cabinet or the judiciary with unqualified cronies, no practical concessions to Vladimir Putin in Russia’s near abroad, and more” but Douthat has egg on his face now. Trump’s successes prompted Anonymous to publish. Sycophants become co-conspirators once their patron is disgraced.
Take a break and examine your loyalties. The Pope has a moral compass,Trump does not, might be a good starting point.
4
President Trump since the beginning of his term has been "I," "Me," "Mine." Week after week and month after month, his story has been a first person narrative filled with the "fake news" of the "enemy of the people" and all of that represents to his mind and ego a personal affront such that his first duty has not been to the country, but to the defense of his personal stature. His focus has not been directed toward efforts at moving the country in a positive direction; in "making America great again;" all of that has been hijacked by his peevish insistence that he is being "picked on." Of course he is impotent. How can such a President be anything other than impotent when his focus is so self-absorbed?
3
You forgot to mention that all of this babysitting is probably illegal when unelected, appointed underlings, thwart the president's decisions and substitute there own judgment by hiding things from him or swiping them off his desk to prevent him from making catastrophic mistakes in judgment.
Why not write a briefer column and just acknowledge the obvious: that the president is a dangerous, ignorant buffoon who can't be left alone in a room that is not child-proofed.
7
Mr. Douthat is giving an easy pass to the supporting cast. It would seems from everything that we are hearing about the functioning of this presidency that this president is modeling his behavior on how he ran his real estate businesses. For instance, talented and effective lawyers had protected his businesses well. Running his business is the only experience this president has had in any kind of leadership. And, he is overly reliant on his own past experiences and uninterested in learning any different ways to apply to situations far different than running a business. The result is in plain sight. But what to make of political opportunists who are taking desperate advantage of the situation to chalk up "wins" that they could not get on their own? The narratives of anonymous insiders detailing how self-described "adults" have to protect the country from the leader brings to mind numerous historical instances of out-of-control emperors, who thought themselves invested of absolute powers and where "wise" ministers had to work to contain them. But then, those were monarchies.
3
Ross Douthat's latest attempt to justify Congressional Republicans refusal to perform their oversight duties as described in the Constitution over the most temperamentally, emotionally & intellectually deficient president in US history with a fake narrative that Trump's worst instincts & actions are being contained by the Republican appointees he's surrounded himself with since his election is another complete failure.
Today we learn from an anonymous op-ed, written by a high-level administration official that a secret cabal of like-minded Trump appointees have concluded that he is unfit to be president & are working to undermine his presidency to limit the damage he seeks to do to our national security and democratic norms, values & constitutionally guaranteed rights.
At first, it could almost seem that to have a group of people providing a resistance to Trump within the administration would be a good thing but it is a fact that non-elected political hires and some cabinet officials banding together to limit the powers of a sitting president by running our federal government is, at the veryleast, a Constitutional crisis.
These people need to identify themselves & have a duty to inform the public that Trump needs to be removed from office & name the cabinet officials who will or will not invoke the 25th for such removal. Congressional Republicans have been too corrupted by Trump and their donor class to be of any use.
The 25th Amendment must be invoked.
Vote for Dems!
78
@Mary Scott
"a fact that non-elected political hires and some cabinet officials banding together to limit the powers of a sitting president by running our federal government is, at the very least, a Constitutional crisis."
Dear Mary, instead of "at the very least, a Constitutional crisis" it would have been more accurate to call it with what it is: Treason.
6
"But Trump is still extraordinarily weak. Some of that weakness is invisible because we simply take it for granted; it’s just part of the scenery, for instance, that this White House has no legislative agenda, no chance of advancing any policy priority on the hill, barely two years into the president’s first term."
When I read this piece this morning, I found myself actually agreeing with Ross Douthat for a change.
With today's anonymous op-ed bombshell, it's even more apparent that Trump is weak. Oh sure, he screams and shouts like an angry child, and has very dangerous instincts, but his own personality usually gets in his way of actually accomplishing anything.
Nor can he get many to help him. A strong president--as opposed to a dictator, which Trump would like to be but so far can't-- is able to inspire others to join his causes.
Can anyone possibly imagine Donald J. Trump addressing the nation and asking for the help of all Americans to help him achieve a specific set of goals?
Neither can I.
48
I mentioned in an earlier post that Americans tend to wear out their presidents over the term(s) of their presidency.
But this is the first time in the country's history that a president will have worn out the American people.
96
Let's say the Republican establishment IS making the kind of argument that Ross Douthat ventriloquizes. To whom, exactly, are they making it? As primary after primary shows, the Republican party is the party of Trump. What audience do they imagine will be relieved and will approve and will forgive?
34
@bshook: Depending on how well they've gerrymandered, at least some will have to worry about the general election.
2
Ross rarely gets it as wrong as he has with this column.
You certainly can argue that Trump uses presidential power in ways that we haven’t seen since LBJ, and Johnson was a pale ghost of Trump given his long tenure in the Senate, respect for Congress and the quality of people he inherited from JFK – and before LBJ, only FDR, who had the excuses of a drowning world and an existential war (and even then he respected limits) and Lincoln, who had his own existential war to manage.
But you can’t credibly argue that Trump is an “impotent executive”.
He has dramatically lessened excessive regulation by his pen and goaded Congress to go further in this vein and in a more organized manner. He has basically finished ISIS and (FINALLY) announced an exit from that quagmire of Afghanistan, transformed the unquestioning habits of 70-plus years to subsidize an allied world and insisted that our partners contribute more to our common defense, insisted that we re-write trade arrangements to more fairly benefit us, dramatically hardened our stance on border enforcement and national security, ceased the interminable kicking of cans by other administrations on matters such as North Korea, Iran, and the Israeli-Palestinian mess (insofar as our own involvement is concerned). He has kept up pressure on Russia while trying to reduce tensions and seek common goals, while pivoting attention to China, which is a much more serious strategic threat to Western interests.
Ross points as …
7
… justification to a claim of “impotence” the lack of a legislative agenda and the clearly inaccurate claim that he cannot advance a policy priority on the hill; and that he can’t fire his own AG or Mueller. Trump never had a legislative agenda to speak of and his primary value is in getting discrete things done – which is largely why he was elected, as Obama was such a dismal failure at getting things done that needed to be done. Trump’s successors will have the leisure to develop legislative agendas again. Mueller appears to be getting set to wrap-up his tenure, without presentation of impeachable offenses, and Sessions may be in office only until 4 November.
Trump has a mouth and a flamboyant manner that he uses in aid of tactical objectives pursued through brinkmanship – a brinkmanship that is on-going in most areas, such as with north Korea. Yet he also clearly knows how to pause and re-group in pursuit of precisely those same objectives. And he hasn’t yet sought to violate a judicial order or imprison journalists (despite serious temptations). The dangers are not what Ross sees, and this is not an “impotent” president.
5
@Richard Luettgen
Do you really consider the environmental regulations that Trump has ended and is trying to end excessive regulations.
Your list of Trump wonders and successes is largely a bogus distortion of reality viewed through a purely cultish, obsequious, partisan lens. Each is rife with opinion colored by wishful, even magical thinking in another lame attempt to reframe utter failure bordering on catastrophe as "winning".
Nice try, but only the cult faithful are buying the Trump-as-stealth-genius narrative.
5
Even if we assume that all 325 million of us, in the final analysis, are patriotic and love our country and its freedoms and power, we have to at least admit that in the 242 year history we have at times elected presidents who were not up to the task. Historians readily understand that the American people nearly always wear out their presidents over the course of the term, whether it be one or two terms. But this is the first time, historians will eventually report, that we elected a president who, on his best days, cared only about himself, in part because of the puzzling devotion of his base and the timidity of the Republican party). And we also recognize that most Americans are long suffering when it comes to enduring a presidency that is more flawed than any other in our history.
The real questions are: Will America restore the balance of power among the Executive. Legislative and Judicial triumvirate in November 2018?
And will America restore sanity to the office of the presidency in 2020 if it gets that far? As it always was for 242 years, it will be wholly up to the American people who will decide who will lead us into the future.
29
While Trump has had various successes/failures with his promised agenda, you have missed many of the other campaign promises that helped him win the election:
Government-supported health care so that everyone in America has coverage; investments in the nation’s decayed infrastructure, including our out-of-date airports; support for manufacturing and revitalization of industrial areas around the country; protecting Social Security and Medicare…. The list goes on and on.
Oh, and how could I forget: He promised to drain the swamp, and we know how well he has accomplished that goal.
Trump promised to not only shake things up in Washington, but he promised to look out for average Americans who were struggling. Unfortunately they still are. In that, the GOP Congress has also done its job.
53
A weak president _is_ a dangerous president. The fact that his most hateful and absurd promises didn’t materialize shouldn’t make us feel safe, or breathe a sigh of relief. Even though he’s a moral and intellectual infant, the sycophantic and opportunistic Republican Congress that he ushered in is a malevolent force that came within one thumb of terminating Obamacare.
His weakness didn’t prevent our government from usurping president Obama’s right to nominate a Supreme Court justice, nor did it prevent him from putting Kavanaugh in line to potentially dismantle key freedoms that we’ve fought for over the past fifty years.
The president’s weakness is making us a dangerous laughing stock on a world stage. It’s given us the sad picture of a United States president making kissy-face with Vladimir Putin, while Putin can barely contain his elation at making the president look like a dunce. It’s also let us witness him meeting with Kim Jong-un, and watch him claim to have made illusory progress with a man who kills his family members for convenience sake.
This pathetic president has ignored climate change and scuttled the Iran nuclear deal. No weakling could do that. Even though he is a clueless fool, people who are not stupid, and who have an agenda to push, are able to use his cluelessness to implement their agendas.
Lately, his idiotic behavior has caught up with him. There’s a sense that the things are coming apart. How much more dangerous could our situation be?
163
I question whether letting this presidency continue as it is presently being handled...as a two internally controlled presidency for the next two years. And if it does continue, then does it become an alternative to the norm for the future--more presidents being puppeted by its cabinet and West Wing handlers. I also question if Pence would be any better an alternative to Trump. Pence has extreme far right ideas and doesn't have much of a political track record to get excited about. In fact I feel he would be a frightening alternative. The country is caught between a rock and a hard place...neither course of action feels good for the country.
34
Trump was never going to be allowed to really run the show. Sure, some things he has taken upon himself to manage on his own, mainly, foreign policy and trade. He's said to have told Wilbur Ross that he will have no say on trade. On foreign policy, Pompeo seems to be the errand person at State.
It would be a mistake to paint Trump's presidency as one of impotence. While Trump may not have any control over the narrative about him, Mike Pence's appointees are doing the work the Koch Brothers sent them to Washington to do. Congress is helping when the departments are unable to roll back regulations or send back canceled funding to the Treasury.
The pace of work such current and former luminaries of the Trump administration have been doing is dizzying both in the scope and breadth of the destruction. DeVos, Pruitt, Tillerson, Mulvaney, Seema Verma, are the most prominent and prolific of destructors in the Trump administration. All are Koch and oligarchy-approved.
The media has been remiss in making available trackers for the public to take stock of. When a new Democratic administration and Congress take over, they will have a monumental task in front of them to reconstruct and make it impossible for the oligarchy to hijack the nation again.
The goals of the bought Republican party are being achieved. Trump, to the Kochs who've invested for decades, is just an interloper.
===
What Trump did while we weren't looking
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2ZW
50
Ross - is this supposed to make us feel safer and more at peace? Did the electorate elect Donald Trump or Kelly, Kushner and Miller to run our country? I mean, it’s not even crystal clear that the electorate elected Trump, but nobody expected babysitters to be running the country. What if somebody takes a bathroom break and he starts another twitter war with a world leader? Surely it has to be apparent that this is not what the framers intended. If he’s not doing the job because he can’t or won’t, then he must step aside before something truly catastrophic occurs. He isn’t fit. He isn’t well. He isn’t normal. It’s time for him to go.
144
Trump was never going to be allowed to really run the show. Sure, some things he has taken upon himself to manage on his own, mainly, foreign policy and trade. He's said to have told Wilbur Ross that he will have no say on trade. On foreign policy, Pompeo seems to be the errand person at State.
It would be a mistake to paint Trump's presidency as one of impotence. While Trump may not have any control over the narrative about him, Mike Pence's appointees are doing the work the Koch Brothers sent them to Washington to do. Congress is helping when the departments are unable to roll back regulations or send back canceled funding to the Treasury.
The pace of work such current and former luminaries of the Trump administration have been doing is dizzying both in the scope and breadth of the destruction. DeVos, Pruitt, Tillerson, Mulvaney, Seema Verma, are the most prominent and prolific of destructors in the Trump administration. All are Koch and oligarchy-approved.
The media has been remiss in making available trackers for the public to take stock of. When a new Democratic administration and Congress take over, they will have a monumental task in front of them to reconstruct and make it impossible for the oligarchy to hijack the nation again.
===
What Trump did while we weren't looking
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2ZW
5
Mr. Douthat addresses the President's effect, or lack thereof, on U.S. policy. I'm more worried about his effect on our national attitudes and culture.
61
Trump may be impotent to control the narrative about him, but it would be a grave mistake to paint the destruction that are his administration's achievements.
Mike Pence was chosen to manage the transition, after Trump won. As the Koch's designated point person, Pence filled the Trump administration posts with Koch and oligarchy-approved technocrats whose marching orders were to "undo, undo, undo!"
That is, essentially, what has been going on in the background of this or that scandalous Trump exclamation in person and on Twitter.
DeVos, Tillerson, Pruitt, John Kelly (at DHS and now the White House) and all the others were placed in their positions to perform specific tasks. All but two are fully in charge of their departments' policy-making. The two who aren't are Pompeo and Wilbur Ross, whom, it has been reported, Trump told would not have a thing to do with trade.
The undoing this administration has been busy effecting is dizzying. We know the devastation that took place at State. We know a lot about what Scott Pruitt did until he had to go and his replacement is no less productive.
Policies are being rolled back right and left and Congress has aided when the departments cannot roll back without it, at times, with support from the neoliberal wing.
The next Democratic president and Congress will have both a monumental task and an opportunity to ensure that democracy is never again hijacked.
---
What Trump did while we weren't looking
https://wp.me/p2KJ3H-2ZW
29
@Rima Regas how long will it take to undo what this administration has done in less than 2 years? And what more will be done in another 2 years or more if Trump is re-elected? That's my fear as an American and a human being. I fear for my country and the principles it was founded upon. Trump and the GOP seem to be determined to reverse every bit of progress that has been made on race, on the environment, and everything else.
George Orwell and Aldous Huxley considered some of their writing to be satire. At this point some of it is perilously close to the truth with a few minor tweaks. We're almost back to the ignorance of the McCarthy era.
1
Leadership is both a science and an art but regardless of how one views it, it means working with people, gaining their trust, and trusting them to act and for they to trust in the leader’s actions. Without that close relationship people may exercise authority according to the offices that they hold, alone. Trump has no people who he can trust and who trust him. He’s a solo act. He can’t just order people around as he could in his private businesses using money as his primary motivator but he seems not to know how to learn how to lead rather than just give orders. That’s a big reason why he’s unable to achieve his stated goals.
23
Mr. Douthat, it’s not the responsibility of Senate or Congressional Republicans to hold the president’s hand, walk him through his presidency and baby-sit him while he tries to figure out exactly what it means to be the nation’s president. Senators and Congressmen are charged with the duties of the legislative branch of government and to provide checks and balances on the executive branch, not to guide a political novice through the intricacies and difficulties of an office he insisted he was fit to hold.
Yes, this president is beyond weak. He’s a danger to the republic but Republicans either don’t see him as a threat or they don’t care as long as they retain power and control of the government. Now, they’re willing to cut and run rather than protect Jeff Sessions from the executioner’s ax. A fair question to ask is, have Congressional Republicans already relieved the president of his duties?
100
And, meanwhile, the level of discourse in American drops lower and lower. The GOP can take credit, I suppose, since Trump is Justice net result of forty or fifty years of Republican campaigning.
40
With Ross writing about Trump's weakness and an anonymous "White House Official" explaining how the resistance works to undermine the president they themselves voted for, I can't help but feel an epilogue is being written. Not so much for Trump's presidency, but for the men and women who, for whatever reason, hitched their wagons to Trump and now desperately try to unhitch as the cliff approaches.
When Trump's presidency ends, I think it would be interesting to poll the country and ask who voted for Trump. I wonder if somehow, magically, a lot of people will change their votes.
91
@M I was born in Mitchell, S.D., home of the world's only Corn Palace and George McGovern. S.D. did not vote for McGovern to be president, not even in his hometown of Mitchell. He grew up across the ally from my mom and her family of origin. I visited Mitchell often, to see my grandparents. Post the Nixon McGovern presidential race, everyone in Mitchell claimed to have voted for McGovern even though a majority of the town's voters had voted for Nixon. A tough, red state, S.D, I guess.
17
@M
In April 1945 there were 8 million Nazi party members in Germany, by the end of May they had all disappeared into the ether. Hardly anyone would admit to being a member of the party. I wonder if the same will happen to the Trumpites.
2
Notes are being taken. Records will exist. Trumpists cannot expect to hide and lie when the cult implodes.
1
The bigger question is, at this point, would someone including Trump’s aides, counsels, staff, even family stop him from putting every American at risk (if he hasn’t already) and how?
We all have to admit that trust just is not a word in emotion, speech, or heart of this administration.
20
.
As Bob Dylan has forewarned:
It's a hard rain's a-gonna fall
43
@JPG
And the comb-over is blowin’ in the wind.
Seriously.
2
Of the White House cabal, have you heard?
Keeps Trump from doing things absurd,
Not knowing his betters
Remove unsigned letters,
Since their Boss has the brain of a Bird.
Keep him from starting World War Three,
Which he could do inadvertently,
Each Lawyer’s face pales
As he goes off the Rails,
With that hairpiece, hirsute mockery.
Moot Courts? A lawyer’s nightmare!
Disasters beyond all compare,
Testimony of lies
Off consistency wise,
Such dimwittedness is quite rare.
98
@Larry Eisenberg
Crows, parrots and other very intelligent birds are pretty upset about this letter......
3