Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 08:44 pm
Even Trump’s own White House admits that President Trump has failed to deliver on his promise to change D.C., and Republicans have failed on their promise to change Washington since taking the House in 2010 and the Senate in 2014.
This is hard, is the message of the Trump White House. Again. After just several months of “work.”
Speaking of the President’s failed healthcare reform bill that he pulled abruptly on Friday to avoid further humiliation, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget Mick Mulvaney said on Meet the Press, ” (W)e haven’t been able to change Washington in the first 65 days. And I think if there’s anything that’s disappointing and sort of an educational process to the Trump Administration…”
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Video:
Transcript via Meet The Press:
CHUCK TODD:
So the Republican Party–
MICK MULVANEY:
And the folks back home–
CHUCK TODD:
–has not changed Washington after taking over the House in ’10, taking over the Senate in ’14, and taking over the White House now?
MICK MULVANEY:
I think more importantly, we haven’t been able to change Washington in the first 65 days. And I think if there’s anything that’s disappointing and sort of an educational process to the Trump Administration was that this place was a lot more rotten than we thought that it was, and that I thought it was, because I’ve been here for six years. I know the Freedom Caucus. I helped found it. I never thought it would come to this.
President Trump was foolish enough to think that he could change D.C. just by showing up. He only allowed 17 legislative days for Trumpcare. Compare that to the successful way the Democrats, under President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, moved Obamacare through. Democrats gave it a year of debating and deliberation, because they understood it was a huge piece of legislation that impacted millions.
Donald Trump said he could change D.C., but instead of learning about the past efforts to do so, he doubled down on the problems – lobbyists elevated, dark money elevated, secrecy, lack of transparency, and putting the people who stand to benefit from an industry in charge of overseeing that industry. Then he put people in positions of power who literally know nothing about their jobs, even what the job itself is at times.
To foresee the fail of this is to be rational. To think it would go well is a sign of stupidity, ignorance, and swollen to the point of blindness egos.
Republicans thought they could change D.C.’s dysfunction, by obstructing everything the President who had an actual landslide tried to do. That’s odd.
Mulvaney, who says he helped found the obstructionist wing of the Republican House, is surprised to learn that eight years of whining and shutting down the government and obstructing a democratically elected president isn’t part of fixing D.C.
That old adage if you’re not part of the solution you’re part of the problem could have served as a warning for Republicans during the last seven years of their constant complaining about Obamacare, while refusing to do one thing to tweak it.
The Republican Trump White House attitude is a shocking combination of hubris and ignorance. People have to try hard to be this blind, this enmeshed in their epistemic closure.
Donald Trump dumped a bill that didn’t pass in 1.5 days after only having it out for 17 days. The failure of this is shocking to Republicans and the Trump White House, which in and of itself is a sign of such glaring incompetence it’s actually stunning, even when you approach this knowing that Trump was not equipped for or knowledgeable about this job.
Every new president goes through a reality check process in which their rosy, hopeful ideas of change are destroyed by the slow moving morass of D.C.. But real leaders pick themselves up, learn from their mistakes, are not too arrogant to learn from history, and don’t give up.
Instead, Trump has blamed Democrats for what is so obviously a Republican failure, given that they are in charge of both chambers of Congress and the White House, and he wasted no time threatening members of his own party over Trumpcare.
To call this a failure is an understatement. Trump gambled and lost, and by threatening his own party members, he has revealed just how weak he is. This is a president with a historically low approval rating and a possible treason scandal hanging over his head. The truth is that his own party members will be best served by not helping Trump with his agenda, and they seem more than comfortable telling him no.
No, Trump is not a magician. Trump can’t change D.C. with his “deal-making” skills. Trump has no deal-making skills in D.C., because deal-making in D.C. depends on having a high enough approval rating that Congress finds it in their own interest to work with a president.
The adolescent naivete of this administration is truly astonishing. This is what happens when people fall for the con artist’s line that neophytes are needed to “shake things up.” Bring in the Wall Street expert to perform open heart surgery and expect winning.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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