Donald Trump has been president for more than six months, and Republicans have largely allowed him to get away with things previous presidents would have never gotten away with – but now it appears the honeymoon is over.
As PoliticusUSA reported via Reuters earlier today:
As fellow Republicans labored to repeal Obamacare this week, U.S. President Donald Trump repeatedly swerved off-topic, escalating concerns in his party about his ability to govern the country six months after taking office.
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While senators grappled with healthcare, Trump banned transgender people from the military. He regaled a Boy Scout jamboree with a tale from a New York cocktail party. He indulged an obscene tirade by his flamboyant new communications director.
In the end, the Senate’s efforts collapsed in a predawn vote on Friday, magnifying the ineffectiveness that often goes with the chaos around Trump, the constant storm of tweets, the White House infighting, the self-inflicted wounds.
The Trump presidency has so far been an unmitigated disaster, and unlike many Republicans, most Americans have been panicking since well before he was even elected last year.
Keep in mind, this is a guy who built his political career on the racist lie that President Barack Obama isn’t an American. He launched his campaign calling Mexican immigrants “rapists” and “criminals.” He spent the election cycle demonstrating that he is completely unable to discuss or understand – or even care to learn – complicated policy issues. He tried to justify his treatment of women, even after a tape surfaced showing him bragging about sexual assault.
All of this while he would repeatedly throw childlike tantrums on Twitter about whoever was his enemy at a given moment – a Gold Star family, a federal judge, a beauty pageant contestant, and of course Hillary Clinton.
On behalf of a majority of Americans who voted to elect somebody not named Donald Trump, I have one question for Republicans who are just now panicking: Where in the world have you been and why has it taken you so long to recognize that this is who Trump is and always has been?
The truth is that the GOP didn’t care.
It didn’t bother them that this man is clearly mentally unstable. It didn’t bother them that he lacked the qualifications and temperament to be President of the United States. It didn’t bother them that he is an amoral egotist who has never cared about anybody but himself. It didn’t bother them that his main claim to fame is hosting a prime time game show.
They have complete control of Congress, after all, and they saw Trump as a way to achieve right-wing policy goals that they have failed to accomplish for a long time. He would be their puppet, they hoped.
Six months into his time in the White House, their tune is changing as Trump’s incompetence, corruption, and unfitness has thrown the entire Republican agenda into a dumpster and set it ablaze.
For sure, there are still too many Republican leaders who continue to toe the line for the dangerous man in the White House. But as long as Trump continues to treat the government like a reality show or a play toy – something that exists solely for his childish amusement – more in the GOP will see what most Americans have known for a long time.
Donald Trump’s incompetence is a clear and present danger to the United States of America.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
