Donald Trump’s topsy-turvy, turbulent reign is falling apart
HALIFAX—The topsy-turvy and turbulent reign of United States President Donald Trump is clearly falling apart.
The question is, what will the Republican Party do about it?
There is a mountain of evidence that the wheels are coming off what some are calling the worst presidency in U.S. history.
The most recent proof was Trump’s private meeting with Republican Senators. Instead of a consultation among political allies, it turned into a political food fight.
The president, forgetting it seems, that the Senate is a co-equal branch of government with the White House, complained about a Senate vote that limited his ability to wage war with Iran. That is baseless nonsense.
The fault here is entirely Trump’s. He never went to Congress to get authorization for this war, as the Constitution requires. Nor did he brief the Senate before the bombs started dropping. Nor did he consult allies.
In a rowdy meeting with raised voices on both sides, Trump berated and lectured the Senators. But his attempt at high-handed intimidation was not a total success. At least one Senator had harsh words for the president after the meeting, declaring that he would not be bullied by the president.
Although some people were surprised by Trump’s truculence aimed at members of his own party, no one should have been. After all, this is the president who has attacked and insulted America’s closest allies.
Although he never consulted NATO before starting the Iran war, he absurdly complained that the alliance failed to come to America’s assistance.
Why would they do this if they didn't get a heads up before the conflict started? Why would they when Trump earlier said that the U.S. didn’t need any help and could do the job by itself?
How bad did Trump’s insults get? Dark and dirty. He even suggested at one point that United Kingdom and NATO forces avoided fighting on the front line during the war in Afghanistan. It was an outrageous lie from a man who did everything in his power to avoid serving the U.S. military. He never served.
And there were other attacks on allies that would have been unthinkable with any other U.S. president. Trump signalled that he wanted to take over Greenland, either forgetting or not caring that it was the territory of another NATO ally, Denmark.
In a public and face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney, Trump declared he would like Canada to become America’s 51st state. Carney gave the curt and correct answer: “Never.” The president’s rejoinder? “Never say never.”
At the same time that President Trump was beating up his allies, he was singing the praises of one of the world’s great malefactors and dictators.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin declared two breakaway states in eastern Ukraine independent—just before he sent in the troops—Trump commented, “This is genius.”
Trump not only failed to denounce Putin for the invasion, he and his vice-president, the sycophantic J.D. Vance, assailed Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the now-infamous television interview. Trump accused Zelenskyy of being “disrespectful” and unappreciative of U.S. aid to Ukraine.
Of all people who might accuse someone else of being disrespectful, Trump should be the last one. He is, after all, the king of barroom diplomacy and broken promises. He vowed to keep the U.S. out of endless foreign wars, but instead started one.
That was not the only broken promise. Trump was supposed to improve the affordability crisis.
Instead, 18 months into Trump’s second term, American consumers are paying more for the basics—food, shelter, and energy. As the direct result of his war on Iran, gasoline prices are making it harder and harder for Americans to balance their budgets.
For all of these reasons, Trump is essentially a dead politician walking. According to a survey by the Pew Research Centre, respondents in 36 countries declared greater faith in the leadership of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Putin than they did in Trump.
In Canada, just 27 per cent of respondents were confident that Trump’s America would do the right thing.
The president’s political epitaph is being written in the polls. His overall approval rating with Americans is an abysmal 36 per cent.
But here is the problem.
Trump may be down, but he’s not out. He is not even halfway through his second term, with two-and-a-half more years to go. Americans may not like him or want him, but they are stuck with him if he manages to serve out his full term. The chances of Trump resigning are slim to none.
What might that mean? One of the Republican Senators in that recent private lunch with Trump told reporters that the country couldn’t take three more years of Trumpian misrule.
Inside that meeting, Senator Bill Cassidy directly confronted the president on his handling of the Iran war, accusing him of keeping Congress and the American people in the dark about the military assault. Trump reportedly reacted by calling Cassidy a “lunatic” and telling him to sit down.
It was not the first time a Senator or former Senator publicly called out the president.
In a speech at Scranton University, former Senator Bob Casey levelled three serious charges against Trump: undermining the justice system, attacking freedom of the press, and jeopardizing voting rights—nothing less than the pillars of American society.
Even some Republicans are realizing that Trump is failing spectacularly in the job.
Despite that, it is highly unlikely that the GOP would use its congressional power to force Trump from office.
But if the House and perhaps even the Senate go to the Democrats after this November’s mid-term elections, all that could change. And Trump knows it. He has already told the party that it must retain the House in the upcoming elections, or he will be impeached.
If a misguided GOP rallies around this disastrous president in a display of misguided loyalty, Donald Trump won’t be the only one going down when the votes are counted this November.
The party might truly be over.
Michael Harris is an award-winning author and journalist.
The Hill Times