Your bag is empty.
Act One included a lot of drama. The President, panicked, opened the play by firing James Comey against the advice of many usually sane (if not wise) men as well as the stray nut job who could still see the handwriting on the wall. Donald J. Trump took no advice. He knew better. Then: Enter Robert Mueller, stage right.
Mueller, played by a mime, sat stoically like Rodin’s “The Thinker” throughout most of the remaining act. A healthy number of prosecutors, agents, judges, lawyers, members of Congress, press and Trump minions paraded across the stage for months as we saw indictments, testimonies, convictions and plea deals. The 25 indicted Russians showed up MIA, but that was to be expected. Mueller then deposited his report, cleared his throat and walked into the sunset.
Thus Act One ended. Act Two has begun. It is weeks later and the country can’t agree on the long-term impact of Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Most people still haven’t read it and are either waiting for the condensed version or willing to have someone else tell them what it said so they can then blow smoke out of their posterior.
Where Act Two ends, no one really knows. We only know Act Three will end when Trump leaves office. How and when this happens are still up for debate, but this drama won’t end until this presidency does. Actually, you can’t even be sure of that. There may be a three-act sequel. If you get his kids involved, we could have a trilogy.
Put another way, the world is slowly caving in around the president. You can tell it by the frequency and the manner in which Trump reacts to the general public. His rallies are last-ditch efforts to obtain validation. Last week, in Florida, Trump preached, ranted and raved for nearly an hour and a half. As he is not welcomed in most civilized—and several marginally civilized—countries around the world, showing up to a MAGA rally rife with chants of “Four More Years!” and “Lock Her Up!” are catnip for Trump.
Some closest to him are happy to let him rant. They view it as harmless. Let him rally. Let him blow off steam. It keeps him away from the button. True or not, chaos and bedlam—long staples of the Donald Trump administration—hit their usual heights last week. Trump, who previously said he wanted Congress to read Mueller’s full investigative report because it exonerates him, later declared executive privilege to keep the report out of Congress’s hands. Meanwhile, Congress found Attorney General William Barr in contempt or not turning it over and Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Representative Jerry Nadler broke the law by demanding to see the report. And President Donald Trump tweeted madly about a New York Times article revealing 10 years of Trump’s taxes. The Times story reported that the president had lost more than a billion dollars in the 1980s and 1990s, making him one of the biggest losers in U.S. income tax history. Trump called the losses “sport” and said The New York Times conducted a “hit job” on him.
Why wasn’t the administration proud enough to introduce its brave new plan to fanfare, press releases and perhaps a briefing in the long-forgotten Brady Press Room? We got no answers for you there folks.
Lost in the chaos was a mass shooting at a school outside of Denver; a sharp downturn on Wall Street, and the administration’s attempt to relax rules regarding debt collectors’ ability to harass debtors. There is also the administration’s new border policy; a looming war with Iran; Venezuela; possible violations of the Hatch Act by the Trump administration (including Kellyanne Conway); and violations of the emoluments clause. Don’t forget the Chinese trade wars and tariffs; Secretary of State Mike Pompeo praising climate change as a potential economic boom; FBI Director Chris Wray contradicting William Barr by claiming there was “no spying” on the Trump presidential campaign in 2016; and Trump forbidding testimony before Congress by his former attorney Don McGahn.
To top it off, more than 700 former prosecutors signed a letter arguing Trump would be charged with obstruction of justice for his actions as a presidential candidate, and as president, if but for the fact he was the president. If that sounds like chaos, just wait until you try to tackle the immigration issue.
Trump’s plans for the southern border are apparently being led by Jared Kushner, who has often been seen walking in and out of Congressional offices in the last few months trying to cobble together a cogent policy. In the past, a bill would have been announced by legislators on both sides of the fence, and at the White House, in an attempt to jump-start the process. The current administration seems to have charted a different course; cynics say that is by design and argue it will give Trump an out when it does fail: “It’s all the Democrats’ fault.”
Nonetheless, the president, Kushner and others have been meeting with GOP senators at the White House. Press were were told such talks would result in a brave new plan for immigration that, notably, wouldn’t lower the number of legal immigrants allowed into the country. Instead, it would involve a merit-based system that would secure the border and stop the flow of illegal drugs and illicit materials into the country.
The plan includes several goals, including protecting the border, unifying families, protecting wages and labor and securing humanitarian values. Other than those goals, the senior administration official who gave three background briefings was extremely vague on specifics. The president’s plan seems like a plan to draft a plan. There were no handouts, study guides or policy papers. Just a senior administration official trying to sell a project so hard he actually said at one point that the plan was “good for the company” when he meant “good for the country.”
Why was the briefing on background? Why wasn’t the administration proud enough to introduce its brave new plan to fanfare, press releases and perhaps a briefing in the long-forgotten Brady Press Room? We got no answers for you there folks.
The plan sounds noble in its intent, and with all the bad press the administration gets, any real attempt to tackle a decades-old problem with a fresh set of eyes would be news worth promoting. Instead, the initiative was launched nearly in secret and promoted only after some prodding from reporters. The fact is, like everything else this administration does, the bold new plan lacks any meat. It’s slogan-rich and reality starved. The president is part of the problem. You can’t hash out a plan with someone who can’t spell *Kentucky,*as the president demonstrated in one tweet. The communications staff’s lack of experience is a problem. You have mid-level managers attempting to craft strategy. It’s like watching an episode of Veep. Meanwhile, the sheer chaotic nature of this administration and its propensity to lie, even when the truth will suffice, are still the largest stumbling blocks.
The Trump administration remains a metaphorical wildfire. But the president and most of his staff are stuck perpetually protecting themselves from self-inflicted wounds caused by the wildfire they can’t rake. The notable exceptions are Larry Kudlow and Kevin Hassett who seem to have the economy and numbers down. But everyone else is screwed and lost in confusion as the president explains lies by telling more lies.
The administration remains screwed because Barr and Mueller so far agree on this: Russia interfered in our election and Donald Trump benefitted from it. It’s a fact you can’t get around and we’re doing little to fix for 2020. But you have to stay tuned to the continuing drama. It is disturbing, fascinating and frightening. You’ll laugh. You’ll cry. It has everything, and it’s all too real.