I kind of feel bad for Melania Trump. I feel like the people who should be worried about her optics aren’t doing their job. Now, realistically, no one should have needed to tell her that it was inappropriate to wear a jacket that said “I really don’t care, do u?” in big white letters on the back while visiting a detention center holding kids separated from their parents. But fashion was previously a big part of her life, and I suppose that jacket is fashionable, and perhaps this was just a blindspot. But blindspot or not, as the first lady, especially in this administration, maybe putting herself in a position where her sincerity is put into question wasn’t the best of ideas.
So after weeks of claiming that the separation of families at the borders was both A) Out of his hands/Not his fault and B) A totally necessary thing, Donald Trump is signing an executive order to end the vile practice that has been the result of persecuting and prosecuting asylum seekers, hoping to find refuge from awful conditions at home. On a near daily basis, Trump has claimed that this practice was the result of legislation enacted by Democrats and that it was on them to fix it. He claimed with vigor that there was nothing he could do. Now, a number of high ranking government officials who know the logistics of this predicament have very vocally disagreed that this was out of his hands. That he could make this go away with a phone call. That this practice was part of a wider protocol to deter immigrant asylum seekers from seeking refuge. Trump vehemently denied this was the case. Then on Wednesday, he went and basically made the call he claimed he was incapable of making. If the weight of that ridiculousness gives you a headache, well, welcome to the United States of America!
The GOP seems to have a Nazi problem. Seriously. At least 3 congressional GOP candidates have openly admitted to being white supremacists with Nazi and neo-Nazi sympathies. There was a period of time when finding that kind of information out would have been something to end a political career. It feels like several giant leaps backward that it’s being used to kickstart them. To their credit, the mainstream Republican party does see this as an inconvenience. They’ve been doing their level best to keep their image away from that ideology, and disavowing these upstarts openly, but it’s still unfortunate to note that these candidates seem to be gaining momentum rather than stalling out. But what happens when these outliers become less abnormal?
I have to say, Donald Trump shows just how quickly a hot streak can end. He as riding pretty high on the end ride of his North Korea summit. Regardless of the criticisms you could throw his way regarding how he handled it, the fact is that it seems like, for the time being, tensions have been de-escalated. That is a positive development. Couple that with his already improving approval numbers, which regardless of your opinion on it, is undoubtedly true, and Trump is sitting kind of pretty at the start of the summer. Then his treatment of asylum seekers and families at the border comes to light, the separation of families at the border, the literal cages children are being kept in, the concentration camp comparisons, the blatant lies about who is at fault for this process, saying he hates it and is blameless while simultaneously defending it’s necessity….it’s been a real fiasco. Now he’s withdrawing the US from the United Nations Human Rights council, citing Israel’s treatment, but the sheer irony of that in the face of how we’re treating immigrants…Listen, I can’t give you approval ratings numbers, but spoiler alert, several polls have shown consistently that the MAJORITY of people are pretty damn nonplussed about this whole separation of families thing. The guy is very much playing a one step forward, 2 steps back kind of game.
The disturbing new trend amongst hardcore conservatives to try and keep you from empathizing with children in distress seems to be to accuse any crying child you see as being some kind of Crisis actor meant to manipulate people’s emotions. Multiple people seem to be trying to sell this theory with the children detained by ICE, those separated from their parents. It’s a similar situation to the situation where Conservatives and NRA advocates accused multiple survivors of bein paid actors. As ridiculous and baseless as those claims were, the ones spouted openly by people like Ann Coulter in this situation are (somehow) even less credible and even more disgusting. Kids who are practically toddlers, many who are detained in massive cages (Cage isn’t my word. Border patrol uncomfortably admits cages are used), are hardly equipped to be selling a fake show for cameras. Have you ever seen child actors perform? I would hardly call most of them THAT convincing. More realistically, the images and videos we are seeing are devastated CHILDREN being traumatized and devastated by their horrific predicament. I don’t know…maybe I’m just being naïve. But it’s far better to be naïve than a monster, so I’ll take it.
The more that I read stories of kids getting separated from their parents at borders, the more I read of the damaging effects it’s having, including a devastating story about a father who committed suicide, the more I and I think most of the country is wondering when this senseless cruelty will end. At a certain point, I’m hoping Trump won’t be able to hide behind the lie that he isn’t responsible for this, and will mandate this stop happening. I’m hoping that for once in his time in office, public pressure will force his hand to do something outside of his agenda against immigration. Cruelty should never be acceptable, and it should be even less acceptable when played in the name of politics. Innocent people are having their lives destroyed over the pride of powerful men.
So, Trump reportedly gave Kim Jong Un his personal phone number, a direct line to him…which is weird. I get the feeling most leaders of nations actually allied to the US don’t have that, but a murderous dictator who has a history of sabotage and subterfuge, and of murdering family members, does. Now, there are some legit security concerns with that. There is a lot that a tech savvy person could do with a phone number, or if you’re not tech savvy, but do have an army of hackers at your disposal. But more than that, why would you want a crazy person having the ability to call you and chat? I feel like Trump should know better. If you’ve ever dated a crazy person who calls you at 3 in the morning to spread their crazy, then you know better.
So, naturally, the G7 summit went swimmingly. And by “swimmingly, I mean, it was a total disaster that further isolated the United States from our closest global allies. Not only did Donald Trump continue to push unnecessary and ill thought out tariffs against our friends, but then he called the leader of Canada a liar publicly. He’s really taking this idea of “nationalism” to an uncomfortable level. It’s like he found out that the people of North Korea are told to worship Kim Jong Un as a god, and Trump asked his advisors how that happened and is following a road map: discredit the free press? Check. Isolate the country from the rest of the world? Check. Make friends with classically evil dictator figures? Double check. I wonder what Kim and Trump talk about over dinner?
Listen, I think it’s fair to give Trump some credit over this North Korea thing. Not even just because Trump has a bad habit of escalating problems. Frankly, even if Trump was a more laid back character, North Korea likes to be provocative in their own right. So the fact that the summit in Singapore seemingly went off without a hitch, and that some semblance of peace was established for the near future is positive. I won’t try to say that isn’t a victory. BUT, Trump and staff is trying to establish his summit as some unprecedented victory, as if North Korea has never made these promises before and for less. In fairness, I didn’t know until I bothered to look. But the reality is that North Korea has agreed to scrap their nuclear program no less than half a dozen times in almost 30 years, going as far back as when Kim Il Sung was still alive. In 1994, the they agreed to scrap the program and stop researching plutonium and uranium enrichment for food aid. Trump promised to stop our military maneuvers in South Korea, something we’ve done for 50 years, for a re-affirmation of their earlier promises from the last 30 years, with no time table or verfication process, things they’ve given in the past. Hell they didn’t even bother to promise to stop their Uranium program. In fact, by all appearances…the great negotiator got out negotiated. Again, I want to point out, the world feels a little less close to nuclear destruction than it did a week ago, and that’s a positive development. But that Trump secured a loose promise of Denuclearization…well, that feels less impressive.
I will freely admit that I’m not an economics expert. Not even kind of. So when it comes to predictions regarding the economy, it’s my instinct to trust the analysis of people who understand that stuff. Now, when I say people who understand that stuff, I don’t mean self professed “deal makers”. That would be like listening to an actor’s political opinion: They might know what they’re talking about, but just as realistically, they’re trying to put on a show. So when the grand consensus by economists, both employed by the government and independent, seems to conclude that isolating the country from trading partners, imposing unnecessarily aggressive tariffs on them, and starting and escalating trade wars will ultimately kill more jobs and companies than help them, I’m inclined to believe them over the one loudmouth “Dealmaker” who is assuring everyone that he’s just playing hardball.
Mind the Exit 