In the era of Trump, a week in the presidency is like a whole lifetime. So here’s a look back on the week that was:
Like Generalissimo Franco of yore, Obamacare repeal . . . is still dead.
Withdrawing from NAFTA . . . also dead.
Apparently Trump was strongly considering terminating the agreement. But then the president with a “very good brain” was shown visual aids.
Draining the swamp . . . dead as a doornail.
This week the Trump administration unveiled a tax proposal that looks like it was drafted on the back of a cocktail napkin. It’s a one-page proposal that would shift trillions of the dollars to the wealthiest Americans and explode the deficit. Calling it a plan is an insult to the word “plan.” On the positive side, there’s pretty much zero chance it will ever get past a Senate filibuster and become law, but it’s yet another reminder of the complete lack of seriousness that defines this president and his administration.
Trump’s obsession with his electoral victory . . . not dead.
Here is a picture from Trump’s recent interview with Reuters in which he handed out to reporters out maps of his electoral victory.
Fascism in France . . . not dead, but in poor health.
Last weekend’s vote in France highlights one positive aspect of Trump’s election: It has reminded people in Western democracies that elections have consequences.
John Kelly . . . is still telling everyone they are going to die.
Earlier this week I wrote about Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly’s unhinged and xenophobic threat-mongering. And as if right on cue, Kelly doubled down. On Wednesday, his agency announced the creation of the office of Victims of Immigration Crime Engagement, which will be focused on assisting families that are the victims of crimes committed by undocumented immigrants. This is consistent with the Trump administration’s efforts to justify its immigration crackdown by demonizing undocumented immigrants and making them appear to be a greater threat than they really are. When Kelly was brought in to the Trump administration, many saw him as the potential adult in the room who would help guide Trump through the process of governing. Instead the former Marine general has jumped into the sewer right alongside the president.
Rex Tillerson is alive . . . but sleepy.
In the ongoing effort to neuter the State Department and render US diplomacy utterly ineffective, we turn to Foggy Bottom and our secretary of state. In an extraordinary interview this week with the New York Times, Tillerson’s press spokesman, R.C. Hammond, tried to explain the Trump administration’s inability to nominate officials for the approximately 200 State Department jobs requiring Senate confirmation.
According to Hammond, the nation’s top diplomat is preparing for a “listening tour of the building” and then will seek to restructure how the department operates. Once those tasks are completed he will begin nominating a “leadership team.”
It’s almost May. What is Tillerson waiting for?
This means that State Department will have its leadership ranks unfilled well into 2018. This would be bad enough in isolation, but as we’ve seen Tillerson is completely out of his depth at State. And it’s not as if nothing of importance is going on in the world.
Indeed, the signals being sent from the Trump administration this week regarding North Korea’s nuclear program are befuddling. In a Reuters interview, Trump said there was potential for “major, major conflict” with North Korea and that “we’d love to solve things diplomatically” with Pyongyang, “but it’s very difficult.”
This came only days after Tillerson floated the possibility of bilateral talks with the North Koreans.
The potential for conflict is no doubt terrifying to South Korea, which would of course bear the catastrophic brunt of any conflict with the North. Yet, rather than offering soothing assurances to Seoul, Trump told Reuters that he wants South Korea to pick up the $1 billion price tag for the US THAAD anti-missile defense system, which is intended to protect against North Korean attacks. He also said that he is looking to renegotiate or terminate the US-South Korea free trade agreement. Your guess is as good as mine as to what the strategy is here, but alienating South Korea while saber rattling with the North makes no sense at all.
But as bad as the news has been this week, there is reason for happiness: today is Ed Balls Day!
Michael A. Cohen’s column appears regularly in the Globe. Follow him on Twitter @speechboy71.