If you can remember back as far as 2015 and 2016 when the presidential campaigns were going strong, you may remember some promises that Donald Trump made before he was elected. He pledged to clean up the swamp that was Washington, controlling lobbyists and corrupt politicians. The best men would be brought in to run the government. A trillion dollars would be devoted to repairing and improving our dilapidated infrastructure. He was also going to reduce the nation’s overwhelming debt. And hedge fund personnel would be made to pay reasonable taxes on their income.
It is now over a year and a half since Trump entered office and not a single one of his promises has been fulfilled. Instead of bringing in the best men to manage the government and clean up the Washington swamp, he has brought in some of the worst people to fill important posts in the government. And there has been tremendous turnover in the personnel that Trump picked, either because he fired them or they resigned from office.
The National Security Advisor is one of the most important positions in the government and Trump has gone through three of them already in his administration. Michael Flynn was a terrible choice given his contacts with the Russians and his work for Turkey. Now it appears as if he has flipped in the Mueller investigation and will inform on Trump. Trump’s second choice, General H.R. McMaster appeared to be an excellent one. However, Trump fired him because he gave Trump information that he didn’t like and was willing to stand up to him. His new pick, John Bolton is an unabashed hawk on North Korea, Iran and Russia. However, Bolton has toned down his rhetoric somewhat to fit in with Trump’s love for Putin and Russia.
Gary Cohn, Trump’s initial economic advisor quit his job because he disagreed with Trump’s trade war and tariffs. Andrew Puzder, Trump’s choice for Labor Secretary withdrew his name before Senate confirmation because of allegations of domestic abuse. Tom Price, Secretary of HHS quit because of questions of conflicts of interest, insider trading, and excessive spending. Scott Pruitt, the head of the EPA also quit because of excessive spending and conflicts of interest. His initial Chiefs of Staff, Priebus and Bannon were let go because Trump was unhappy with them. Now, this group doesn’t sound as if Trump brought in the best men or worked to clean up the swamp. In fact, it seemed as if these were swamp dwellers. A number of other men and women have also left the administration because of disagreements with Trump or unhappiness with the way things were being run.
The outstanding characteristic of many of Trump’s initial appointees to his cabinet was wealth, with many of them multi-millionaires or billionaires. One would think it would make them more disconnected from Trump’s base of working class and lower middle class white males, but Trump didn’t care. Certainly, the Trump administration has not yet done anything significant for his base though they still seem to adore him.
Trump’s major triumph in terms of legislation has been his tax cut which is great for wealthy citizens but does little for working families. And instead of cutting the national debt and the annual deficit, the tax cut produces a huge increase in both. Hedge fund income is still taxed at previous rates which keeps Trump’s wealthy friends happy. As for the work on the infrastructure that Trump promised, that now seems like pie in the sky with Republicans wanting to cut back on any additional spending so the debt won’t climb higher. Unfortunately, the infrastructure is in dire need of repair and improvement, and if it is not done, we can expect similar tragedies to the recent event in Genoa.
Thus, so far, Trump has reneged on all his promises which were just lies to help him get elected. In the next two and a half years, don’t hold your breath waiting for Trump to come through with anything really worthwhile for the country. He’s going to be too busy trying to keep his head above the water.
Resurrecting Democracy
www.robertlevinebooks.com
Political junkie, Vietnam vet, neurologist- three books on aging and dementia. Book on health care reform in 2009- Shock Therapy for the American Health Care System. Book on the need for a centrist third party- Resurrecting Democracy- A Citizen’s Call for a Centrist Third Party published in 2011. Aging Wisely, published in August 2014 by Rowman and Littlefield. Latest book- The Uninformed Voter published May 2020