There was a time right after Trump was elected when many Americans thought that Trump would change. They believed the presidency would have a positive effect on him and make him more compassionate, less inclined to lie and less likely to employ criminal schemes to get his way. In other words, he would act more presidential. Americans did not realize that his narcissistic personality and self-serving actions were stamped upon the circuits of his brain and that he was never going to change. He has been this way since childhood and ran his businesses the same way he’s running America. Piling on more debt without considering future default.
And why should Trump change? With Republicans in the Senate, the House and his administration reinforcing how terrific he is and almost no one in the GOP willing to cross him and tell him when he’s wrong, why should he change? He also has the Attorney General of the United States as his own personal lawyer, protecting him in every way possible instead of doing what’s right for the nation and obeying the Constitution.
So Trump continues his felonious behavior and ignores the oversight that the Constitution grants to Congress. He refuses to allow people in his administration or those who were once in his administration to testify before Congressional committees, claiming presidential privilege. And he refuses to hand over documents that Congress requires for their oversight function, again claiming presidential privilege. He is hoping that the judges he placed in the judicial system will back up his actions, or at least delay Congress from having their way until the 2020 election is over. And his Attorney General Bill Barr continues to do Trump’s bidding to stymie Congressional investigations, disregarding the Constitution.
To fight Russian aggression, Ukraine needs American weapons which Trump has slow-walked giving to them. He has repeatedly pressured the new Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky to mount a criminal investigation of Joe Biden and his son Hunter, accusing them of corrupt activities in Ukraine without any evidence of such. Trump has hinted that American weapons will be released to Ukraine if Zelensky obeys him. Supposedly, this is what the whistle blower scandal in the intelligence agencies is all about, though the new acting Director of Intelligence Joseph McGuire refuses to release data about this to Congress. And of course, Trump’s buddy Putin would not be too happy if America provides Ukraine with new weaponry to fight the Russians.
Trump is trying to get information from a foreign power to influence the 2020 presidential election, just like the help the Russians gave him in 2016. He seems to have gotten away with it once, so why not try it again. Trump is not going to change. He believes himself invincible and so far he’s been right. Resurrecting Democracy www.robertlevinebooks.com
Posted at 07:03 AM in Budget Deficits, cabinet members, Congress, Corruption, Court appointments, Current Affairs, demagogue, Donald Trump, election meddling, narcissism, Political corruption, Politics, Republican Party, Russia, Trump administration, Ukraine | Permalink
Tags: Barr, Biden, Putin, Russia, Russia, Trump, Ukraine, weapons, Zelensky
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