Posted on 01/24/2017 6:34:46 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Overshadowed by headlines about chaos and infighting, the new administration is notching a string of early victories.
From some angles, the Trump presidency is off to a rocky start. There were the somewhat disappointing crowds at the inauguration, and then the needless lies about them, presented as “alternative facts.” There’s the controversy over Trump’s remarks to the CIA, and precisely who in the crowd cheered his visit. On Monday, the president repeated a dumb and unnecessary lie about illegal ballots having cost him the popular vote during a meeting with members of Congress. The Washington Post reports in detail on White House infighting and an attempted reboot—just four days into the administration. ABC’s The Note frowns, “He can’t help himself, and he isn’t helping himself.”
But what if the Trump presidency is actually off to a surprisingly effective start? For months, Trump has shown a perverse ability to overshadow his own message with chaos and disorder, and the first five days of his administration fit right into that pattern.
Take his nominations. Trump started his presidency with unusually few confirmed appointees. That was in large part the fault of his transition team, which has been slow to nominate and slow to vet candidates for the jobs. Many of the nominees who have come to hearings have had a rough go of it. Secretary of State-designate Rex Tillerson stumbled through his hearing. So did Secretary of Education-designate Betsy DeVos, who seemed in some cases unversed in federal law on education. Attorney General-designate Jeff Sessions seems to have misrepresented his record on desegregation. Tom Price, the nominee for secretary of health and human services, is facing down stories about alleged insider trading. Ben Carson, nominated to head Housing and Urban Development, previously said he wasn’t qualified to run an agency and has no experience in housing.
For all that, it seems possible that every one of Trump’s nominees will make it through. None is in certain danger now, especially after wavering Senator Marco Rubio announced he would support Tillerson’s nomination. James Mattis, who needed a congressional waiver to even qualify for the post of secretary of defense, won all but a single vote in the Senate.
That’s better than Barack Obama’s record at the outset of his administration, and he had a huge Democratic majority in the Senate. Tom Daschle (health and human services) and Bill Richardson (commerce) both had to withdraw after investigations. Tim Geithner (treasury) nearly went down over tax discrepancies. Judd Gregg (commerce again) withdrew over differences with Obama.
Or take Trump’s promise to intervene to prevent jobs from leaving the country. That vow, particularly targeted at the air-conditioner manufacturer Carrier, was dismissed during the campaign. But Trump quickly swung into action after the election, and announced a high-profile deal with Carrier to keep jobs in Indiana. The devil was in the details, of course: Carrier was still moving jobs to Mexico; Trump had unusual leverage over Carrier’s parent company, a major contractor; the deal cost taxpayers dearly; many of the “preserved” jobs might still be automated in the future.
But Trump got his symbolic win, and he’s since collected a host of others. Companies have announced expansions of jobs in the U.S. that were already planned or already disclosed, and Trump has hastened to claim credit for them, whether they were his doing or not. CEOs, who are not eager to get on the wrong side of a new president, are in no hurry to set the record straight.
There are plenty of other minor political triumphs underlying all of this. On Monday, Trump met with union leaders at the White House, and even though labor leaders endorsed Hillary Clinton, the meeting apparently went well. Sean McGarvey, president of North America's Building Trades Unions, told Josh Eidelson “it was by far the best meeting I ever participated in” reaching back to 1999. The leaders of both Canada and Mexico have signaled they’re willing to open negotiations on revising NAFTA.
Republicans in Congress, meanwhile, show little interest in investigating Trump’s conflicts of interest.
Trump’s conduct over the last few days has lots of observers scratching their heads. The Washington Post’s James Hohmann homes in on Trump as a sore winner, and while it’s impossible to disagree, the president’s insistence on repeating obviously, provably false claims—he had the biggest in-person crowd at an inauguration, or he would have won the popular vote if not for illegal voters—are also arguably an essential political strategy for him. Trump has no apparent interest in policy details or in working the levers of Congress; he has approached the presidency more as a bully pulpit than as a demanding executive role. But it’s a lot harder to use that bully pulpit if you’re not always viewed as a winner, so Trump insists he’s a winner even when he is not.
The result, paradoxically, is that he’s coming out as a winner on many issues. Some of these victories may prove to be pyrrhic. Getting shaky and unprepared nominees confirmed is a good way to produce shaky and unprepared Cabinet secretaries. Retaining manufacturing jobs works well until companies start automating and laying people off anyway. In other cases, it’s simply too early to be too confident. The chaos within the West Wing that the Post describes bodes ill for an effective administration. Meanwhile, Trump’s early steps in other areas may still fail, or undo him later. His foreign-policy moves continue to inspire queasiness, as do continued reports about ties to Russia. (Of course, predicting the impending collapse of Trump has produced some of the least-accurate forecasts since Millenarianism went out of style.)
But it doesn’t require any alternative facts, only an alternative interpretation, to look at the Trump administration and see a presidency moving forward on many of its key goals and notching political victories. The optics may be bad, but then again, the optics of Trump’s entire presidential campaign were bad, too. It’s the results that mattered.
As long as he’s making democommies like this one whine like the pussies they are known for I’d call it a smashing success!
I’ve been keeping updated, and the team is doing great.
I do, however, wish that they’d talk more about their second amendment group. Of course, the enemedia isn’t asking anything about it during the last 2 press conferences, but it needs to be brought up soon.
What gives them away is they didn’t wait longer to start the false narrative.
Just couldn’t wait, so the product is an obvious fabrication.
As an aside, I must say I’m very disappointed in people like Laura Ingraham and Ed Rollins. They were also a little too eager this morning to continue the false leftist narrative.
Never forget.... Beck, Levin, Erickson, Kasich, etc., etc., etc....
What is it with Laura, she’s got this default mode where she slips back into advancing what the left is fabricating.
While FR was down I dusted off the tv remote and started surfing. I came across an interesting exchange between a coupla pundits. The (D) stated that Zero, on day one, already had xx cabinet appointments made, because thay had done all the appropriate paperwork. The (R) responded that Team Trump had also submitted all the necessary paperwork during the transition and that the 0 administration had just sat on it. Thanks again for nothing, Zero.
If, ‘The Atlantic’ doubts that he is, then HE IS!
So. Much. Winning! :)
Beyond my wildest dreams.....
I watched the first press conference yesterday with Sean Spicer. In it he specifically addressed the lie that DJT said he had the largest attendance for an inauguration. He went over it for several minutes with a combative journo until he finally got the guy to see he was including television, online, and the on-site people in his number. By that metric it was easily provable that it was in fact the largest witnessed inauguration. Even then the journo wouldn’t admit that Trump was right. That the Atlantic would continue to repeat a lie that has already been addressed just makes them continue to look dumb.
Also, that press conference was one of the most entertaining ninety minutes of television I’ve seen in years. Seriously, its worth watching. Over and over they would go back to the crowd size confusion or other issues and try to catch Spicer in a lie based on nuanced changes in how they asked the questions. It never worked. I missed today’s, but I’ll try to catch it tomorrow. The winning is splashing all over everything!
Yeah, it gets irksome when they rephrase or tweak the questions to try to get a different answer. Spicer should start using the courtroom “asked and answered” reply, and move on. On the other hand, if the time limit is 90 minutes, and they keep asking the same question, they are only using up valuable time, and this works to Spicers advantage. They learn nothing.
This author is full of crap. Project Veritas clearly showed the Democrats do nothing but cheat. That’s all they know. Their stooge writers are frauds. The American People are on to them and all they can do is produce more lies. Wayne County proved the cheating was in favor of Hillary. In California they cheat. New York they cheat. Chicago is nothing more than a big lie. These clowns think they are winning by writing this kind of bilge. Trump knows the illegals voted and most of his votes were not even counted in many big cities. Hillary lost by 15 to 20 million votes. Democrats have always cheated. It’s their nature. Trump isn’t a Saint, but at least he’s on to them as are we. We are not going to allow stooges for Soros take over our Country. There’s no integrity in these people. They are all low rent racketeers. The establishment Republicans are even worse, because they only act like they care. They are on the take as well. Their trust is lost. The collaborators will be exposed soon. I suggest you watch George Webb on youtube you’ll see through his analysis how they have made fools of us all over the last 30 years. He also shows how depraved they all are. This writer probably has a lot to hide himself. We will find out...bet on it.
Add. Bill Kristol.
We may see the truth of what you wrote, but I can report that most comments in the Daily Mail articles about this are overwhelmingly believers of the MSM lies with respect to this specific topic. The extent of the derision is breathtaking. Their mocking, smearing, demeaning, etc. is meant to dishearten us, but they will fail.
I believe eventually, as Americans and the rest of the world see our President’s accomplishments FOR THE PEOPLE, genuinely misguided hearts will come to realize they have been duped. Their evil leaders? May God smite them with His Hand.
Two business days in to it and already the libs have declared it a complete failure.
Trump, like Rommel through France.
He is the best president of my lifetime. Heck, he wants to reduce spending of 10 trillion over 10 years...Hollyweird liberals are having fits...so yes he is...
“Yes. Next stupid question, you there in the back with the tinfoil hat from the New York Times, what’s your question?”
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