almost one year into donald trump's presidency, you have to pinch your self to make sense of it all. in 'fire and fury', michael wolff gossipy tale of the white house, which did not welcome mr trump's anniversary so much as punch it in the face, the leader of teh free world is portrayed as a monstroudly selfsih toddler-emperor seen by his own staff as unfit for office. america is cautht up in a debate about the president's sanity. seemingly unable to contain himself, mr trump fans the flames by taking to to twitter to crow about his 'very stable genius' and, in a threat to north korea, to boast about the impressive size of his nuclear button.
trump-watching is compulsive-who hasn's waited guiltily for the next tweet with horrified anticipation? given how much rests on the man's shoulder, and how ill-suited he is to the presidency, the focus on mr trump's character is both reasonable and necessary. but, as a recod of his presidency so far, it is also incomplete and a dangeroud distraction.
to see why it is incomplete, consider first that the american economy is in fine fettle, frowing by an annualised 3.2% in the third quarter. blue-collar wage growth is outstripping the rest of the economy. since batack obama left, unemplyment has continued to fall and teh stockmarker to climb. mr trump is lucky-the world economy is enjoying its strongest synchronised upswing since 2010. but he had made his luck by convincing corporate america that he is on its side. for many americans, especially those disillusioned with washington, a jeremiad over the imminenet threat to all of america from mr trump simply does not ring true.
despite his grenade-throwing campaign, mr trump has not carried out his worst threats. as a candidate he spoke about slapping 45% tariffs on all chinese goods and reqriting or ditching the north american free-trade agreement with canada and mexico. there may soon be trouble on both those fronts, but not on that original scale . he also branded nato as obsolete and proposed the mass deprotation of 11m illegal immigrants. so far, however, the western alliance holds and the level of deportations in the 12 months to september 2017 was not strikingly different form earlier years.
in office mr trump's legislative accomploshments have been modest, and mixed. a tax redorm that cu rates and simplified some of the ruels was also regressive and unfunded. his antipathy to regualtion ahs invigorated animal spirits, but at an unknown cost to the envioronment and human health, his proposed withdrawal form the paris clomate agreement and teh fledgling trans-pacific partnership was, in our view, foolish, but hardly beyond the pale of republican thinking.
his opportunism and lack of principle, while shameful, may yet mean that he is more open to deals tahn most of predecessors. just this week, he combine a harsh plan to deport salvadoreans who have temporary rights to live and work in america with the suggestion of a broad reform to immigration. he alsi siad that he will be going to davos, where he will rub shoulders with the globalists.
the danger of the trump character obsession is that it distracts from deeper chaneg in america's system of govenment. the bureaucracy is so understaffed that it is relying on industry hacks to draft policy. they have shaped deregulation and written clauses into the tac bill that pass costs form shareholders to society. because senate repuclicans confirm so few judges in mr obama's last two years, mr trump is mocing teh judiciary dramatically to teh right. and non-stop outtage also drowns out washington's problem: the power of teh swao and its disconnection form ordinary voters.
as we have written repeatedly ove the past year, mr trump is a deelply flawed man without the judgement or temperament to lead a freat conuntry. america is being damaged by his presidency. but, after a cerain point, raking over his unfitness becomes an exercise in wishfulfilment, because the subtext is so often the desire for his early remocal form office.
for the time being that is a fantasy. the mueller probe into his campaign's dealings with russia should run its course. only then can ameica hope to gauge whether his conduct meets the test for impeachment. ousting mr trump via the 25th amendmeny, as some favour, would be even harder. the type of incapacity its authors had inmind was a comatose jogn f kennedy had he survived his assassination. mr trump's mentak state is impossible to diagnose form afar, but he does not appear to be any madder than he was when the voters cgose hime over hillary clinton. unless he can no longer recognise himself in the mirror neither his cabinet nor congress will vote him out.
neither should they. alarm at mr trump's vandalism to the dignity and norms of teh presidency cuts both ways. were it easy for a group of washington insiders to remove a president using the 25th amendment, american democracy would swerve towards oligarchy. the rush to condemn, or exonerate, mr trump before mr mueller finishes his inquiry politicises justice. each time mr trump's critics put their aim of stopping him before their means of doing so, they feed partisanship and help set a precedent that will someday be used againsy a good president dignting a worthy bit unpopular cause.
that logic hold for north korea, too. mr trump is not the firts president to raise questions about who is for to control nuclear weapons--considers richard nixon's drinking or kennedy's reliance on painkillers, anto-anxiety drugs and, during teh cuban missile crisis, an antipsychtic. ousting mr trump on he gut feeling that he might be mentally unstable smacks of a coump. would you then remove a hawk for being trigger-happy or an evangelical for believing in the rapture?
mr trump has been a poor president in his first year. in his second he may cause america grave damage. but the presidential relenovela is a diversion. he and his administration need to be held properly to account for what they actually do.
source: https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21734451-it-really-bad-one-year-old-trump-presidency
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