Inauguration of 45th U.S. President - A Trumpian Tragedy (#151)

For the two full terms of his Presidency (8 years), President Barack Obama was actively denied legitimacy as duly-elected American President, by Donald J. Trump, and to some lesser extent by the Republican Party. Even today, Donald Trump continues to attack and insult Barack Obama’s Presidency, his policies and his incredible accomplishments, not the least of which were fixing the horrendous economic and foreign policy messes the Republican administrations left behind.

Donald Trump showed no respect for the elected U.S. President, or for the damage his disrespect and claims of Obama’s illegitimacy as an American citizen caused America’s image and its legitimacy in the World. So should people, those who want to, worry about denying Donald Trump legitimacy as the next President of the United States, especially in light of the verified interference on his behalf by Russia? We think not.  

Donald Trump and his coming Presidency is snared by his own on-record words and unconscionable actions. As President, he cannot ask for that which he denied others, tolerance, acceptance and respect, be they the U.S. President, national and international leaders, politicians, citizens of colour, women, immigrants, and Muslims. He has consistently attacked, denied and ill-legitimized all of the above, and continues to do so. And so, from most quarters, he will be paid in kind with disrespect, loathing, and ill-legitimacy as to his persona and his Presidency. The very democracy and freedom that he abuses in his constant berating of others, gives others the same freedom to berate him and his abhorrent behaviour and tendencies.  

This general disgust of the kind of man he is, was not confined to Progressives, Liberals or Lefties, but was most loudly and publicly vocalized by his fellow Republicans, who found nothing to like in Donald Trump. Just winning the election doesn’t change the man. And, his example of treating the former President allows the rejection of him as President. When they go low .. we descend with them for fairness.  

In his bid for Republican nomination, and Presidency, Donald Trump was opposed and rejected by every major Republican, politician, and business person, including the hard core Republican poster boys, and largest funders of the Republican Party, the mega Billionaires, the Koch Bros.

Some of the most prominent Republicans couldn’t stand him and openly called him “ a pathological liar” (Ted Cruz), “a phoney and a fraud” (Mitt Romney), “a con artist” (Marco Rubio), “a race baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot” (Lindsey Graham). Paul Ryan, the most prominent of the Republicans, found himself time and again having to distance himself from Trump’s actions or words, strongly rejecting Trump’s positions or actions without having the nerve to name him and reject him outright as the ultra Republican Koch Bros. and the Bush Family did right from the start. Paul Ryan, being the consummate politician, put power before principals.

And, Trump was rejected and opposed by almost all of the other biggest and the best of America, in the financial, business, entertainment and academic fields. The biggest Billionaires in America, Republican, Democrat and Independent - including the Koch Brothers (est. wealth over $100 Billion); Jeff Bezos (est. Wealth $65.9 Billion); Warren Buffett (est. Wealth $64.7 Billion); Mark Zuckerburg (est. Wealth 53.5 Billion); George Soros (est. wealth $24.9 Billion); and Michael Bloomberg (est. wealth $48 Billion), and many more, whose wealth, business success and international stature, dwarfs Donald Trump’s by multiples, did not want Trump to win. To them all, Hillary was far more preferable than Trump.

Unlike the innocent struggling hopefuls, who Trump impressed with his ‘malarkey’, these genuine American ‘Mega Business Successes’ had Trump’s measure from the start, and they were not impressed. Neither by his ‘smarts’ nor by his highly questionable business success or ethics (keeping in mind that ordinary people were willing to vote for Trump because he was a “business success” even when they did not like the rest of him).

In spite of it all Trump still managed to win the U.S. Presidential Election, convincing enough ordinary Americans that he was the Messiah who would lead them all back to the promised land of ‘America the Great Again’.  

And of course he was helped by his friend and ideological mentor, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the KSB espionage and cyber-warfare-machine, feeding relentless and timely e-mail hacks of his opponent Democrat Hillary Clinton to WikiLeaks, which the FBI Head James Comey used with devastating effect, without proof, to damage her beyond question and contributed ‘bigly’ in her loss. This is not to excuse Hillary’s and the Democratic Party’s many miscalculations that contributed to her Electoral College loss and her historic popular vote win, but it is to say, a foreign power did, beyond a reasonable doubt, corroborated by all American Intelligence Agencies, interfere in the election process on Donald Trump’s behalf. That interference taints the entire election process and outcome.

Trump of course vehemently denies this assistance, but as the U.S. Intelligence Agencies agree the evidence is irrefutable, and have presented the evidence to President Obama, and President-Elect Trump, to verify the Russian hacking, so–much-so that Donald Trump was forced to acknowledge publicly, that such Russian hacking did take place during the election.  

He of course still claims he won fair and square, and tries to blunt the accusation of the Intelligence Agencies toward the Russians, by stating that other countries indulge in such practices too, deflecting the only point of the investigation that Russia interfered with and compromised the integrity of the U.S. democratic free and fair election process. That irritating fact does not favour him, so he will ignore it.

Donald Trump’s, his Team’s and the Republican Party’s insistence, that he won fair and square, flies in the face of the unacceptable - that a foreign power is hacking politically damaging information on a Presidential Candidate, during the election process, and leaking it to WikiLeaks, with the aim to damage that Candidate’s reputation and profile, and thus damage the Candidate’s chances of winning, no matter the degree, it is no longer a fair and free election. The election process has been compromised ‘bigly’.

Of course, the other bizarre aspect to this flawed election is that during the campaign it was Donald Trump that had his supporters convinced that the election was ‘Rigged’. He kept repeating it, whipping up the mindless chant as if it was absolutely true. Trump, insisted that elections in America were rigged, just as the entire system was, “…this system is rigged, folks”. His incessant cry during the campaign, designed to avert embarrassment upon losing, was ‘this election is rigged!’. Well yes, it was.

The delicious irony is that the election turned out to be ‘Rigged’ alright, but in Donald Trump’s favour. Now Trump finds himself in the awkward position of having to defend the ‘rigged system’ and the ‘rigged election’ as being totally honest and not rigged at all. In spite of proof to the contrary, that Russia interfered to ‘rig the election’, Trump now fights daily to prove it’s NOT rigged.

The active and certain intervention by Russia, to assist Trump win, in whatever manner possible is compromising and definitely rigging of the election. The intervention is beyond doubt, and after his briefing Trump had to publicly admit it, and no manner of obfuscations by him or his team, or supporters, or all the Republicans can alter that hard reality. Trump’s Presidency shall always be tainted by the helpful actions of his friend Vladimir Putin whom he admires so much.

But in the shameless manner that only they can, Trump and his team, claim that the election was un-tampered with and therefore fair and the win by Trump was legitimate. One only needs to imagine, if Hillary Clinton had won the Presidency with Russian assistance, what furor Trump and the Republicans would have caused. The endless screams of ‘Rigged’ would have reverberated throughout the Country, and the win would have never been accepted by Trump, his team, and the Republicans, as he had promised he never would. So, should the Progressives now play ‘nice’ when the shoe is on the other foot?

This is the reason why, those who oppose Trump’s Presidency need not feel unpatriotic when refusing to accept him or his Presidency. He of course wants all to forget his consistent denial and disrespect of Obama’s Presidency, and his vow to never accept Hillary’s win, regardless of how fair. Well now he is in the hot seat, and Progressives have the opportunity to show him and the Republicans what it feels like to be denied legitimacy. Trump and the Republicans now need a strong dose of their own medicine. The inauguration of the 45th President of the United States of America on January 20, 2017, is going to bring to power a man entirely unsuited to be President of any country (minus Zimbabwe of course), let alone be the Leader of the most powerful nation on Earth.   

His winning the election alone, and the period of being President-Elect ushered in an era of unprecedented turmoil within America as well as without. Apart from upending the apple cart in American politics rather rudely, Trump, without being the President yet, upended carefully structured alliances and mutual feelings of stability and trust with allies such as Japan, the EU and NATO, and longstanding, equally carefully maintained, hereto peaceful, relationships with trade and military competitors such as China.  

His threats to break alliances and punish competitors, sent those governments scrambling to their respective drawing boards to redraw what till now had been a fairly predictable, peaceful and stable World order (unless you are a Middle Eastern Country, of course, with large quantities of oil and/or a Shia led government, in which case you are already destroyed by a Sunni or Saudi aligned America, or being threatened to be destroyed, as the last Shia controlled country is: Iran). Otherwise, for all others, the stability of the rest of the World got shattered by Donald Trump’s incredibly inflammatory and imbecilic remarks about trade, terrorists, torture, allies and enemies. His handpicked nominees to-date, to head the most important portfolios are vigorously denying and rejecting during their confirmation hearings. This is sowing the seeds of deep discontent within the upper levels of the Republican leadership, IF the Nominees hold to their stated positions at Confirmation Hearings, after selection.  

The Democrats are apoplectic anyway, with their loss to a glaringly unsuitable opponent while winning a historic popular vote with a 3 Million vote margin no less (only in American democracy), and are screamingly frustrated by his inexplicable immunity to his daily dose of self-inflicted, politically suicidal gaffes and politically fatal wounds, that would have permanently felled any other normal politician, but not him. ‘Teflon Don’ Trump is immune to his own toxicity and society’s general revulsion.

After doing his utmost to sow rancour, division, hate, racism and bigotry, Donald Trump now wants everybody to forget all that and play nice because he now is the President. Fat chance! There is no uniting the fractured and deeply divided American people, because there is no person as insensitive, unstable, abusive and reactive, in recent history that can alienate as passionately as Donald Trump can. That such a man has been elected to such high and responsible office as the President of the United States is beyond the belief of most of the World, and even of most Americans. Yet here we are. There is no going back. He opened the Pandora’s Box and he cannot shut it. Nationally and internationally, people who played nice are gearing up to fight the injustices Trump has and will unleash.

Trump’s supporters accuse his detractors of being bitter and jealous he won, un-accepting of his legitimacy, his obvious leadership qualities, his brilliance in business and his obvious successes, which all together, in their view, make him truly the man of the season. They consider him to be the perfect leader to lead America out of the poor-house-bog that it has been sinking into under the detestable Democrats, and to them, hastened into decline by the even more detestable first African-American President in American history, Barack Hussein Obama. They believe Trump, who many in the Republican Party, and outside of it, have called ‘a pathological liar’, will lead them to the promised land of ever rising prosperity and attainment of the elusive and proverbial ‘The American Dream’. They, his supporters, certainly have the right to dream that dream.

They believe Trump, who many Republican Party, and outside of it, have called 'a pathological liar', will lead them to the promised land of ever rising prosperity, and attainment of the elusive and proverbial 'American Dream'.

But that is only a dream. Trump cannot lead them to a greater America, judged in its greatness by the long departed markers of ever rising prosperity, a great burgeoning prosperous middle class, altruistic business and government leaders, and an old declining Western World (Britain & Europe) and an ever struggling and impoverished third World of yester-years, in a former long altered World.

Today, the Emerging Countries, the former Third World, the long impoverished countries of Asia, Africa, Latin/South America, are where the real economic growth is coming from, and will come from. The largely over supplied, over consumptive countries of the Western economies, including the United States (the ‘mature’ economies), will largely grow slowly, and at best moderately, because of universal economic fundamentals that are at work now and which Donald Trump cannot change, regardless of his outlandish campaign promises.

The World has changed but economic fundamentals haven’t.  

As in the past, when the new ‘emerging’ America took advantage of the old World powers: Great Britain; Germany; France; Portugal; Spain; Italy; Russia; and the real old powers of: India; China; Japan; etc., and their entrenched traditions, methods and costs, to out manufacture and produce at a lower cost, goods and services, on its way to becoming the next economic and political power. Today’s emerging economies have those same advantages, except perhaps in raw resources, which are more than made up by human resources. America must eventually succumb to the laws of lower costs in manufacturing and services or become uncompetitive, unproductive, and sink into severe recession. The only way forward for a protectionist America under Trump is to be foremost in education, training, innovation and technology (sounds a lot like the Clinton and Sanders platform).  

But prosperity through innovation and technology is jobs neutral at best, or jobs negative. It is making machines produce more productively than humans, and other countries are not going to be idly sitting by and maybe more suited to such advances in their economies. And certainly, forcing companies to stay with communist style threats isn’t going to do it. Nor taking America backwards to fossil fuels, ‘old economy’ industrial production, and dismantling environmental protection, innovation, inevitable globalization, isn’t going to do it either. Trump is heading in the wrong direction and taking America with him.

No amount of threats and dictates by the new President Trump is going to change the fundamental truth about economic output of Nations. $30.00+/per hour jobs are not going to compete and replace $3.00-/hour jobs in emerging countries. As Trump forces companies to stay in America, and consumers to buy ‘Made in America’ only, he sets the stage for eventual American uncompetitive-ness and greater costs to American consumers on everyday items through spiking prices and higher inflation. That imbalance will lead to other side effects, such as higher interest rates, slower GDP growth, trade and currency wars, as other countries retaliate in kind. Higher Interest Rates...Slower GDP...Trade & Currency Wars...

The man is odd by any standards but as President he is decidedly unsuitable and unconventional. In his unconventionality he is not endearing with universally admired traits, but is generally offensive, as a socially inept rogue that is primordially self-centred to a degree that from an adult perspective comes across as an immature, spoilt, ill-mannered and insufferable brat. His response to any subject is bombastic, adolescent and shamelessly self promoting. His response to criticism is immature and aggressive. Trump has extremely thin skin, and knows only to attack vociferously those that dare criticize him, even though the criticism may be entirely justified, and his offending words and behaviour that elicited the criticism are recorded for everyone to see.

His need to promote himself incessantly is embarrassingly abnormal behaviour. He has no normal sense of socially required restraint on self promotion, and on the other side of the equation he is equally ungracious to others, praising only if people are complimentary, and quickly turning abusive if they criticize him in any manner and for anything. The truth of the man is there for all to see, in his checkered-business successes and many more failures. His almost universal rejection by most of Republican leadership, by those that are demonstrably more successful and know a lot more than him, his bigger Billionaire bros and fellow ‘elites’, and by the majority of Americans. He is also infinitely reject-able by his unacceptable utterances, and actions, past and present, and his constant need to attack and squabble at every slight. He is unfit to be President. The fact that he is going to be regardless, is a Trumpian Tragedy.