Scariest presidency in history will be, fingers crossed, the shortest

Donald Trump is just about 10 weeks in office, and already a major newspaper has effectively announced that he must be removed, writes Fergus Finlay

I HAVEN’T written about Donald Trump for a while, although like The Skibbereen Eagle, I’ve been keeping my eye on him. And the more I see, the more I wonder how long this can possibly last.

The day he was elected, a lot of us worried that he would do damage to the United States and the world. And for sure, he’s been trying. But the thing he seems most intent on destroying is himself.

Look at this editorial in the weekend issue of the Los Angeles Times, for example. America’s fourth largest newspaper opposed Trump’s election, although it has managed (so far) to avoid being labelled as “fake news”. Its editorial board has just published the first of what it promises will be a series of articles looking in detail at the Trump presidency.

The first one is headlined “Our Dishonest President”, and it lists a lot of the damaging things that Trump has done or tried to do in his first 70 days or so (as the LA Times puts it, with 1,400 still to go!). But then it goes on to say this:

“What is most worrisome about Trump is Trump himself. He is a man so unpredictable, so reckless, so petulant, so full of blind self-regard, so untethered to reality that it is impossible to know where his presidency will lead or how much damage he will do to our nation. His obsession with his own fame, wealth and success, his determination to vanquish enemies real and imagined, his craving for adulation — these traits were, of course, at the very heart of his scorched-earth outsider campaign; indeed, some of them helped get him elected. But in a real presidency in which he wields unimaginable power, they are nothing short of disastrous.”

Could you imagine the political reaction in Ireland if one of our major newspapers published an editorial like that about a Taoiseach. There have been some that have come close — but they have happened after the incumbent had been in power for a lengthy period (or in a couple of cases had just departed from office). But Donald Trump is just about 10 weeks in office, and already a major newspaper has effectively announced that he must be removed.

Other American newspapers are being less trenchant in their criticisms. They cover everything, but seem to be withholding judgment. Some of the bigger ones — The Wall Street Journal, for example — are adopting an “on the one hand and on the other” approach to everything Mr Trump does. So far, of course, the “markets” have reacted positively to the core part of the Trump agenda, which is essentially to introduce as many ways as possible to enable the rich to get richer. That may in part account for the slightly softer ride Mr Trump gets in the more conservative papers.

But I think there has also been a chilling effect. America’s newspapers may huff and puff about Trump’s attacks on the media, but they seem to me to be minding their manners. Possibly (hopefully) they’re digging away in the long grass to put flesh on the bones of an awful lot of what looks like scandalous stuff. But it seems to me that in the main they have decided to give Donald Trump a lot of rope.

That’s because the Trump tactic of attacking the media, of singling out respectable and reputable news organisations as purveyors of fake news, and of relying on social media to mount whatever attack he likes, has scared some of them.

That probably won’t last, for a number of reasons. First of all Trump’s opinion polls are the worst any incoming president has ever had. If you look at the Real Clear Politics website (another pretty conservative place that tends to prioritise the good news for Trump) you’ll see the gap widening every day since his inauguration. In the eyes of the general public, he can pretty well do no right.

That gap will get worse, because he is every day betraying the people who voted for him — people who persuaded themselves that this narcissistic millionaire somehow or other cared about ordinary folk. They’re now slowly realising that the Obamacare they were taught to hate is an awful lot better than the alternative to which they are being driven back. The budget that Trump wants to introduce will make life a lot worse for elderly people and people without savings. And the magical solution he promised for the environment has turned out to be utterly destructive.

There’s never any sense in politics in saying “I told you so”, or in buying car stickers that say “Don’t blame me, I voted Hillary”. But little by little, those people who put their trust in a snake-oil salesman are beginning to see through him.

Secondly, his daily utterances, and his increasingly bizarre behaviour, are starting to frighten ordinary Americans, and isolate him more and more from the political mainstream. Look at his latest pronouncement — that he’s going to woo the Chinese with trade deals in order to get them to line up with him against North Korea. And if that doesn’t work, he’s going to go after North Korea all on his own.

So he’s going to offer a trade deal to China that would make them abandon a foreign policy position they’ve maintained for decades and through several wars? According to the US Census Bureau, America exports about $10bn (€9.4bn) a month to China, and imports about $40bn (€37.5bn). In those circumstances there is no possibility of a deal that could be attractive to China that wouldn’t cost thousands more American jobs.

And if he can’t work that bit of magic, he’s going to deal with North Korea all on his own. That raises a spectre that will frighten people throughout the world. It would, if it were allowed to happen, involve a terrible and bloody conflict. But it won’t be, because the checks and balances in the US system, skewed as they are in Trump’s favour, will stop him.

With or without the media, it seems to me that the Trump presidency has been involved in its own unravelling since the moment he was elected. I wrote here at the turn of the year that we were about to witness the scariest presidency in history. I’m beginning to believe now — fingers crossed — that it will be the shortest.

I DON’T want to finish this column without saying a word about my friend and colleague Terry Prone. In her weekly column in this spot, Terry often referred to the man in her life — and the references always evoked a smile.

Tom Savage

On Sunday Terry laid the man in her life to rest. Tom Savage was an authentic and honest man, a gentleman to his fingertips. At his funeral his son Anton described him as a hero, and indeed he was that to many.

I hope Terry and Anton derived some comfort in their loss by the throng of genuine friends and admirers, from past and present, who travelled to the Cooley peninsula to say goodbye to Tom, and to wish Terry and Anton peace and pride in their man.

Donald Trump is just about 10 weeks in office, and already a major newspaper has effectively announced that he must be removed