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U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is getting curiouser and curiouser. Soon after President Trump’s recent visit, a major rift happened between Saudi Arabia and Qatar (among others). Trump came out firmly in support of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. If you were just getting a handle on the various Sunni and Shiite players, now add in a rift between Sunni nations.
While the investigations into Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election and President Trump’s possible obstruction of justice are vital, don’t forget about all the other political maneuvers going on at the same time. There are so many overlapping “meanwhiles” it’s nearly impossible to keep up.
President Trump has a cheap showman’s talent for making things look much bigger than they really are. We should count our blessings and be glad he’s not truly efficient and productive when it comes to legislation and actually enacting his policies. Trump loves his Executive Orders— which are really just statements of principles and are basically press releases with extra hype.
I’m sure there’s a perfectly innocent explanation for all of this Russia intrigue, right? Right? This thing keeps getting curiouser and curiouser. The Washington Post reported that Jared Kushner tried to set up a back-channel line of communication with the Russians, going as far as suggesting using Russian communication equipment at their embassy in order to avoid U.S. intelligence snooping. (We know this, apparently, because our snoops intercepted Russian communications with Moscow.)
Who knew the CBO score for the House Republican healthcare plan would be so exciting and dangerous? I’ve said before the House Republican plan will kill people, I never knew a House Republican candidate would try to strangle a reporter for asking questions about the CBO score! (Must be a little touchy about that bill.) Now that Trump has been on his first overseas trip, met Pope Francis and did not strangle a single reporter, surely now he is truly presidential.
It seems like a lifetime ago that the House Republicans passed their awful American Health Care Act. While the Donald Trump/Russia debacle has been rapidly unfolding let’s not forget about legislation that could, um, kill people. That’s what happens when you provide health care “access” that could keep the old, poor and sick from affording actual care.
You just can’t make this stuff up, and if you did, people would say you’re full of it. Yes, on the day after firing FBI Director James Comey, President Trump met with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and Henry Kissinger. Everything’s fine. There’s no constitutional crisis, just ask Sergey Lavrov!
So it turns out Trump Branded Solutions work not only in the present but in the past, too! If only the supposedly-Trumpian Andrew Jackson had been around to get a better deal, the Civil War would’ve been averted. Since President Trump knows how to fix up the past, just think of all the good work his administration could do across history.
Here’s hoping we make it through President Trump’s first 100 days quickly, before he tries to ram through any additional executive orders, tax cuts or health care policy. For a guy who doesn’t think the grand measure of First One Hundred Days doesn’t mean anything, he sure looks like he’s a kid cramming to do his homework at the last minute on the bus. (Or in the limo, as the case may be.)
Well, I bet Mitch McConnell wishes he could have kept the Senate health care bill secret until after the vote. First that whole representative democracy thing got in the way, then the CBO came out with a report that basically confirmed everyone’s worst fears about this terrible bill.