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Jennifer Rubin: "Trumps five biggest deficiencies are on full display"
This opinion (from April 26 WaPo) sums it all up very well:
President Trump’s approval rating nearing the 100-day mark hovers at about 40 percent. The latest CBS News poll, for example, found that 53 percent of Americans disapprove of his performance, while only 41 percent approve. Among independents, only 38 percent approve. Fifty-seven percent say they are either “concerned” or “scared.” The last week or so has highlighted the range of problems and deficiencies that plague this presidency.
First, we saw Ivanka Trump get booed in Germany trying to vouch for her father as a protector of the family. We also saw the chairman and ranking Democrat of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee declare that they believed that former national security adviser Michael Flynn (who didn’t make it through the first month on the job) broke the law in failing to disclose monies he was receiving from Russian and Turkish clients during the campaign. This president, to put it mildly, has a corruption problem, a nepotism problem and a competency problem. His staff is stocked with extremists (e.g. Stephen K. Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Stephen Miller), hapless characters (Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer) and unqualified relatives (Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner) with substantial conflicts of interest.
Second, Trump’s emoluments problems, conflicts of interest and refusal to release his tax returns become more hobbling with each passing week. Whether it is the State Department hawking Mar-a-Lago or a tax plan that likely saves him millions (if we had his returns, we’d know for sure), Trump leaves us wondering whether he views the presidency as another of his get-rich-quick schemes. Needless to say, Republicans would be apoplectic if Hillary Clinton had done a fraction of this.
Third, he has no appealing legislative agenda. The latest incarnation of Trumpcare (3.0, or is it 4.0?) would be even less appealing to voters and GOP moderates as the last version. It still contains a big tax cut for the rich, still makes insurance more expensive for older Americans in rural areas and still rolls back Medicaid — but now states can also opt out of the list of essential health benefits. It’s unclear how this would get through Senate reconciliation. Trump’s half-baked tax plan — which apparently would grant enormous tax benefits to the rich and open up a gaping hole in the budget — doesn’t seem like an attractive proposition for anyone outside his core base. Trump’s agenda, in short, forces GOP House members to choose between doing nothing and doing things the voters hate. Good luck to House Republicans trying to explain themselves to voters in 2018.
First, we saw Ivanka Trump get booed in Germany trying to vouch for her father as a protector of the family. We also saw the chairman and ranking Democrat of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee declare that they believed that former national security adviser Michael Flynn (who didn’t make it through the first month on the job) broke the law in failing to disclose monies he was receiving from Russian and Turkish clients during the campaign. This president, to put it mildly, has a corruption problem, a nepotism problem and a competency problem. His staff is stocked with extremists (e.g. Stephen K. Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Stephen Miller), hapless characters (Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer) and unqualified relatives (Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner) with substantial conflicts of interest.
Second, Trump’s emoluments problems, conflicts of interest and refusal to release his tax returns become more hobbling with each passing week. Whether it is the State Department hawking Mar-a-Lago or a tax plan that likely saves him millions (if we had his returns, we’d know for sure), Trump leaves us wondering whether he views the presidency as another of his get-rich-quick schemes. Needless to say, Republicans would be apoplectic if Hillary Clinton had done a fraction of this.
Third, he has no appealing legislative agenda. The latest incarnation of Trumpcare (3.0, or is it 4.0?) would be even less appealing to voters and GOP moderates as the last version. It still contains a big tax cut for the rich, still makes insurance more expensive for older Americans in rural areas and still rolls back Medicaid — but now states can also opt out of the list of essential health benefits. It’s unclear how this would get through Senate reconciliation. Trump’s half-baked tax plan — which apparently would grant enormous tax benefits to the rich and open up a gaping hole in the budget — doesn’t seem like an attractive proposition for anyone outside his core base. Trump’s agenda, in short, forces GOP House members to choose between doing nothing and doing things the voters hate. Good luck to House Republicans trying to explain themselves to voters in 2018.
The last two points: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/right-turn/wp/2017/04/26/trumps-five-biggest-deficiencies-are-on-full-display/?utm_term=.b503955ad3a5&wpisrc=nl_opinions&wpmm=1#comments
23 replies
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and looks like he's doing just that.
