TRUMP: STOP LOOKING AT THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR: START LOOKING THRU THE WINDSHIELD

…Trump and a rear-view mirror

 

Trump now has a credibility-canyon that cannot be easily bridged.

 

OK, here is the question:  “Why is Donald Trump continuing to run his presidency by looking in a rear-view mirror.”

 

Why can’t Trump just admit that he won the election and move on to learning how to run this giant bureaucracy?  In his latest press conference, all we heard was his frustration over issues that were all settled in his election on November 8^th.

 

All we heard from Trump in this latest press conference were more shots at Hillary Clinton, (He mentioned Hillary Clinton’s name 18 times during the press conference).  He then falsely blamed the Democrats that they were still so upset with the election loss, that they were bringing up a “ruse” of the Russia’s involvement in the election.  (Actually, it was the US intelligence agencies, not the Democrats, that have said the Russians were involved with the election.)  Just another of many falsehoods of that press conference.

 

Every time Trump opens his mouth, he just has to repeat that he won the election in a landslide, or by the largest margin since Reagan, neither of which are the truth, but who gives a rat’s ass?  He won the election!  Now let’s get on with running the government and dealing with all the B.S. promises you made to the American public.

 

You are also now saying that you have gotten more business done more in these few weeks than any other former president.  That’s just more B.S.

 

Are we, the American public, going to be beat over the head, time, after time, after time, with all those comments, most of them false, as to how Trump won the 2016 election?

 

As more examples of Trump’s wanting to keep his election win alive, he also had set up and attended a campaign style rally this weekend in an area of Florida that was a big Trump supporter.  His ego just has to have another shot of the crowds adoring him at another election campaign style rally. 

 

“Donald, you won!!!  Quit spending the people’s money on trips and expensive security coverage, just to boost your ego!!!”

 

It’s time to stop looking in the rear view mirror and start looking out the windshield.

 

In addition to this, you have got to get your team to start dealing with the truth about their former discussions with the Russians.  The General Flynn debacle was bad enough, but your people don’t seem to understand the Watergate adage that “the cover-up is frequently worse than the original crime”. 

 

Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer continues to refuse to confirm that Trump campaign officials were in touch with Russian diplomats and various Russians before the election.  This is despite the very persuasive reports from US law enforcement and intelligence agency intercept transcripts.  And that’s not to mention that the Russians’ have also given their own confirmation that this did occur.

 

It is amazing that for a man like the retired General Flynn, with his background in military intelligence, that he did not pay enough attention to the actions of the Russian diplomat, Sergey Kislyak.  This was the Russian Diplomat with whom Flynn was dealing during and after the campaign. It is also now well known that other Trump campaign officials were in touch with various Russian intelligence officials.  And these Trump officials don’t seem to have been very aware of the Washington rules on how to identify and deal with foreign spies.

 

Mr. Kislyak has publicly acknowledge that after Trump’s election victory, he and his staff had had contacts with Trump campaign.  The diplomat was pressed recently for some more details on this while he was speaking to a group of students and scholars at Stanford University.   But he brushed them off with a disclaimer that the contacts were just “routine” and he would not elaborate further on what was discussed.

 

But even after he stated that tissue to The Post after Flynn’s resignation, Spicer continued to persist that those contacts between Trump officials and the Russians had not occurred.

 

The lack of experience of Trump’s administration staff is crippling the Team Trump.  But even more destructive, especially in foreign affairs, is the arrogance that Trump displays and demands from his subordinates. They proudly ignore the ways of Washington that apply to dealing with the Russians or other adversaries, as well as their dealing with our own allies.

 

Contact with our adversaries in and of itself is not an evil to be avoided at all costs. But even in Putin’s Russia, that contact has to be controlled.  It is open to scrutiny from others and must be free of conflicts of interest.  Flynn’s 2015 trip to Moscow to sit beside Putin at a banquet and his post-election exchange with Kislyak fell very short in this area.  (We now know that Flynn was paid by the Russians to attend that dinner with Putin.)  And so does most of the rest of the Trump administration in their dealings with Moscow. They have incubated suspicion that Trump’s business interests depend on foreign financing that has given the Russians potential leverage over this president.

 

If Trump’s dealings with Moscow inspire distrust, so do his administration’s dealings with the American public in general.  Press secretary Spicer has now been caught in so many bald-faced falsehoods that it has resurrected a Nixon-era saying: “He lies not just because it is in his interests, but because it is in his nature. Washington is familiar with credibility gaps. It now deals with a credibility canyon that cannot be easily bridged.”

 

And this statement also applies to our novice president.

 

Let’s face it, what the issue’s boil down to are basic commonsense: “Do not lie to people on Monday and expect them to trust you on Tuesday. Do not try to shout your way out of a crisis with falsehoods and insults, which can only reflect badly on your own credibility.”

 

The Flynn incident should have been a learning tool for those on Trump’s team.  But based on what we are seeing today, nothing has sunk in through the thick skulls of the head guy, or of his team.

 

Time will tell if any of all this becomes “Lessons Learned”.

 

But in dealing with anything "Trump", I’m not holding my breath.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017