ONE TENTH OF THE WORST THINGS TRUMP DID IN 2018

…Conservative columnist, Marc A. Thiessen

Multiple examples from a conservative, why Donald Trump is not qualified to be the US president.

A very conservative Trump supporter, Marc Thiessen, apparently got a lot of heat from the American public when he wrote a column titled; “The 10 Best Things Trump Did in 2018”.

It appears that the heat was so severe that he felt he had to followed it up with an article titled: “The 10 Worst Things That Trump did in 2018”

Those of us that are not fans of the president could probably write an accompanying article titled: “The 100 Worst Things That Trump did in 2018”, but then, I digress.

Here is the list of what Mr. Thiessen included in Trump’s 10 worst things, but also with some additional comments:

#10. His comment about “shxx-hole” countries blew up negotiations for a deal that would have given Trump his border wall. Nearly a year ago, the president made a bold offer to Democrats — putting not just legal status but also a path to citizenship for nearly 1.8 million young illegal immigrants on the table. Then his abhorrent comment undermined Democrats who were serious about cutting a deal and gave those who were not a pretext to walk away.  (Only a president like Donald Trump would debase the US presidency with a comment using profane gutter language against other sovereign nations.  Just one more example why Trump is not qualified to hold such an important office.)

#9. Trump's offensive tweets continued to undermine his presidency. Calling former White House aide Omarosa Manigault Newman “a dog” and Stormy Daniels “Horseface” — among countless offensive tweets — is not just unpresidential, it drives away potential supporters who like his policies but then are reminded how much they don’t like Trump.  (After this, I rest my case as to why Trump is such an embarrassment to most Americans as our president.)

#8. His misuse of power turned critics into martyrs. Revoking former CIA director John Brennan’s security clearance and CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta’s White House press pass turned partisan critics who were embarrassing themselves into victims — and gave them an even greater platform from which to attack him.  (Trump acts like a 10 year old playground bully with anyone that challenges him on anything.  Brennan and Jim Acosta had the guts to criticize the president, and instead of ignoring them or going above their comments, he goes lower.  It’s totally disgusting.)

#7. Trump drove away suburban voters and caused the GOP to lose control of the House. That’s because the president has sought to energize his base in ways that drive those voters away. If he wants to win reelection, Trump needs to bring suburban Republican voters back into the GOP fold.  (Hopefully, Marc Thiessen is correct.  If the president only gets his 39% approval voters to support him, we will have a new Democratic president in 2020.  That is, if the special counsel Mueller doesn’t get Trump out of the office first.)

#6. His graceless handling of Sen. John McCain’s funeral was a new low. Trump didn’t like McCain, but when you’re the president, sometimes you must honor people you didn’t like.  McCain was an American hero. Trump’s instability to muster a kind or generous word reflected poorly on the president.  Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and President Trump had been at odds with each other for quite a while.  (When you look at the out-pouring of support for John McCain when he passed away, that said it all.  It is obvious that the massive crowds that visited his casket, lying in state in the capital dome, that was both a demonstration for the war hero, and against the president’s hurtful comments against the Arizona Senator.)

#5. His handling of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder harmed America’s moral standing.  Trump is right that a permanent breach with Saudi Arabia is not acceptable, because there is no other country in the Middle East that can serve as a counterweight to Iran. But it was unseemly to declare that “It’s all about ‘America First’”” and “We’re not going to give up hundreds of billions of dollars in orders.”  (Leave it to Trump to act improperly.  He refused to agree with his own, multiple intelligence agencies about the false statements from the dictators of Russia and North Korea, and he now disagrees with the same agency’s statements about Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince, MBS. )

#4. His news conference with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki was an embarrassment.  His meeting with the Russian president came on the heels of Russia’s attempted assassination of a dissident on British soil using banned chemical weapons and the indictment of 12 Russians for 2016 election meddling. Instead of condemning these actions, Trump publicly sided with Putin over his own intelligence community. ( As previously stated, this is the first US president that continually disbelieves the inputs from the largest and best intelligence agencies in the world.  Nuff said.)

#3. Trump's policy to separate migrant children from their families at the southern border was an avoidable tragedy. There is nothing wrong with a zero-tolerance policy for illegal crossings. But his administration’s failure to anticipate and prepare for how to deal with migrant families was gross negligence — a symptom of the chaos that is undermining his presidency.  (For the first time in US history, two immigrant children have died while in the custody of the US Border Patrol. This was mainly because Trump’s order for detaining the immigrants at the border was a knee-jerk order that was never properly planned out for how to properly deal with the immigrants and with separating of the immigrant children from their parents.  It was a disgusting and dangerous move by the president and the justice department.)

#2. His planned withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan is a gift to the Taliban and al-Qaeda. In 2017, my Top 10 Best list praised Trump for reversing President Barack Obama’s disastrous withdrawal, which he said “would create a vacuum for terrorists.” But in December, Trump ordered the military to start planning the withdrawal of roughly 7,000 troops — about half the number of US forces in Afghanistan. The news came just as US officials were holding talks with the Taliban whose No. 1 demand is . . . the withdrawal of U.S. forces. Hardly the “art of the deal.”  (The same vacuum that Trump stated will be happening as he withdraws US troops.  Yes, the US troops should be withdrawn, as we have been there for 17 years.  But he's planning on doing it without a comprehensive plan.  Just one more Trump knee-jerk reaction.) 

And Marc’s #1 worst thing the president did in 2018:  His pullout of all US troops in Syria will take America’s boot off of the terrorists’ necks. Trump’s claim that “we have defeated ISIS in Syria” is as bad as Obama’s dismissing them as the “J.V.” squad. The Islamic State still has up to 30,000 fighters in Iraq and Syria and about $400 million in their coffers. The Islamic State is not defeated, and not one member of Trump’s national security team agrees with his decision to withdraw. If he lets the Islamic State off the mat like Obama did in Iraq in 2011, our nation will pay a terrible price for years.  Days before Trump announced victory over ISIS, officials were preparing for a long engagement.  (The US properly shouldn’t have been in Syria in the first place.  But since we were there, by immediately pulling out without a plan, that leaves a vacuum that will be filled by who?  It will either be ISIS, or Iran, or Russia, or Turkey, or ???  We have lost thousands of US troops in Afghanistan and Syria, and by leaving without a plan, that puts more pressure on America’s friends and fighters, that being, the Kurds, that Turkey has pledged to go after, especially if the US pulls out.  Just another knee-jerk idea that probably came up as Trump was watching Fox & Friends.)

Per Marc: The Trump administration is planning to withdraw all U.S. troops from Syria immediately. The president tweeted Dec. 19 that the US had defeated ISIS in Syria. (BULL!)

It is notable that, with the exception of troop withdrawals and family separations, most of the items on this list were transgressions of style rather than substance. With the mute button on, the Trump presidency is pretty good from a conservative policy perspective. And yet Trump’s approval rating at year’s end is just 39 % — because most Americans don’t follow politics with the sound off.

This is probably the first time that I have, kind of, been on the same page as Mr. Thiessen.

But as I said, there are at least 90 other things that I would have written about that were the 100 worst things that Trump accomplished in 2018.

Copyright G.Ater 2019