PRESIDENT TRUMP TAKES GOVERNOR’S COMMENTS AS PERSONAL AFFRONTS
…Washington State Governor, Jay Inslee
Per the president: “When they’re [the
Governors] not appreciative to me ... it’s not right.”
Some of you must be saying about my blog:
“Oh no, not another article about President Trump!”
Believe me when I say, that I would love to
find other subjects about important things going on in this country about which
to write about. But the presidents improper involvement in so
many issues in the country that are so totally wrong, it’s hard to not write
about how the president is continuing to screw up in so many ways.
If you watch Rachael Maddow’s nightly show, you
will also notice that she is also kind of stuck in this same mode, because what this president does is so against
what his job actually is as the nation’s leader.
This is especially true with the president’s
involvement in the current coronavirus debacle.
Here’s a perfect example of what I’m saying.
President Trump is a commander in chief dealing
with the covid-19 virus attack in which many difficult presidential decisions must be made. And on Friday, he seemed to suggest that some of those decisions should be
made according to who has run afoul of him personally.
Appearing at the daily White House
coronavirus briefing, Trump disclosed that he had told Vice President Pence,
who is leading the coronavirus task force, not to call the governors
of Michigan and Washington state because those governors had been critical of
Trump and the federal response.
Trump made this incorrect statement as if this
is the way a president should act if a governor didn’t show enough appreciation
for what he thought was appropriate.
“When they’re not appreciative to me, they’re
not appreciative to the Army Corps, they’re not appreciative to FEMA, it’s not
right,” Trump said.
But the president doesn't understand that since he has pitted the states to fend for themselves, when a governor is upset because other states are taking away his states medical items by out-bidding them, that is something that the president is causing. If the federal government (the president) took on the responsibility of apportioning the equipment appropriately between the states, there would be no issues such as what Washington and Michigan have been dealing with.
The president then added: “I say, ‘Mike [Pence], don’t call the
governor of Washington; you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman
in Michigan. It doesn’t make any difference what happens.’ You know what I say:
‘If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call.’ He’s a different type of person
[Pence]; he’ll call quietly anyway.”
Those states are particularly important to
Donald Trump and his 2020 election. Washington state was the first real hot
spot in the United States for the coronavirus outbreak and Michigan, which has
among the nation’s highest rates of the virus, but Michigan is also a key swing
state in the 2020 election. Trump’s
comments about not wanting to communicate with Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
(D) during this crisis might end up being used against Trump in his reelection
campaign. When Trump was asked what more
he wants from Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), in particular, Trump said he just
wants more gratitude from the Washington governor.
“All I want them to do is very simple: I want
them to be appreciative,” Trump said. “I don’t want them to say
things that aren’t true. I want them to be appreciative.”
And this wasn’t the only time Trump indicated
on Friday that he factors personal things that have nothing to do with the
coronavirus outbreak into certain decisions.
While discussing why he invoked the Defense
Production Act on Friday to force General Motors to build
ventilators, he acknowledged what has been a long-standing beef with the GM
company. Trump has for months been on
GM’s back about the closure of a GM plant in Lordstown, Ohio.
Trump in fact, brought that up even as he was
asked why he had singled out GM for this ventilator step before he did any
other auto company. He dismissed the
idea that it was anything about the cost and he instead cited GM’s decisions on
where to house its manufacturing plants.
“We don’t want to think too much about cost
when we’re talking about this. This is not cost,” Trump said. “I wasn’t
happy where General Motors built plants in other locations over the years.
. . . And so I didn’t go into it with a very favorable view. I was extremely
unhappy with Lordstown, Ohio… where they left Lordstown, Ohio, in the middle of
an auto boom because we had 17 car companies coming in and then they were
leaving one plant in Ohio.
”
Here are three tweets from the president on this issue:
- Because
the economy is so good, General Motors must get their Lordstown, Ohio,
plant open, maybe in a different form or with a new owner, FAST! Toyota is
investing 13.5 $Billion in U.S., others likewise. G.M. MUST ACT QUICKLY.
Time is of the essence!
- Just
spoke to Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors about the Lordstown Ohio plant.
I am not happy that it is closed when everything else in our Country is
BOOMING. I asked her to sell it or do something quickly. She blamed the
UAW Union — I don’t care, I just want it open!
He also referenced the Lordstown plant in a tweet before the decision to invoke the DPA for GM was announced.
- General
Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in
Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD,
GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!!
The statement you’d expect from a US president
should be: “The federal government is making these decision based upon need
and merit.”
Instead, Trump is connecting his comments to
what he perceives as personal slights and company's business decisions that ran against of
his “America First” political agenda.
He is literally taking these governors
individual decision for dealing with the covid-19 issue in their states as
personal affronts.
These are remarkable admissions and
implications. But they feed into Trump’s long-standing quest to try to keep
politicians and companies in line.
By now, it has become abundantly clear that
running afoul of Trump carries the potential for significant peril, and that
he’ll go after you at the drop of the hat.
Trump seems to have no problem in taking
offence at any comment that he feels is a personal shot at his presidency.
Amid the criticism of trump’s comments, Trump
and his allies have sought to emphasize that he had said “I’m not talking
about me” when talking about the lack of appreciation.
But at another point, he made it clear that all
of this was about him: “When they’re not appreciative to me ... it’s not
right.” Trump said.
It’s now appropriate to ask whether such
personal politics factor into the awarding of federal government help in a time
of crisis?
Trump did note that Pence still called those
governors, despite his directions to Pence, so it’s not clear that either
Michigan or Washington have actually suffered because of their governors’
comments about Trump.
But Gov. Whitmer did suggest Friday that
something had changed with the federal response in her state and indicated
she felt it was related to her criticism of it.
“What I’ve gotten back is that vendors with
whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to
Michigan," she said. "It’s really concerning.”
On GM, there is a very valid question about why they were singled out when other car companies and manufacturers haven’t yet been
approached to do similar manufacturing. White
House economic adviser Peter Navarro did say at the same briefing that GM
wasn’t as cooperative as it could have been.
“We ran into roadblocks with GM,” Navarro said. “We cannot
afford to lose a single day, particularly over the next 30 to 60 days. So
President Trump invoked the Defense Production Act as a way of enhancing and
accelerating this mobilization.”
Trump himself alluded to some kind of problems
in the negotiations. “Then we thought we had a deal for 40,000 ventilators,
and all of a sudden it became six, and then price became a big object,” he
said later. But he didn’t elaborate much, and remember, he had previously said
this issue was not about the cost…?
For the president, this long-standing strategy
of negotiation has clearly worked for Trump.
At least, to some degree. It’s a
big reason you see some Democrats like New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) is
treating Trump gently right now, despite widespread concern within their
party about Trump’s uneven handling of the coronavirus crisis.
Whether it works is one question. But whether it’s appropriate in these serious
circumstances, that is where we find ourselves. That is quite another
situation.
Oh, and here is how the Washington state
governor, Jay Inslee responded in a tweet to the president:
- I’m
not going to let personal attacks from the president distract me from what
matters: beating this virus and keeping Washingtonians healthy.
It’s an appropriate response, but how this is
then taken by the president, that’s another question.
Copyright G. Ater 2020
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