The Trumpian Chronicles — week 13- the actual one this time :)
A pessimist-realist’s take on our changing world
Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Special edition Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10&11 Week 12
On week 11 Trump got confused and thought he already had completed 13 weeks, this was the actual 13th week.
Here’s how VICE summed up Week 13 (April 15 to 21) of the Trumpian presidency.
As for me, I’ll break it down around 2 major events/themes:
1- Rising tensions in the Korean peninsula met with amateurish WH, improperly balanced by supposed “crack team” of Mattis and co
2- The 100 day mark starts to get under Trump’s skin, because he basically squandered them with incompetence and petty moves
Here are these 2 events/themes in some detail:
1-Rising tensions in the Korean peninsula met with amateurish WH, improperly balanced by supposed “crack team” of Mattis and co
I typically recap facts and then offer my “take”, in this instance, I will do both.
The “Norks” -as DC’s military-foreign ops folk call them- have been a thorn in US Presidents’ sides since 1953. It must be repeated that the conflict between the Koreas has not been properly evacuated with a treaty, it’s merely a stalemate. The North Koreans have benefited from China’s protection since, Beijing having resolved since Mao that they did not care to have a US client state at its immediate Southern border. South Korea has grown exponentially since the days of military dictatorship into a (somewhat) stable democracy and innovative tech/digital economy. History comes back knocking with the 3rd Kim happily testing the world’s nerves with nuclear ballistic tests. The US has tried, through direct/semi-direct (former Pres Carter) contact, to engage with the so-called hermit regime. The Norks defied all these overtures and are gambling that China will forever have their backs. In my humble opinion they are dead wrong, China needs stability to grow its economy from export-driven to more domestic-centered growth and a war in the Koreas will not help.
The episode of the “lost” USS Carl Vinson, abusively depicted as sailing towards Korea when it was actually sailing to Australia demonstrates a level of incompetence that should make anyone shudder. The fact that a supposed “crack team” at the helm of the armed forces let this happen, while a nuclear North Korea tests missiles weekly, is troubling.
The supposed “crack team” of Mattis and co has been mysteriously hampered in dealing effectively with this crisis, which will continue until China is persuaded to act and tell young Kim to put his nukes in mothballs or risk certain death. Trump’s ineptitude here as been in full force, his ill-advised tweets, public statements et al keep chipping away at the credibility of the US Presidency. As I’ve written in these chronicles, Trump is most surely forever transforming the power of the Presidency and, as far as I’m concerned, no one will be able to bring it back to a hyperpresidency, and that’s a good thing.
2- The 100 day mark starts to get under Trump’s skin, because he basically squandered them with incompetence and petty moves
Trump is a proud man who in essence stumbled into the Presidency because of a series of missteps by a terrible candidate, the media asleep at the wheel and Russian meddling. He is still so surprised he’s won that he is clearly more interested in re-hashing his formidable come-back-type win than actual governing. His genuine disinterest in matters of state is apparent every day, yet he does not want to be remembered as having accomplished nothing as President. His landmark achievement, the selection of Neil Gorsuch to the SCOTUS, is not even really “his” because he had very clearly outsourced it to various conservative think tanks.
The stress of the 100 day mark precipitated a series of weird statements and moves in week 13, capped off by this:
As written by David A. Graham in the Atlantic, aside from Gorsuch: “The rest of Trump’s ambitious political agenda is largely stalled: defeated in Congress, obstructed in Congress, blocked by the courts, or caught up in the bureaucratic machine — which, thanks to the president’s slow pace of appointments, is working well below peak capacity.”
Trump’s inner circle, led by Priebus, has shown more willingness to lead in-house fights vs properly staffing the cabinet and the more crucial sub-Cabinet positions, which remains largely unfilled, 100 days in. Trump has been used to leading a very small team, mostly sycophants and his own family, and is clearly not ready to open up his circle of trust, to the United States’ (and the world’s) detriment.
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