The Trumpian Chronicles — week 4 — like in 2008 crisis, US overconfident the world will put up with DC chaos
A pessimist-realist’s take on our changing world
These chronicles will be a compendium of thoughts, links, and if Medium finally allows co-authors, conversations.
Week 1 here. Week 2 here. Week 3 here. Special edition here.
In previous editions I went back on the week’s events, this week 4 has been epic. I’ll just focus on a central theme this week: the dysfunction in DC that the US political leadership, seemingly totally oblivious to the world, thinks the world can put up with. Robert Reich’s shared post of a conversation with a former GOP Congressman is chilling:
This Saturday morning, VP Pence gave a speech in Munich that many heard as a direct repudiation of the President’s inaugural address. At the same time we read that Sec of State Tillerson is kept out of the loop on key issues because Trump son-in-law Kushner is “running point”. The spectacle of duelling power centers on the 29th day of the Trump administration would be funny if the world weren’t in less chaos. Ian Bremmer summed up the knots US foreign policy is in quite nicely:
Who are the culprits ? In my opinion, most of the responsibility rests at the feet of McConnell and Ryan who have been consciously delusional on the nature of Trump. McConnell even went so far as to say Trump is no different than would have been a President Romney, a President Rubio or a President Jeb Bush. The reality is this: wealthy GOP donors (from the 1%) are desperate for tax cuts they don’t really need and are holding Congress hostage. These 1%ers are merely tolerant of Trump but the collective wisdom is all will be fine because the world is very tolerant of DC-born chaos. In my opinion it is anything but, especially given the spectacle of this past week. This same collective wisdom led us to the 2008 financial crisis when the US exported its subprime toxic financial waste to the world.
With a GOP stuck between their desire to deliver tax cuts and a Trumpist base they’re afraid of, not many worry that a mostly peaceful world order is in jeopardy. Who can sway them before it’s too late ?
