I seem to be spending most of my time documenting Trump scandals involving his status as Putin's [R-RU] Pervert Pawn, and that is a full time job! However, there is one area in which Trump's performance is as bad as it is for treason: incompetence. The following article by Jefferson Morley lists and documents six things the Fuhrer does not know about his job.
For President Trump's admirers, his disregard for the traditional ways of Washington is just his way of getting things done. “To the new president, Washington niceties are cobwebs on a summer porch, distracting, inconvenient, in the way of his higher purposes,” writes Robert Charles on Town Hall.
But in the past week, Trump’s “higher purposes” have been all but eclipsed, by a week of low deeds that mired his already embattled presidency in a swamp of dysfunction. He fired former ally James Comey as FBI director, all but admitted obstruction of justice by saying he acted to end the FBI investigation into his dealings with Russia, and then shared classified information with the Russian foreign minister. Along the way, he contradicted his own aides’ explanations of his actions, confirming that White House statements cannot be trusted.
All of a sudden, the cobwebs of Washington seem more like spiderwebs, and Trump resembles nothing so much as the fly who can’t extricate himself from its sticky strands.
What Charles calls “niceties” are, in fact, a set of laws and customs that empower and constrain the American president. Imagining that these arrangements are liberal trickery, Trump thinks what he has thought all along: that he can ignore them and achieve his goals.
That was true when his goal was winning the presidency. Now that he is trying to deliver action for his voters and allies in Congress, Trump is learning the price of ignorance: he cannot achieve his “higher purposes" because he doesn't understand the nature of his job.
1. The president is not a CEO.
Trump seems to believe what UN Ambassador Nikki Haley told ABC’s “This Week": “The president is the CEO of the country. He can hire and fire whomever he wants. That’s his right."
Actually, the president is not the chief executive officer of the government. Unlike a corporate CEO, Trump has no ownership rights in the enterprise he runs, the federal government. The executive branch is not a family business, despite Jared Kushner’s determination to give Chinese investors a different impression.
The president does have the right to fire the director of the FBI, but the Bureau’s employees do not work for the president. As James Hohmann of the Washington Post notes, FBI agents swear to uphold the U.S. Constitution, not serve the president. The Bureau’s website explains why:
“It is significant that we take an oath to support and defend the Constitution and not an individual leader, ruler, office, or entity. … A government based on individuals — who are inconsistent, fallible, and often prone to error — too easily leads to tyranny on the one extreme or anarchy on the other. … The American colonists were all too familiar with the harmful effects of unbalanced government and oaths to individual rulers.”
In other words, the authors of the U.S. Constitution wanted to make sure the president was not a king or a CEO. Oblivious to this historical truth, Trump fired FBI director Comey, transforming a man who helped him get elected into an enemy who now wants to go public.
From <Alternet>
I shared just the first of six things listed. Click through for the other five. My favorite is 6.
14 Responses to “What the Fuhrer Does Not Know About His Job”
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My favorite is all of them. I'd be happier with number six ("Number Six" – great name) if it weren't for the fact that somebody seems to be aware of number six and is doing their best to circumvent it. Sort of. Certainly with an all-Republican Congress he and they can stonewall. But if we take even one House in 2018 (or the Senate sooner through special elections – far fetched, but not completely impossible), then the stonewalling is over. I just hope everyone involved makes sure to keep evidence where it cannot be destroyed, and to advise others who can be trusted of where, in case of godfather remedies.
"I just hope everyone involved makes sure to keep evidence where it cannot be destroyed, and to advise others who can be trusted of where, in case of godfather remedies." — I thought of this too when news of Comey's notes came out.
The Girl Guides motto applies — "Be Prepared!"
Good point!
Excellent, and well written,
Describes mr dt to a TEE!
What "Higher Purposes?" Period! He has low purposes, the entire Rethuglican leadership has low purposes. Period! I also like #6, but as far s Trump learning ANYTHING, he is wilfully, imbecilically immune!
No offense – but it'd be scads harder to list six things Twitler DOES KNOW about his job.
AMEN brother!!!
Drumpf needs to take a long walk down the yellow brick road and never return. His incompetence is going to get people killed, but it likely won't be him.
Impeachment is the remedy in the absence of Drumpf's resignation, but I doubt it will happen, at least in the short term, because Republicans are more interested in retaining power than actually governing for the good of the people.
Resist and Persist!!!
In 2019.
Drumpf didn't have the slightest notion of what a president does on the job when he campaigned and was notably out of sorts when confronted with it during the transition. He then decided that nothing would keep him from his final goal, not even a job description, ignored it all and became what he had always wanted to be: king.
He didn't want to be the CEO of America, he's been a terrible one most of his life. No, he wanted to take the next step: no longer work – the little he did anyway – but rule instead. Only do the nice glamorous bits, get a lot of attention and have people adore him all day. It can be seen from the way he is handling the formation of his administration: he's quickly got his loyal courtiers around him, but couldn't be bothered with appointing anything beyond his direct scope/entourage. His advisors and close appointees also behave as courtiers would: they shield him from the "nastiness" outside the White House palace, feed him the tidbits they can handle and flatter their asses off to remain in his sphere of favorites while fighting for power behind his back.
Drumpf thought that being president would be like being king, and his delusions, and his entourage, allow him to "be" exactly that. This excellent list of ways Drumpf doesn't understand the nature of his job could be much longer and all points stem from the big mistake America has made: it allowed a nut job to reinstate the monarchy.
Even Kings had limits. He wants to be Fuhrer and reinstate the Reich.
Remember, when during his campaign, Trump promised that his presidency was going to be fun? Well, 1 thru 5 are the fun parts. Number 6 is the consequence of all that fun…peace.
Thanks all! Hugs!
He thought he was acquiring a new empire to run, now learns it is a democracy, and he is not an emporer. Too bad his supporters did not realize how dumb he was sooner. We might have been spared.