Last night Trump delivered what he and his surrogates are calling an “ultimatum” to House Republicans: Vote Friday on the bill to repeal (and replace a little bit of) the Affordable Care Act. If the bill fails, Trump will move on.
This is nonsensical braggadocio, designed to minimize what seems likely to be Trump’s embarrassing failure to deliver on the biggest legislative promise he’s made so far. Presidential power is based on the perceived ability to deliver. So far, Trump has delivered exactly nothing of his congressional agenda.
He campaigned as a deal maker. He can’t make a deal. He campaigned as a businessman who could whip government into shape. He can’t even whip his own White House into shape. He campaigned as someone who would drain the swamp of Washington. He’s only made it swampier.
Trump is a loser.
In a single week, Donald Trump has been proven:
(1) Incompetent. His first major legislative goal – repealing and “replacing” the Affordable Care Act -- just went down in flames.
(2) A liar. FBI Director James Comey said the FBI has “no evidence” to support Trump’s trumped-up charge that Barack Obama wiretapped or otherwise monitored Donald Trump.
(3) The subject of an FBI investigation into possible collusion with Russian operatives to win the 2016 presidential campaign. Comey also said that by last July the FBI had accumulated enough “credible evidence” of such collusion begin its investigation.
It was not just a bad week for Trump. It also was an “Emperor’s New Clothes” week. Trump’s braggadocio has now been revealed as a total sham. He’s incompetent, he’s a liar, and he may well be a traitor.
Apart from his most ardent supporters, most of America is now waking up to the walking catastrophe who is now our president. That’s progress.
The House abandoned its legislation to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, handing President Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan a major defeat.
By Russell Berman
