MillenniumPost
Editorial

The unpredictable President

Is the unpredictable President Donald Trump a lonely man or simply left to his own devices? The manner in which he has got rid of so many high profile people in his team has left the remaining members wondering about their fate. Many have become equally immune to the political fire alarms that go off in Washington almost daily. The normalisation of Presidential instability has been stunning. In a week that saw the unprecedented shake-up of high-level executive branch officials continue, and a "60 Minutes" interview with a porn star who claims the President's men threatened her to be silent about their alleged affair, many experts noted how quiet the week had been because Trump did not tweet too much. The President has shattered almost all norms of behaviour, randomly attacking institutions that are vital to the democracy. His Twitter-based communications strategy has the potential to create dangerous situations. Sometimes improvisation can result in good things, but other times it is a recipe for disaster. It is the chaos theory of governance. Other than with his systematic and focused drive to vitiate the government's regulation of business, Trump has shown very little ability to manage the reins of government and that raises vital questions about how he would handle a major crisis. The rotating cabinet, most of which have been filled by individuals with little government experience, to begin with, makes the risk even greater, given the President's thin knowledge of policy. A good look at political history shows that those "game changer" moments are far and few between.
President Trump might be thinking that Americans will become so worn down by the daily revelations in the Russia investigation that they will not be paying attention anymore if Robert Mueller actually produces a damning report. But there are many big areas of policy where it is easy to imagine that a real fire may ignite in the near future. The situation with North Korea is a case in point. The fluctuations in the stock market should be a reminder that at any moment the kind of crash that occurred in 2008 could happen again. It is easy to see how President Trump's initial moves to impose tariffs could deteriorate into a full-scale trade war that leaves communities reeling. Many of the craziest parts of this presidency are now just fodder for late night jokes, but not serious political conversation or, more importantly, political action. There seems to be very little movement in Congress to do anything about the risky actions seen from the President and the damaging changes he is making to the Presidency. Much of the nation is no longer able to evaluate how serious the governance problem really is.

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