President Trump: Making America Great Again...

[BlueK]

You think invoking the 25th amendment, especially in this political climate is something that should be considered? You have to be a little pragmatic here.

I am torn on the op ed. I am glad people like the writer are doing what they are doing. It is necessary and admirable. But publishing an anonymous article is self-serving. The writer is setting himself up for life after the trump administration. Publishing the op ed actually makes it harder to be a check on Trump's worst instincts. So if you feel like you can do the most good working from within then do it, keep your head down, stay quiet, keep detailed records and write a book if you want when it is all over.

I don't know if the 25th amendment is the answer or not. But the public needs to know if there is extreme looniness going on the oval office that is dangerous, per the author. Stand up and say it and put your name to it if there is a problem. He or she doesn't have the Constitutional authority to make those decisions to obstruct from within the office in secret. Saying it anonymously gives everyone the excuse to ignore it. Say it publicly so the public can comment and the Congress can do their freaking job of oversight or be pressured into doing their job by the public. The GOP Congress could not be handling this president any worse, which is why they're in for a shellacking at the ballot box in a couple of months.

[Uncle Ted]

Drumpf seems to be in high spirits over this op ed...

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Weird. I wonder if something is going down that is really going to embarrass the left'ers.

[falafel]

Drumpf seems to be in high spirits over this op ed...

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Weird. I wonder if something is going down that is really going to embarrass the left'ers.

I wonder how Trump decides which words to capitalize.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Writing op-ed pieces is courageous!

[falafel]

[BigPiney]

awesome

[BlueK]

"This feels like a week of substantial, even shattering, revelations about the Trump White House. But it wasn’t, not really. The early excerpts of Bob Woodward’s book, the anonymous op-ed from the senior White House official — how much did any of it truly change our understanding of the Trump administration?

It’s no secret that much of Trump’s staff thinks he’s ill-informed, impulsive, even dangerous. Political scientist Dan Drezner has been tweeting quotes from Trump staffers talking about the president as if he is a toddler for years now. There are now 475 tweets in the thread.

And even if there weren’t, these are not the kind of revelations that require insider leaks to alert the public. Anyone who has watched Trump speak or read his statements can conclude he is ignorant, reckless, distractible, narcissistic, illiberal, conspiratorial, and bigoted.

It was only Monday, after all, that Trump went on Twitter to attack his own attorney general for permitting the investigations and indictments of two Republican members of Congress. It was just a few weeks ago that Trump’s personal lawyer pleaded guilty to criminal behavior and his campaign manager was found guilty of it. It was just a few months ago that Trump mounted a stage next to Vladimir Putin and praised the strongman while musing that he wasn’t sure whether to trust Russia or his own intelligence agencies when it came to the Democratic National Committee hacking.

I’ll say this about Donald Trump: He has never hidden who or what he is. He has been unrepentantly himself since the Obama administration, when he barnstormed the country championing the birther conspiracy theory; he has been unrepentantly himself since he descended that golden escalator and called Mexican immigrants rapists and murderers; he has been unrepentantly himself since the day after he accepted the Republican nomination for the presidency and held a press conference wondering whether Ted Cruz’s dad was involved in the murder of John F. Kennedy (seriously, look it up).

That Trump has long been Trump has not gone unnoticed in Washington. As Republican Sen. Bob Corker said in response to the op-ed, “this is what all of us have understood to be the situation from day one.

Corker’s statement was meant to be a damning indictment of Trump, but it’s actually a damning indictment of Corker and his colleagues, who have done little to check Trump save complain to the press. They have known the situation was this bad since day one, and they have done nothing about it.

Corker, at least, speaks out. The rest of his party has studiously avoided the subject, actively protected Trump from investigation and oversight, and constantly excused the president’s outbursts. Privately, they gripe that they know this president is unfit for office, but they don’t want to imperil their tax agenda, judicial nominees, or reelections by actually acting on that judgment.

The rest of Corker’s quote is telling as to the practical solution Republicans have settled on. “That’s why I think all of us encourage the good people around the President to stay,” he said. “I thank General Mattis whenever I see him.”

This is ridiculous. The Founding Fathers were not unaware of the possibility that a demagogue or a knave might win the presidency. That’s why they checked the executive with an independent Congress and built in powers of impeachment. That Republicans in this Congress have proven so subservient to — or scared of — Trump that they have let the fate of the country hinge on whether his staff can adequately distract and calm him is a subversion of the constitutional order and an abdication of responsibility."

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-polit...us-impeachment

[creekster]

I think the op-ed writer is more of a danger to the country than an unhinged Trump. This person is an unelected employee who has no standing from the electorate nor authority from his boss to act outside of the constitutionally prescribed bounds of the executive branch. As much as I think Trump is a problem, I do not think that it is EVER a good idea to rely on faceless nameless petty bureaucrats to do what THEY think is best, without accountability, to run the country. That is NOT our system and it should be wholly unacceptable. It disturbs me profoundly that people are doing this (I am not talking about the give and take of policy advisors; I am talking about some of the specific actions the op-ed writer described that were used to thwart the president). I am not surprised that a lot fo his staffers think he is a dangerous and childish threat. I am very disappointed that they think they are somehow imbued with the right to protect us. No wonder Trump thinks there is a Deep State; it is apparently all around him.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I think the op-ed writer is more of a danger to the country than an unhinged Trump. This person is an unelected employee who has no standing from the electorate nor authority from his boss to act outside of the constitutionally prescribed bounds of the executive branch. As much as I think Trump is a problem, I do not think that it is EVER a good idea to rely on faceless nameless petty bureaucrats to do what THEY think is best, without accountability, to run the country. That is NOT our system and it should be wholly unacceptable. It disturbs me profoundly that people are doing this (I am not talking about the give and take of policy advisors; I am talking about some of the specific actions the op-ed writer described that were used to thwart the president). I am not surprised that a lot fo his staffers think he is a dangerous and childish threat. I am very disappointed that they think they are somehow imbued with the right to protect us. No wonder Trump thinks there is a Deep State; it is apparently all around him.

Agreed. Time to cap Stringer Bell!

[BlueK]

I think the op-ed writer is more of a danger to the country than an unhinged Trump. This person is an unelected employee who has no standing from the electorate nor authority from his boss to act outside of the constitutionally prescribed bounds of the executive branch. As much as I think Trump is a problem, I do not think that it is EVER a good idea to rely on faceless nameless petty bureaucrats to do what THEY think is best, without accountability, to run the country. That is NOT our system and it should be wholly unacceptable. It disturbs me profoundly that people are doing this (I am not talking about the give and take of policy advisors; I am talking about some of the specific actions the op-ed writer described that were used to thwart the president). I am not surprised that a lot fo his staffers think he is a dangerous and childish threat. I am very disappointed that they think they are somehow imbued with the right to protect us. No wonder Trump thinks there is a Deep State; it is apparently all around him.

I agree. But I also think he or she should reveal their identity, resign if necessary and make their knowledge of what is happening public so Constitutional checks can be applied, like Congressional hearings/oversight. The GOP Congress letting Trump be dangerous with no questions asked has been a complete disgrace. Their extreme fear of him would be comical if it weren't so bad for the country. It has been shown that Trump will back down on the rare occasions when the Repubs do something, like complain about the separating of parents and children at the border or Russian sanctions. Every last one of them deserves to be voted out right now.

[creekster]

I agree. But I also think he or she should reveal their identity, resign if necessary and make his knowledge of what is happening public so Constitutional checks can be applied, like Congressional hearings/oversight. The GOP Congress letting Trump be dangerous with no questions asked has been a complete disgrace.

He should absolutely do that rather than weasel around in the dark, dropping an anonymous op-ed from the shadows. If it is truly THAT bad, then resign and take a stand.

[LVAllen]

I think the op-ed writer is more of a danger to the country than an unhinged Trump. This person is an unelected employee who has no standing from the electorate nor authority from his boss to act outside of the constitutionally prescribed bounds of the executive branch. As much as I think Trump is a problem, I do not think that it is EVER a good idea to rely on faceless nameless petty bureaucrats to do what THEY think is best, without accountability, to run the country. That is NOT our system and it should be wholly unacceptable. It disturbs me profoundly that people are doing this (I am not talking about the give and take of policy advisors; I am talking about some of the specific actions the op-ed writer described that were used to thwart the president). I am not surprised that a lot fo his staffers think he is a dangerous and childish threat. I am very disappointed that they think they are somehow imbued with the right to protect us. No wonder Trump thinks there is a Deep State; it is apparently all around him.

It seems your beef should still lay with Trump himself. Ultimately, he's the one holding people accountable (or not). Woodward mentioned an unidentified staffer removed a letter from Trump's desk so he couldn't sign it and thus kill NAFTA? Well, was Trump too busy binge-watching Fox and Friends to realize that a letter he intended to sign was never provided to him? The nameless petty bureaucrats do what they think is best and always have. It's their job to do so. It's the job of the person who is vested with all of the power of the Executive Branch to oversee them. If he's too lazy, too distracted, or too childish to actually do the job, that's 100% on him.

[creekster]

It seems your beef should still lay with Trump himself. Ultimately, he's the one holding people accountable (or not). An unidentified staffer removed a letter from Trump's desk so he couldn't sign it and thus kill NAFTA? Well, was Trump too busy binge-watching Fox and Friends to realize that a letter he intended to sign was never provided to him? The nameless petty bureaucrats do what they think is best and always have. It's their job to do so. It's the job of the person who is vested with all of the power of the Executive Branch to oversee them. If he's too lazy, too distracted, or too childish to actually do the job, that's 100% on him.

It is NOT their job to thwart the president in policy or action, and certainly not to do so without his knowledge or consent. If you are old enough, you will recall that people said these sorts of things about Reagan all the time, that he was incompetent, forgetful and incapable of governing. It was not his aides' role to change his policy to account for his advancing dementia.

Trump is very likely as bad as the op-ed says. Then shine light on it and let the system do what it is supposed to do.

[myboynoah]

I think the op-ed writer is more of a danger to the country than an unhinged Trump. This person is an unelected employee who has no standing from the electorate nor authority from his boss to act outside of the constitutionally prescribed bounds of the executive branch. As much as I think Trump is a problem, I do not think that it is EVER a good idea to rely on faceless nameless petty bureaucrats to do what THEY think is best, without accountability, to run the country. That is NOT our system and it should be wholly unacceptable. It disturbs me profoundly that people are doing this (I am not talking about the give and take of policy advisors; I am talking about some of the specific actions the op-ed writer described that were used to thwart the president). I am not surprised that a lot fo his staffers think he is a dangerous and childish threat. I am very disappointed that they think they are somehow imbued with the right to protect us. No wonder Trump thinks there is a Deep State; it is apparently all around him.

Hey!!!!

[Jeff Lebowski]

Hey!!!!

Haha.

Legit LOL on that one.