A regular Wednesday feature that takes a summary look at hot news issues surrounding Trump during the past week
As occurs in all administrations, the first major wave of exits and entrances is in progress. Spicer is out, Scaramucci is in. Sessions is being stalked and hunted by his boss and yet he remains, at least today so far. House cleaning rumors abound about others. While early change-out is normal for many administrations, the blood in the water vibe is not. What does this mean down the road?
Spicer: There is a lot of news that I don’t follow closely and Spicer was one of those details. He was the messenger, the mouthpiece, but not supposed to be the object of the news…and yet that was how he was portrayed, even earning the dubious honor of SNL spoofs. I suspect this is due to the bitter vindictive press that found him an easy proxy for their loathing of Trump. Trump’s position on the Press includes hard truth realism that the press would prefer not to hear and petulant manipulation on the part of Trump. Perhaps it was a given that Spicer would bear the brunt of the scorn for that mix. I can’t help but think that this side-show debased the Press a lot more than they know. The Press went as low as Trump and perhaps exceeded him. Is it any wonder that more people abhor traditional press now?
Sessions: Sessions is one of my least favorite members of the administration. His dinosaur embrace of manifestly failed old school drug-war tactics and the promise to uphold civil forfeiture, a corrupt policy of seizing private property from poor people, these two issues alone are more than enough to confirm his unsuitability for his office. This is not 1980. As the ouster drumbeat grows louder, the august body called the senate is suddenly his staunchest defender. They are indignant that Trump would potentially can Sessions or force his resignation. Well, I don’t like Trump’s rumored pretenses for canning him but I like Sessions even less so being the pragmatist that I am, I hope he’s gone this week. The irony of Sessions’ senate defenders (and this is why Washington is a big swamp of bloviated hypocritical fakers), if Sessions were still in the Senate body today, his back would be full of ‘long knives’.
So what does this all signal for Trump? He’s throwing all of his hired help under the bus. Who will be left in 2020? He didn’t need allies during many critical points during the campaign, so does he need them now? Are allies a finite resource that he can eventually run out? That will be for the electorate to decide. Congress and administration officials don’t elect a president, Jim and Jane in Peoria do. If Jim and Jane are happy with this chaos, (informed or not), there’s not a thing that Senate potentates and the antagonistic press can do. Very little is moving forward in this administration right now. The mockery of that is making daily headlines, but no one is hearing from Jim and Jane yet. For all we know, they’re quite happy for the inaction. I still say, watch Trump step aside in 2020 and have Pence run, but we have to get to that point first and that is still a long way off.
Commentary by Lee Jones