Over the Feb. 12 weekend, the White House sent Stephen Miller, one of the president’s senior advisors, out to the Sunday news programs on ABC,CBS, NBC and Fox news to defend the very sloppy and questionable travel ban.
Of course, the White House was immediately challenged in the courts, but true to the president’s reactions to criticism, he attacked the legitimacy of the findings of various judges.
In this instance he started with such a phrase as “these so-called judges”. When questioned about our historical principle of judicial independence, going back to the Federalist papers, Miller stated that the president should not be questioned on matters of national security.
He rashly asserted that the President is 100 percent correct. It was an ignorant pronouncement, an assertion that the President has unquestioned authority, injecting the hint that we are headed by a dictator.
Of course, in his dreams, so often expressed, he carelessly asserts that he can fix everything. There are scientific terms for such a delusion.
Beyond that, there is strong evidence that Mike Flynn, before actually being appointed an advisor to the President, had discussed sanctions with Vladimir Putin, and had later lied to Vice President Pence, who repeated the lie to the nation.
And to add to the messy policy pronouncements, Trump, who had talked of removing the nuclear umbrella over South Korea, had to pull back in light of North Korean missile tests.
These are just the latest missteps and the effects on our credibility, added to the unintended consequences of plans to make America great without any regard for the reality that the rest of the world is affected by what we announce or attempt.
Lest I sound too pessimistic, let me repeat, resoundingly, that we can prevail.
Esther Confino
New Hyde Park
