It took 12 weeks, but Donald Trump seems to have finally figured out a better way to command the attention and approval his huge ego needs and expects.
All those executive orders he signed didn’t do the trick.
They could be undermined by a “so-called judge,” “disgraceful” judicial proceedings” and “political” courts.
And those promises to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act required Congressional action which Mr. Trump could not command.
But firing 59 missiles on a Syrian airport and dropping “the most powerful conventional bomb in the American arsenal” on ISIS caves in Afghanistan doesn’t seem to need judicial or legislative approval.
And it certainly got everyone’s attention.
That the strikes don’t reflect any articulated policy that advances our national security seems beside the point.
Hasn’t Mr. Trump been telling us for years that it is in our national interest to stay out of Syria?
That Congressional Republicans who couldn’t bring themselves to authorize President Barack Obama to respond militarily to Syria’s chemical weapon arsenal in 2013 are now hailing Trump’s unauthorized strikes is something for pundits to mull over.
For cynics like me, though, it seems the perfect way to divert public attention from Mr. Trump’s failure to deliver on promises made and Russia’s role in his election.
And Mr. Trump is playing an extremely dangerous game with our national security if he is using military means to boost his sagging poll numbers.
Moreover, those who believe that Mr. Trump is learning on the job are wrong on two counts.
Mr. Trump simply bobs and weaves his way from one issue to the next, channel surfing like any ordinary television viewer, and reacting to the on-screen images without ever connecting the dots.
The only thing he may have learned is that the tweets of the Oval Office occupant get lots of media attention and that’s what his hyper-inflated ego requires. Consistent and coherent policies are not required.
As for “the job,” that depends on whether his job is advancing the interests of the United States or those of the Trump Organization and whether those interests are best handled from the White House or Mar-a-Lago and Trump golf courses.
Mr. Trump seems to have reversed Charles E. Wilson’s 1953 words (“what was good for our country was good for General Motors”), placing the good of the Trump Organization ahead of the nation.
Also, it should be noted that, unlike Mr. Trump, Mr. Wilson agreed to sell his G.M. stock to avoid a conflict of interest.
With little to show after 12 weeks in office, it seems that Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization are the clear beneficiaries of Mr. Trump’s election.
Jay N. Feldman
Port Washington
