It’s been a difficult couple of weeks for the Trump base.
First, Donald Trump made a deal with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, his new BFFs (until he decides they’re not), to raise the debt ceiling and fund the government until December while at the same time providing aid for hurricane victims.
Mr. Trump wasn’t supposed to deal with the Democrats behind the backs of Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan.
You see, lots of Republicans were opposed to raising the debt ceiling and providing hurricane relief and Mr. Trump was giving up the fight without throwing a punch.
If that were not enough, Mr. Trump followed with another deal with the Senate and House minority leaders.
Over a Chinese dinner with Chuck and Nancy (they’re clearly on a first name basis now), Mr. Trump agreed to support legislation to protect the Dreamers, the 800,000 young immigrants brought to the United States as children and now threatened with deportation because of Mr. Trump’s own decision to rescind President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.
In exchange, the Democrats agreed to support funding for enhanced border security (something both Democrats and Republicans support) and Mr. Trump agreed to postpone funding for his “beautiful” border wall (which Democrats oppose).
Sounds like a plan, but what’s an anti-immigrant Trump supporter supposed to do? Didn’t he promise a border wall, a wall that Mexico would pay for?
That’s not all. Mr. Trump also let pass the congressionally imposed deadline to renew economic sanctions on Iran that were suspended as part of the agreement with Iran to halt its nuclear weapons program.
Reimposing those sanctions would violate the Iranian agreement and allow Iran to resume production of nuclear material. As well, it would shake our alliances with allies who are also signatories to the agreement.
But, didn’t Mr. Trump promise to tear up the Iranian agreement, the “worst agreement” ever negotiated according to Mr. Trump?
What’s a macho Trump supporter supposed to say to that?
Mr. Trump’s machoism doesn’t seem to be working very well these days. Remember how he threatened North Korea with “fire and fury?”
Last week, Kim Jong-un launched yet another ballistic missile over northern Japan, defying not only Mr. Trump’s empty threats but a United Nations Security Council resolution. This followed hard on the heels of the largest nuclear weapons test ever conducted by North Korea.
Not that I’m advocating a military response to North Korea, but what can the breast-beating, nuclear saber-rattling bully in the Oval Office do in light of these aforementioned departures from Trumpian orthodoxy and his inability to respond in kind to Kim’s bellicosity?
With the likes of Ann Coulter (author of “In Trump We Trust”) calling for Mr. Trump’s impeachment, it was time for him to throw a sop to the base of course. And that’s what Mr. Trump did.
Just when it appeared that the racially-charged events in Charlottesville, Va., had receded from the news, Mr. Trump reopened the matter by repeating his “both sides” charge that the counter-protestors were as much to blame for the violence as the racists, anti-Semites, Ku Klux Klan members and other bigots who marched with guns, knives and clubs shouting “Jews will not replace us,” “blood and soil” and other abhorrent slogans.
Mr. Trump’s continued equivocation at a critical time when moral leadership is required is unfathomable.
He didn’t lose his moral compass because he has none. He keeps insisting that there are good racists, anti-Semites and bigots when there are none.
By the end of the week, Mr. Trump had also thrown a sop to the anti-immigrant coterie, using a terrorist attack in the London underground to promote his travel ban on Muslims entering the United States.
Mr. Trump will never forget his base.
By appealing to its vilest elements, Mr. Trump knows that he can hold on to his base in the face of historically low approval ratings.
Sadly, Mr. Trump won’t make America great.
Or, as the conservative pundit William Kristol wrote, “never lose sight of his unfitness to be president.”
Jay N. Feldman
Port Washington
