That dreaded 100-day “deadline” looms for Donald John Trump. We’re about one week away from it.
Will it produce a winning report card for the president? Will those of us in the peanut gallery be able to call the new president’s start a rousing success, which Trump himself has done already?
I do not believe so.
Does the 100-day mark matter? Perhaps it shouldn’t count as much as it does. President Franklin D. Roosevelt set up this artificial barrier when he took office in 1933 and it’s been held as sort of the benchmark for early presidential success ever since.
But it’s early in any new president’s term. Donald Trump is no different.
Except for one little thing.
All along the way en route to his winning the election, the Republican candidate for president kept telling us about all the things he would accomplish in those first 100 days.
* Affordable Care Act? Repealed and replaced.
* Tax reform? Enacted.
* Draining the swamp of corruption? He’d institute a new government ethic.
What’s happened? The ACA remains. Tax reform hasn’t even been introduced. The swamp is still full.
The president can count precious few legislative triumphs. In fact, I can’t think of any. Can you? He’s signed a lot of executive orders. I particularly like the one that banned government officials from becoming lobbyists immediately after leaving public service.
Sure, he launched that missile strike against Syria after that horrendous chemical weapons attack. I give the president kudos for that action. But he’s got North Korea sounding more threatening than ever; Trump said he dispatched the “great armada” led by the USS Carl Vinson, but the carrier-led strike group to date is nowhere near the Korean Peninsula.
Donald Trump’s very own big mouth has victimized him.
Just maybe once the president gets past this 100-day hurdle, he will decide to tone down his constant boastfulness and learn finally — finally! — that governance requires much more than shooting off one’s big mouth.
The swamp actually is gone. It’s been replaced by a toxic waste dump.
Yep. ?