Let’s presume for just a moment or two that Donald J. Trump is going to campaign actively for re-election in 2020.
Yes, I know that is increasingly problematic . . . but humor me.
How does the president seek to sell his “leadership” skills to the American voting public? I ask the question as the nation enters its third federal government shutdown in the less than two years that Trump has been president of the United States of America.
Yep. This great dealmaker, swamp drainer and the man who surrounded himself with the “best people” has presided over three government shutdowns.
What makes this so weird and so unbelievable is that the same political party has controlled both congressional chambers and the White House. Yet they cannot — either on Capitol Hill or the White House — manage to govern effectively enough to prevent the government from shutting down.
How does Trump seek to sell his leadership, therefore, to Americans who he suckered in 2016 into believing he could actually govern?
Good grief! This individual has burned through numerous key White House staffers, at least seven Cabinet officials and assorted other mid- and lower-level functionaries. He has pi**** off allies in Europe, the Western Hemisphere and Asia. He criticized his predecessor for playing too much golf while in office and then laps the field in the number of golf outings he has taken while serving as president.
He kowtows to dictators. He denigrates previous presidents’ leadership skills while praising the leadership of the dictators he admires.
All this while presiding over three government shutdowns less than halfway through his first — and I hope only — term as president.
Is this carnival barker actually going to seek to persuade Americans that he has made America “great again” through this stumbling and bumbling?
I believe he will. I am going to hope for all it’s worth that this individual does not snooker us a second time. You know what they say about “fool me once . . . fool me twice.”