Donald J. Trump jetted off today to the National Rifle Association annual convention and then commenced to boast about something that is patently obvious.
He won the 2016 presidential election!
Yes, the president won. He captured more Electoral College votes than his opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton. He won more than the majority he needed to become president. The president won those formerly Democratic-leaning states — Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa. We get it, Mr. President. Honest, we do.
Indeed, your audience in Atlanta damn sure knew you won. Most of those in the room voted for you, more than likely.
When is this guy going to cast his gaze exclusively forward? When will he stop reliving, in the words of the Bruce Springsteen song, the “glory days”?
We’re about to welcome the 100th day of the Trump administration. We haven’t yet seen a major legislative triumph logged by the president. He’s signed a mountain of executive orders, which he is entitled to do.
It’s time nevertheless to look ahead, perhaps to the next 100 days and beyond.
But today, he spent a lot of time telling the NRA audience what it already knew.
Perhaps, though, the NRA crowd forgot — if only for a moment — that the president promised to do a lot of things in those first 100 days. He said he would make a lot of things happen: NAFTA repeal, Affordable Care Act repeal and replacement, tax reform, final approval to build that “big, beautiful wall.” How’d he do? Not well.
If the president is going to look back on his election victory, then perhaps he ought to tell us some of the rest of the recent past, which isn’t quite so glorious.
So, enough of restating the obvious, Mr. President. Where do we go from here?
