Edward-Isaac Dovere has a piece up discussing fears over how Pr*sident Donald Trump would handle a serious crisis. Some observers have been profoundly concerned about that since the early morning of Nov. 9. Others, including people previously predisposed to supporting him, have grown increasingly worried.
One obvious reason that even some people in Trump’s own party are nervous about his possible response to something like Hurricane Katrina, an international crisis, or a terrorist attack against a U.S. target comes from watching how the “leader of the free world” has responded to the domestic political battles that he and his team have mostly brought on themselves in the past three months.
Trump’s reckless disregard for telling the truth, profound ignorance about geopolitics, discounting of basic science, misunderstanding of the Constitution, upside-down view of the workings of the U.S. government, refusals to seek expert advice—much less listen to it—all combine with his predilections for authoritarianism, serial lying, thin-skinned impulsiveness, and erratic, contradictory, petty behavior to generate justifiable worries about what he might do if, say, tensions with North Korea were to boil over.
Doing things such as tweeting early morning threats against James Comey days after firing him doesn’t do much to tamp down these worries. Here’s Dovere:
“This is another taste of reality in the White House — you have to walk, chew gum, juggle, sit down and stand up all at the same time. And right now, there is a lot going on in the world and there’s a lot going on in the White House,” said Andy Card, who was George W. Bush’s chief of staff on Sept. 11 and for years afterward. “I’m a little frustrated that people tend to be putting more balls in the air than people can catch.” [...]
“I’m already scared,” said Rep. Denny Heck (D-Wash.), looking ahead.
“I actually think we’re spinning toward a crisis very fast,” Heck added. “I’m a pretty imaginative guy, I’ve written three books, I’ve won an Emmy for a documentary—I wake up every day in stunned disbelief to the length to which he goes.” [...]
“By having so many false, misleading statements, what it does is it now makes it hard for members of Congress, and even the judiciary, to trust what this administration says,” said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.), who sits on the Foreign Affairs Committee. “That is a massive problem when you don’t then have time to react, as in a crisis. If a crisis deals with people outside the United States, you have foreign leaders who now don’t trust the president either.”
Long before the ballots were counted last November, Trump was viewed by his foes as an incompetent buffoon unfit for public office. He has since been the target for boatloads of jokes about his narcissistic, off-the-wall behavior, not to mention amateur and professional takes on whether he is suffering dementia or some other form of undiagnosed mental illness. Much of this is “gallows humor” laid out to shield us from the hideous possibilities with this man in charge, however incapable he seems to be of competently handling the reins of power.
Since this self-protective cackling at our predicament is necessary to preserve our own sanity, it would be silly to say that Trump is no laughing matter. He certainly is. But that should never overshadow the fact that “fascist,” or at least “fascistic,” aren’t being tossed around gratuitously in his case. Mussolini was a buffoon, too, in his own way. But that did not make him less authoritarian. He didn’t make the trains run on time, but he was perfectly capable of slaughter.
Trump is a buffoon, too, but an exceedingly dangerous one, and the only throttle seems to be his daughter and son-in-law. Ivanka and Jared are not exactly the kind of checks and balances the Founders had in mind.
Our situation with Donald Trump squatting in the White House is deadly serious. As of yet, there is no clear way out of our predicament. And that is no f’n joke.