“The Amateurish President Trump”

In conversation today with a conservative white female, she remarked, “I think people should address the President as President Trump, not Mr. Trump as one of my friends on Facebook does.  I told her so and she un-friended me!”  Apparently being un-friended on Facebook is a pretty big deal for some conservative and not so conservative women.  Since I have never used Facebook, I found the remark odd.  However, such is our modern world.  The relationships many people enjoy now are found on Facebook.  Who needs real friends ‘in the flesh’ when we have Facebook?

The point she was trying to make is, I think, even if we dislike President Trump, we should at least respect the office.  It upset her that people would call the President, “Mr. Trump.”  She has a good point, of course, regarding respect for the office.  I actually agree with her.  However, to respect the office and not the man in the office, particularly in the case of this President, is rather difficult to do.

I do like the fact that President Trump wears a tie and jacket, which is appropriate attire for a President of the United States.  That’s about the best thing I can say about him.

This particular supporter of President Trump will not appreciate me calling him “amateurish” and “a full-blown unmitigated disaster for our nation.”  She did not appreciate when I told her I do not support his policies in most cases, nor the manner in which he conducts his presidency, nor his haughty attitude, nor his shifting blame for his own incompetence onto the national press and those who simply report the facts of the news (albeit with commentary not always praiseworthy to him or his staff).

The fact his spokeswoman, Kelly Anne is about to be brought up by the Senate and House of Representatives on ethics charges for using her position to endorse the clothing line of Ivanka Trump, the President’s daughter, seems not even to have crossed this supporter’s mind.  Nor has the debacle of Mr. Flynn, the President’s national security advisor, resigning in disgrace only 26 days into Trump’s presidency.

The President does not even mind the fact he has just jettisoned 50 years of United States foreign policy by rejecting the “two-state solution” for the Israeli-Palestinian question and destroyed hopes of statehood for the Palestinians.   Apparently, he and Benjamin Netanyahu made nice today in the White House, almost agreeing to place the US Embassy into the holy city Jerusalem which is claimed as capital city of both parties, essentially endorsing Israel’s claim over Palestine for ownership of the city of peace.  In exchange for all these concessions, he did advise Mr. Netanyahu to hold up building settlements in the occupied territories “for a little while.”

Photos on the Internet show the President taking phone calls of importance in the middle of a large group of friends at his club in Miami, while discussing the recent North Korean ballistic missile test with the Japanese President.  Past Presidents of both parties typically discussed issues of national security behind closed doors or at least in a private setting.  Not this President, he discusses it over coffee and tea in the middle of a busy clubhouse with many people!

I am being kind when I call this type of behavior in a President ‘amateurish’.  John McCain, Republican senator of the Senate Armed Service Committee has other words for this kind of security breach.  I will simply let you read his concern.  President Trump apparently is not aware of microphones on cell phones which record conversations across a room, nor of the opportunity he is offering to enemies foreign and domestic to obtain state secrets from his conversations.  While he focuses on foreign terrorists, he gives away state secrets at his Florida home.  I have said before, this President’s conduct in office is ‘bizarre’.  My grandmother would ask him, as a third and fourth grade teacher of children, “Do you have a tap of common sense in your brain?”

It is said in the scriptures, “those who sow to the wind will reap the whirlwind.  The standing grain has no head, it will yield no flour; if so be that it yield, the strangers will swallow it up.” (Hosea 8:7)  Apparently over the centuries (we are talking about 8^th century BCE here), there have been a few persons who “had a tap of common sense.”  I would even call the statement in Hosea a statement of ‘God’s wisdom’.  Perhaps if our President read a few additional verses every morning from his Bible we might have more hope for him.

It is hard not to criticize this President.  He does so many uncommonly stupid things.  The Republican Party is hopeful that he (Donald Trump) may “grow into the Presidency”.  All of us, regardless of our political leanings are praying for him not to make too many stupid mistakes, especially the kind of mistakes which start conflicts between nations, turn friends into enemies (as the NATO alliance), or in the case of Putin and Russia, “enemies into friends.” More importantly, pictures of the satchel holding the nuclear weapon launch codes held by a smiling aide at a Presidential party posted to Facebook tend to make some of us queasy and nervous.  What happens if President Trump un-friends the man holding the nuclear satchel?  Who then can start and stop World War III?  (I am talking nonsense, of course.)

There is a famous book about a young woman, Alice, who fell down a rabbit hole and woke up in a place called ‘Wonderland’.   The author, Lewis Carroll, (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), an English mathematician, apparently used this children’s story as a means of political satire regarding the ruling party of his own time.  I am going to dust off my own copy and read this again.  Perhaps this story may find new life in our time.  We certainly have ‘mad hatters’ called Kushner, Miller, Bannon running the White House and the King (not Queen) enjoys cutting off men and women’s heads! If we are not right now down in a Rabbit Hole, then for God’s sake tell me where we are!  This is some new kind of alternate universe where none of us have been before!

Has anything said in this small article been untrue?  Forget about whether or not it is kind.  No one in our political establishment is kind anymore.  I am only following the lead set by the leaders of our country.  I suppose the citizens can now blame other citizens for what is happening in our White House.  It is like I said in another place, the voters of this country always get what they want and what they deserve!  However, I will amend this statement now by saying, “No one wants nor does any American deserve an incompetent President!”  Perhaps amateurish is too kind a word for this President!  I am searching for a word that summarizes what I am trying to say.  I am not sure it has been invented yet.  Someone out there help me!  Give me a word that summarizes a nightmare down in the rabbit hole!  Perhaps I shall call this ‘Wunderkeit”, a beta program from Germany which never made it to primetime!  It started with great expectations, but the company buried it and developed a simpler version of the app. Let’s bury this unworkable Presidency and start over again!

Michael Pence, are you listening?  When your current boss is impeached for being incompetent, violating ethics rules and generally living for too long down in the rabbit hole, cutting off too many heads of non-deserving persons, like he did to the former attorney general whose only offense was telling the truth to her President, will you be ready for prime time?  Even those of us who feel you are way too conservative on so many things would be happy to have someone who listens to his own party bring order into the chaos in this White House.

I have never prayed for a President to be impeached before.  I have always felt they could accomplish that without my help!  In this case, I may need to discuss this with our Lord and God.  I am ready to pray for almost anything that will save our nation from this debacle of the current Trump presidency!  God help us!  God help us all!

The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness, “Make straight in this desert a highway for our God, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and through his rich, abundant mercies!”  “Amen!”

Let all of God’s people and those who care nothing for God, Let all of the people across this whole nation say, “Amen!”

“Amen!  We praise you, Lord Jesus Christ!”