Bearing Witness to Trump Week 28

July 30 – August 5, 2017

Most of the nation cringes when in a speech to law enforcement officers Trump says it is ok to rough up suspects in their custody. The top DEA official says the President is condoning police misconduct. This comes after his speech to boy scouts where he promotes values that are definitely not American. Later on Trump lies once again claiming the BSA leader called him after the speech to tell him it was the best ever. Not. Trump also claims the Mexican president called him to tell him about how well the new border policies were working. Nope.

Has the nation lost its way that we aren’t demanding Trump be removed from office, or do we think this is just some freak reality TV show with no real consequences? There have been so many distortions and lies from the administration that it took a full-page of the NYT to list them all.

As the Russian investigation continues, the White House now admits that Trump dictated his son’s statement about the nature of Jr’s. visit with a roomful of Russians during the election. Can you say obstruction of Justice? Apparently, special prosecutor Mueller can as he has impaneled a grand jury. Can it move fast enough to save our country? Congress is so worried that Trump will fire Mueller that they work on a bipartisan bill to protect both Mueller and AG Sessions.

Trump holds his nose while signing legislation which places new sanctions on Russia for misbehaving during the election. Trump calls the bill flawed and unconstitutional. The Russians respond with telling hundreds of American in Russia to pack up and leave. Later in the week Trump blames Congress for our bad relations with the Russians, and still refuses to blame Russia for anything. Imagine the howls if a Democrat had been seen cuddling the Russians.

The new White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, on his first day in the new role, fires communication director Scaramucci after only one week on the mooches job. Three communications directors have come and gone in what must be the worst job for the worst President in history.

Trump blasts his military leaders in Afghanistan for little progress. He demands a new strategy from them, yet he has not articulated a new policy nor what our goals are for being in this country now for the longest war in American history. Politicos on the right say we just need more troops. Yes, of course, just more troops, another 15 years, and I am sure that will win the war. We need a President to say what the hell are we doing there and get us the hell out.

Leaked transcripts from Trump’s call with Australia and Mexico show a President cajoling, bullying and threatening our closest allies not over serious policy issues, but over political things that would make Trump look weak.  In the calls he lies some more, claiming that he won New Hampshire, because it was a drug infested den and that more people turned out at his inauguration than anyone before him.  He tells Mexico’s Pena Nieto to stop saying Mexico won’t pay for the wall, because it will make Trump look bad, and then threatens a border tax. Instead of being embarrassed or apologetic, the White House goes on a tirade against leakers and turns up the heat on AG Jeff Sessions to prosecute those who leaded this information.

Meanwhile Sessions is busy rolling back Obama-era policies on gay rights, voting rights, and justice/police reform. He takes aim at drugs, illegal immigrants, sanctuary cities, locking more people up, and of course leakers.

As the week drew to a close, the U.S. officially notified the United Nations that it was withdrawing from the Paris climate pact.

Canadians continue to report record number of asylum seekers crossing into Canada from the US. Maybe they need to build a wall and make us pay for it.

Trump starts a two-week trip to a private golf club to get out of the White House which he declares is in physically sad condition. Yes, blame the White House structure itself. Of course he took many weekend vacations in Florida during much of his first six months in office.

The above news items have been taken from a number of international, national, regional, and local news media sources, both print and digital. Additional editorial opinions and comments about these news items are those of this author.