“Managed to avoid” is not how I would put that. He assassinated a very prominent and popular (there) Iranian general. It looked exactly like he was desperately trying to provoke Iran into a war. Iran wanted none of it, knowing that it could theoretically improve his stature in the US, so they gave a very measured response that he was unable to use to escalate the situation.
He did try to start a war, but his utter incompetence protected us from being dragged into one.
We’re the United States. Most countries are smart enough to not declare war against us, no matter how much we provoke them. So when we want to have a war, we have to declare it.
Oh, yeah, the way the US “declared war” against North Vietnam, Afghanistan or Iraq? Funny how the longest-running wars seem to be undeclared.
Personally, I feel too much emphasis is placed on calling something a declaration of war. In all three cases you mentioned, Congress officially gave the President authorization to use military force against a country. Which to me, is effectively the same as declaring war.
There is a legitimate problem with the scope of the acts. The Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 1991 and the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 are pretty clear; they authorized the President to use military force against Iraq. The Tonkin Gulf Resolution was broader; it authorized the President to use military force to defend any member of the Southeast Asia Collective Defense Treaty. So Presidents were able to use this to justify wars against Cambodia and Laos as well as North Vietnam in defense of our ally South Vietnam. But still there was a recognized limit to its scope.
The troubling one is the Authorization for Use of Military Force of 2001 resolution. It gives the President Congressional approval to use military force against any nation which he determines were involved in the 9/11 attacks. Afghanistan was the obvious main target for this military force. But the law is still in effect nineteen years after the attack and Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump have used it to authorize the deployment of military forces to fourteen different countries. It’s time to repeal this resolution.
I am not surprised by his total lack of character, by his dishonesty, by his bigotry, by his sexism, by his utter incompetence, by his narcissism, or by his corruption. I’m not surprised that the consequences have been horrible for immigrants, minorities, and the stability of the free world.
I am a bit surprised that he actively undermined the pandemic response so badly that it led to many thousands of preventable deaths, and in so doing most likely doomed his reelection chances. I don’t think he cares about people’s lives, but he clearly cares about winning the election, and it was such an easy political win. The American public has a tendency to “rally around the flag” in times of crisis. He could have just read some platitudes off a teleprompter, and gotten out of the way to let the doctors do their job, and he probably would have gone up in the polls. But he couldn’t even manage that.
Indeed. It’s astounding really.
The only explanation is “Everything Trump touches turns to shit.”
He does what he always does, which is to divide. Rather than get everyone to work together, he instead tried to find someone to blame.
The Republican Party has been pretty darn loathsome for decades. Remember Newt? It goes at least that far back. Individual-ONE gained the nomination by being the ugliest person on the debate stage. To not expect the worst from him would have been naïve. I expected nothing good from him, and my expectations bore out.
I came to live in NYC in 1991. At that time, Trump to me was simply that guy they wrote the book about, who was a huge deal in the city’s real estate market, and I didn’t pay much attention to any stories about him. When he started appearing on Letterman, or at least when I started watching, I’m guessing the late 90s or early 2000s, he was always entertaining, always willing to be the butt of Letterman’s jokes, and he kept coming back. I respected that, and looked forward to his appearances. He was funny, and yes, even likable. The bluster and narcissism were certainly there, but that was part of the package, and wasn’t so oversized that you minded. An ass? Okay, I suppose, but an entertaining ass. What was the general “story” on him during the 90s, then? Just a bloviating businessman, or was his underlying immorality that is now so apparent already coming into view? (Being aware of the Marla Maples story, that was certainly evidence) but I mean racism, shady business dealings, etc…
Oh, yes, even in the 1990s, he was known (or at least strongly suspected) for some shady dealings. Also, his company was charged with racial discrimination back in the early '70s, and his open letters in New York newspapers against the Central Park Five were in 1989.
I don’t think that he realized that he was the butt of Letterman’s jokes. That’s what made it all the much funnier.
All I knew of him in the 90’s was that it was funny that he had a name that meant he was a winner, but he was quite the loser. Headlines of “Trump declares bankruptcy” and there were some headlines about him getting divorced. Other than that, my only knowledge of him was when his brain was transplanted into Bill the Cat’s, then he bought out Bloom County and fired everyone.
Ah, right, the Central Park Five letter. Before my time though. As for him knowing Letterman was making fun of him, yeah, I could see that. Not sure, but it makes sense considering his considerable bluster might shield his mind from that concept.
I only found out about his John Miller shtick during the election, when he would call into radio shows as Donald Trump’s spokesman. And quite frankly, it’s hilarious, on two possible levels: he thought he was fooling someone, even without trying to disguise his voice in any way. Or, he didn’t think he was fooling anyone, and didn’t give a shit. Gotta love that New York chutzpah, if that was the case. When the story came out during the election, Todd Schnitt (radio personality non parelis 
) made the insightful point that Trump shouldn’t have denied the story, but instead should have admitted to it, as it would humanize him.
*NOT knowing…
I didn’t see what else could happen, so it didn’t surprise me. He got the presidency. Moreover, he got it with a performance of bullshit bogus populism, which they had all already bought into.
The Republican party had been paving the way for Trump for decades, so it was no surprise to me that they would have to fall in line after him. Most of them got elected by using one form or another of Trump’s bullshit in their districts and states. In fact, Ted Cruz desperately was trying to become president by doing exactly what Trump did. Cruz just didn’t have the fakery skills that Trump has.
What happened to the Republican Party under Trump is the logical conclusion of the bed they’d been making for some time.
It’s also no surprise that–in order to rationalize this logical conclusion, (or at least, distract away from its glaringly obvious failure to the people of the nation)–right wing public discourse has fallen into all kinds of rhetorical smoke and mirrors, twisting themselves into pretzels as they try to fabricate blame in other directions (one of Trump’s most ingrained behaviors). We saw it here in the message board, back in 2015, when they would say, “at least Trump is not one of those typical politicians”, and we’re seeing it now, (in this thread, even), with desperate, bullshit fixations on Hunter Biden and other distractions designed to deflect from their abject failure to serve the American people in pursuit of their own self-interest. They’ve gotten very good at this, and have a good third of the country entirely duped.
There is indeed a sucker born every minute, and the rest of the Republicans know it as well as Trump. It was their game plan as well as his, so most of them had to play along with him. It’s the only way they can stay afloat.
For those in NY at the time, Trump was a regular on Howard Stern, too. I don’t remember any of the specific bits but in general, he seemed like an egomaniacal ass, but a harmless one. He came to my attention via his “saving” the Wollman Rink reconstruction and traded on that goodwill for a while. But most things seemingly failed, like the Trump Shuttle, and to me he became more of a jokey, “rat pack” anachronism playboy and than a talented businessman. I actually watched the Apprentice for the unintentional comedy.
My brother works in NY real estate and says everyone in that world knew him as an incompetent scumbag.
He was clearly incapable of the job but I didn’t think it would be this bad, and the grift so overt.
Agreed. When future historians look back at the Trump presidency, this is going to be the one that will have them scratching their heads.
Why did Trump choose a course that would not only harm the country but also harm his own presidency? Nobody benefitted from Trump’s actions, including Trump.
Sure, but that would have required him to relinquish the spotlight to someone else, which is something that apparently he can’t or won’t do. He seems to crave the attention that comes from appearing to be prominent and powerful and calling the shots, and doing what you said is too passive I’ll bet.
Here’s my personal speculation of what happened.
Back around January, Trump was briefed on the impending medical crisis and was given recommendations for what steps he should take.
But Trump is somebody who is not good at visualizing things. He only believes something is real when he can see it before his eyes. So he didn’t take the predictions of a major crisis seriously because people weren’t dying yet. He said that the disease would not be a big deal.
And having said this, Trump didn’t want to admit he was wrong. As the problem got bigger and bigger, Trump just kept doubling down on his original off-the-cuff decision rather than admit he made a mistake. And as that mistake kept getting bigger, he kept becoming more defensive about it.
I’d say I know how much he sucked back in the '80s. It was obvious he was all about the appearance of cunning and wealth, and none of it was to be had at the core. People who are honestly wealthy don’t have to brag about their wealth, just like people who are honestly powerful don’t have to brag about their power. This just became more obvious as time went on, as people who are brilliant businessmen don’t pretend to be shitty businessmen on TV. They have better things to do, like running productive businesses.
So, yeah, I knew the fucker was the epitome of stupid and awful and he had had no idea what was going on well before 2016. When a Republican colleague of my came in during the 2016 primaries saying “It looks like Trump might actually do it!”, my reflexive response was “What? Ruin the Republican party?”
Sure enough, that’s what he did. He may not have succeeded at running the country completely in the ditch, but the Republican party has lost even the ghosts of credibility it had after two Bush presidencies.
Did I know that he had no idea how the government worked and would stupid his way into love affairs with several dictators and attempt to mold himself in their image? Nope! But that was due to a lack of imagination on my part. If I had considered it, I would have thought “Oh yeah, gold toilets? Total dictator move.”
It’s called object permanence. We have a president who is developmentally two years old, and gets his way by lying.