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IT would appear that even Donald Trump is realising the difference between being CEO of a private company and sitting in the Oval Office of the White House. In Trump Towers, no underling dared to question his decisions or tell him he was wrong. As President of the United States, he has had to put up with congressional snubs and judicial rejection of his decisions ever since he was sworn in just over two months ago.
The American president is supposed to be the most powerful person in the world, and indeed, he is commander-in-chief of the most potent killing machine ever seen. This is a scary thought with somebody as erratic as Trump in charge of the nuclear codes. However, he is finding that his power is circumscribed by an array of constitutional checks and balances. These were built in by the country’s founding fathers to prevent the executive from becoming too powerful, and have served their purpose by reining in a president who thought his word was law.
Trump had campaigned on the boast that he wasn’t a politician, but a businessman who could get things done. But while this resonated with voters angry with mainstream politicians who, in their view, had marginalised and neglected vast swathes of the industrial belt, this attribute has not served Trump well. As he struggles to keep his electoral pledges, he has found his path blocked again and again by Congress and the judiciary. Meanwhile, the media are having a field day in highlighting these failures, stand-up comics are having a great time mocking the president, and the liberal left is gloating over these repeated stumbles.
Consider: Trump’s most repeated (and popular) campaign pledges included building a wall to keep Mexicans out; denying entry of Muslims into the United States; rolling back Obamacare, his predecessor’s hard-won medical care system; and doing away with a raft of Obama’s environmental laws aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Out of these, the famous wall is facing funding and legal issues as several states along the border are resisting the federal government’s attempt to erect an ugly barrier on their territory. And at an estimated cost of over $20 billion, Congress is dragging its feet over authorising this expenditure.
Two successive executive orders blocking the entry of travellers from a number of Muslim countries have been shot down by federal courts. The reason given by the judges is that the orders discriminated against people on grounds of their faith, something forbidden by the US constitution.
Most embarrassing of these setbacks is Trump’s failure to obtain the Senate’s approval for the reversal of Obamacare. Considering the Republicans have been objecting to this progressive legislation for some seven years, one would have expected them to come up with an innovative plan to replace Obamacare with. But it seems that while they are good at agitating, they were unable to match their words with a credible blueprint to provide millions of Americans with health care at the reasonable cost Trump had promised.
The only low-hanging fruit Trump was able to dislodge was the protection Obama had provided for the environment and for wildlife. Trump has issued an executive order permitting a controversial pipeline to carry highly polluting tar from Canada to oil refineries in the United States. He has also withdrawn ‘national park’ status from areas that were deemed to be of great natural beauty, and allowed the hunting of bears here. Most restrictions on coal-fired power plants have been lifted in the hope that this will restore coal mining. Many doubt that these steps will result in any significant job creation; most will place American commitment to prevent global warming under the targets set by the Paris Conference on hydrocarbon emissions in serious doubt. But then Trump has always said that global warming is a Chinese conspiracy designed to hobble American industry.
These setbacks apart, it is a fact that much of the media is taking great delight in deriding Trump’s words and antics. The president has long accused much of the American media of being purveyors of fake news, and now, whenever he is questioned or criticised, he repeats his favourite mantra.
But Trump’s falling popularity ratings do not reflect the sentiments expressed by his hard-core supporters in Middle America who voted for him. In TV and newspaper interviews, pro-Trump voters excuse his early stumbles, citing inexperience and a hostile media and judiciary. For them, he can do no wrong: as long as he’s trying to keep his campaign promises, they will forgive him anything.
In the brief but bitter battle over Obamacare, it was a fringe group of right-wing Republicans known as the Freedom Caucus who let him down by refusing to go along with the majority. The Democrats were never likely to support him, and Trump needed every Republican vote. Unfortunately for him, the extreme right, so-called Tea Party Republicans are deeply hostile to any state-sponsored medical care system.
At the outset of the Trump presidency, Republicans were salivating over the prospect of total control of the executive by virtue of their majorities in the Senate and the House of Representatives, together with their capture of the presidency. Given their complete lack of cooperation with the Obama administration over any legislation, they now find they need the support of at least some Democrats to pass their legislative agenda. But Democrats have bitter memories of the last few years when they were constantly thwarted in Congress by the Republicans. The final straw for them came when Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court was denied even a Senate hearing. As a result, Trump’s nominee is facing a hard time in his ongoing confirmation hearings.
Due to this wrangling, Trump is discovering that it is far easier to run a multi-billion dollar corporation than it is to be President of the United States.
Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2017
