Fifty-four percent of Americans did not vote for Donald Trump yet they are being asked to make nice-nice with the forty-six percent who did.

“Try to see their point of view,” the majority of voters are being urged. “You’ll never get anywhere by calling them racist, xenophobic, uninformed and uneducated morons,” they are scolded.

The problem with this “try to understand” nonsense is that it is just that … nonsense.

How do you accept a person who does not accept verifiable facts? How do you have a rational discussion with someone who believes the mainstream media is feeding them “fake news?” How do you convince someone the earth is round when they believe it is flat?

Mark Twain famously said, “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.”

At his 2020 reelection rally in Florida last week, Trump mentioned the terror attack in Sweden. Of course there was no such attack. Trump tried “clarifying” things by saying he heard about it on Fox News. Well, problem solved! To many gullible Trump supporters, the big bad media is just “covering up” the story and the attack did happen. (Funny how Trump loyalists do not consider Fox News part of “the media?)

How do you have an intelligent discussion with someone who does not believe in the primacy of logic or the theory of gravity?

The answer is you can’t. So why waste your breath?

Trump is nothing but your typical cult leader whose disciples will follow him to the gates of hell. If you question what the leader says, you are the enemy.

Just last week Trump tweeted this statement that should have every freedom loving American petrified:

The FAKE NEWS media (failing ‪@nytimes, ‪@NBCNews, ‪@ABC, ‪@CBS, ‪@CNN) is not my enemy, it is the enemy of the American People!

No, you won’t get anywhere trying to talk sense to the willfully ignorant. It is best to just ignore them … granted, calling out these misguided souls may make some of you feel better, if only for a moment.

Photo | scoopnest.com

Everyone knows the joke about when you know a politician is lying … his lips are moving. Now we have a tell about when Trump, or any of his acolytes, is telling the truth … a statement is labeled “100% false.”

Remember when the president-elect floated the idea of cutting the CIA staff and restructuring the agency? This is how Trump’s then spokesperson, Sean Spicer, described the situation: “There is no truth to this idea of restructuring the intelligence community infrastructure. It is 100% false.”

How about when Trump ally, Roger Stone, said during the Republican primary, reports of turmoil within the Trump campaign were “100% false.”

Then there was that time, at a campaign rally in North Carolina, when Trump described himself as a victim of a smear campaign and accused Hillary Clinton of “character assassination.” Said Trump, “These allegations are 100% false, as everybody knows.”

The key to knowing for sure something is a bald-faced lie is the addition of “100%.”

Today the Associated Press (AP) released a story that the Trump administration is considering mobilizing as many as 100,000 National Guard troops to round up unauthorized immigrants.

The “leaked” draft memo says participating troops would be authorized “to perform the functions of an immigration officer.”

The White House was quick to respond. While not denying the document is real, Sean Spencer told the press corps Trump never considered implementing such a plan. “It is irresponsible to be saying this,” he said, calling the report “100% not true.”

The “100%” rule also works in reverse.

Donald Trump senior adviser, Stephen Miller, last week weighed in on the controversy surrounding WH press secretary Sean Spicer’s decision to comment on Nordstrom pulling Ivanka’s products from their stores.

“I’m not going make a comment on that,” said Miller. “I don’t have any information on it. I do want to say that Sean Spicer, as always, is 100 percent correct and that what he said is true and important.”

So there you have it. The next time you hear “100%” being bandied about by Trump or his surrogates, you know the opposite of whatever is being claimed is actually the case.

Photo | cnn.com

Stephen Miller, the White House policy adviser, made some bold and controversial statements across an array of Sunday political talk shows yesterday. One of his favorite talking points was also summed up in one of his tweets:

“We have a president who has done more in three weeks than most presidents have done in an entire administration.”

Of course we all understand what the conservative, 31-year-old “senior” adviser means by the word “more.” He, no doubt, is thinking along the lines of accomplishments.

While most would dispute such an interpretation of Trump’s performance, in a real sense, our neophyte president has done more in his first three weeks in office than most presidents do in an entire term … just not in the way Miller, former press secretary of Michele Bachmann, cares to acknowledge.

Trump has done more …

1. to undermine our rule of law by questioning the legitimacy of our court system.
2. to make our country less safe through his thinly disguised Muslim travel ban.
3. to alienate our friends and allies with anti-NATO talk.
4. to trash our free press (except Fox News) as purveyors of “fake” news.
5. to question the integrity of our voting system through unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud.
6. to tangle with a publically traded company because of a business decision they made.
7. to create a diplomatic crisis with two close allies, Mexico and Australia.
8. to belittle the civil rights movement by defaming icon, John Lewis, through racist tweets.
9. to insult our intelligence agencies by comparing them to Nazis.
10. to attack the first amendment by claiming protesters are paid professionals.

All this in only three weeks!

What we, and the world, desperately need from Donald Trump is for him to do less, not more, Stephen!

No, we do not care how many golf vacations our chief executive takes. The further away from Washington D.C., and a pen, the safer we, and our beleaguered democracy, will be.

Photo | cnn.com

Sir, since being sworn in on January 20, not a day has gone by without you monopolizing the news cycle. Whether it’s coverage of another rushed executive order or a vengeful tweet, we are heading for Trump burnout fast.

Don’t get us wrong. We are enjoying your performance with all its twists and turns. But could you not be in our faces every minute of every day?

TV shows have commercial breaks and long movies have intermissions. We really need a chance to catch our collective breath and the time to absorb what you’re presenting us.

May I make a suggestion? Could you turn your daily soap opera into a weekly drama? There is no way we can put up with a daily Trump show for four straight years. You’ve heard of audience fatigue, right?

Or is there a reason why you want to dominate the news so much? Is there a rationale why everything you do seems so rushed and not very well thought-out? Is it that you feel time is not on your side?

If that is the case, your hogging the news is understandable.

Yes, only three weeks into your presidency there already is talk of impeachment. Gambling houses all over the world are taking action on whether you will resign or be impeached before the end of your term.

Ladbrokes, the British oddsmaker, has your chances of leaving office by way of resignation or impeachment and removal at just 11-to-10, or just a little worse than even money. The odds of you being impeached this year in the House of Representatives are only 4-to-1, according to the Irish bookmaker Paddy Power.

Whatever it is that’s motivating you to make news on a daily basis, we want to make a deal with you. We know you like deals. If you feel you’ll survive your four years in office because Congressional Republicans wouldn’t dare get rid of you, slow down a bit. Don’t feel as if you have to shock us on a regular basis. We will still care about what you do or say even if other people share the limelight.

But if you believe your days are numbered, then go ahead and do as much as you can while in power. Just one little request … please keep us from World War III.

Photo |  REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Our new president promised to come out of the gate running and he has not disappointed … 22 executive orders in only his first two weeks in office.

Funny, but it wasn’t that long ago Republicans cried foul when President Obama resorted to the presidential prerogative at the start of his presidency.

“It is unilateral, overreaching and unconstitutional,” wrote Utah Republican Jason Chaffetz. “Left unchecked, it is behavior that undermines, and will ultimately erode, the foundation of our democracy and our freedom.”

The problem Trump and his administration have encountered, and the lesson they have hopefully learned, is that when you act quickly you tend to make mistakes.

Many of Trump’s executive orders have been poorly thought-out, poorly written and poorly executed.

Nothing exemplifies this better than Trump’s executive order on immigration.

President Trump issued his poorly-cloked Muslim travel ban to take effect immediately without preparing those who would have to execute it. This led to confusion and needless detainments at airports across the country as Homeland Security tried to sort things out (who was banned and who wasn’t).

Now, Trump’s travel ban is rightfully and predictably being challenged in federal court on constitutional grounds.

It seems Trump is simply checking off his campaign promises without any regard to the consequences. It’s an unnecessary and dangerous “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” mindset.

“A businessman with no experience in public office,” today writes New York Times reporter Peter Baker, “Mr. Trump has shown in his administration’s opening days that he favors an action-oriented approach with little regard for the two other branches of government.”

Good governance requires reflection and planning …. something akin to the governing style of the last occupant of the Oval Office.

Trump and his administration must learn that governing in these polarized times calls for a commitment to inclusion, transparency and deliberation.

Mr. President, just because you promised your base something in October doesn’t mean you have to shove it down the nation’s throat as soon as you get the chance.

The country needs a thoughtful leader with a “slow hand.” For the sake of the nation, sir, no more quickies please.

Photo | forbes.com