Only two months into his presidency, Donald Trump keeps setting new records … for ineffectiveness! According to a recent Gallup poll, Trump’s job approval rating has hit an all-time low… a measly 37%!

While “going low” is a good thing when doing the limbo or playing golf, a sinking performance rating can only spell trouble for someone in public office.

It seems all the negative press Trump has gotten since inauguration day, despite his “fake news” protestations to the contrary, is staring to take its toll.

Trump has gotten himself into a jam by supporting the unpopular GOP Obamacare replacement bill. He has also caused fear among his supporters with a budget proposal that has been labeled “morally obscene” by Bernie Sanders. The proposal, ironically, hurts many of those voters who helped Trump win the White House. The environment, public education, worker protections, programs for the elderly and cultural institutions (Sesame Street!) all stand to lose under Trump’s budget blueprint.

Not surprisingly, Americans do not seem to be keen on Trump’s almost weekly getaways to his lavish Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. At a cost of about $3 million per golfing vacation, it is easy to see why American taxpayers would have a problem with Trump enjoying himself at his golf course on Mr. and Mrs. John Q. Public’s dime.

As more and more news comes out about possible collusion by Trump, and his associates, with Russia in helping him win the presidency, look for his approval rating to tank even further.

How low can Trump’s approval rating go?

Except for diehard Trump supporters who probably make up a base of about 20-25% of Americans, look for Trump’s job approval rating to hit new lows in the coming months.

It is quite possible Trump’s numbers will go so low that Congressional Republicans, who have gone along with all the Trump madness in exchange for the presidential pen, will look to save their own skins by mentioning the “I” word … impeachment.

Photo | vanityfair.com

For a man who loves to plaster his name on anything and everything, from skyscrapers to steaks, why is Donald Trump opposed to calling the new Republican healthcare plan Trumpcare?

It’s not as if the new president dislikes what Republicans are offering as a replacement to the Affordable Care Act, a/k/a Obamacare.

“I think we’re going to have a tremendous success,” said Trump when describing the House GOP’s healthcare bill earlier this week. “We’re going to do something that’s great and I’m proud to support the replacement plan released by the House of Representatives and encouraged by members of both parties,” Trump added.

In a tweet on the same day, Trump referred to the new bill as “our wonderful new Healthcare Bill.” But for some reason, neither he, nor his staff, wishes to refer to the proposed legislation as Trumpcare. What gives?

The simple answer is that behind his praise for House Speaker Paul Ryan’s long envisioned legislative dream, he knows the new healthcare plan is a pile of fecal matter.

Opposition to the bill, whose actual name is the “American Health Care Reform Act of 2017”, is coming from all sides.

The American Medical Association, the American Hospital Association and AARP, the nation’s largest advocacy group for older people, are all solidly against the GOP measure.

Many key House conservatives are also not sharing in the love for Speaker Ryan’s healthcare baby.

“It’s Obamacare in a different format,” is how Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a member of the hardline House Freedom Caucus, described the bill.

As is always the case with Donald Trump, look at his actions, not his words. If he truly believed the GOP healthcare plan is so great; if it, as he has said, would “expand choice, increase access, lower cost and at the same time provide better heath care,” he’d be slapping his brand all over that sucker!

When Trump does not want to take credit for something supposedly good (especially when it is the result of someone else’s hard work), you can be sure it isn’t.

Photo | headline politics.com

Last night, Donald Trump delivered his first speech to a joint session of Congress. And in many ways, it had all the hallmarks of the typical Trump campaign speech … a lot of promises, a number of verifiable lies and a total lack of substance.

Building the big beautiful wall got mentioned, as did bringing back manufacturing jobs from abroad. And, of course, we heard once again of the need to “repeal and replace” Obamacare with “reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower cost and at the same time provide better heath care.” About the only thing missing was a guaranteed cure for cancer!

But the most bizarre moment of the evening came when Trump talked about the raid in Yemen that took the life of Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens. Trump invited the dead soldier’s widow, Carryn Owens, to the gathering. She was seated next to Trump’s daughter, Ivanka.

Trump praised the fallen soldier, saying, “Ryan died as he lived: a warrior, and a hero — battling against terrorism and securing our nation,” while Carryn Owens was overcome with tears. “I just spoke to Gen. Mattis, who reconfirmed that, and I quote, ‘Ryan was a part of a highly successful raid that generated large amounts of vital intelligence that will lead to many more victories in the future against our enemies.’”

Unfortunately, many military analysts consider the raid a failure … a botched mission poorly planned and executed. Trump has recently blamed both his own military and Barack Obama for the raid gone bad … everyone but himself.

After a long … very very long …. standing ovation for the sobbing widow, the man who cares so much about records, ratings and crowd sizes went off script, saying Ryan Owens was looking down and was “very happy because he just broke a record” for a standing ovation!

The fallen hero, who might still be alive if not for a very questionable operation, is very happy because he broke a record for standing ovations? How totally insensitive. How totally Trump.

Owens’s father, Bill, refused to meet with Trump after his son’s body was brought back to the U.S. because of his anger over the raid, which marked a rare use of American ground forces inside Yemen. He has called for an investigation.

“Don’t hide behind my son’s death to prevent an investigation,” Bill Owens told The Miami Herald. “I want an investigation. … The government owes my son an investigation.”

With our current president, who seems to never make mistakes, and a Republican-controlled Congress, it is unlikely the grieving father’s request will ever be met.

Photo | businessinsider.com

Donald Trump has tweeted he will not be attending this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner slated for April 29^th, making him the first president to skip the event in over 30 years.

Trump tweeted:

I will not be attending the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!

Notice something missing?

The usually “straight-talking” president fails to give a reason why he will not be attending the usually festive event. He does not even offer a plausible “alternative fact.” Sad.

This has caused many pundits to speculate about Trump’s possible motive.

The conventional wisdom seems to be that Trump does not want to confront the national press, who he has repeatedly called “fake news”and “enemy of the people.” Some are calling the president a coward.

While that may be a possibility, I believe the answer is more basic.

The man simply does not have a sense of humor. And when he does attempt to make a joke, no one can tell for sure if he is trying to be funny or announcing some actual policy proposal!

We got a glimpse of Trump’s standup routine at the annual Alfred E. Smith charity dinner in New York last October. His material, and delivery, was so bad the crowd booed the then GOP presidential nominee.

Many have wondered whether our president has the ability to be funny or even knows how to laugh. He certainly has shown an inability to laugh at himself.

Remember Barack Obama’s brilliant take down of Donald Trump at the 2011 White House Correspondent’s Dinner hosted by Seth Meyers? As Obama was delivering his killer material, the camera kept focusing on a stone-faced Trump. Obama succeeded that night in turning Trump into a laughingstock.

If Trump were to attend the press dinner, that would undoubtedly invite comparison to Obama’s silky smooth performances at past events and his ability to take a joke.

No, there really isn’t any wonder why Trump has decided to take a pass. He’s just not up to the job of being comedian in chief. The thin-skinned president, for sure, does not want to be the butt of jokes that might hit too close to home.

Or maybe, just maybe, our vain president has something more important to do that night … like Windex all the mirrors in the White House? Bada bing!

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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.

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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

It is incomprehensible, and downright scary, how Americans have elected as their president a man who knows so little about the system of government he is sworn to uphold.

America rejected being ruled by an autocrat at the moment of its founding. Instead of a supreme ruler, our Founding Fathers gave us the Supreme Court. Specifically, they gave us a Constitution that created a system of national government divided into three separate, but equal, branches: legislative, executive, and judicial.

The Constitution also created a system of “checks and balances” to ensure that no one branch of government would become too powerful.

In the landmark case of Marbury v. Madison (1803) the Supreme Court announced for the first time the principle that a court may declare an act of Congress void if it is inconsistent with the Constitution. Basically, the Court said it had the power and duty to be the final arbiter of the constitutionality of congressional legislation and executive action.

Donald Trump’s rushed executive order on immigration was not only poorly thought out and badly executed, it was universally deemed to be unconstitutional by people who know about these things … constitutional scholars.

The order, which halted refugee arrivals into the U.S. for 120 days and barred citizens of Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia, Syria, and Yemen from entering the U.S. for 90 days, was sure to be challenged in court.

Yesterday, a Seattle federal judge put a nationwide block on Trump’s order. When a judge issues a temporary restraining order, it is because he believes the side challenging the order is likely to succeed on constitutional grounds and immediate action is needed so as to prevent those affected by the order from suffering “irreparable injury.”

Instead of President Trump saying his administration would appeal the judge’s decision, our new wannabe tsar took to Twitter to mock the judge:

The opinion of this so-called judge, which essentially takes law-enforcement away from our country, is ridiculous and will be overturned!

It is one thing for a presidential candidate to disrespect a judge, as Trump did during his campaign, but the President of the United States?

Trump continues to prove he knows nothing about our system of government. We are not a nation ruled by men but by laws. His personal attack on a federal judge and broader disrespect for an independent judiciary, is not only unpresidential but unprecedented and unforgivable.

Photo | nbcnews.com