A Few Words of Admonition for the U.S. President
When I was a small boy my family would rent a house at the New Jersey shore each July, whose principal attraction, of course, was the beach. Yet I recall being put off by the large signs at each entrance point, which prohibited a number of activities: no littering, no fires, no dogs, no disrobing, no surfing, no climbing on jetties, no picnicking, no alcoholic beverages, no loud music, no motorized vehicles, no parking near the entrances, no fishing, no diving for shell fish, no boating, no swimming without a lifeguard, and I’m sure a few others I can’t recall. My brother and I called them the “No No No Signs.”
Since Donald Trump takes credit for the rise in the stock market indices (and erroneously conflates this with an improvement in the financial health of the overall U.S. economy and federal government generally), here’s a partial list of actions he should avoid:
• No trade wars that whack U.S. manufacturing
• No threats of thermonuclear annihilation
• No appointing felons to key White House positions
• No battering of key international relationships
• No immigration policies that please racists while inflicting damage on U.S. agriculture, restauranting and hospitality
Note: This a a partial list of actions that demonstrably crash the market; it doesn’t include things that apparently have no bearing on stock prices: environmental devastation, eviscerating public education, support of countries involved in genocides and other war crimes, and so forth.
Having said all this, here’s a recipe that does seem to work, though it inflicts great harm on the vast majority of Americans: Tax cuts for corporations and the super-rich.
They need to be paid for by our children, and by those of us silly enough to need Medicare and social security, but they provide a short-term influx of capital into equities.
Craig,
I’m sure the President will be deeply grateful for your admonitions !:)
As a result he’ll no doubt:
1) Abandon his efforts to enforce a popular and cohesive immigration policy that proved astonishingly effective in reducing the flood of illegal migrants to a mere trickle.
2 ) Allow various US pariahs and desperate despots to acquire nuclear capacity to attack the US.
3) Pretend the US is not already in a trade war for the last thirty years, and losing badly ! Pretend US industry hasn’t already been “whacked” almost out of existence. Abandon his so far successful efforts to reverse US losses and rebuild US industry.
4) Ignore the excellent understandings he’s built with the UK, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, while even the PRC is wary but so far cooperative and compliant with the President’s new ‘real politik’ trade policies. Russia remains subdued and cautious as a result of the US administrations policy to contain and weaken Russian influence in Eastern Europe.
Even Angela Merkel has expressed her surprise but respect for the administrations actions in Europe. (The EU was never a friend to the US).
5) Since The President has appointed no ‘felons’ to any office, your advice seem superfluous and gratuitous.
6) Abandon a necessary and long overdue Tax reform promised in his election campaign, for some 19th century political ideological reasoning completely irrelevant to modern economics ?
I don’t see the President accepting your admonitions since he’s not an appeaser or likely to betray his campaign promises.
I’ll agree Donald Trump appears to be a most unlikely President to enforce a radical change in US direction and restructure, but he’s proving to be astonishingly resilient and effective in pursuing his agenda.
I’m certain your admonitions will fall on deaf ears, merely the echo’s of an earlier era rapidly fading into distant past.
Despite my reservations, after observing the first year of the Trump administration, I’ve come to realize the Trump Presidency has no modern precedent. The administration is unlike any other, it can’t be evaluated by any previous rules or expectations.
This is a totally new style of government hearkening back to Andrew Jackson. The next 12 months will be exciting, during this period President Trump will either either be a complete disaster, or remembered as great reformer who restructured and revitalized a decaying giant.
Either way, it won’t be dull !
Craig,
Interesting statistic, which of the major news outlets do you think mentions the President the most and which covers Presidential affairs the least ?
Amazingly, the leftist MSNBC is the most obsessed with the President with more than 69% of total coverage involving the President, with CNN and CBS following close behind 67% and 66% respectively . Surprisingly, Fox News mentions the President least, with only 27% coverage.
However, only Fox provided any significant coverage of the news the Clinton campaign funded the infamous Trump Russia dossier.
Leftist bias ? Yes indeed, undeniable. But to what avail ?
Well, stories about the President do drive ratings. However,contrary to all conventional wisdom, the deluge of negative stories doesn’t seem to hurt the President.
In fact, the contrary appears to be occurring, people are tuning in as entertainment and the fascination with the President seems to be growing, not abating. Some of that fascination is translating into support as he shrugs off the negative stories or begins to gain credibility when the public begin to compare his actions and accomplishments favorably in contrast to the wild claims made against him.
Viewers seem to have developed a game, where intialing the object was seeing how many times the President got it wrong, but lately developed into how many times the media gets it wrong.
What’s most interesting is a recent study conducted admittedly by the Wall Street Journal revealing an increasing audience for CNN, CBS, MSNBC but a dramatic decrease in trust and credibility. It would appear more people are watching, but fewer believe what the see.
Among the viewing audience only a tiny percentage, even among confirmed liberal viewers believed CNN, CBS, MSNBC or even ABC tried to avoid a liberal bias or tried to present news fairly, accurately or impartially.
Even more alarming were opinions about the bias of formerly considered centrist outlets such as Bloomberg, Google News and USA today. It would appear most reader/viewers of these outlets regard the outlets as mere entertainment, political news becoming so fused with opinion as not to be trusted.
Fox News fares a little better. Although detested by liberals, among it’s own audience 72% believe Fox is credible, while a small but slightly higher percentage believe Fox News tries to maintain balanced reporting than other outlets.
What’s missing ?
A credible centre, or even center-right, media outlet. This used to be the place occupied by CBS, ABC, and NBC. Media trusted for unbiased, balanced, factual accurate reportage of News, carefully separated from opinion.
In such an atmosphere of mistrust and media bias, where serious journalist have disappeared in favour of ranting talking heads, is it anyone wonder that a media manipulator like Donald trump has arisen ? The President’s endless tweets and manipulation of social media has served him well countering traditional media.
Maybe, he’s the only sort of politician who can survive in this new media climate!
There is no doubt that the mainstream news here in the U.S. has a ton of coverage on Trump, and I don’t doubt that this is driven at least in part by ratings. This toxic presidency, and the process of bringing it to an end, is one of the 4 – 5 most interesting and important things that’s ever happening in American history.
Craig,
But that’s the whole point, the media frenzy isn’t bringing down the President. If anything it’s more damaging to the media. The President is setting the agenda and the President holds the initiative.
As long as the US economy continues to improve,( or the US is threatened) enough people will rally around the President to keep him in office. A large percentage of the US people have become accustomed to the Presidents extravagant manner of speaking and appreciate his efforts on issues like gun control as being simply pragmatic and realistic.
Because he’s not perceived as a traditional Republican, or leader of the Republican Party, the public say, “oh well, he did his best, he did what he could”.
The leftist media is stuck trying to sell a dichotomy. The media portrays an image of a President who is a dangerous megalomaniac, a tyrant who listens to no one, while in the same breath condemning him for being weak and too willing to listen to all sides !
That’s the problem, the President remains a moving target. A foreign leader briefed by his people and the media expects to encounter a raving megalomaniac, a carpet chewing bombastic sociopathic tyrant, instead a charming, considerate individual who listens intently and more importantly, intelligently. To their amazement they find a US leader willing to compromise and be flexible, while remaining resolute on key objectives.
Asian and English speaking leaders have been quicker to recognize the US President is pursuing a profoundly changed US foreign policy. They’ve come to appreciate his objectives are fairly simple and pragmatic. Once they grasped the President is not bound by any ideological agenda they’ve found him relatively easy to develop an understanding and good working relationship.
Of all the Europeans, Angela Merkel was the President’s greatest critic, but after meeting the President in person, acknowledged she was surprised by his demeanor concluding, ” President Trump is most dangerous when he’s listening, he’s very shrewd and insightful, quickly getting to heart of any matter”.
Of all the world’s leaders, the EU are the most obtuse. Bound up their own self importance the EU bureaucrats are incapable of pragmatism.
While the media, (including advocates like yourself) continue to obsess about President Trump you remain paralyzed to offer any alternative. As long as he hold the monopoly on creating outrage and obsessive coverage, he wins ! The media is addicted to “Trump” and the ratings he creates.
The right will continue support the President from self interest, while enough of the old working class will support him out of hatred for the left elite.
To break the President’s spell, the media should return to it’s basic mission. Report the news in a balanced, impartial and objective manner. Not only would this restore credibility but re-focus attention on the real national debate.
The danger for the media is a loss of ratings. President Trump is news, he’s interesting. As long as he has irrational, outraged, infuriated critics, he’s winning. The more vehement his opponents the more the general public doubt the media.
That’s the real danger of the Trump Presidency, he’s neutralized the old quality media when it’s already struggling from digital competition.