We begin every year with hopes and dreams for the future. Regardless of how anyone voted, 2017 began with much anticipation of what a Donald Trump presidency would look like, what a Republican Congress with a Republican White House would do for the country, and what would be the future of a vanishing Democratic party. Well, it was an incredible year to experience from the Inauguration through the end of the year. Let’s look at 2017 and the major events.
The Dossier: The dossier is one of the biggest stories of 2017 with a huge impact on our politics. First, debunk the desperate lie that the dossier is evidence of Democratic collusion with Russia during the 2016 campaign. Three key facts disprove that lie – the dossier was originally funded by Fusion GPS, an American organization founded in Washington, DC by former Wall Street Journal personnel. GPS hired Christopher Steele, a proven, reliable, reputable British intelligence agent, to prepare the dossier. It was not prepared by Russia. Most importantly, it was Republican primary opponents of Trump that originally hired GPS to produce the dossier, not the Democrats or Clinton campaign. Late in 2016, the DNC received the dossier from Trump’s GOP rivals and opted to go forward with funding additional research. Despite the powerful, harmful contents against Trump, neither the DNC nor Clinton campaign ever used the dossier. The dossier proved three things about Donald Trump relative to the campaign – clear evidence of Trump’s business and financial connections to Russian interests, Russian interest and attempts for several years to cultivate Trump in order to blackmail, compromise or influence him as President, and evidence of inappropriate, salacious behavior by Trump that, blackmailed or not, would hurt his public persona and support other claims of sexual harassment, sexual assault or other inappropriate personal conduct. The FBI, who not once but twice publicly disparaged candidate Clinton for her inexcusable email debacle, maintained absolute silence on the Trump dossier. Trump asserts FBI bias against him when in fact the FBI’s actions protected him and hurt Clinton. Much of the contents of the dossier have since been proven true.
Russia: 2016 was nothing new in the sense that governments have attempted to influence the results of elections in other countries. However, Russia’s actions in this past election took things to a new level and there are legitimate questions about collusion or influence with the Trump campaign. The Russia investigations will continue to be a big story through 2018 and hopefully by the end we will have a clear picture of what they did. We learned in 2017 about unprecedented contacts between the Trump campaign and Russia. The Trump campaign assured Russia that if elected they would undue the sanctions imposed on Russia for invading Ukraine and for their interference in our election. During the Republican convention, the Trump campaign erased decades of GOP policy and changed the party platform to be pro-Russia. The investigation has also shown extensive business and financial ties between Trump and Russia that establish the basis for Russia influence over Trump. This is not about Russia planting stories on social media, although we need to discover the extent of what they did in order to prevent any such external influences on future elections. This is about whether a hostile power has improper influence over a sitting president, the critical importance of which we can not overstate. There was clearly a reason President Trump, as a candidate and in office, outright refused to disclose any tax returns or the full nature of his business interests. The most logical reason is to hide his connections to Russia and the influence Russian interests hold over him.
Leadership: The President has been abysmal as a leader. Leaders bring people together, set an example, inspire people even where there is disagreement. Trump is the opposite. He has made no attempt to expand his base in almost 12 months in office. Instead, he continually speaks divisively and pits groups against each other. He chooses to fight everything rather than unite the American people. Charlottesville is a great example of his leadership failure. There were demonstrations by Nazis and white supremacists on one side and counter-protesters on the other. Nazism and white supremacy are antithetical to everything the U.S. stands for. Only one side drove a car as a weapon of mass destruction against the other. Yet, the President said there were good people on both sides. There is no such thing as a good Nazi… Even after the firestorm where some Republicans openly disagreed with him, President Trump doubled and tripled down on his statement rather than modify his comments. His unwavering support for Roy Moore, a credibly accused pedophile and other sexual misconduct, was another leadership failure. President Trump’s excessive and hostile use of Twitter, especially to attack anyone and anything with the even the slightest negative connotation, is a terrible example for others. It frustrates many Republicans as well who feel it is not appropriate.
Constitutional Crises: The President, as do all federal judges and members of Congress, takes an oath to the Constitution. The Constitution and the rule of law are the preeminent authority and come before party, policy, self-interest, or anything else. President Trump’s constant attacks on the media create a Constitutional crisis. This is especially so when he publicly labels them the enemy of the people and fake news. Neither is true. As John McCain said very well, even where we may get frustrated with certain media coverage, we absolutely need a free press to challenge leaders and keep everyone honest. It is ironic that Trump says fake news. First, the overwhelming majority of news coverage has proven to be true and accurate and for the few mistaken news reports, the responsible organization has taken appropriate corrective action. Secondly, it was the media that created the Donald Trump persona and propelled him to the White House. The reality star owes his success to the media and he rode the wave of constant, free media coverage through the primaries and then to White House. Another crisis is President Trump’s statements that he should control the Justice Department and have them do whatever he wants. It is imperative to our democracy that the DoJ remain independent as they have always been. When leaders can abuse the power of their office and institutions to attack their opponents, we take steps towards an autocracy. His business conflicts raise an ongoing challenge. Putting aside that President Trump has shattered the record for number of vacation days in the first year in office, his personally profiting from his vacations is problematic. By spending hundreds of days at his personal commercial properties and golf courses, he forces the U.S. government to pay millions of dollars to those places. It also drives up the rates he can charge members of the public to join or use those facilities.
The Era of Lying: The truth is all politicians lie. They can’t possibly keep all the promises they make even if they wanted to do so in the first place. They put so much spin on things to avoid negativity or be seen as losing that it becomes lying. And of course, there is the need to attack opponents, both their records and their characters. And that becomes dishonest, too. President Trump, and his staff, have taken lying to a new level. Forget eye of the beholder where people can disagree. These folks routinely outright fabricate things and then double down, insisting they are true even where disproven.
North Korea: The President did fairly well on this issue. North Korea, specifically their nuclear weapons program, has been one of the top national security threats to the U.S. for several administrations. The juvenile name-calling and provocation is counter-productive, period. However, his firm stance is appropriate. Time will tell how effective his policy is.
Taxes: The 2017 GOP tax plan was the only legislative achievement of 2017, but it certainly was a big one. While no where near the largest tax cuts in recent history, it will still have a big impact. First and foremost, it will add at least 1.5 trillion dollars to the national debt and maybe more than 2 trillion. The national debt is out of control due to dereliction by both parties. In a few years, the debt will cause high inflation, economic decline, threaten every benefit or entitlement program including pensions, and threaten our national security. There should not be any tax cuts until we address spending and begin reducing the debt. Additionally, while promised as a middle-class tax cut, the evidence indicates it will significantly benefit the wealthiest Americans and marginally benefit working families at best. With newly reduced tax rates for corporations and individuals, it is even more imperative that the government collect all taxes owed and no longer tolerate loopholes, etc.
AFG/Iraq/Syria: During the campaign, candidate Trump said he would have a new strategy within 30 days of taking office. President Trump has continued the existing strategies in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. What is the definition of “winning” in Afghanistan after almost 17 years of war? The President said no more nation-building, but has not significantly changed the mission. ISIS has lost almost all its territory, which is undeniably a great thing. However, we got there by continuing the Obama plans. The future of Syria is critical. Candidate Trump was rightfully critical of aspects of the U.S. Syria policy, specifically the “red line” hesitation. But where is the promised support for anti-regime organizations? Bashar Al Assad is a Russian puppet and apparently Trump policy is to allow the regime to crush all freedom opposition and maintain Russian influence over Syria with its oppressive regime that uses chemical weapons against its own people.
Judicial Appointments: Prior to passing the tax cut, the only accomplishment President Trump was able to list was his judicial appointments. Justice Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation to the Supreme Court was 100% Mitch McConnell. Yes, the President nominated Gorsuch in the first place. Against the advice of even his own party, Majority Leader McConnell immediately changed Senate rules so that for the first time a Supreme Court nominee only needed a simple majority (51 votes) to get on the Court whereas all previous nominees needed 60 votes. The 60-vote requirement was intentional and necessary to ensure strong, qualified nominees, maintain the Senate’s check and balance power, and encourage proper hearings. The Senate also confirmed a record number of judicial nominees for the first year of a term. We have seen several examples of unqualified nominees including some with no relevant experience, just political favors. There is a reason for vetting nominees and holding legitimate hearings before approving these lifetime appointments.
Environment: The environment should be important to all Americans, not a wedge issue exploited the Trump team. We all depend on clean air and water for survival. Clean and renewable energy is the most likely source of an expanding economy that will benefit the nation. Every nation in the world, minus just a few pariah states, signed the Paris Accord. While an agreement this large will never be 100% perfect, this was an outstanding step towards addressing climate change and ensuring clean air and water for our children. President Trump joined those pariah nations when he took the ill-advised and widely opposed move to pull out of the accord. Republican President Teddy Roosevelt was instrumental in creating and expanding our system of national parks and forests. Donald Trump, with a few strokes of his pen, undid generations of preservation and gave up significant land for commercial development. In an even more controversial move, the Republicans snuck a provision into the tax bill opening the highly sensitive Anwar area to oil drilling.
President Trump and the Republican Congress most assuredly had a great impact on the country. Their actions affected our economy, security, environment, and of course our political discourse. In my assessment, his leadership shortcomings were the big story of the year and profoundly impact the American people through divisiveness, dishonesty, the Constitution, and of course the ultimate Russia connection. The Democrats have not put themselves in a strong enough position for the Congressional mid-terms and state elections of 2018. A lot can happen to change things in either direction before the November ballots. There is a lot at stake and the campaigns will be volatile. Let’s hope we see more substance this time. Our future depends on it. A lot happens in any year of a presidency and this year was no different. We could not go into great detail on every issue in this one piece. Tune in each week to The Booth as we try and take on the big issues of the week and have a little fun as well. Keep reading the Blog as well. Thank you all for tuning in!