It is astonishing how often Donald Trump does an about-face on major policy issues. Even more surprising is that none of his ardent supporters seems to mind his absurd U-turns.
Midwestern corn and soybean farmers are not only staring glumly at their soaked, cold fields, meaning they haven’t been able to start planting on time, but they are facing the possibility that China will retaliate against Trump’s plan for higher tariffs on imported steel and aluminum by buying soybeans and corn from South America and no longer from the United States.
After a coalition of worried farmers went to the White House, warning of the devastation that could hit the vital US agricultural sector over a trade war, Trump pulled a 180 and ordered officials to re-examine the Trans-Pacific Partnership he had refused to let the US join. The TPP was supposed to keep China at bay and open new trade routes.
Before relief could spread across the Midwest, Trump said he had changed his mind. No TPP for him or us.
When Syria’s President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons on his own people, Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, said that Syria’s main ally, Russia, would get hit with new economic sanctions for siding with Syria. This had been decided in a White House meeting.
But Trump cannot bring himself to criticize Russian President Vladimir Putin no matter how egregious the Russian’s crimes (such as interfering in our presidential election). So Trump reversed himself and said he didn’t want to go through with the sanctions. The penalties were intended to be imposed on Russian companies dealing with equipment related to Assad and the use of chemical weapons.
After Trump announced that he wanted to pull completely out of Syria (we have about 2,000 special forces and other top soldiers there), he changed his mind. He also ordered bombing strikes against some of Assad’s chemical weapons plants without the congressional authorization he had demanded former President Barack Obama seek. Trump then lost interest in Syria.
After the tragic shootings at Parkland High School, Trump met with survivors and pledged that the National Rifle Association’s power to block all gun control was gone. Then he promptly decided against getting rid of guns in schools and endorsed the NRA’s nutty plan to arm teachers.
On the thorny issue of immigration, Trump told a bipartisan group of legislators from Capitol Hill that he would support whatever agreement they came up with to permit Dreamers to stay. They are the young people whose parents brought them to this country as children without documents. When a group of Republicans and Democrats did forge an agreement, Trump summarily rejected it. Months later, there is still no solution and thousands of young, productive lives are in limbo.
After months of ridiculing North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, mocking him as “Little Rocket Man” and insisting American missiles were bigger than the North Korean’s, Trump has reversed course and says he intends to be the first American president in office to meet and negotiate with Kim directly. Trump said of Kim, who has never kept his word on nuclear weapons and has let millions of his people starve: “He has really been very open and I think very honorable based on what we are seeing.” Very honorable?! Really?!
Trump has promised many people, from the top federal lawyer in New York to FBI director James Comey, that they would keep their jobs, only to fire them in the most humiliating way he could.
Trump’s signature “deal,” the tax cuts, will add $1.5 trillion to the debt our children must pay. The cuts expire for families in a few years but continue in perpetuity for businessmen like him. Then Trump signed a whopping big spending bill. If other countries respond to Trump’s higher tariffs in kind, as expected, any positive effects of the tax cuts will be superseded by higher costs for consumers and lost sales for US farmers and manufacturers.
We have elected a president who doesn’t know what “keeping his word” means. He can’t be counted on by anybody for anything. Too many Americans think that’s fine with them.
The Trump Show, like the movie “The Truman Show,” is a reality nightmare. But like Truman’s ordeal, it will end.
By Ann McFeatters
Ann McFeatters is an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service. -- Ed.
