This is what America thinks of the man that Australian Prime Minister Malcolm 'I trust the wisdom and judgment of Trump and Pence' Turnbull and his ministers have so slavishly endorsed.............
David Remnick, Editor, in The New Yorker, A HUNDRED DAYS OF TRUMP: With his nativist and purely transactional view of politics, he threatens to be democracy’s most reckless caretaker, 1 May 2017:
Trump has never gone out of his way to conceal the essence of his relationship to the truth and how he chooses to navigate the world. In 1980, when he was about to announce plans to build Trump Tower, a fifty-eight-story edifice on Fifth Avenue and Fifty-sixth Street, he coached his architect before meeting with a group of reporters. “Give them the old Trump bullshit,” he said. “Tell them it’s going to be a million square feet, sixty-eight stories.”
This is the brand that Trump has created for himself—that of an unprincipled, cocky, value-free con who will insult, stiff, or betray anyone to achieve his gaudiest purposes. “I am what I am,” he has said. But what was once a parochial amusement is now a national and global peril. Trump flouts truth and liberal values so brazenly that he undermines the country he has been elected to serve and the stability he is pledged to insure. His bluster creates a generalized anxiety such that the President of the United States can appear to be scarcely more reliable than any of the world’s autocrats. When Kim In-ryong, a representative of North Korea’s radical regime, warns that Trump and his tweets of provocation are creating “a dangerous situation in which a thermonuclear war may break out at any moment,” does one man sound more immediately rational than the other? When Trump rushes to congratulate Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for passing a referendum that bolsters autocratic rule in Turkey—or when a sullen and insulting meeting with Angela Merkel is followed by a swoon session with Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, the military dictator of Egypt—how are the supporters of liberal and democratic values throughout Europe meant to react to American leadership?
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The Los Angeles Times, The Times Editorial Board, Our Dishonest President: Part 1, 2 April 2017:
In a matter of weeks, President Trump has taken dozens of real-life steps that, if they are not reversed, will rip families apart, foul rivers and pollute the air, intensify the calamitous effects of climate change and profoundly weaken the system of American public education for all.
His attempt to de-insure millions of people who had finally received healthcare coverage and, along the way, enact a massive transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich has been put on hold for the moment. But he is proceeding with his efforts to defang the government’s regulatory agencies and bloat the Pentagon’s budget even as he supposedly retreats from the global stage.
These are immensely dangerous developments which threaten to weaken this country’s moral standing in the world, imperil the planet and reverse years of slow but steady gains by marginalized or impoverished Americans. But, chilling as they are, these radically wrongheaded policy choices are not, in fact, the most frightening aspect of the Trump presidency.
What is most worrisome about Trump is Trump himself. He is a man so unpredictable, so reckless, so petulant, so full of blind self-regard, so untethered to reality that it is impossible to know where his presidency will lead or how much damage he will do to our nation. His obsession with his own fame, wealth and success, his determination to vanquish enemies real and imagined, his craving for adulation — these traits were, of course, at the very heart of his scorched-earth outsider campaign; indeed, some of them helped get him elected. But in a real presidency in which he wields unimaginable power, they are nothing short of disastrous.
Full editorial here.
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Jonah Goldberg, Senior Editor, National Review, The President Is This Presidency’s Worst Enemy, 4 April 2017:
In the months after he
secured the nomination, Trump and his surrogates promised skeptics that he
would not be a hands-on policy guy. Instead, he’d rely on congressional
leadership and, later, Mike Pence to do the major lifting, while the president
would go around giving speeches to Make America Great Again.
Douthat is right that
Trump could use a brain trust. But some of us were told that Pence or Reince
Priebus or Paul Ryan would serve that role. Certainly they’ve tried. Moreover,
there are countless policy agendas sitting on the shelf for Trump to choose
among. Why so much chaos, then? A common answer you hear from all corners is
“the tweeting” — the horrible, horrible tweeting.
But when you talk to
people with more hands-on experience in, or with, the Trump White House, the
better answer is that the tweeting is just a symptom. Trump brings the same
glandular, impulsive style to meetings and interviews as he does to social
media. He blurts out ideas or claims that send staff scrambling to see them
implemented or defended. His management style is Hobbesian. Rivalries are
encouraged. Senior aides panic at the thought of not being part of his movable
entourage. He cares more about saving face and “counterpunching” his critics
than he does about getting policy victories.
In short, the problem
is Trump’s personality. His presidency doesn’t suffer from a failure of ideas,
but a failure of character.
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This is what U.S. courts think of certain executive orders issued by President Donald J. Trump during his first 100 days in office......
# Executive Order, 25 January 2017, Enhancing Public Safety in the Interior of the United States:
# Executive
Order, 27 January 2017, PROTECTING THE NATION FROM FOREIGN TERRORIST ENTRY INTO THE UNITED STATES:
State of Washington et al v Donald J. Trump et al, Temporary Restraining Order, 3 February 2017, United States District Judge James L. Robart.
# Revised Executive Order, made 6 March 2017, identically titled
STATE
OF HAWAI‘I and ISMAIL ELSHIKH, Plaintiffs, vs. DONALD J. TRUMP, et al.,
Defendants. CV. NO. 17-00050 DKW-KSC ORDER GRANTING MOTION FOR TEMPORARY
RESTRAINING ORDER, 15 March 2017, United States District Judge Derrick K. Watson.
In the first 100 days there appears to have been at least fifty court challenges to Trump's immigration policies by individuals, public interest groups and US counties, districts and states.
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This is what American popular culture thought of Donald Trump during his first 100 days......
Donald Trump reviews his first 100 days in office. Watch an all-new episode of #TheSimpsons this Sunday at 8/7c on FOX. pic.twitter.com/rDtvNgusFs— The Simpsons (@TheSimpsons) April 26, 2017
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This is what owners of The Washington Post, Fox News and The Australian - News Corp and Australian-born U.S. media mogul Keith Rupert Murdoch - are telling the world........
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/respectable-pass-mark-for-trumps-first-100-days-in-office/news-story/b1caf93c0102f65e4041b561a0337a0b
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Donald John Trump’s own assessment of his first 100
days……..
Reuters, 28 April 2017:
"I loved my
previous life. I had so many things going," Trump told Reuters in an
interview. "This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would
be easier."
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UPDATE
According to Business Insider on 28 April 2017, in his first 100 days President Trump signed into law:
* a Senate bill on January 20, which allowed him to appoint General James Mattis as Secretary of Defense. Prior federal law prohibited individuals from becoming Secretary of Defense until they had been out of the armed forces for at least 7 years. Mattis retired from the Marine Corps in 2013
* H.R. 72 on January 31, authorizing the Government Accountability Office to obtain all federal agency records needed to perform its duties
* a congressional action in February, repealing a regulation which prevented coal-mining companies from dumping debris and toxic waste into nearby streams and waterways
* an action in February, abolishing federal standards that determined which schools were doing well in terms of students' performance and which ones were not
* a Congressional Review Act resolution in February, which rolled back financial disclosure requirements for energy companies mandated by Dodd-Frank Act. The stipulation required that energy companies disclose payments made to governments that related to fossil fuel development
* H.J.R. 40 on February 28, a bill repealing a rule which prohibited the mentally disabled from being able to purchase firearms
* H.R. 321 on February 28, the Inspiring the Next Space Pioneers, Innovators, Researchers, and Explorers (INSPIRE) Women Act. The law mandates that within 90 days of the law's passage, a plan must be submitted to the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology for how NASA scientists can engage with and promote female STEM students from K-12
* H.R. 255 on February 28, called the Promoting Women In Entrepreneurship Act. The law authorizes the National Science Foundation to support entrepreneurial programs for women
* sH.R. 609 on March 13, a bill which designates a Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare center in Butler County, Pennsylvania the "Abie Abraham VA Clinic"
* Senate bill 442 on 21 March, which authorized the appropriation of funds towards NASA research and exploration
* a resolution on March 27, repealing a rule which prevented the government from working with contractors who had been in violation of labor laws, had engaged in wage theft, or were responsible for workplace safety violations in the last 3 years
* the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017 on 28 March, which designates March 29 as National Vietnam War Veterans Day and encourages the display of the American flag on that day
* a bill on 31 March, which designated a VA clinic in American Samoa to be named the Faleomavaega Eni Fa'aua'a Hunkin VA Clinic
* a Senate resolution in March, approving a memorial to recognize military men and women who had served in support of Operation Desert Storm and Operation Desert Shield. A joint resolution originally passed by US Congress before he became president
* a congressional review action in March, which abolished a land management rule aimed at streamlining the process for making federal land use decisions and giving ordinary people more input into federal land management decisions
* the repeal of a rule in March, which mandated that all states issue ratings for teacher-prep courses within their borders
* the abolition of a rule in March, which limited the number of unemployment applicants states could drug test
* a bill on 3 April, providing for the appointment of members to the Office of Compliance's Board of Directors in order to replace members whose terms were expiring in 2017
* a House resolution on 3 April, abolishing hunting restrictions on national wildlife refuges in Alaska. The rule was intended to protect predator species like wolves and bears from being hunted. The repealed rule also imposed a ban on aerial hunting, live-trapping or baiting predators, and from hunting those predators while they were near their dens or cubs
* a Congressional Review Act bill on 3 April. eliminating rules protecting private citizens' internet and browsing data from being used by their internet providers
* a measure on April 13, allowing states to withhold Title X family-planning funds from clinics which provide abortion services
* a bipartisan measure on 19 April, extending the duration of the Veterans Choice Program
* a House joint resolution in April, eliminating workplace safety regulations which were aimed at reducing injuries and deaths in the workplace
* a House resolution in April, eliminating a Labor Department rule regulating how large cities and municipalities design payroll deduction savings programs
* a bill in April authorizing a number of programs to enhance weather forecasting and alerts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
* a Senate resolution in April which reappointed Steve Case as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents at the Smithsonian Institution. This was previously a joint resolution passed by Congress before Trump became president
* a measure which appointed Michael Govan as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution
* a Senate resolution which appointed Roger W. Ferguson as a citizen regent of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution.
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