Trump Has Lost the Presidency

Maybe it looks like Trump can get away with anything. 

He lies. 
He knows nothing about government and doesn't even care about it.
He is cruel and rude.
He flip-flops on issues.
He boasts and brags and twitters irresponsibly.
He admires Putin, America's enemy.

Yet he is still in the White House, and his popular support, though dwindling, is only doing so rather slowly.

Don't be fooled. Trump has already paid a huge price for his nutsy narcissism and determined ignorance.

The price? He has lost the presidency. 

The presidency is more than a title. It is power. But Trump has lost all the power of the presidency. He is now only a figurehead. A cardboard cutout in the Oval Office. 

Further, he has squandered the GOP's chance to run the government with both the Congress and presidency in their control, something that hasn't been available to the GOP for a long, long time. But what's the point of the GOP having "control" of the White House? There is no power in the White House. A wheel has come off the tricycle. It ain't going anywhere. They are in control of a non-operable government.

Trump has smashed the GOP hopes and wiped himself off the presidential map just by being Trump. For six months he has been a disgusting near-psycho clown act. We all know all about him now and what to expect. We can all see him clearly now. He's a nothing. In these six months he has squandered all his credibility. In the world of politics, he is now toast.

Politics is generally despised, mostly because neither the media nor the public understands it very well. And also because it's essentially a hard-fought battle of different groups to get what they want. It's definitely a contact sport. But it has its rules, and he who doesn't follow them is out. 

Rule number one: You have to be reliable. If you say something to another politician or officeholder, it has to be true. Gerald Ford was picked by the Congress to replace Nixon because everyone in Congress knew they could trust him. As a key member of the House Armed Services Committee, he always told other representatives the accurate truth about everything to do with weapons, etc. 

Being reliable also means knowing your policy position and staying with it until something identifiable and credible changes it. I have to be able to count on your vote. That's what politics is all about. Getting votes for what each of us wants. If I can't count on you to stay with me or stay against me, then I won't ever bother with you. You're nothing.

Being reliable also means making sense. If no one can understand what you're saying or thinking, why bother with you? You're a pennyweight.

Being reliable also means being informed. Really informed. Not being fed fiction by Fox or fairy tales by the Net. It's why you have to have good staff. They make sure you know what's what.

Trump has none of these characteristics of reliability. He's a sink hole of unreliabiity. Further he lacks another of the key traits of reliability: being cool. For example, reliable people don't undercut their buddies. Trump has repeatedly made the health care reform effort harder for his GOP buddies by shooting off his mouth, messing in, even allowing one of his PACS to run an ad campaign against the imperiled GOP senator from Nevada, thus not only endangering this man's re-election but threatening Mitch McConnell's woefully thin margin in the Senate.

And a reliable person knows when to keep his mouth shut. Trump instead tells our security secrets to the Russians. 

As a politician Trump is a disaster. Yes, as a showman he won all those primaries, but he can't function in the real business of politics: getting things done. 

As a president, Trump has ceased to exist. For example, he has no leadership power in his own party. He is so toothless a tiger that no GOP senators are afraid of him and therefore — at least this far — he can't commandeer their votes for the GOP health care plan. If this legislation fails, other major parts of the GOP agenda crumble. Goodby, huge tax cuts for the rich because the cutting of Medicaid won't provide the offset for the cuts. And without a president to be cowboy, who will herd the votes on infrastructure when Rand Paul and other never-spend-a nickel senators refuse to go along?

Internationally, Trump as an American president has also ceased to exist. He did this entirely by himself. By pulling out of, or bad mouthing, the big trade deals, the mutual protection pacts, and the climate agreements, he announced loud and clear that he was picking up his marbles and going home, taking America off the stage for now. I imagine most of the world leaders were delighted to see him go. He is not a pleasant person — even literally pushing them out of his way to get to the front of a photo – and now they will have a chance at running things without the USA. In fact, America's absence for a while might have some good effects, especially re North Korea, oddly enough. But that's for another time.

Trump just doesn't matter any more politically. He's an empty suit and a big tie. That's all. He doesn't have to be impeached. He has impeached himself in a manner of speaking, i.e. removed himself from office.

He also lost power in another way. He and his advisor Steve Bannon are supposedly set on destroying the executive branch. At least they say so. Trump's failure to fill hundreds of executive positions has indeed crippled the executive branch they hate. But this is like cutting off one of your own hands. He has actually diminished the power of the presidency. He has diminshed his own power. He can't get his orders carried out. 

His flurry of ill-conceived and badly written executive orders has also reduced his power. Because they led to NOTHING! Most ended in court. Others made little sense and sit now in a file somewhere. No one up and down the chain of government will ever take this man seriously again.

I could go on. How his committee to investigate voter registration all across the nation has become a laughing stock, with most of the states saying "Go to hell" when asked for their records. And it being so transparent that he is still trying to prove he won the popular vote!  
George W was fine with his status of being president even though having lost the popular vote. Who would have ever thought there could be a president who would make George W look wise? 

Well, there isn't. Because Trump is not really a president. The other players have benched him. He's out of the game. 

In fact, he just might as well go to the showers and then head for home. 

His presidency is over. 

P.S. And he is stupid. Too stupid to be president. Too stupid to breathe. Get this, just published this evening: Trump minimizes hacking allegations, seeks to ‘move forward’ with Russia.  

Lawmakers bewildered by Trump’s suggestion of forming a ‘Cyber Security unit’ with Russia  This is like asking John Wilkes Boothe to be sure to stop by Lincoln's box at the theater.