Writing about Trump is like trying to write about a Jello maelstrom in real time. There’s so much goop flying in so many directions at any given time, and whatever idiotic mess we might have been narrating will have been covered up by an even bigger mess, to the point that we can’t even see the weather-themed prostitute gyrating in front of God and everyone.
So the government shutdown last weekend, more or less because Trump blew up a bipartisan deal, one to save the Dreamers and health insurance of poor kids in exchange for more border security, with some spicy racism. This left both parties completely in the lurch about what the president will actually sign.
A deal wound up being struck to fund the health insurance program for the next six years, reopen the government until early February, with the promise that the DACA fix would be put through the regular committee order before that point. Putting aside whether or not I trust Mitch McConnell to follow through on his promises when he holds the line for a man who claimed the wall would be paid for by Mexico, his party’s strategy for Donald Trump is worth paying attention to.
In essence, because his mercurial nature and Art of The Deal caused this mess in the first place, the only way his allies were going to get out of it was to have him do as little as possible, to the point his staff had to prove he was working by taking photos of him working at his completely cleared desk in the Oval Office. Whenever Trump is asked to actually do his job, there’s a good chance he’ll veer wildly off-script and cause problems for everybody. Baby steps?
Despite having effectively paid off the referee of the Magic The Gathering tournament that is American politics, with their conservative media sphere, gerrymandering, voter suppression, and so forth, Republicans can’t seem to stop drawing hands full of basic land cards. I guess that’s what you get for running a Swamp deck. It’d be funny if their strategy for winning didn’t involve a sustained assault on the free press and independent law enforcement.
Logan Graham is a senior studying media arts with a focus in games and animation at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What are your thoughts Trump? Let Logan know by emailing him at lg261813@ohio.edu.
