Two things that President Donald Trump had said on the campaign trail would have disqualified him in a democratic election anywhere. One was his comment taped on the Access Hollywood video and, the second was his comment about shooting in New York. On the Access Hollywood video, he had said that he could grab any part of a woman's body, even her private parts, and he would not be in trouble with either the woman or the law because he was s star! And he could walk down the Fifth Avenue in New York, shoot anyone and he would not lose a vote!
For reasons that Americans alone could explain, they were not bothered enough to discard him for those uncivilised and atrocious remarks. His base instead cheered him for those remarks and Americans elected him as their 45th president in denial of those remarks. The mainstream media that is now suffering the consequences of President Trump's administration in ways worse than a nightmare was also in the same state of denial because it wanted to stop Hillary Clinton to stop her from running away with the election. It, therefore, pursued the email saga of the Democratic Party instead.
The American voters/Americans are paying for the consequences of their denial over the character traits of the candidate they have chosen to become their president although the candidate himself had flagged these traits as red flags in a soccer game. President Donald Trump has started the process of dismantling both democracy and the mainstream media. He has declared war on the latter, called it fake and its professionals, liars. White House's daily press briefings are no longer covered live and the media cannot televise or record the briefings. The US media had carried the news of his meeting with the Russian Foreign Minister at the White House courtesy the Russian media because the president had banned access to the US media but had welcomed the Russian media to cover it!
He has unashamedly abused and insulted the mainstream media openly in the limited number of access he has thus far granted it. He did not address the US media that had accompanied him even once during his first overseas trip abroad, to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the EU. US media that accompanied him on the trip got their news through the media of the hosts that the president addressed. His Secretary of State has so far shunned the media as pariah leaving it at home on his overseas trips.
He has made it clear to the Congress that it had no alternative but to toe his line without questions asked. He had insulted and humiliated almost the entire senior Republicans during the campaign, often in unimaginable ways. These leaders sacrificed their pride and personality and prostrated themselves to him after he became the president allowing to set into motion the slow destruction of the principle of separation of powers upon which the Founding Fathers had based their vision of a democratic country and society with the president as the head of the executive branch and the Congress as the head of the legislative branch. That the Republicans hold the majority in both the houses has encouraged the president to subordinate the Congress to his powers.
He has expressed similar intentions about the judiciary. He called the judges names after the federal courts in a number of states stopped his Executive Order on the Muslim Travel Ban with decisions applicable in all the states. Now with his nominee Neil Gorsuch in the bench and the possibility of Anthony Kennedy retiring that would allow him to appoint another judge to the Court to allow "conservatives to take a firm control of the court"; he would have the court behind him to pursue the conservative agenda and a legacy for his presidency!
The prospects of President Trump of achieving for his presidency a legacy are the best among the US presidents in recent history. Whether he would achieve that legacy and if that would be good for the country are both matters of concern for the majority of the Americans. In the first place, he would like to build a legacy where the president would dominate the political system. Second, it would be a legacy where the media, the fourth branch of government would become totally toothless. Finally, it would be a legacy where the president would govern through tweets for the major directions of the government rendering or trying to render the federal bureaucracy redundant.
That part of the legacy, if established, would no doubt have to be with the dismantling of democracy and through the establishment of a dictatorial system with all powers in the hands of the president. If that were not to be bad enough, President Donald Trump's legacy would also be one devoid of decency looking at what he has been doing on his tweets on women. While he was under dark clouds concerning his integrity and credibility, where he was being exposed as lying on an entire range of issues, where he was being investigated for obstructing justice and for colluding with the Russians, he was bullying MSNBC's Mika Brzezinski who was critical of him through tweets that underlined that his Hollywood Access video had indeed reflected his true character as a sexist, misogynic man.
Mika Brzezinski also accused the president of threatening her and her co-host Joe Scarborough of their MSNBC programme Morning Joe to stop being critical of him or else he would use his influence in The Inquirer to publish derogatory stories about them! That was blackmail if the accusation were to be established. These accusations impinging upon the character of the president has created an image of him upon which anything else could be created but a legacy of a great country such as the United States of America.
It was a Republican strategist and political commentator Ana Navarro who articulated the extent of frustration to which President Trump has pushed the nation and the mainstream media with his tweets, his insults, his lies and his sexism and misogyny. On a CNN programme, disgusted that the Republicans were only ready to express disappointment with President Trump's despicable behaviour concerning Mika Brzezinski and do little else, she said: "He's acting for all of us. He's acting for our president, and he is embarrassing… It's time somebody has to look at the camera, calls him up, and says 'listen, you crazy, lunatic 70-year-old man baby, stop it! You are now the President of the United States, the Commander in Chief, and you need to stop acting like a mean girl.'"
Such is the extent of partisanship that the US is now passing through with the beginning of President Trump's presidency that there is little chance that the Republicans would rise and do what Ana Navarro would like them to do for the sake of the country. Meanwhile, as long as he lasts and allowed to brand his style of the revered US presidency, America would have to watch the dismantling of democracy and decency much to the glee of Beijing and Moscow.
An indicator where President Trump has led his country in international politics has been underlined when President Putin and President Jinping met in Moscow for a summit on July 04 leading to the G20 Summit to be held in Hamburg, Germany on July 07-08. The summit was intended to set the agenda for the G20 meet, a role traditionally played by the US president. The focus of international power has shifted from the United States with Russia and China as serious contenders because the US president is more interested in his tweets on women and the media than in the serious and complex business of international and domestic politics.
The writer is a former Ambassador.
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