Forget lame duck Donald and focus on what matters
AMID the ongoing – and seemingly endless – hysteria surrounding US President Donald Trump and his administration, the Irish people and the media are failing to acknowledge a much greater danger on our doorstep.
After months of waiting, the government in London has finally triggered Brexit and the process of the UK’s divorce from the EU is, at last, formally underway.
Navigating Brexit will be one of the single greatest tests ever faced by an Irish government with issues involving Northern Ireland, free cross-border movement and our reliance on trade with Britain making the process far more complicated for Ireland than for many other EU nations.
It will be a long and difficult process and, make no mistake, the outcome will have a direct and significant bearing on every man, woman and child in the Republic.
The issues surrounding Brexit are complex but everyone owes it to themselves to get some grasp of what is going on and what lies ahead. Yet, despite the gravity of the situation, Brexit remains a secondary concern for many and Donald Trump is still dominating conversation and headlines here.
While the actions of the US President and his team can make for entertaining reading, it is mind boggling that he is still the subject of such attention and blanket coverage .
The Gardaí are embroiled in an ever growing scandal, the transport network has been shut down; the health service remains a shambles and Brexit is a reality. Despite all this, Trump remains at the top of the news agenda.
Why? What on earth can possibly justify such an obsessive Irish focus on this man and domestic politics in the US?
For those obsessed with Trump and the ‘danger’ he supposedly represents to the world, lets put his presidency in context.
April 29 will see the end of the Trump administration’s first 100 days in office, the period when a president’s power and influence are at their greatest and which is typically used to measure the early success and potential of a new leader.
In his first hundred days Franklin D Roosevelt launched the ‘New Deal’; Reagan began an aggressive and eventually successful drive to reform tax and government; Lyndon Johnson fulfilled JFK’s legacy on race relations and an expansion of federal Government and Barack Obama managed to pass a €700bn stimulus package in the face of enormous opposition.
By contrast, President Trump – in under 80 days – has seen his health plan roundly defeated; his immigration bans stopped in their tracks; his Mexican Wall plan beginning to fall apart; the FBI announce an investigation into his ties to Russia and his planned budget cuts savaged by – of all people – Republicans.
That’s all aside from the myriad scandals and gaffes involving his senior staff and family. Less than 100 days in he has endured more serious setbacks than many presidents suffer in their entire term. Already he looks like a ‘ lame duck’, the term usually reserved for the last years of a two- term president.
Indeed in that context his aggressive statements on North Korea this week seem like the desperate roars of a man hoping to change the agenda by turning to global politics.
By any reasonable measure, Trump’s presidency so far has been a failure that is entirely unworthy of the vast quantity of coverage it has garnered internationally.
Forget Trump, it’s time to focus on what matters.