Trump, in his presidency’s final days, goes full King Lear
As President Donald Trump behaves ever more erratically in the waning weeks of his term, Republicans and Democrats alike wonder: What’s he thinking?
To all those who would divine in the president’s floundering a grand strategy, or even a small one, let me offer some caution: If you go rummaging around in Trump’s brain right now, you’re going to emerge empty-handed.
He labeled it a “disgrace” — the covid-relief package his treasury secretary negotiated, in part because it was paired with spending items that Trump himself had proposed. After threatening the nation with a government shutdown, he signed the bill anyway.
He vetoed a crucial $741 billion defense bill that provides funding for military programs and gives the troops a pay raise — because of a personal beef he’s having with Twitter and Facebook and because he wants to keep the names of Confederate generals on military bases. On Monday, Congress overrode the veto by an overwhelming 322 to 87.
He pardoned lawbreaking cronies and, according to President-elect Joe Biden, the “political leadership” of Trump’s team has blocked the incoming administration from learning about foreign threats, a vulnerability “our adversaries may try to exploit.”
Trump continues his quixotic and lonely bid to overturn the results of the election he lost. He’s now lashing out at Republican leaders who have finally opted to follow the constitutional order rather than continuing to indulge his clownish attempt at a coup.
Even the Murdoch-owned New York Post, which endorsed Trump and ran with Hunter Biden allegations that other outlets could not substantiate, questioned the madness. An editorial in Monday’s edition urged Trump to stop “cheering for an undemocratic coup” and avoid being the “King Lear of Mar-aLago, ranting about the corruption of the world.”
We see a defeated president abandoning all things — national security, democratic elections and any pretense of handling the duties of presidency — to keep the spotlight on himself.
On Monday, the House returned early from its Christmas break to deal with the latest instabilities and idiocies induced by the stable genius.
First, Democrats exploited Trump’s last-minute demand for $2,000 checks for Americans by forcing Republicans to vote on exactly that.
“Democrats agree that families deserve more,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, D-Mass., argued, so their new bill would “increase the payments in the relief package to $2,000, the exact amount the president said he wants.”
The ranking Republican, Rep. Kevin Brady (Tex.), was forced in the position of disagreeing publicly with Trump, saying the bill “does nothing to help get people back to work” and amounts to spending “another trillion dollars so hastily.” Still, he admitted, “we expect a number of Republicans to support this bill.”
Forty-four of them did. Then, the House took up its override of Trump’s pointless veto of the defense bill, which threatened an annual defense authorization for the first time in 59 years.
Rep. Mac Thornberry (Tex.), the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee said,
“I continue to support this bill as more than 80 percent of the House did just 20 days ago.” He made it clear, as Biden did earlier in the day that Trump’s madness is jeopardizing national security.
“The president has exercised his constitutional prerogative,” Thornberry said. “Now, Madam Speaker, it’s up to us. The troops, the country, indeed the world is watching. . . . Put the best interest of the country first. There is no other consideration that should matter.”
On Monday, 109 House Republicans defied Trump and joined the successful veto override — a first for his presidency. Such a public rejection of Trump’s position by Republicans would have been unthinkable over the past four years. But as his spotlight-grabbing madness worsens, some Republicans are making their belated reacquaintance with sanity.