Trump’s actions bad for clean water and mistreated puppies
Gail Collins
And now, things that are Really Happening in the world of Donald Trump.
We bring you this list as a public service. It’s easy to be distracted by all the strange/contradictory/awful things the president says.
Maybe he keeps talking crazy to divert attention from the fact that he doesn’t have anything else to report. In Washington, outside of the ongoing disaster that is immigration policy, actual changes have been sparse. A lot of the departments don’t have new staffs yet — and some never will if Trump keeps insisting on only hiring people who never said anything negative about him during the campaign.
However, some little gremlins have been busy on the government websites, clearing out unpleasant information on issues like climate change. The Department of Agriculture has taken down its list of violators of the Animal Welfare Act, including “puppy mills” rife with dangerous and unsanitary conditions. The justification for that one seemed to involve concern that the list violated the privacy of people who are terrible to little dogs.
Trump, who likes to be thought of as a decider, showed his stuff this week, resolving a dispute between two of his top appointees. It was a surprising development — who knew there were enough Cabinet members in place for a fight? The battle featured Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in an argument over transgender rights.
Sessions, in one of his very first moves on the job, had decided to reverse a federal guideline that public schools should let transgender students use the bathroom of their choice. DeVos — who knew she had it in her? — objected. Trump sided with Sessions, taking what appeared to be the opposite position from the one he espoused during the campaign.
The president, it turns out, is more conservative on social issues than the guy who was running in all those primaries against Ted Cruz. Now, with virtually nothing to lose, he’s gotten worse.
Congress, meanwhile, has just been sort of wandering around, trying to avoid thinking about health care or scheduled town meetings. Repealing Obama-era regulations is just about the only thing getting accomplished:
■ Last week, our lawmakers took a very strong stance protecting the right of Americans to purchase guns despite severe mental impairment. The House and Senate voted to repeal a background check rule that screened out people who are receiving spe- cial Social Security benefits because mental problems made it impossible for them to work or even manage their own money.
■ Another repealed regulation prohibited coal companies from dumping their waste into streams. When he signed the bill, Trump claimed the change would save “many thousands of American jobs,” which is of course completely nuts, unless polluting the water is going to eliminate competition from natural gas. The federal estimate of lost jobs is around 260 per year.
■ Trump also signed a bill repealing a rule that publicly traded oil, gas and mining companies had to disclose payments they make to foreign governments.
Talk about keeping your campaign promises. The president vowed to get rid of useless regulations — and already he’s opened the road for dirty Appalachian water and oil companies bribing other governments. With mentally deranged gunmen waiting on his desk. Charles Krauthammer
At the heart of Donald Trump’s foreign policy team lies a glaring contradiction.
On the one hand, it is composed of men of experience, judgment and traditionalism. Practically every member of the team — the heads of State, Homeland Security, the CIA and most especially Defense Secretary James Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster — could fit in a Cabinet put together by, say, Hillary Clinton.
The commander in chief, on the other hand, is quite the opposite: inexperienced, untraditional, unbounded.
The obvious question is: Can this arrangement possibly work? The answer