How many more Trump missteps can we tolerate?
As the reckless presidency of Donald Trump goes on, it is difficult to see how anyone would not be alarmed by the damage done to American values and interests at home and abroad.
Among the minority of Americans who approve of Trump, many say they do so despite his shortcomings. They might appreciate his disdain for politics as usual, his plain talk, his swaggering confidence. Many are willing to overlook past sins such as womanizing and current issues such as the chaotic turnover among his top staffers.
Some Republican politicians might privately lament his frequent departures from conservative policies and his disrespect for experience and expertise, but they decline to criticize him publicly. Perhaps they don’t want to give Democrats any help in the midterm elections; perhaps they fear running afoul of his intensely loyal base. (Just ask soon-to-be-former U.S. Rep. Mark Sanford, a Trump critic who just lost a South Carolina Republican primary election to an opponent who blasted him for his disloyalty to the president.)
While our disapproval and concern over Trump’s actions, policies and personality are strong, we understand that some Americans see things differently.
But his most-recent blunders — bulldozing through our most important international alliances, starting destructive trade disputes and blithely vouching for the character of one of the world’s most-vicious tyrants — make it harder to see how anyone can ignore the danger he poses.
Ohio Sen. Rob Portman and other Republicans in Congress, with their majority, should be using the powers available to the legislative branch to rein in this president and limit the damage. Their failure to do so, or even to say they disapprove, is a threat to democracy.
Most world leaders seem to have learned long ago that free, fair trade is the surest path to prosperity for all. Uncounted American companies — including many in Ohio — have thrived as part of an international economy that allows supply chains to cross borders without penalty.
All that is threatened now because Trump, whose business experience is limited to real-estate deals and bankruptcy but thinks he doesn’t need advice from anyone on anything, has a simple understanding of the world.
He seems to think he can impose tariffs on our best trading partners and strongest allies, preposterously suggesting that Canada poses a threat to our national security, with no consequence. He seems not to grasp that the U.S. market for automobiles, parts for which originate all over the world, could be slammed by his tariffs on steel and aluminum.
When Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau quite reasonably responded