Presidenting Is Hard

Within the past 100 hundred days of the Donald Trump administration he has expressed surprise that healthcare is “so complicated.” He said he learned about how serious the North Korean situation is after spending ten minutes talking to Xi Jinping, the premier of China. He described NATO as “obsolete” during the campaign, but just the other day he said it’s not obsolete anymore as he understands it now.

Trump was prepared to eliminate NAFTA until someone told him what it was. He claimed China was a currency manipulator until he met the premier. Trump thought he could make trade deals with Germany until that nation’s chancellor Angela Merkel informed him, eleven times, that he has to make trade deals with the European Union. He changed his mind on torture after his defense secretary told him it doesn’t work. He’s delayed moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem after he learned it’ll piss off Arabs. On top of all that it seems he didn’t understand that placing Russian spies in his administration is not a good thing.

As former George W. Bush speechwriter tweeted, “All this information was cunningly concealed by being put in books and other forms of writing.”

During an interview with Reuters Trump said “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.” Being president is harder than starring on a reality TV show or developing real estate? The one thing that is not surprising is that Donald Trump was not, and is not qualified, prepared or up to the job of being president of the United States. If only we had more warning signs or if someone had told us during the campaign. Damn.

In fact, he may not even be doing the job. He spends most of his weekends at his golf resort. He’s obsessed with his electoral victory and keeps talking about what a great night that was. He can’t get over it. He keeps maps of vote totals on his desk and hands them out, even to Xi Jinping. He keeps holding campaign rallies while saying his critics need to get over the election, even though he obviously can’t do that himself. Maybe having the lowest approval ratings of any president in modern history has him reflecting.

Let’s not forget that during Trump’s first 100 days no significant legislation has been passed. It’s possible that passing legislation frightens him as much as Vietnam, Republican debates, or the White House Correspondents Dinner. Those are all things he has run from.

Trump is not having a good time as he told Reuters how much he misses his old life. I wouldn’t be surprised if at some point Trump resigns proclaiming he’s accomplished all he set out to do as president. And then he runs again. He seems to enjoy campaigning more than governing.

Presidenting is hard. That’s why we usually only elect adults to perform the job. Usually.

We replaced Bill Clinton with George W. Bush. We replaced Bush with Barack Obama. We replaced Obama with Donald Trump. If this pattern continues then our next president will be a Nobel winning rocket scientist who cures cancer and leprosy and will solve the Mideast conflict in his spare time.

And perhaps our next president will occasionally crack open a book.

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