Why Did Trump Cancel His State Trip To London?

Trump tweeted that he cancelled his state visit to London because Obama sold the existing US Embassy in a great location to pay for the new embassy in a bad location.  As usual his tweets are often lies or misleading.  The decision to sell the US embassy and move to its new location was made by President Bush in 2008.  The sale was completed during the Obama administration.  Trump was also miffed that he was not invited to royal wedding.  President Obama has been invited to the royal wedding.  Trump is also very unpopular in London.  There would have been mass protests if he had appeared in London for a state visit.  Trump is smart about the optics of mass protests.  He is more comfortable visiting states where he will be welcomed without protests.  He also makes most of his domestic visits to red states where he has more fans and where protests are less likely.

Political Economy Prior To WW l Has Lessons For Today's Political Problems

Many of the top economic thinkers in the early 1900's had concerns that are very similar to those that we are dealing with today.  Trade between nations was growing along with immigration; inequality was growing over the objection of trade unions and many nations were not ready for cultural and racial diversity.  There were also concerns about monopoly and the capture of the state by business interests.  That paved the way for demagoguery and our first world war.  The similarity between the rise of demagogues prior to the first world war is very similar to what we see in many nations today.  Demagogues operate in the same way today as they did in the 1900's.  They win elections and gain political power by offering solutions for the common problems that arise for which they have no real solutions.  Democracy fails and the threat of warfare increases.  David Brooks, for example, has his own ideas about how to conserve our liberal democracy.
 

How Trump Makes It Easy For Foreign Intelligence Collection

Donald Trump spends a lot of time watching a variety of Fox News shows.  He and many Republicans in Congress and the White House also watch Fox News.  That is because Fox News is the primary source of information to the Republican base.  Many of Trump's tweets are taken from policy positions developed by Fox News shows.  Fox News also provides many of the arguments that are used by Trump and Republican leaders to undermine the Mueller investigation and other sources of bad news for the Trump administration. 

Ordinarily, governments provide their propaganda arms with the information that they want the world to consume.  Fox News has achieved a position in which it creates the messaging that influences what government officials think.

Paul Krugman And David Brooks On Trumpism

Paul Krugman and David Brooks are not fans of Donald Trump.  Their responses to the recent book that offered an inside view of the operation of the White House differ however in an important way. Krugman was not at all surprised by the revelations in the Wolf book.  It just confirmed much of the reporting on Trump that most of us have already read.  Krugman turned his attention to Congress. Our system of checks and balances places a burden on Congress to protect us from presidents who prefer to ignore the Constitution so that they can do whatever they please.  Leaders in the Republican Party care more about protecting Trump than they do about constraining his abuse of the Constitution.  David Brooks joins the chorus of Trump's protectors by arguing that the Wolf book was a "low brow" attack on Trump that did not meet journalistic standards of reporting.  Brooks takes the position that Trump's behavior in office is not as bad as many believe. He is less concerned about the damage that might be done by Trump because his behavior will continue to be restrained by adults in his administration and by Congress.  Perhaps we should ignore his tweets and let him grow into the presidency.  Brooks is on friendly terms with members of the Republican leadership who he trusts.  Krugman has very different view of the Republican leadership.  He believes that Trump is being enabled by the Republican leadership that is perfectly willing to let Trump be Trump because it serves their interest to have him in the White House to cheer-lead their agenda.

For the good of our country, and much of the world, we should hope that Brooks is a better judge of our current political mess than Krugman.  I was not reassured by Trump's attendance at the college football championship game last night.  Most president's wave to the fans from their box after the fans have been informed of their attendance.  Trump took advantage of his position by walking out with members of the military for the playing of the national anthem.  For Trump it was just another opportunity for him to play his role as the Commander in Chief in front of a national audience. Trump continues to operate in campaign mode during his presidency.

What Is Trump Trying To Protect HImself From?

Where there is smoke we often find fire.  This article describes all of the smoke coming from the White House and from Trump's Twitter account.  It's hard to believe that a completely innocent person would have taken all of the steps that Trump has employed to end the Russian investigation. Many of his actions support a narrative of person who is doing whatever he can to undermine an investigation that may uncover the fire.  Moreover, its difficult to construct a narrative of an innocent person who has nothing to hide.  Trump is losing the narrative battle.

Trump Is Not Stupid: He Is A Genuis

Following the release of a book which paints a chaotic picture of the Trump White House, and which quotes several of Trump's aides who complain about his lack of attention and his lack of intelligence, we learn that Trump is really a genius.  How do we know that he is a genius?  Trump used his Twitter account to proclaim his genius.  His critic wrote a book after a year of interviewing Trump aides.  Trump showed that he really is a genius.  It only took a couple of tweets to make his case.  Along the way he also dispensed with Steve Bannon who was a source of several quotes in the critical book.  Bannon is now the sloppy strategist who helped him to get elected by with his populist strategy and by inventing the idea of the "deep state" to justify Trump's attack on institutions which limit executive power.  According to Trump, Bannon begged for his job when he was fired by Trump, perhaps for being improperly dressed.  Trump, of course, had demonstrated his genius by using the proper uniform in the White House that always includes an extra long tie that goes well with all of his navy blue suits.

Trump Tells N.Korea That He Does Not Have Small Hands

During the GOP primaries Donald Trump referred to Senator Rubio as "little Marco".  Rubio fired back by pointing out that Trump had small hands.  Of course, Trump understood the reference to his small hands and he retorted by defending his manhood.  Trump is now conducting foreign policy with N.Korea via Twitter.  He tweeted about Kim's physical stature and his oversized tummy.  This morning Trump took his tweets to a new level.  He told Kim that his button on our nuclear bomb launcher was bigger than Kim's button.  It would be a mistake for Kim to mess with a president who has a bigger button than he has.  Trump's manhood should not be questioned.

We can laugh about Trump's use of Twitter to conduct foreign policy, and his hang up about his manhood, but this article describes how the Trump administration conducts foreign policy and it is not funny.  Our Ambassador to the UN feels free to make up her own foreign policy and our Secretary of State seems to have his own view of our foreign policy.  Trump seems to be out of the loop. He is too busy tweeting insults, and asserting his manhood, to consult with his foreign policy team,  Moreover, he seems to have no interest in reading intelligence briefings.  They have too many words; they do not provide good material for his Twitter account.  He prefers to continue running his presidential campaign.  His tweets are all about his power and authority.  He told his base that he was the only person strong enough to defend them from all of our enemies.  His Twitter account provides a full list of our mortal enemies.  It turns out that many of our enemies are presidents and elected officials who preceded him.  They were too weak to protect our nation.  Apparently, they did not make effective use of their Twitter accounts.