![]() ![]() Jeff Sessions and a one-time acolyte of anti-Muslim extremist David Horowitz. Stephen Miller, a former right hand to then-Sen. Named national security adviser, he was fired less than a month into office, ostensibly for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with the Russian ambassador. Flynn, a conspiracy theory peddler with close ties to Muslim-bashing extremists. Bannon, who bragged about turning Breitbart News into “the platform for the alt-right.” ![]() 31, former Klan leader David Duke tweeted: “everything I’ve been talking about for decades is coming true and the ideas I’ve fought for have won.” The extremist advisersĪlong with an array of conservative billionaires, Trump installed a handful of advisers who are closer to the radical right than to the mainstream. His actions suggest that – unlike the economic populism of his campaign – Trump’s appeals to the radical right did indeed presage his White House agenda. In his first 100 days, despite his failure to achieve any major legislative victories, Trump has not disappointed his alt-right followers. He is alt-right whether he likes it or not.” That means that we could end up looking back on the first 100 days of this administration as the golden days of the Trump presidency.The inaugural address echoed the themes of a campaign that had electrified the white nationalist – or “alt-right” – movement with its promise to stop all Muslim travelers at the border and deport millions of undocumented immigrants – killers and “rapists,” Trump called them.įour days after the inauguration, white nationalist leader Richard Spencer told a TV interviewer, “Trump is a white nationalist, so to speak. These three major failures deprive Trump with the positive momentum and enhanced credibility that is needed by every president after the first 100 days end. That puts Trump's already difficult legislative agenda in even more jeopardy. The failure to get these people in place in the first 100 days means that outside support for what Trump wants to do will be far less likely to materialize or will be relatively tepid compared to what it otherwise would have been. Assistant and deputy assistant secretaries typically lead the outreach to interest groups both as proposals are being developed and when their support is needed in Congress. It’s simple: The substantive staff Trump will need to develop and negotiate the details on the multiple issues he will be dealing with won’t be available to him precisely when he'll need them the most.īut being substantively deficient won’t be the only problem caused by Trump’s slow-to-nonexistent hiring process. Trump’s turtle-like approach to nominating people for the hundreds of subcabinet positions that remain open (let alone to actually getting them confirmed) has unbelievably negative implications for what’s ahead. This will greatly reduce the president’s credibility on the many issues he’ll soon be facing.Īn Inability (Or Unwillingness) To Fill Jobs ![]() It will now be a constant source of amusement and relied upon by those inside and outside the beltway whenever they negotiate with him on anything. Trump’s frequent and sudden flip-flops on major policies and campaign promises (Think NATO, NAFTA, China as a currency manipulator, funding for the wall, not funding ACA subsidies and Janet Yellen) started to be expected over his first 100 days. Not Developing A Coherent Or Reliable Style Of Governing He didn’t, and congressional Republicans will make his political life miserable over the next few months because of it. The substantively and politically much tougher decisions immediately ahead will be considerably more difficult than they should have been at this point in his presidency. Trump should have learned by now that it doesn’t work this way: Congress is at least an equal partner rather than a wholly-owned subsidiary of the executive branch. Trump has been acting as if GOP representatives and senators shouldn’t just be obeying his directives but, rather, anticipating his every wish and thanking him for the privilege. Since he took the oath of office, Trump has treated House and Senate Republicans as employees he can fire if they don’t do what he wants. Not Developing Any Working Relationship With Congress That was merely a result of these three disasters. And all this assumes that the White House and Congress will be able to enact continued funding for fiscal 2017 so a shutdown can be avoided and agree to what a hard-to-adopt fiscal 2018 budget resolution.Ĭontrary to popular opinion, Trump's failure to get Congress to repeal ACA and replace it with something…or anything…was not one of the top political fiascoes of his first 100 days as president. ![]()
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