On this day in which people concerned about climate change take to the streets of the major US cities and across the world to protest Republican plans to remove federal climate change regulations and dismantle the EPA (I was going to attend a rally here in my city but skipped it due to needing extra sleep this morning), something else happened: Trump reached his long-awaited 100-day mark.
Trump, in typical malignant narcissist fashion, bragged shamelessly about how no other administration ever accomplished so much in their first 100 days (*cough* *snort*) — unless he is talking about his success in instilling fear, rage and hatred in the American populace — as well as alienating our closest allies. In those things, he has certainly accomplished a lot, even though every policy he has tried to implement has failed miserably. Even he has admitted, rather incoherently, about how his job is a lot harder than he expected. Well, what did he expect? That it would be just like “The Apprentice” and he could fire someone every week and that would be that?
Trump’s “achievements” exist only in his own deluded mind. He constantly talks about JOBS JOBS JOBS but any jobs or improvement in our economy actually happened under Obama’s watch, not Trump’s. He has done nothing to create any new jobs. His Mexican border wall (intended to keep out the drug dealers and “bad honchos”), repealing the ACA and replacing it with an abortion of a “healthcare plan” that was really just another tax break for the richest 2%, the failed Muslim ban, and many other things he has tried to implement have all failed. He has broken promises: “healthcare for everybody” turned out to be a bait and switch and a massive lie. He promised protection from terrorists but may have provided the catalyst for a new world war — with North Korea, a country that is very close to being able to attack us with nuclear weapons — and very well might (personally I’m a lot more afraid of North Korea than I am of any Muslim terrorists). He promised to “drain the swamp” — but only populated the swamp with privileged billionaires who care nothing about the average American and only about lining their pockets even more at the expense of the poor and middle class. He promised he’d work harder than any other president, but lied about that too. I remember how he complained about Obama’s occasional golf trips, yet Trump is using our hard earned tax dollars to pay for his endless vacations at the “Southern White House” in Mar-A-Lago and to keep his clearly unhappy wife ensconced in a vast, gold-plated New York City penthouse, which costs us millions per day. He is a hypocrite of epic proportions who does the opposite of what he promises. You can almost predict what he’ll do by his “promises” — if he makes a promise, you can be pretty sure he’ll do the opposite.
Perhaps worst of all, he gaslights us all every day, most infamously via his Twitter account where he blames everyone from the Democrats to Obama to the Freedom Caucus to “paid protesters” to the “failing New York Times” to SNL and other late night comedians for his own failings — and never, ever takes any responsibility or admits when he’s been wrong. Russia? They well may have infiltrated and influenced the election, yet not once has he ever criticized Putin or the Russian government. Trump lies when there’s no reason to lie, and then concocts new lies to cover the old lies. He is abusive and makes degrading remarks against women, Mexicans, Muslims, and people of color, and still, his supporters remain staunch in their support. They are as deluded as he is. Are they victims of a type of political Stockholm Syndrome? One has to wonder.
Trump brags about how popular he is and about the YUGE crowds that turn out at his endless rallies (he is so fearful of not winning a second term that he MUST hold these rallies to garner narcissistic supply), but the numbers fail to back these claims up. Trump points to FOX News and The National Enquirer (no joke) as his go-to sources that prove how popular and successful he is, and dismisses legitimate news sources such as the New York Times and Washington Post as fake news. Basically, if any news is critical of him, it’s fake. Like all malignant narcissists, he is unable to tolerate any criticism and desperately hangs onto alternative facts he sees in the right wing tabloids and FOX & Friends that paint him as a hero and savior. Those of us who understand the narcissistic mind are not surprised by his deluded claims and lies about how great he’s doing and how popular he is. In actuality, Trump has the lowest approval ranking of any new president in recent history. And yet his staunchest supporters stick by him like dog poop sticks to a shoe.
Yes, Trump’s purported achievements exist only in his own mind — except for one big achievement he never intended: he has inspired Democrats and independents who oppose his bone-headed, heartless and draconian policies to get involved in politics again. He has sparked (mostly peaceful) protests across the nation and even the whole world, in opposition to his plans to destroy America and its most loved institutions. People are scared of him — and are becoming more vocal in their opposition and have vowed to vote out Republicans in the 2018 midterm elections. In my opinion, Trump has almost no chance of winning a second term, if he even survives this one.
Had Hillary Clinton won the election, nothing would have changed. She was unpopular with both parties, and if she’d won, Democrats and progressive independents would have succumbed to even deeper apathy and cynicism than they already were — and would — once again — have failed to turn out to vote in the 2018 and 2020 elections. Republicans would have amped up their rage and hatred to levels we can’t even imagine now. The end result would be that every branch of government would be even more hamstrung and gerrymandered by the Republicans than they are today. So for this reason, I am actually glad Donald Trump won the election. There’s one other good thing he’s done, once again never intended by him. He’s educating the entire world about what a narcissistic leader is really like, and with God on our side, he won’t cause too much damage and we will have learned our lesson and never elect anyone like him again.