Lazy Trump?

In my previous post, I suggested that Donald Trump is lazy. In this post I explain what I meant.

Donald Trump puts a lot of energy into things that he likes doing but neglects many important aspects of his job. The US presidency is a massive job, probably more than one person can do, even if the person is incredibly fit and energetic. It is unlikely that any eighty-year old will struggle to keep up.

A president has four important things to do.

1. Collect and analyse information about the issues about which he will have to make decisions.
2. Make decisions about key issues the nation is facing.
3. Communicate the decision effectively when it has been made.
4. Ensure that the decision is implemented. This is the hard part.

On top of this the president must campaign for the next election.

1. Trump does not do the first task very well. He obviously has plenty of advisors, but it seems that he is not keen about reading briefing papers prepared for him. I suspect he assumes that he already knows all that he needs to know. Consequently, he often makes bad decisions, because he did not understand the issue sufficiently well.

2. Trump is decisive when making decisions. And when his decisions are wrong, he corrects them, but it would be better if he got the decision right in the first place.

3. Trump is extremely good at communicating his decisions. The problem is that God can speak and it comes to be, but humans cannot speak things into being.

4. A president must rely on his team to implement the decisions that he has made. Trump has some very skilled people on his team, but they are people with strong views about what should be done, so they often will try to implement their own plans. Presidents have to be very active to ensure that their team implements their decisions.

   This is where Trump is lazy. He does not ensure that the team he has appointed carry out his decision. This was a problem in his first term. He negotiated a ground breaking agreement with North Korea, but then allowed John Bolton to undermine it and that agreement was never implemented. This problem will continue to undermine the effectiveness of his presidency.

US Election

The US Democratic Convention has chosen vice president Kamala Harris as their presidential candidate.

In the US Constitution, the vice-president is a bit of a nothing role. The vice president spends four years waiting for the president to die, which usually does not happen. Their only other role is to act as speaker of the senate, but there is very little to do there, except give an odd casting vote. Sometimes, a president will delegate to the vice president an additional responsibility, but it will usually be something unpopular that the president wants to distance themselves from. (Dick Chaney was the exception because he had considerable, unconstitutional control over George W Bush). The 25th Amendment gives a role to the vice president, but so far it has never been used.

So vice presidents are not usually chosen for their skills. They are chosen for their ability to draw in a broader range of voters to the presidential candidate. Obama was a young black man, so he chose an older white man, Joe Biden, to balance the ticket. Joe Biden and an older white man chose Kamala Harris, a younger black woman, to balance his ticket when he was standing for president.

The other important qualification of a vice president is that they must not outshine the presidential candidate (Sarah Palin did this for a while when selected by John McCain). The result is that presidential candidates usually choose someone slightly mediocre to be their running mate. This puts Kamala Harris at a double disadvantage. Obama chose mediocre Joe Biden, who would not outshine him. Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris as she would draw in a different voting segment, but would not outperform his mediocrity.

Kamala Harris is a fairly mediocre candidate for the presidency, but that does not mean she cannot be elected. We must remember that possibly a majority of voters were going to vote for Joe Biden. They were not keen on the idea, but believed that it was a better option than voting for Donald Trump. They realised that Joe Biden was getting senile, but trusted that the White House team could manage him sufficiently well to keep his presidency on track and the nation strong. It was not an ideal option, but many voters believed it was preferable to another four years of Donald Trump.

Joe Biden’s decision to end his candidacy was a huge relief for people who believed that they had to vote form. Kamala Harris is not an ideal candidate, but no one else was available, and she is miles better than a senile Joe Biden. She might be mediocre, but if a good team could keep a fading Joe Biden going, they can do the same for her. Provided a strong team is put around Kamala Harris, people who would have voted for Joe Biden while holding their nose are very pleased to be able to vote for his vice president.

The Republicans are trying to expose Kamala Harris’s weaknesses, but the people who will vote for her do not care, because even if she has weaknesses, she is a far stronger candidate than Joe Biden, and that is all they care about. And the polls are suggesting that she has the potential to keep Donald Trump out, which is a bonus for them.

Harris’s supporters are comparing her with Joe Biden, not with Donald Trump, so she appears like a winner to them.

I sense that Donald Trump has peaked. He failed to win a majority in the 2020 election. Since then, many moral people have been put off by his philandering. And although he has not been convicted of any crimes yet, some of the mud has stuck. So, although he has a strong support base, his popularity is not growing.

Now that he is older, Trump seems to find it hard to focus on presenting policy alternatives. Instead, he rambles on about what would not have happened if he had been president, which cannot be proved either way, because he has not been president. His exaggerated claims about what he achieved when he was president put many people off; because they want capability, not bluster.

I suspect that Trump does not really know how to deal with Harris. He found it easy to be rude to “Wicked Hillary” because she was already unpopular, but because he likes attractive women, he looks a bit uncomfortable attacking Kamala Harris. And if he is too ruthless, he is scared that it will backfire on him.

So the election could be close, close enough to be challenged by the side that loses. And because the management of the election process is so politicised, it will not be possible to prove that the election was fair. I am not sure how that will end.

We Know Better

Matt Taibbi gives an interesting warning in article called Permanent Coup.

I am not a great fan of Donald Trump. His morals are weak and his Christian faith seems to be convenient. Some of his business practices were probably corrupt. However, all this was well known when he was elected President, by a process that complied to the constitution, even if it was not totally fair.

So, I find it bizarre that from the day he entered office, and perhaps before, the Washington establishment and the security system were trying to undermine his presidency, as if they knew better than the people who voted. It seems like his presidency will be corrupted from beginning to end.

If they believe in democracy and a system with presidential power, I don’t understand why the political establishment would work so hard to invalidate the outcome of an election, especially when it limits the ability of the president to act at critical times.

Some of Donald Trump's policies have been unwise. He has appointed some odd people to his team (perhaps there are few with the necessary experience that he can trust). But why waste energy on a drawn-out impeachment process, when the people can decide if he is not fit for office in the election next year. Surely that is the democratic solution.

I presume that part of this hostility is payback for Obama. His presidency was weakened, not just by his inexperience, but also by accusations about his birth certificate and being a secret Moslem.

I can only presume that the next Democrat elected as president will have a torrid time, as Trump supporters go for payback too.
All this bad behaviour makes a powerful nation look foolish. Jesus said,

If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand (Mark 3:24).

Thinking about where all this rancour, lying and media manipulation will lead is scary.

Donald Trump in Daniel

If the Times of the Gentiles are to come to an end during our time (I am not certain that they will) then Daniel 11 needs to be fulfilled in our time too.

I take a “understand, wait and see” approach to Daniel’s prophecy. I try to understand what Daniel was saying in terms of our context, and then wait and see.

Christians should be familiar with these texts, so that they will realise if they are being fulfilled. You will not “see”, if you do not understand.

Last week, I was updating my study of Daniel 11 (see What Is Going On). I was surprised to come across Donald Trump in Daniel’s vision. I am not completely certain, but the parallels are disturbing. Have a look at what I found here.

I may be reading to much into Daniel 11 when I thought I saw Daniel Trump, but even if I am wrong, it confirms one thing, which is really scary. When the detestable ruler eventually comes out on the world stage, he will be supported by many evangelical Christians. Some liberal Christians will oppose him, but plenty of prophetic Christians will honour him. They have supported a man like this once, so there is no reason why they will not do it again.