Reviewing the presidency so far

In the game of bridge, any player may call for a review of the bidding if there is confusion. So let’s review the bidding of the first two months of the Trump White House because confusion surely abounds.

- Repeal and replace: Last week’s GOP fiasco in the House of Representatives proved three things: The Republican Party is not ready to govern; Trump’s “Only I can get it done” is pure braggadocio and without substance; and “The Art of the Deal” is nothing but a written reflection of the con man who is the Orange One.

- Ryan’s Express: Why were Trump and Speaker Paul Ryan in such a hurry to pass the health care bill? Simple: They both knew that when more analysis was done on what the new bill would mean to tens of millions of Americans, most Americans would realize that they were being had. Ryan and Trump needed to trash Obamacare in order to provide the wealthy with two huge tax cuts. Whenever you hear the word “reform” come out of either of their mouths, they’re looking out for their rich friends.

- Voodoo economics: We tried a trickle-down economy twice — once under Ronald Reagan, again under George W. Bush. Give more money to the super-rich, and it will flow downhill to bolster the middle class, the Republicans insisted. It failed both times. America’s economy booms when Congress pours money into infrastructure and when the middle class can buy homes, cars and other high-priced items. Now Ryan and Trump are ready to trickle-down again.

- Russiagate: Director James Comey last week confirmed that the FBI is actively investigating whether the Trump campaign knowingly colluded with Russian agents to undermine the presidential election. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes ran to the White House, abusing all protocol, to tell the president there is no evidence of such. Nunes canceled an open hearing with former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan and former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates “in an attempt to choke off public info," Ranking Member Adam Schiff charged. None dare call it treason — yet.

- Cover-up: The White House counsel informed all members of the Trump administration to preserve whatever records they may have on Russiagate. NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reported that phone records are being purged in the White House. If so, that’s worse than the Watergate cover-up because unlike the Nixon scandal, this is about an enemy of ours subverting our electoral process — at Trump’s invitation.

- The Manafort Candidate: Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman who secured the Orange One’s GOP nomination before being ousted, has close ties to Russian oligarchs (Putin’s yes men) and has been paid handsomely for representing Russian interests. According to The Associated Press, Manafort laundered money through the Bank of Cyprus, well-known for such criminal activity with the Russian Mafia. Wilbur Ross was vice chairman of the board of that bank and a major shareholder. Trump named him to become commerce secretary.

- The Liar-in-Chief: Trump has made many outrageous claims that clearly have no relationship with the truth: the thousands of Muslims celebrating in New Jersey on 9/11; the millions of illegal voters who denied him winning the popular vote; President Obama wiretapping him. The lies are legion, ubiquitous and never-ending. And now Time magazine has a cover article on “Is Truth Dead?” Said one CNN pundit: “Trump has become the chief purveyor and consumer of fake news.” And then there’s Kellyanne Conway, bless her heart, with her “alternative facts” and the head cheerleader for deflection.

- The Sheriff of Wall Street: Attorney General Jeff Sessions fired Preet Bharara, well-regarded by both Democrats and Republicans, as a U.S. attorney after he refused to resign. Bharara was involved in a number of sensitive investigations, including one involving Deutsche Bank AG, the largest known lender to Trump’s businesses, and one involving 21st Century Fox Inc., the media conglomerate that is Sean Hannity’s employer. Ted Koppel told Hannity to his face that the repeated liar, conspiracy theorist and full-blown Trump propagandist is “bad for America.”

- Make America safe again: Terrorists want to kill us in our beds, so of course we have to keep them out of our country. Ban all Muslims, candidate Trump shouted and promised. The follow-through, however, hasn’t passed constitutional muster to date in the courts. Why isn’t xenophobia a crime?

- Empty promises: Candidate Trump promised that on the first full day in office, he would tear up the treaty with Iran, start building a wall along the Mexican border and abrogate the NAFTA agreement. Nope, hasn’t happened. He also promised to get NATO allies to pay more for their defenses without understanding how defense allocations are made in Europe. He even handed German Chancellor Angela Merkel an invoice for $300 billion when they met at the White House. Adding insult to injury, The Donald refused to shake her hand. Germany is one of our most critical allies in containing Russian ambitions. Our closest ally, Britain, voted to not extend a welcome if Trump comes calling. Australia, another close ally, told Trump to take a hike.

- The economy: Trump said jobs are his No. 1 focus and takes credit for employment growing by 285,000 workers last month. Economists said that was mostly momentum from the Obama administration days. The Trumpster trumpeted private investments in the tens of millions that were announced this year, but never mind, those investments were first announced as long as two years ago and are just now coming online. Trump said he would approve the oil pipelines and indeed he did, bragging about the hundreds of thousands of jobs they will create. Those are only temporary construction jobs. The permanent jobs amount to a few dozen. And that U.S.-made steel he insisted the pipeline builders must use? Not gonna happen.

- Public Enemy No. 1: Candidate Trump said he had a secret plan to destroy ISIS, said he knew more than the generals, but he refused to tip his hand until he was sworn in. As president, he ordered these same generals, who don’t know as much about urban warfare as he does, to come up with a plan. It’s two months later and U.S. military and diplomatic policy is largely the same as the Obama administration’s.

- The budget: Without consulting the military, Trump says he wants to increase defense spending by $54 billion. To do that, he must slash the budgets of other departments, so he appointed people who don’t know what they are doing to be in charge of those entities that will be put under the knife: Betsy DeVos in Education, Rick Perry in Energy, Ben Carson in HUD, Scott Pruitt in the EPA. The Coast Guard, at the front lines in interdicting illegal immigrants and drugs, will be devastated. But no problem. This is all part of Steve Bannon’s grand design to tear down our institutions.

- The environment: EPA Administrator Pruitt doesn’t believe in global warming, science be damned. So he doesn’t need all that money or positions to do his job, which is to allow industry to again pollute our streams. Shall we tell the Silver Valley excavators that all is forgiven and go ahead with polluting Lake Coeur d’Alene again?

Donald J. Trump has a habit of calling things he doesn’t like disasters, people he doesn’t like losers and newspapers he doesn’t like failing. From the points above, those three descriptors surely apply to him.

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John Strobel is a resident of Kootenai County.