In a scorching editorial published by a major Texas daily newspaper, President Donald Trump's first six months in office were documented in embarrassing detail with the nicest description of Trump being: "ham-handed."
Written by former Dallas News White House bureau chief Carl Leubsdorf, the piece notes, "Trump is right in saying he has significantly influenced government and the nation's image -- though much of his impact has been negative. His most significant clear-cut triumph was installing conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch."
With that Leubsdorf takes a deep dive into Trump's six months in office and, as the saying goes, "documents the atrocities."
Among notable failures, beginning with foreign policy:
- Embraced autocrats in Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Egypt and abandoned longtime U.S leadership in seeking to enhance democracy and human rights.
- Compromised Israel's intelligence sources.
- Spurred more divisiveness in an already divided Middle East by setting off a squabble between Saudi Arabia, a major U.S. ally, and Qatar, home of the region's biggest U.S. military base.
Turning to domestic issues of the type Trump ran on, the president fared no better.
- Created uncertainty in the nation's health care system by sending inconsistent administrative signals and supporting legislation that could deprive millions of people health insurance coverage, undermine Medicaid health support for lower income Americans and give wealthy taxpayers a massive tax cut.
- Created a commission to investigate his unproven allegations of voter fraud because he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton.
- Hired foxes to watch the chicken coops by filling his administration with archconservatives, many with records opposing the very agencies in which they work, and curbing civil rights and environmental enforcement.
Then there is the "institutional damage" Trump has done and continues to do.
- Committed potentially impeachable offenses of obstructing justice that prompted appointment of a Special Counsel by firing FBI Director James Comey, because of his probe into possible Trump campaign collusion with Russia, and urging other intelligence officials to pressure Comey to halt the probe.
- Intensified racial and other divisions by reducing governmental civil rights guarantees and reversing protections for sexual and racial minorities.
- Waged a vendetta against news outlets subjecting his administration to scrutiny, calling the mainstream media the "enemy of the American people" and denouncing unfavorable stories as "fake news." Undercut White House press institutions intended to facilitate dialogue between the presidency and the public.
As Leubsdorf concludes, Trump has spearheaded "the least support for any new modern president, an exacerbation of domestic divisions, and unprecedented global disdain and embarrassment."
You can read the whole list here.
