This Donald Trump — President Donald Trump to be more respectful — is a font of energy, dragon level energy, with a clear methodology to his madness. His greatest strength as a leader is setting the agenda.
Only Melania knows for sure WTF The Donald is up to and now you do also?
When I say “setting the agenda” I mean deciding where he is going to focus his incredible energy. [Quite a comparison to his precedessor who often played the role of a corpse. Even at the beach, he looked like a corpse.]
It is this one single thing that the American left does not understand.
Give me an example, Big Red Car
Sure, I’ll give you two examples.
Example #1 — birthright citizenship
Birthright citizenship (a small potatoes issue really) was decided by a couple of now fairly old Supreme Court cases. I do not intend to discuss them, but rather to point out that President Trump does not agree with the simple proposition that the offspring of two illegal aliens born in this country is an American citizen.
You may recognize this discussion as having its roots in the notion of “birthright tourism” or other such gambits that became wildly popular during the Obama administration wherein two foreigners — legally in the country via a tourist visa — would come to the United States, have a baby, and want it to be considered an American citizen.
That is NOT what Donald Trump is concerned about. He is solely concerned about the offspring of illegal aliens.
This is a topic that has been kicked down the road by multiple administrations for more than half a century.
So, what does President Trump do?
1. He unilaterally issues an Executive Order denying the proposition that the offspring of illegal aliens (children born in the United States) are American citizens.
2. This immediately creates a shit storm of controversy resulting in leftist Attorneys General immediately filing suit and attacking the constitutionality of Trump’s actions.
3. The leftist Attorneys General obtain a ruling from a friendly leftist judge banning the Trump administration’s order.
The overall result is that the issue of birthright citizenship for the offspring of illegal aliens is now in the courts and will ultimately be decided by the US Supreme Court which was President Trump’s objective from the beginning.
President Trump forced the issue to the forefront, picked the kicked can up from the road, forced the leftist Attorneys General to take a stand (which given the clear anti-illegal immigration tone of the recent election is not a smart move), and now the Supreme Court will decide this.
President Trump controlled the agenda and orchestrated a show down at the US Supreme Court, currently viewed as being a 6-3 conservative majority.
Example #2 — tariffs
Before the country was funded by the income tax, the main source of income to the Federal government was tariffs and customs duties.
President Trump believes in reciprocal tariffs — meaning the same tariffs on imports as exports with each trade partner. He believes this “very strongly.” Why should an American car shipped to Europe have a vastly larger tariff than a European car shipped to the United States?
He also believes in tariffs as a means of policing international behavior such as discouraging Mexican cartels (often using Chinese drugs or precursor chemicals) from killing Americans with fentanyl.
So, what does President Trump do?
1. President Trump signals via an Executive Order that he is going to use tariffs as a tool to “correct and modify” the behavior of Mexico and its cartels as well as China.
2. President Trump shows the nation’s seriousness by issuing another Executive Order to have the Mexican drug cartels classified as international terror organizations which provides the administration with a massive suite of punitive tools — perhaps up to and including using the US military to launch punitive attacks directly on the cartels notwithstanding Mexico’s understandable protests of violating its sovereignty — with which to destroy the financial underpinnings of the cartels.
3. President ties this in — again with a series of Executive Orders — with the illegal immigration (faux asylum refugee status) coming across the southern border.
In both of the instances cited above, President Trump has set and controlled the agenda.
Bottom line it, Big Red Car, we have to go get some firewood
OK, dear reader, keep an eye on the Trump Executive Orders as it is a clue to what the agenda will be.
Dragon energy coupled with a focused agenda is from whence results emanate. Pay attention.
But, hey, what the Hell do I know anyway? I’m just a Big Red Car.