Donald Trump has been like no other president in American history. To say he is unique would be an understatement. He is the first president to make extensive use of social media especially Twitter. His daily tweets are the talk of the daily news cycle.
In addition to his extensive use of Twitter, Donald Trump’s campaign rallies are just as much over the top as his tweets. His exaggeration of his accomplishments and his claims of the failures of prior presidents are hallmarks for news coverage and food for his followers. His legions of supporters love him. The left not so much. And those who consider themselves in the political middle are left perplexed and confused.
Adding fuel to the political fire, President Trump calls his opponents insulting and sometimes derogatory names such as Sleepy Joe (presidential candidate and former Vice-President Joe Biden), Bush Original (late President George H. W. Bush), Low Energy Jeb (former Florida Governor Jeb Bush), the Nutty Professor (Senator and presidential candidate Bernie Sanders), Crooked Hillary (former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton), Lyin’ Ted (former presidential candidate and Senator Ted Cruz), Little Michael Bloomberg (former New York City mayor), and Pocahontas (Senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren). These are just a few of a long list of names that President Trump has used to denounce his opponents.
And if this is not enough Donald Trump has attacked not only certain media outlets calling them fake news but also individual members of the media for their coverage of him. I am not about to defend the news media because they do pick their favorites and do slant their coverages to favor certain political figures over others. So, try this experiment. Watch Fox News and pay attention to the big political story of the day. Then watch CNN’s or MSNBC’s coverage of the same event. It is likely you will not recognize that it is the same coverage of the same event but with a different bent on the facts. Yes. Facts can be bent to tell different stories. That is because the networks do slant their coverages to shine the best light on their favorites. Fox News favors republicans and conservatives while CNN and MSNBC favor democrats and the political left.
President Trump needs to learn that constantly fighting with the news media is a losing battle. The media have all the ink and all the airtime they need to carry their message. And name calling is just not presidential.
All of that said Donald Trump is still the most intriguing president of our time. Without his tweets, name calling, and battles with the media, he may never have been elected president. Yet it is those same battles carried over into his presidency that may cost him his re-election.
Donald Trump’s biggest problem is that his style is way over the top. While his campaign for president was well run and successful, his ability to govern has been questionable. Donald Trump had no experience in government. He has used his management style in the private sector to dictate his style as president. Between this and the animosity that democrats and republicans in Congress have for one another it is no surprise that his administration has had far too few victories for the American people.
It is my firm belief that if Donald Trump the elected president had just dignified his tweets and his campaign speeches, keeping them professional, his reelection would have been virtually assured, not guaranteed, but the likely favorite against any democrat.
Given Donald Trump’s extreme behavior and the radical views of the democratic candidates for president many American voters are left in a quandary. Should I vote for one of these far-left radical and socialistic leaning democrats or should I stick with Donald Trump and his unpresidential tweets, his attacks on the media, and the insults he hurls at his opponents?
The race for president will not truly take shape until the democrats have their candidate. Once that happens reality sets in. Then and only then will the American people have to make a very hard choice.