Over His Head

Reuters broke a story on Thursday (link here) about how, when speaking with Vladimir Putin on the telephone and the latter started discussing the nuclear treaty between the United States and Russia, Donald Trump had no idea what this was and had to ask his helpers what the hell he was talking about.

On Friday, Politico published an article about Trump with the title "Trump vexed by challenges, scale of government" (link here). The piece contained this disturbing revelation: "Trump often asks simple questions about policies, proposals, and personnel. And, when discussions get bogged down in details, the president has been known to quickly change the subject to 'seem in control at all times.'"

Trump has bragged more than once on camera about how he rarely reads. That deficiency seems obvious, given his tenuous grasp of basic facts. Anyone could tell he was bullshitting his way through the many presidential debates and often had no clue what he was talking about.

The result of having an ignorant President will be a power vacuum that anyone in his inner circle can exploit. This will only get worse and worse with time. We've seen this before with clueless Presidents. Iran/Contra happened without Ronald Reagan even knowing about it.

What happens when an unelected official behind the throne ends up actually in charge and making the tough decisions? The result could be deeply troubling for many Americans, particularly minorities and LGBT people. Some unelected person could implement a draconian policy and Trump will simply say "sounds fine" and skip all the details.

Considering the number of anti-LGBT appointees in his inner circle, that unknown, unelected puppeteer might trick Trump into thinking he needs to attack LGBT rights.