22 December 2018

Mad Dog

Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense, James "Mad Dog" Mattis abruptly resigned on Thursday night (details here and here) because he could not convince the President to reverse his pro-Russia decision on Syrian troops and because of his pro-Russia/anti-allies stance. Mattis's resignation letter is a stinging rebuke of Trump's policy and behavior.

Mattis was considered the "last adult in the room" now at the White House. His departure will throw the West Wing into even more chaos as it will be staffed primarily by yes-men.

Both Republics and Democrats in Congress called Mattis's departure disastrous for Trump. This week has seen a marked change in GOP attitude toward the President on Capitol Hill, with natural allies now speaking out against Trump openly.

The more the Republican Party pulls away from Trump, the better for the country. It also puts Trump's presidency more in peril if he has far fewer Republican allies who will go to bat for him.

In other words, Trump's chances of being impeached and removed from office arguably increased significantly this past week.

Bloomberg media published an excellent opinion piece yesterday on Mattis's resignation (link here) with the title "Losing Mattis Is a Disaster for Trump" and the deck title "The President doesn’t seem to realize the risks he’s now facing."

I think this one sentence best spells out how bad this resignation is for Trump: "Opening up a huge foreign-policy gap between himself and Republican senators is just an enormous risk."

Yes, this may end up resulting in a President Pence instead of Trump. Pence is loathsome in his own right but he's not unstable. He'd be another reincarnation of George W. Bush, and his policies wouldn't be any more theistic than what we're seeing now from Trump who's constantly pandering to evangelicals.

We now may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel for the Trump presidency.

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