Donald Trump brings reality TV drama to White House

By Caylin Coleman |

Business tycoon turned reality TV star turned 45th President of the United States: Donald Trump is a man of many titles. Some of those titles were undoubtedly handed to him due to high privilege and wealth, passed down from his father, Fred Trump, founder of the Trump Organization. (formerly known as Elizabeth Trump & Son Co.) Naturally, doubts arose about Trump’s overall placement in the White House and his reception to those doubts speak volumes about who Trump is and where his intentions really lie. The truth of the matter is, Trump has proven to be a narcissistic President lacking any form of humility and grace. This is displayed by his inability to react in a respectful manner to reasonable criticisms he, and his team, should have expected in the first place, given his established image in pop culture, that heavily contradicts with how a President should behave.

Not even a month into his Presidency, Trump riled up controversy at every passing corner. For instance, in February, Kellyanne Conway attempted to defend Trump’s Muslim travel-ban, which has inspired a number of protests around the country, specifically near airports. To justify the ban, she mentioned “The Bowling Green Massacre,” which never happened, ever. She later backtracked and said she was referencing the arrest of two Iraqi refugees in Bowling Green back in 2011, which resulted in Obama tightening immigration procedures. A simple mistake, right? Except she mentioned the non-existent massacre on three separate occasions. This could be a case of misinformation or possibly unqualified representation on behalf of the President.

However, the President hasn’t done that good of a job representing himself, either. Immediately after being inaugurated, he went to work on his 17 and counting executive orders, that represent the amount of progress America has made in the 21st century, concerning foreign policy, women’s rights and immigration. For example, the righteous order to reinstate the “Mexico City Policy,” a ban on federal funds to international groups that perform, lobby to legalize or promote abortions, first instated by Reagan way back in 1984. Then there’s the two orders reviving the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, after elongated peaceful protesting and pleading with the U.S government to stop further drilling, mainly for endangering the lives of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. What’s the risk of the lives of a couple of Natives, when our oil can travel faster and cheaper to be shipped to refineries? It’s not like Americans have a bad history with Native Americans, and wouldn’t want to reprimand those infamous wrongdoings any further. Then there’s the notice that the U.S. will begin withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific partnership deal, something that without the U.S would be meaningless to reinforce. And then, there’s the order to ease “regulatory burdens” of ObamaCare, or in other-words, repeal ObamaCare, which, whether you are for or against, will put roughly 19 million Americans out of coverage in the first year alone. Not to mention there’s a plan to replace ObamaCare with a better plan that would satisfy Republicans and the average American needs at the same time. Oh yeah, that doesn’t and will never exist. Plus a much recent executive order that turned over Obama’s Fair Pay order, which permitted huge corporations, like Walmart, to disclose labor law violations involving unequal pay in the last three years. It also banned a forced arbitration clauses for sexual harassment, assault, or discrimination. Repealing this order puts a lot of women in danger in the workforce, striking fear in coming forward with sexual allegations, when that’s already hard enough as it is.

Photo credit: DonkeyHotey via Foter.com / CC BY

Then there’s the whole Russia situation that won’t die down, unfortunately for Trump. These allegations have somehow gotten stronger after Michael Flynn’s resignation for speaking to Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak about sanctions, after he and the rest of Trump’s team, amply denying any conversations with Kislyak involving sanctions. He later recalled not remembering if they had talked about sanctions or not. Four days later, on February 13, he resigned from his position from national security advisor, after Conway, earlier that day, said they have “full confidence” in Flynn. Whether or not this directly involves Trump or that he had nothing to do with it, he has in the past (2013) bragged about his relationship with Russian oligarchs and how close they were, in terms of business. Five years prior to that statement, his son, Donald Trump, Jr. told Russia media that Russians make up a pretty disproportionate cross section of a lot of their assets. Even New York real estate broker, Dolly Renz told USA today that she sold about 65 condos in Trump World U.N. Plaza in Manhattan to Russian investors , many who sought personal meetings with Trump for his “business expertise.” They apparently became very friendly. Could this business venture roll over to his sudden political career? Did he call in some favors from those same Russian investors and oligarchs? It doesn’t seem that too crazy of an idea to investigate, which the FBI is after much suspicion.

Of course, they’re are some people who say that Trump is a much needed outsider to the already corrupt and complex government system. But is an outsider really what America needs? Wouldn’t we want someone who’s experienced and qualified to run the most important position in America? Don’t we want a politician to run our politics instead of a business man who’s only field of expertise is how to run a business, even when he doesn’t know if a stronger or weaker dollar is more beneficial to America? On top of that, it’s also clear he’s never been told ‘no’ before, evident by his inability to handle criticisms respectfully. Forget about any SNL parody, or any public protest against him, or any criticism against him or his plans made publicly, you can guarantee that Trump will respond via Twitter for the whole world to see. For example, when his much opposed Muslim travel ban got suspended by Judge James Robart, he showed (tweeted) his outrage and even questioned the credentials of the “so-called” Judge. And when CNN showed statistical proof of the negative reaction to his Muslim travel ban, he reacted in classic Trump fashion: “Any negative polls are fake news.” As if those protests meant nothing and everyone is on the same page, which, given the political climate, is up for debate.

Whether you supported Trump for president or not, he has undoubtedly done something since he announced running for office up until now that impacted your world. His blatant comments about women, his colleagues, his lies, the people he associates with, who also tell lies, or as Conway likes to put it, “alternative facts,” all have had an impact on the social and political divide we see now in America. It has become pretty obvious that Trump wants everyone on his side, whether they agree to be or not. He has the ideals of a successful dictator, but not the proper tools to carry them out effectively, beneficial to us. For now he’s stuck with Twitter to show his disapproval of all who oppose him, even possibly to a high school newspaper, if we should be so lucky. And just a reminder from the old man himself to his detractors: “I’m President. and you’re not.”