The irrational side of President Donald Trump’s campaign (the side that got him elected) was based on racism, xenophobia etc. but the rational side (the side that made him a somewhat viable political candidate) was that he’s an accomplished businessman. However, what we’ve discovered from his Presidency thus far is that success in business does not prepare you for success in government.
Trump thinks his business success makes him Superman
Trump thinks his success as a real estate magnate makes him impervious to failure elsewhere. He’s dead set on the idea that people with no political knowledge or experience are the key to political success.
Surely that’s not how he made his real estate billions. The next area of legislature Trump is tackling after his foibles with immigration and healthcare will be tax reform, and while one might refer to the old adage “third time lucky,” another failure seems likely.
Basically, Trump’s plan is to open up the brand new White House Office of American Innovation, headed by his son-in-law Jared Kushner, which will have the power to overthrow the federal government. He’ll do this by privatising some government functions, which will make governing a little bit more like business. Kushner’s office will report directly to Trump, navigating its way around the judiciary, and it will be filled with businessmen who are going to bring that unorthodox way of thinking to Washington.
It’s been branded a SWAT team of strategists.
Apparently Trump’s goal here is to have some accomplishments to his name so he can have a Presidential legacy beyond being the President everyone hated. He wants to be remembered as the underdog. However, every attempt to reinvent the US government fails. Every attempt has ended the same way: they try to work around the cast-iron legislation and get caught out so often that they eventually just give up and shut down and the government goes back to the way it was.
Kushner’s office will be no different and Trump’s Presidency will continue its drastically downward trajectory.
Trump isn’t learning anything from healthcare failure
Trump should be learning lessons from his healthcare plan’s failure that he is not. He should learn that having knowledge on how a government works helps you run one.
His real estate development deals were made by winning over a couple of partners who were carbon copies of him. But with these bills of his, he needs to win over 218 members of Congress, all with very different backgrounds and political views. And if a real estate deal fell through with one partner, he could just flick through his rolodex and move onto the next one, but he can’t do that with countries. And he can’t tell Congress to “forget about the little sh*t,” because “the little sh*t” is the bill’s effects on the country, which is kinda sorta important, wouldn’t you say?
Furthermore, Trump was quick to lash out at the Democrats and wash his hands of all blame, without realising that he’ll count on their votes to get future bills passed, like his Reagan-sized tax reform plans.
The Republicans are, as always, happy to cut taxes as long as the fatcats up top are the ones reaping the benefits. One of their plans is to bring a tax break of $100 to taxpayers in the lowest 20% ($100, wow!), while the top 0.1% (dubious already...) will receive a break of $1.4 million ($1.4 million, WTF?!?).
But Trump’s ambitious tax cut plan is too ambitious: he wants to overthrow the entire tax system. He wants to tear apart rates and destroy all the vaguely outlined loopholes. However, corporations with political influence will all have their one loophole protected, and before we know it, all the loopholes remain. Trump’s only option really is comprehensive reform, which will be a total shambles, just you watch. He’ll cut the fatcats’ taxes and act like he succeeded, but he won’t have done. The average working-class American who voted him in will see no benefits.
