This month, we have had dumped into our laps a number of new and troubling pieces of the big picture puzzle that is the Trump presidency.
And piecing them together, we've just gotten a new, tawdry and sometimes darkly foreboding vision of where Donald Trump's presidential bandwagon really seems to be taking us. And we'll get to that when we get around to Trump's apparent determination to perform as a Nuclear Lone Ranger in deadly serious showdowns with North Korea and Iran.
But for starters, we can now see that the vehicle Trump has been steering isn't even a presidential bandwagon � it's a presidential bumper car. And that explains why Trump has spent the past year taking us on such a crashing, careening, clanging, banging ride. We remember how it started, on Day One, when Trump immortalized his Inauguration Day for generations of standup comics by insisting his crowds were the hugest � and demanded his spokespeople ignore all the photos that disproved his lies. And ever since, he's taken us on a series of often-juvenile bumper car joyrides unlike anything ever attempted by his 44 presidential predecessors.
But just days ago, we got the lowdown about an even earlier pre-inauguration episode that indicates the true low-down depths to which our president was willing to stoop for political advantage. It had to do with two events in October 2016 � one that everyone knew about and one we just discovered. We just recently learned that on Oct. 27, 2016, Trump's attorney, Michael Cohen, wired $130,000 in hush-money to porn star Stormy Daniels to assure that she wouldn't make public her account of a sexual affair she had with Trump just weeks after his youngest son was born.
Now, to fully understand Trump's ways, you also need to recall another event that occurred that same month, October 2016: Just 90 minutes before his second presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump tried to upset his Democratic presidential opponent by appearing before TV cameras with four women who had accused her husband, former president Bill Clinton, of sexual infidelities.
This week, we saw yet another indication of Trump's predilection for public cruelty � when he coldly fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in a public Tweet. Throughout his year as secretary, Tillerson had the courage to tell Trump directly when he disagreed on major policy matters. For instance, Tillerson supported former President Barack Obama's nuclear deal with Iran because of all the limits it required Iran to comply with; Trump not just opposed but ridiculed the Iran nuclear pact during the campaign.
But mainly, Tillerson was known to have ridiculed Trump; he famously told a Pentagon meeting he thought Trump was a "moron," or as some reported it, a "f_ moron." Now I happen to think Trump had every right � and very good reasons � for firing Tillerson. First, after what he'd said became public knowledge; and Tillerson never denied saying it.
Second, and most important, because Tillerson, the former Exxon chairman and CEO, was perhaps the worst modern secretary of state. He left the department's crucial top jobs unfilled: five undersecretary slots were vacant, 16 assistant secretaries, 38 ambassadorships. He never understood the need to surround himself with top experts. He was ineffective with Congress and in the administration, and disliked inside his department.
Trump's choice to replace Tillerson says more about Trump than anything else � it is CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who personally briefed Trump (who famously doesn't like reading his daily intelligence briefings) daily, vehemently opposed the Iran nuclear pact and worked hard at never getting on Trump's wrong side.
And this gets us to the true dangers ahead. Trump stunned his own national security advisers and his South Korean emissaries the other day when he instantly accepted the message they delivered from North Korea to meet to discuss nuclear weapons � without waiting to obtain defined preconditions or concessions. And the problem is that in a meeting with Kim Jong Un, tentatively planned for May, Trump � famously a non-detail person � is liable to blurt anything at any time.
Also in May, Trump must certify that Iran is fulfilling its nuclear pact requirements, or he may seek to end the treaty. Pompeo's appointment may mean the Iran pact may be doomed � despite the fact that Iran is meeting its many detailed requirements.
With special counsel Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia investigation powering ahead, Trump may be willing to settle for a comparatively poorer deal with North Korea. I fear Trump is desperate (on the edge of panicky) to score some sort of "win" � anything he can brag about as something no other president ever achieved.
