Another example of desire ahead of fact. A liberal writes Trump has already summited.
Suppose you are an idiot. Or suppose you’re an Ivy League graduate. But I repeat myself.
A paraphrase of the great Mark Twain
I read Foreign Policy because occasionally there is a lucent, intelligent, well thought out article. This is not one of them. The title, ‘This could be Peak Trump,’ shows the author suffers from the same failure as many of President Trump’s critics. And his “supporters” for that matter. Continually underestimating the man.
As this is published, Donald Trump will be in office just over three weeks. Half of his cabinet picks have not been confirmed by the Senate yet (which is not that uncommon), and the Congress is busy with just getting started themselves.
The 117th Congress passed (and President Trump signed) the Laken Riley Act, that will hopefully reduce the number of illegal aliens committing crimes on our soil. A step forward, yes, but a lot of Trump’s actions have taken place by executive orders, and many have already been tied up in the courts, but not bad for three weeks.
I read “This could be ’Peak Trump,’” and it is not a news article, news analysis, nor an opinion. It’s a liberal wish list put into writing. I don’t knock the author for dreaming of Trump II going up in flames, but this is ridiculous.
This Could Be ‘Peak Trump’
His return to power has been impressive—but the hard work is about to begin.
Stephen M. Walt
Of the seven “points” made by Mr. Walt, I find these two the most incredulous. Yes, I wonder if someone can be this stupid. I recall the wisdom of George Friedman, PhD, “We tend to confuse the terms ‘intellectual’ and ‘intelligent.’ An intellectual is a person who makes his living dealing in ideas. He is learned by profession. He could also be a moron.” Two examples of this insight.
Fourth, gutting government institutions, imposing litmus tests on the civil service, and putting unqualified and/or deeply troubled individuals in charge of key government organizations guarantees that essential public services will deteriorate. Government agencies are an easy political target, but Americans who aren’t billionaires depend upon them functioning well, especially during emergencies. Ordinary Americans will be angry if public services deteriorate, and Trump will have no one to blame but himself.
“Putting unqualified/troubled persons in charges of key positions will ensure public services will deteriorate.”
Like the Secret Service, which almost lost the current president to assignation attempts twice in 2024. In the aftermath of the July 13, 2024 assignation attempt in Butler PA, then Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle had to defend her stated goal of having 30% of field agents female by 2030. How did that work out? Sounds like the liberal litmus test was pretty shabby.
Also her agency deleted most of the text messages regarding the 1/6/21 protest at the capital. Last time I checked, those were official government communications and required to be kept by the Federal Records Act. The services seem to have really deteriorated there.
I wonder if Mr. Walt remembered his litmus test comments after last Thursday. In the aftermath of the first mid-air collision in decades, with liberals blaming President Trump for “gutting” the FAA (impressive seeing he was been president for ten days and the hiring freeze in effect for seven), a point was brought out. An open class action lawsuit against the FAA for discrimination. Almost one-thousand white men are suing the FAA Academy for not hiring them for no other reason than they being white males.
Don’t forget Trump’s two Democratic predecessors opened these positions to mentally disturbed and disabled persons. FAA air traffic controllers may have mental issues. I don’t fly nearly as much as I used to, but this scares the living hell out of me. Hopefully President Trump and Secretary Sean Duffy take a lesson from Ronald Reagan, fire the people who don’t qualify and replace them, no matter what the cost. Maybe we should cut the 87, 000 new IRS agents and use that to fund more qualified air traffic controllers. But it looks like Joe O’Biden is more concerned about taxing the American people, not insuring they can travel safely.
“depend upon them functioning well, especially during emergencies.”
We are currently unable to survey the residents of North Carolina and the Pacific Palisades on how well the O’Biden FEMA worked.
Fifth, going after universities and other knowledge-producing organizations will make the United States dumber, reduce its human capital, and help other countries catch up. If you target universities, then who is going to educate the future scientists, engineers, doctors, artists, social scientists, lawyers, and other experts who drive innovation, help develop public policies that work, and contribute to the broader well-being of society?
“Knowledge-producing organizations?” Good God, why am I’m getting “birthing persons” springing into my head? You mean universities that charge hundreds of thousands for degrees in victim’s education, DEI and gender studies? Insuring graduates leave with mortgage size debts and sheepskins they cannot use to get employment to pay off those huge bills.
Mr. Walt, America needs (desperately) more doctors, nurses, engineers, scientists (STEM period), accountants, finance majors, etc. We also need more construction workers, power linemen, electricians, computer technicians, long distance truck drivers, plumbers and oil field workers. What we do not need is more diversity majors, gender studies graduates, or people with sociology/phycology degrees. And God knows we don’t need any more lawyers!
Mr. Walt, you really need to get out of your Ivory Tower, walk outside, breath real air (CO2 and all) and actually look at how people live. Only one-third of the America people have a four-year college degree, and many without advanced education are doing quite well. You’re comments about “knowledge producing organizations” show how ignorant you are of the real world (sorry to be blunt).
Steve Jobs had one semester of college, then created or revolutionized six major industries. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvaaaaaard after two years to found a company called Micro-Soft (you may have heard of it). Sam Walton had a bachelor’s in economics from the University of Missouri, Jeff Bezos dual degrees from Princeton, and both revolutionized the marketings, distribution, and retail industries.
Oh, do you know the name Elon Musk Mr. Walt? For a man with two bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania (physics and economics), he’s doing pretty good for himself. He will likely become the first trillionaire in 2027.
Funny, don’t see a doctorate degree among any of these successful men.
Mr. Walt, please, continue to underestimate Donald Trump at your peril. For his many faults, he sets a goal, moves to it, will punch back ten times for every time you slap him (God has the Republican base been waiting for that!), and gets back up whenever he’s knocked down. Remember you and yours filed over thirty-four fraudulent charges against the man, invaded his house for things the then current president was doing, and had federal agents raiding his wife’s underwear drawer.
You know, the man who is purging the bureaucracy of these people who weaponized the judicial system. So again, please, keep thinking Donald Trump’s about to fall over. It will be fun to watch you “intellectual morons” screaming.
Michael A. Thiac is a retired Army intelligence officer, with over 23 years experience, including serving in the Republic of Korea, Japan, and the Middle East. He is also a retired police patrol sergeant, with over 22 years’ service, and over ten year’s experience in field training of newly assigned officers. He has been published at The American Thinker, PoliceOne.com, and on his personal blog, A Cop’s Watch.
Opinions expressed are his alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of current or former employers.
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