Trump poised to violate Constitution his first day in office, George W. Bush’s ethics lawyer says This quote alone ought to send chills down your spine: “Why wouldn’t I stay at his hotel blocks from the White House, so I can tell the new president, ‘I love your new hotel!’” said one diplomat from an Asian nation. “Isn’t it rude to come to his city and say, ‘I am staying at your competitor?’” As egregious as this, and clearly in violation of the Constitution, why do I get the feeling that we the people are gonna end up just shrugging this off?
Here's the thing though ED - 'we the people' might (maybe will, well probably will, awe hell will) shrug it off, but remember that every time he grants favors for one group or country, he's treating another unfairly. That's where things are going to go off the rails pretty damned quick. Same for ignoring the press. Sure, he'll treat the American media with contempt, maybe even ignore them entirely. But how's that going to go over when he does the same for foreign press, and those citizens get wind of it and don't like it none too much? What happens when the world media demands access, and doesn't get it? Right now Trump is still America's problem, but that's about to change. Bigly.
Well when it comes down to it, if *that's* the way he's gonna play it there isn't anything anyone on earth can do about it. We can only hope that his interests in keeping all that wealth and power intact (and passed down to the Trumps' Jr. eventually), in something less than a post-apocalyptic world, will motivate him otherwise. So yeah, I think that the pressure of the global community (most of whom do *not* buy into his bullshit the way half of Americans do) will come to bear one way or the other, assuming he doesn't nuke 'em all out of sheer spite. OTOH, Japanese media has taken a sudden turn from ridicule to guarded optimism since he came to power. We'll see just how pussified the world really is in the coming weeks and months, that's for sure.
But the message we are sending to the world is that substance doesn't matter as long as they are willing to kiss the ring and pay their tribute. There are specific rules in the Constitution to prevent this kind of thing and the right seem to have little or no concern about this. Not to mention the fact that Trump is still going to participate in his family business at some level - there is not way to prevent it without liquidating the whole thing and putting the cash in a blind trust, which WON'T happen - despite the fact there will be clear potential conflicts of interest. It's ironic that the right are so concerned about things like the 2nd Amendment being infringed by some simple regulation but are willing to throw out parts of the Constitution just because it's their guy. I'll be honest, that scares me more than I can say.
