By Robert Reich
Trump
is moving into a new and more dangerous phase.
Before,
he was constrained by a few “adults” – Rex Tillerson, Gary Cohn, H.R. McMaster,
and John Kelly – whom he appointed because he thought they had some expertise
he lacked.
Now
he’s either fired or is in the process of removing the adults. He’s replacing
them with a Star Wars cantina of toadies and sycophants who will reflect back
at him his own glorious view of himself, and help sell it on TV.
Narcissists
are dangerous because they think only about themselves.
Megalomaniacs
are dangerous because they think only about their power and invincibility.
A
narcissistic megalomaniac who’s unconstrained – and who’s also president of the
United States – is about as dangerous as they come.
The
man who once said he could shoot someone dead on Fifth Avenue and still be
elected president now openly boasts of lying to the Canadian Prime Minister,
deciding on his own to negotiate mano a mano with North
Korea’s Kim Jong Un, unilaterally slapping tariffs on imported steel and
aluminum, and demanding the death penalty for drug dealers.
For weeks, Trump has been pulling big policy pronouncements out of his derriere and then leaving it up to the White House to improvise explanations and implementation plans.
“Trump
is increasingly flying solo,” report the Associated Press’ Catherine Lucey
and Jonathan Lemire. “Trump has told confidants recently that he wants to
be less reliant on his staff, believing they often give bad advice, and that he
plans to follow his own instincts, which he credits with his stunning
election.”
Trump
has always had faith in his instincts. “I’m speaking with myself, number one,
because I have a very good brain and I’ve said a lot of things,” he said on the campaign trail. "I’m a very
instinctual person, but my instinct turns out to be right,“ he told Time Magazine last year.
But
instincts aren’t facts, logic, or analysis. And it’s one thing for a business
tycoon or even a presidential candidate to rely on instincts, quite another for
the leader of the free world to rely solely on his gut.
Worse
yet, the new Trump believes no one can lay a glove on him. He’s survived this
far into his presidency despite lapses that would have done in most other
presidents.
So
what if he paid off a porn star to keep quiet about their affair? So what if
he’s raking in money off his presidency? So what if there’s no evidence for his
claims that three to five million fraudulent votes were cast for Hillary
Clinton, or that Obama wiretapped him? There are no consequences.
The
new Trump doesn’t worry that his approval ratings continue to be in the cellar.
By his measure, he’s come out on top: His cable-TV ratings are huge. Fox News
loves him. He dominates every news cycle. The pre-selected crowds at his
rallies roar their approval.
He’s
become the Mad King who says or does anything his gut tells him to, while his
courtiers genuflect.
How
will this end?
One
outcome is Trump becomes irrelevant to the practical business of governing
America.
He
gets all the attention he craves while decision makers in Washington and around
the world mainly roll their eyes and ignore him.
There’s
some evidence this is already happening.
The
Republican tax bill bore almost no resemblance to anything Trump had pushed
for.
Trump’s
big infrastructure plan was dead on arrival in Congress.
His
surprise spending deal with “Chuck and Nancy” went nowhere.
His
momentary embrace of gun control measures in the wake of a Florida school
shooting quickly evaporated.
Meanwhile,
world leaders are now taking Trump’s braggadocio and ignorance for granted,
acting as if America has no president.
But
another possible outcome could be far worse.
Trump
could become so enraged at anyone who seriously takes him on that he lashes
out, with terrible consequences.
Furious
that special counsel Robert Mueller has expanded his investigation, an
unbridled Trump could fire him – precipitating a constitutional crisis and in
effect a civil war between Trump supporters and the rest of America.
Feeling
insulted and defied by Kim, an unconstrained Trump could order an attack
on North Korea – precipitating a nuclear war.
The
mind boggles. Who knows what a mad king will do when no adults remain to
supervise him?
Robert
B. Reich is Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of
California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center for Developing
Economies. He served as Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration, for
which Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries
of the twentieth century. He has written fifteen books, including the best
sellers "Aftershock", "The Work of Nations," and "Beyond
Outrage," and, his most recent, "Saving Capitalism." He is also
a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine, chairman of Common Cause,
a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and co-creator of the
award-winning documentary, "Inequality For All." Reich's newest book
is "The Common Good." He's co-creator of the Netflix original
documentary "Saving Capitalism," which is streaming now.