What a week it has been in *President Trump’s America.  Is anyone tired of winning yet?  Never before in my lifetime have I seen a chief executive of any organization let alone the defacto leader of the free world (a position which the United States is apparently abdicating) so self-absorbed by the fact he won one election that it has become the only thing that matters.  I’m sure that feeling of accomplishment is something that few things can ever match but there is also the small matter of actual doing what you were elected to do, you know, govern the nation.  The *45th President is still so immersed in campaign mode that he seems to have foregone the time between election cycles and launched into his bid for reelection.  It seems that with so many opportunities to buff his image as “presidential,” Mr. Trump fails to strike the appropriate tone to maximize his bully pulpit position to unite the nation with a broad appealing and uplifting message.  Instead he insists on replaying his roaring success of the 2016 campaign and caters to his base of unconditional supporters, be they actual or perceived in any given venue, and comes off looking partisan, petty and anything but presidential.  Such was the case this past weekend when the *President attended the commissioning of the Navy’s newest nuclear powered aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford in Norfolk, VA.  Whereas a shrinking majority of military personnel are GOP/conservative stalwarts in their voting, it was entirely inappropriate for an incumbent Commander-in-Chief to exhort them to lobby Congress on his behalf.  This action invariably drew criticism from the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.  As if stepping over that line wasn’t enough, on Monday Mr. Trump addressed the Boy Scouts of America at their annual Jamboree in Glen Jean, West VA.  Instead of making the focus of his speech about the Boy Scouts and the essence of their core values, he made sure all of it related back to him using the rhetoric of a partisan campaign speech……to children and teenagers!  This prompted the Boy Scouts spokesman to issue a statement.

*President Trump’s speech to the Boy Scouts

Perhaps if Mr. Trump had ever been a Boy Scout or had served in the Armed Forces he might have some sense of what it means to lead by example and understand the concept of duty in carrying out the lawful orders from superiors.  Having been born into wealth and having gotten away with flouting the law so much as a real estate mogul and now acting like he is above it while holding the highest elected office in the land, he has an uphill struggle before him.

Of all the innovative ideas that Mr. Trump brings to the table which defy convention and so much tradition of the office he holds, dictating policy via Twitter is not one that is working well for him or the nation.  It doesn’t really take a creative imagination to determine where the Tweeter-in-Chief’s latest tweet debacle came from and to whom its appeal was directed.

Trump Says Transgendered People Can’t Serve in the Military

As it turns out, this was a unilateral policy decision that was made without consulting anyone at DoD and at least for now transgendered persons will still continue to serve in the military.  Some of this backhanded policy call’s harshest criticism has come from conservative GOP members.  Again, the *President comes off looking like a know-nothing with regard to existing DoD manpower needs, human resource priorities and appears lacking in any sense of rational policy vision.  Perhaps having had the experience of serving on active duty in the armed forces may have better prepared him for being in charge of the armed forces.  As minor as this may seem to those comprising his base, it is this sort of unilateral judgement bust that fails to instill confidence in a growing number of Americans.

The coupe d’ grace of this week of failure however came in the wee morning hours of Friday when the U.S. Senate shot down the Obamacare repeal effort.  Three GOP Senators (Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins and the ailing John McCain) put humanity before party, sided with the Democrats and voted “NO” on the measure.

GOP Obamacare repeal bill fails in dramatic late-night vote

With this latest legislative dead end has filled the Republican Party with a great deal of divisiveness not to mention consternation.  For the past seven years and 60+ House votes attempting to repeal Obamacare, the GOP platform and by extension the mainstay of the 2016 Trump Campaign message had contained few other items.  Who knew healthcare can be so complicated?  That proverbial bill ‘o goods he sold at every campaign stop that Trump and only Trump knew how to fix healthcare would be laughable if the fact so many people bought it without question wasn’t the honest truth.  The narrative that Obamacare is imploding is still playing on a loop at the *President’s campaign stops.  We’ll see if it in fact does implode.  Actually, though it has some fixable problems, the Affordable Care Act is doing just fine for many that it serves.  Speaking as one who was subjected to industry abuses before the ACA, it would be enough for me to keep the law as it is written as it removes lifetime caps on coverage, removes the preexisting condition clause and children can remain on their parent’s policies until age 26 in most cases.  Regardless, the GOP now requires a retooling of a broken image as a party of new, better and innovative ideas.  Whatever they may do to sell themselves to John and Jane Q. Voter, anything they may have done for the people will be offset by everything they have and have sought to do to the people.  The next election cycle is shaping up to be one of a referendum on change.  For the here and now and despite the best efforts to force march America backwards, self-inflicted damage via tweeting by the *President and the blatant ineptitude by an all-GOP Congress have slowed the regression process.