Donald Trump Goes To School

Trump may be the most powerful man in the world but he is about to learn that as powerful as he is, he cannot force a congressman to vote in his support.

This Friday, Donald J. Trump, the new President of the United States was taught a staggering lesson in democratic leadership: It is one thing to erect fanciful buildings and golf courses around the world and make a few billion dollars.
It is a completely different kettle of fish to successfully lead a free people in a democratic environment with myriad checks and balances.
It takes special people. Nelson Mandela did it. Barack Obama did it. As was feared by many, Donald J. Trump appears to be having a big problem understanding how it is done.
Maybe only Donald Trump would not realize that this Friday he was dealt a humiliating blow. How many times did Trump beat his chest and boast that in his first month as President he would ‘repeal and replace’ Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, the signature achievement of Barack Obama, America’s first black president?


On Friday, the legislative effort driven more by the hatred of Barack Obama than sound economic or social policy came crashing down ‘gbragadam!’ like a tower built on marshy ground with poor foundation. The Republicans with their sizeable majority in Congress could not even bring their bill to vote.
He lost, the man who said that he was going to win and win until Americans are tired of winning. The guy who boasts to everyone that he is the world’s most gifted deal maker could not make the deal.
Despite all his bullying and arm twisting, Donald Trump could not bring members of his own party to give Obama’s achievement a black eye.
The Republican Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, with defeat written all over his face, had to admit, ‘Doing big things is hard. Obamacare remains the law of the land and we will be living with the Affordable Care Act for the foreseeable future.’
Trust Donald Trump to blame everyone else for his bruising humiliation. He actually blamed the Democrats for not giving him the votes! He forgot that he could not get the votes of members of his own party.
In any case, when the Affordable Care Act was passed in Obama’s first term, there was not even one Republican vote in support.
It was in fact the Republicans who nicknamed the Affordable Care Act ‘Obamacare’ in an effort to humiliate, damage and degrade Obama’s historic achievement.
Is it not funny that the nickname has been adopted even by Democrats and has stuck engraving Obama’s name in history? Obamacare has survived a stiff legal challenge at the US Supreme Court.

On Friday, it survived a major legislative challenge at the US House of Representatives.
What does Donald Trump do next? Will he fire the Republican congressmen who refused to support his badly configured legislation sewn together by hate? Will he fire the Democrats?
Do not forget that Mr. Trump is used to firing people. He could fire anyone whose face he did not like, on the NBC reality show, Apprentice.
He could have a bad night, wake up in the morning and fire one or two persons in the Trump Organization who upset him the day before.
Trump may be the most powerful man in the world but he is about to learn that as powerful as he is, he cannot force a congressman to vote in his support or does he have the power to fire the congressman!
When Trump in his first week as American President, imposed his first travel ban on people from certain nations in Africa and the Middle East, the man who loves to fire people, had assumed that as President of the United States, his word was law.
A few judges in the United States said to Trump, ‘not so fast, Mr President!’ He swallowed his pride, tweaked the ban and tried once again to make the ban the policy of the USA. A new set of judges shook their heads and placed a ban on Donald Trump’s travel ban.
Oh boy, my guy, Donald Trump who usually does not take prisoners ought to be learning fast that the White House is not Trump Tower. As powerful as he is, he cannot vent his anger on any of the Judges. Mr. ‘You are fired!’ may appoint judges but he cannot fire any Judge in the United States.
I was horrified when Trump tweeted that his predecessor, Barack Obama, had wiretapped him in order to undermine his elections, calling Obama a ‘bad or sick guy’. In Trump’s normal world in which he controlled everything including the media, his narrative would have stood.

The White House is not his normal world and there are now investigations into his crazy allegations and no one has yet found any credible evidence that Trump was not just maliciously alleging criminal conduct against his predecessor whom he clearly despises.
The FBI has also confirmed that it is actively investigating connections between the Trump campaign and America’s arch enemy, Russia. This is despite the fact that the FBI is in the Executive branch headed by Donald Trump. In every direction, Donald Trump is taking a crash course.
As Donald Trump goes to school, will he learn that it takes a different set of skills to lead a people in a democracy than it takes to build houses? The answer, my friends, is blowing in the wind.