President Donald Trump of the Republican Party [the GOP – Grand Old Party]

President Donald Trump in the Oval Office, with, from left, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, Vice President Mike Pence, White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon, Press Secretary Sean Spicer and National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, all 4 staffers (except the VP of course) sacked within the last  year by Trump, eh?

Mr nice guy, likeable, Barrack Obama who served his fellow Americans as President for his full eight years but achieved dam all, was superseded by Mr nasty, hateful, fellow Donald Trump who has embarrassed his fellow Americans as President for a mere eight months, but succeeded admirable in creating division and strife throughout the nation, as well as causing disconcertion around the World with his bizarre behaviour and his tyrannical outbursts, hasn’t he?

Now, Trump got into power through a popularist vote, with rabble rousing speeches, appealing to the non-intellectual, bigoted, masses that abound in that otherwise great country.

Many of us this side of the pond, were understandably (?) quite surprised that he even won the nomination as the Republican presidential candidate, but even more shocked, when he beat a credible Democrat candidate, Hillary Clinton, to secure the Presidential crown itself. Nevertheless, we had hoped he would act as a breath fresh air and breath some substantial life into American politics – we have all been sorely disappointed though, haven’t we?

Instead of knuckling down to the serious and burdensome task of leading a proud nation, and being a beacon of light in what has become a gloomy dangerous world, he has demonstrably failed to carry that onerous load of responsibility bestowed on him by his people in becoming the leader of the free world, and a man entrusted with immense power. No, he has simply reverted to his belligerent, boasting, moronic, bullying, ways to antagonise all and sundry, and has learned nothing about democracy or running a government, nor for that matter politics itself or how to persuade the members of Congress to pass his legislation.

His naked ambition and quest to abolish Obamacare, and so abandon 20 million of the poorest US citizens who needed to rely on it for their health care, was ultimately quashed by the Senate four weeks ago. Tellingly, the man who caste the vote to sink the move and deny Trump even a watered-down bill, so no partial token victory, was a Senator who had risen from his hospital sickbed (brain cancer) to do just that with providing the ONE decisive vote needed. That was Arizona senator John McCain whose war record was mocked just a year ago by Trump as him NOT being a war hero of the Vietnam war, because his aeroplane had been shot down and he had been CAPTURED by the enemy (tortured during 5½ years of capture to boot). [What goes around comes around, eh?].

Less than a couple of weeks ago, Trump failed to properly condemn the ultra-right who provoked violence in a Charlottesville demonstration and counter-demonstration, that left a woman dead. Trump speech writers tried to get him out of a hole on it, and that partially worked, until the very next day, in typical Trump style, he went ad libbing off-script in a ranting impromptu press conference to simply increased the damage he had already caused to his dwindling reputation and which had marked him out as a racist – it didn’t help that Steve Bannon, was Trump’s forceful and divisive alt-right chief strategist (who had served as executive chairman of his presidential campaign no less), but a white supremacist movement apologist, did it? [He is quoted as saying some years ago that his main goal was to “destroy all of today’s establishment”]

Well Bannon got the push a week ago (joined now by adviser Sebastian Gorka, who was part of the White House nationalist faction, who was fired today) – all too late in many’s opinion?

The demonstrable fallout of all that, was that Trump’s entire arts council group of 16 members, quit in protest, and then followed this week by his State department science envoy and university professor, also resigning [his resignation letter indeed contained a ‘hidden’ message saying IMPEACH]. Not only that, but a flood of CEOs [like of Merck, Walmart, J&J, JP Morgan Chase, GM, GE, Pepsi, etc] serving on his business advisory council also jacked it in, forcing Trump to completely disband it – that façade, leaving Trump now dangerously isolated from the business community, and making him certainly the most secluded from corporate America, President ever, eh?

Now, if braggard Trump is so proud of his supposed national popularity [so many people love him that he claims the media won’t report it!], how comes he has had to spend so much other taxpayers’ money [we assume HE doesn’t pay tax himself as he won’t show his personal tax returns?) on secret-service protection to the extent that in just eight months he is well on the way to incurring more cost than Obama did in his full eight years, eh? He is walking on thin ice, as blowing the service’s budget could leave them looking the other way when a real threat appears, eh? [Perhaps he should remember that in President Kennedy’s assassination, the actual fatal head wound reportedly (& creditably?) came from a gunshot accidently fired by by a bodyguard (then covered-up of course)].

Last week in a Phoenix, Arizona wild rally, Trump disgraced the presidency by his igniting, rampaging, ranting and rambling, delusional, self-congratulatory speech – it has been described as ‘downright scary and disturbing’ by a renowned past director of national intelligence.

In it, he denied the very fact that there were indeed thousands of protestors in the streets outside and instead he loudly lambasted the “sick” media, identifying & targeting in his view “the so bad failing New York Times”, “the lobbying tool for Amazon, the Washington Post”, “the so bad and pathetic CNN”, “CNN is really bad but ABC…”. “I really think and believe that they don’t like our country. I honestly believe they don’t want to make our country great again”. He says “I am an honest person that wants to tell the truth”, yet he has already made a thousand or more misstatements as President? Again, he boasts “We are building a wall” with Mexico even “if we have to closed down our government”. Outlandishly, he claims that the “crooked media is actually attacking” his supporters, and “attack the decency of our supporters…”, so “It is time to expose the crooked media deceptions and to challenge the media for their role in fomenting divisions”, and indeed further stated “it’s journalists who are bolstering hate groups”

He also hinted that he would pardon former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio to save him from a potential 6-month jail sentence next month, following his conviction in July for criminal contempt – indeed Trump has done just that with a full pardon in the past day [note, Arpaio was a prominent supporter of Trump’s during the election campaign].

He really doesn’t believe “any president has accomplished as much” as he himself has done “in the first six or seven months”. As a passing comment, he mentioned that they would “end up probably terminating NAFTA …” (some way of making a major policy announcement on ending the north-american free trade agreement, eh?)

What planet is HE on? Trump has just shown why even some Republicans [like say Senator Bob Corker?], are seriously questioning his mental state, temperament, competence, and capacity to serve as, and be President, when he alone has his finger on the nuclear trigger. Furthermore, there is widespread stark concern at the top of the Republican Party that Trump has been a corruptive influence on it, doesn’t represent their core beliefs, and moreover has completely dis-united it.

He has marginalising transgender people, as well as given succulence to the likes of the KKK and the neo-Nazis. Now, whether that kind of thing will break Congress’ loyalty bond with an incumbent first-term sitting president, is a moot point, but as the mid-term elections are just next year, we will soon see, don’t you think? [Up for election are all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, and the full terms for 34 of the 100 seats in the Senate. Plus, 36 Governors in the 50 States].

Some of those in the know, believe that Trump wants out and well before he or anyone in his entourage is even accused of treason over the indisputable Russian involvement in his election as president. You see, few are kissing his ass, and he hadn’t expected that, had he? No doubt he will claim in suddenly resigning that he has been hounded from office by the media’s biggest witch-hunt in American political history – but just expect him to issue a flurry of pre-emptive pardons for himself and others before he goes, won’t you?

A pardon, which wipes-out a crime, should not be confused with clemency, which simply removes or reduces the punishment.

[Now, you may well ask, “Can the US President issue a pardon before a person has even been charged of a crime?” Yes, he most certainly can (and that is all down to the original historic power of the British monarchy, isn’t it?). His power to pardon indeed extends to every offence known to the federal (but NOT State) law, and may be exercised at any time after its commission, either before legal proceedings are taken, or during their pendency, or after conviction and judgment. Moreover, he CAN even pardon himself (except for impeachment of course), but whether that power extends to a pardon of himself for any possible unspecified future conviction is somewhat indistinct].

[Some would say that as long as Donald Trump is gone from the White House, who cares how the hell how, but as the result of a blatantly rigged election for both elected, it certainly wouldn’t be right for VP ‘Mike Pence’ to take over, would it? NO, that is not natural justice in a democracy].