When you’re feeling weak and powerless, what do you do? You change the names of government departments! Of course, that will show them all how truly powerful you are. Yes, we’ll now have the Department of War, forget about that congressionally named Department of Defense. This is what our recurrent guy does best — distraction from the extensive failures of his administration, all in not quite eight months on the job.
Here’s a recent distraction for you: let’s drop bombs on a tiny ship in the Caribbean allegedly carrying drugs to our shores with no evidence whatsoever! Killing 11 people? No names, no due process, no warrants? Yeah, see how powerful I am. Eleven people, obliterated! No, mister recurrent guy, this is murder perpetrated in international waters.
Remember all those promises that the recurrent guy made during his 2024 campaign that would take place on Day One? How about the one about ending the war in Ukraine on Day One! Nearly eight months in and it sure looks to me like that war is ongoing and only getting worse. And not only that, mister recurrent guy’s best friend, Vladimir Putin, has made a complete fool of him for all to see.
Back in August, Putin agreed to a meeting with the recurrent guy in Alaska. That’s right, he was invited onto an American military base for talks about ending the war with Ukraine, a war Putin began in 2022 with no warning or reason other than he believes that Ukraine should belong to Russia. Wait, doesn’t that sound a bit like the recurrent guy? Hasn’t he threatened to take Greenland and Canada for America? Yes, indeed, he has.
The outcome of the Alaska summit was a complete win for Putin. He got what he wanted – a meeting with the President of the United States, on American soil, with a warm handshake, a red carpet walk, and in return gave absolutely nothing. Before the summit, the recurrent guy had demanded a cease fire in Ukraine as a requirement for ongoing peace talks, but almost immediately following the meeting, he dropped that demand, leaving Putin to continue his bombing and killing of the Ukrainian people.
So, instead of ending the war on Day One, it’s now Day One + Eight Months and no end in sight. What a powerful guy our president is. Just look at that great deal he didn’t force Putin to agree to. It’s an embarrassment. He showed the world that America is weak and that our long-standing allies can no longer trust us to do as we promise.
Putin, a pariah before the big Alaska summit, is now a star. Recently, he’s shown up at summits with the likes of Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now, I wonder, why would India’s prime minister be hanging out with China’s Xi? Could it be the unprecedented 50% tariff the recurrent guy slapped on India as part of his failed attempt to control the trade and economic order of the world? Sure looks like it to me.
At China’s huge military parade recently, Putin stood shoulder to shoulder with three of his new buddies … the leaders of China, Iran and North Korea. And what was that all about? It “was signaling to the world that a viable alternative to U.S. leadership exists.” So, the greatest deal maker in the world has now pushed these four nations into an alliance that sees the U.S. as its common adversary.
What else did the recurrent guy promise during his presidential run last year? “Starting on Day 1, we will end inflation and make America affordable again.” Yeah, that’s what he promised last year, but is that what we’ve experienced? Not even close. We had a truly wonderful economy until he took over in January, but now we have higher inflation due in large part to his beloved tariffs. His chaotic economic policies have sent our economy into a tailspin as companies, large and small, try to guess what he’ll do next. Will there be more tariffs? Fewer tariffs? The latest jobs report shows a meager 22,000 new jobs created in August. Compare that to December 2024, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported 256,000 jobs added.
Prices are up. Jobs are down. The recurrent guy sure fixed the economy. And don’t forget, those tariffs he loves so much are not paid by foreign countries. They are taxes paid by American companies to the federal government when they import products from those foreign countries. And those importing companies pass those taxes on to us, you and me, in the form of ever higher prices.
What a great job the recurrent guy has been doing! In nearly eight short months, he’s given us higher prices, huge job losses, extensive cuts to health care and food assistance, the massive cruelty of his immigration crackdown and its effects, the illegal military incursion into our cities, and, of course, a continuous stream of lawbreaking.
He sure has made America Great Again.
Karen Gardner of Haydenville can be reached at opinion@gazettenet.com.