Opinion: What Trump is doing is not remotely normal
What was seen as outrageous during Trump’s first term is seen as normal in his second. A Washington Post columnist recently wrote Trump’s return to office “marked not just a political transition but the normalization of the man and his movement.” The Hill, an insiders’ D.C. paper, ran a story that began, “Welcome to Washington’s new normal.”
Don’t buy such blathering. Trust your own common sense. What Trump is doing is not normal.
During the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, Daniel Rodriguez plunged a stun gun into the neck of a police officer multiple times. Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Rodriguez was “a one-man army of hate, attacking police and destroying property” as she sentenced him to a prison term of over 12 years. On his first day in office, Trump pardoned Rodriguez and over 1,500 others for their actions on Jan. 6. Pardoning those who attack police officers while storming the Capitol is not normal.
Trump tapped Pete Hegseth as defense secretary to manage a budget of $850 billion and lead 2.9 million employees including 1.4 million active-duty uniformed personnel. Having a man heading the Pentagon who faced allegations of mismanaging two veterans’ advocacy groups, paying off a woman who accused him of rape, abusing his ex-wife and public drunkenness is not normal.
On the first day of his second term, Trump issued an executive order violating the 14th Amendment’s grant of citizenship to anyone born in the U.S. and subject to U.S. laws. Judge John Coughenour, appointed to the bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1981, said: “I can’t remember another case where the question presented is as clear as this one. This is a blatantly unconstitutional order.” An attempt to overrule the Constitution hours after taking the oath of office to defend it is not normal.
Trump has appointed Elon Musk to head a committee to enhance government efficiency. Musk’s recommendations on artificial intelligence, social media, electric vehicles, space exploration and tariffs are bound to affect his own personal wealth. Having the world’s richest person and a huge contributor to the Trump presidential campaign in such a role is corrupt, not normal.
During last year’s campaign, Trump labeled government employees “crooked” and “dishonest.” On Jan. 24, he fired 18 inspectors general, the very officials tasked with looking for malfeasance in government departments. In so doing, the president ignored the federal statute requiring that he give 30 days’ notice to Congress before removing an inspector general and provide substantive reasons for their removal. Mark Greenblatt, appointed inspector general of the Department of the Interior by Trump during his first term, explained to CBS News: “The most charitable interpretation is that he doesn’t believe in our independence or our fairness. The least charitable interpretation is that he wants lackeys to rubber stamp what he’s trying to do.” Neither explanation would be normal.
On his first day in office, Trump said U.S. control over Greenland is necessary to national security. He has refused to rule out taking the territory from Denmark by force. The U.S. led opposition to territorial aggression against Ukraine by Russia. It’s not normal for an American president to advocate it against a NATO ally.
In 2020, then-president Trump ordered a drone strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian general reportedly responsible for hundreds of American deaths. Iran has threatened revenge against Mike Pompeo, Trump’s former secretary of state, and John Bolton, his former national security adviser, among others. Intelligence reports indicate the threat is ongoing. Nevertheless, Trump withdrew the security protection provided to Pompeo and Bolton by the Biden administration, explaining “When you have protection, you can’t have it for the rest of your life.” It’s not normal for a president to express nonchalance toward a foreign power threatening former senior U.S. officials.
In his confirmation hearing on Jan. 16, Trump’s nominee to head the EPA declared that addressing contamination by forever chemicals would be a “top priority.” A week later, Trump withdrew plans to regulate discharge of those toxic contaminants in drinking water. Presidentially sanctioned poisoning of Americans is not normal.
At a national prayer service the day after his inauguration, Episcopal Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde addressed the new president: “In the name of our God, I ask you to have mercy upon the people in our country who are scared now.” Trump responded: “She was nasty in tone, and not compelling or smart.” The Bible says the Almighty requires each person “to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” An out-and-out rejection of mercy by a president claiming to be Christian is not normal.
Indeed, there are more examples of aberrant Trumpian actions. There are the refusal to spend funds already appropriated by law, the firing of career civil servants, the exploitation of cryptocurrency for personal gain, the cancellation of a 1965 order banning hiring discrimination in federal employment and the threatened violation of the Panama Canal Treaty. And then, too, there are the nominations of antivaxxer Robert F. Kennedy as secretary of Health and Human Services, alleged Russian sympathizer Tulsi Gabbard as director of National Intelligence and revenge advocate Kash Patel as FBI director. But enough.
What’s going on under the Trump administration is not normal. Instead, it’s unmerciful, vindictive, destructive, cruel, unconstitutional, illegal and un-American.
Have you ever seen the 1976 film classic “Network”? In it, a TV anchor tells Americans to protest this way: “I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell, ‘I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!'”
The anchor took the words right out of my mouth. What Trump is doing in the first days of his second administration is not normal, and I’m already as mad as hell.
— Keith Raffel is a syndicated columnist with Creators.