Trump and the Anti-Wood Chipper Brigade

OK, I obviously lack a colorful turn of phrase.  Prize for that goes to John Boehner's former press secretary, Michael Steel (not to be confused with Michael Steele), who commented that repealing Obamacare without a replacement in place "makes as much political sense as diving headfirst into a wood chipper."  Now THAT's a colorful turn of phrase!

I have also seen a lot of complaints that this is getting a fraction the coverage of Jussie Smollett.  And while that seems wrong, it is probably premature to panic/gloat too much about this.  And here is the reason.  Trump is extremely impulsive and and unsteady in policy making.  He has a definite affinity for wood chippers, but his staff does a pretty good job of steering him clear of them.  His propensity for making policy by tweet is often overruled by cooler heads -- or by the deep state, depending on your point of view.

He came alarmingly near to tweeting our way into war with North Korea, but staff managed to prevent him.  Then fell "in love" with Kim Jong-Un and attempted to override sanctions by tweet but officials talked him down.  He also attempted to withdraw 2,000 troops from Syria by tweet and was ultimately persuaded to leave some 1,000 in place.  And he has now overridden his administrations plans to stop funding the Special Olympics.  I could also mention his attempt to release further details of the Carter Page warrant.  Bob Woodward's books recounts many other instances of Trump's staff taking advantage of his short attention span and  lack of any policy depth whatever to steer him away from the wood chipper on other occasions.

Admittedly, this policy switch has gone beyond a tweet.  It consists of a one-page letter to the court, with the promise that a brief will follow.  No such brief has actually been prepared.  Whether one will is anyone's guess.  Trump's staff may, yet again, persuade him to step away from the wood chipper. 

I feared disaster if Trump won the election and I will have to admit that nothing disastrous has happened yet.  That appears to be because Trump is too lazy and too superficial to follow up on any of his nuttier ideas, and because of the persistence of the anti-wood chipper brigade.  But we all have to live with the persistent, nagging fear that some day the anti-wood chipper brigade might fail.