Why Trump Hasn't Done Any Serious Damage

I feared disaster if Donald Trump was ever elected President, he was so obviously unqualified for the job, in terms of either knowledge or temperament.  But I do have to admit that nothing disastrous has happened.  And the reason appears to be that Trump simply isn't competent enough to cause too much damage. 

He has absolutely no idea what he is doing, which gives him all sorts of nutty ideas that could cause serious damage if implemented.  The most recent one was a proposal to close the Mexican border, presumably to all travel and trade.  People around him appear to have convinced him just how serious this would be and he is now backing down.  Examples of loony things he wants to do proliferate -- start a war with North Korea, make North Korea's Kim Jong-Un our best friend, release highly classified materials from the Page warrant, and now (possibly) fire the entire Federal Reserve Board and replace them with hacks.

But if Trump's damn fool ignorance and extremely short attention span make him inclined to tweet out the nuttiest things as our latest policy, it makes him easy to thwart.  Not knowing how things actually work in the real world leads to crazy ideas, and also to not knowing how to implement them.  Part of the Trumpster's frustration with the Deep State is probably the realization that the President does not, in fact, rule by decree, that getting stuff done requires knowledge of the bureaucracy and how to work it, and that Trump has neither the aptitude nor the patience for it.

On the rare occasions Trump has actually managed to do the crazy things he is proposing, the have rather rapidly run into reality and gotten the worst of it.  Pushing for the repeal of Obamacare made clear the the Republicans had no alternate plan and would have dismantled the system millions now rely on for health insurance and put nothing in its place.  The family separation policy for asylum seekers led to public outrage and forced Trump to back down.  And above all, his decision to shut down the federal government proved that government shutdowns are not just a way of being emphatic, but cause actual damage to ordinary people.  Trump appears not to have understood that.  Significantly, the shutdown is the only thing Trump has done so far that has actually hurt his followers, and the only thing that appears to have dented his popularity with them. 

To me, the most important reason not to vote for Trump was that he seemed like the sort of person who in time of crisis you would want to handcuff, gag, and lock in the closet until it blew over.  Well, Trump's crew has (famously) not managed to gag him so far, but they have effectively handcuffed him -- so far.

And maybe permanently.  It's just that now Trump has seriously gone off the deep end.  He has cut off aid to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador and appears actually to mean it.  He is also pushing for an end to Obamacare, still having failed to learn that creating great health care means more than just saying that you will create great health care.  Granted, he has also threatened to close the border with Mexico and been talked down, so maybe cooler heads will prevail.