President-elect Donald Trump has thrown away what should have been his incoming presidency’s honeymoon period, replacing it with a shambolic mess, MSNBC’s Steve Benen wrote on Monday.
He also stated that the chaos of Trump’s pre-presidency was entirely his fault and could have been easily avoided.
According to Benen, the weeks leading up to the inauguration are typically “a period of time in which an incoming American leader is able to bask in his or her victory, welcome congratulatory wishes, and imagine a world of exciting possibilities before the real work begins on Inauguration Day.”
However, in Trump’s case, he wrote, “The Republican keeps stepping on rakes.”
Benen’s prime example was last week’s crisis over the spending bill, which included Trump’s unexpected addition of demands to raise the debt limit.
“A stopgap spending bill was making its way through the legislative process on Capitol Hill, generating little interest from Mar-a-Lago — that is, until late Wednesday afternoon, when Trump posted an item on his social media platform demanding that congressional Republicans include a debt ceiling increase in the bill. Failure to do so, Trump added, would be ‘a betrayal of our country.’
“Approximately an hour and a half later, he published a follow-up piece, adding that any Republican who would be’so stupid’ as to approve a spending bill without raising the debt limit’should, and will, be primaried.'”
“On Thursday, Trump reiterated his demand. A day later, he repeated it.”
What puzzled Benen was why.
Republicans were perplexed as to why he was bringing up the debt ceiling, while Democrats suggested Trump was experiencing mental decline.
And the bill that passed on Friday completely ignored Trump’s demand, implying that he is not as powerful as he claims, Benen wrote.
“The one thing Trump wanted was the one thing he didn’t get,” according to him.
“He did not have to face this humiliation. He didn’t have to do anything. He chose to intervene at the eleventh hour with an unusual and unnecessary demand, which Republicans rejected and left Democrats wondering aloud about his mental health.
“If this were an isolated hiccup in an otherwise flawless transition period, it would be easier to overlook. Trump’s pre-inaugural process has been chaotic in the seven weeks since Election Day, with numerous failures. Furthermore, by some measures, it is deteriorating rather than improving.
