It’s been another banner week in the White House! How so, you ask? What makes this week remarkable in any way? This week, members of the Republican party decided a thing or two that the president did went just a bit too far.
Many of us are fascinated by the tolerance members of the GOP have displayed when the leader of their party does things that are incredibly un-Republican or even un-American. So much so that it shocks us anymore when they push back on him at all.
It turns out that even Republicans cringe at the thought of mistreating young children who are brought here by adults trying to cross into America illegally. Even Republicans can admit that “spygate” was a made up Trump lie that has no validity. Even Republicans object to protectionist economic policies that are endangering our own futures.
And this week, they proved it.
It started with a concern by virtually all lawmakers in Washington regarding the story of how the Department of Health and Human Services managed to lose track of 1,475 migrant children. This situation has been confused with the recent hardline approach by Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions regarding the separation of children from their parents when entering our country illegally. Those problems are separate from each other. Both are abhorrent, but still are distinct from one another.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), as the chairman of the Senate’s Homeland Security Subcommittee expressed his unhappiness with it in an April 26 hearing on the matter. The subcommittee’s frustration has only grown since the original problem has been exasperated by the new get tough policy announced by Sessions on May 7. The new policy has already separated hundreds of additional children from their parents, with little to no strategy for the treatment of these children afterward.
On Sunday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) said this about the new zero tolerance policy: “America is the most generous country in the world and ideally you wouldn’t put people through additional trauma once they came into the United States.”
Even the loyal Trump supporting GOP members of Congress are uneasy with this inhumane policy. See the GOP led “petition for discharge” movement to force a vote on the House floor on immigration for further evidence.
Next up, Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) made an important appearance Wednesday on CBS This Morning. Gowdy made the statement that “when the FBI comes into contact with information about what a foreign government may be doing in our election cycle, I think they have an obligation to run it out.” He completely debunked Trump’s argument that the government had implanted a “spy” into his presidential campaign. Gowdy is a member of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
On Thursday morning, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) responded to the Trump Administration’s decision to impose steep tariffs on the European Union, Canada and Mexico. He said: “This is dumb. Europe, Canada and Mexico are not China, and you don’t treat allies the same way you treat opponents. We’ve been down this road before–blanket protectionism is a big part of why America had a Great Depression.”
Also on Thursday, at a policy conference in Michigan, former Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-OH) said “There is no Republican Party. There’s a Trump Party.” Now that might not sound like an insult until he goes on to say “the Republican Party is kind of taking a nap somewhere.”
Everyone has their limit.
Just like ABC had their limit with Roseanne Barr this week, the rock solid dam of support that Trump has enjoyed for his first year and half is starting to spring leaks. Of course, the president’s press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, came to her Wednesday afternoon briefing prepared to call out ABC for being intolerant of Roseanne’s meanness. She prepared by listing all of the times people on ABC were mean to the president. What? The president seems to be going this one alone as well.
And for the grand finale, the president started pardoning and committing to pardon people. He is considering granting a pardon to former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich (D). “Blago” is still in prison following his impeachment from office and conviction for corruption. He basically tried to sell the U.S. Senate seat in Illinois that was vacated when Barack Obama was elected president.
Why would Trump do that?
It’s a sign of pardons to come.
This week signaled the certainty of many bad weeks ahead for Trump. But more than that, it showed that his rock solid foundation also has its limits.
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