By Ethan Beller || Contributing Writer
As of 3:23 pm on March 23rd, 2018 Donald J. Trump had been president for one year, 62 days, two hours, 36 minutes, and 26 seconds. In the past two weeks, Trump’s White House has lost close personal aide John McEntee, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Deputy Chief of Staff Rick Dearborn, F.B.I. Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, and National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster. On Thursday, President Trump also lost his lead lawyer, John Dowd. This is a president who shifts and changes his mind based on who is in the room and has no problem changing his advisors. He accepted some figures that many thought would temper his anger and irrationality, but he has dismissed those figures in the last few weeks in favor of doing what he wants when he wants.
The new administration will do whatever the President wants, potentially to the detriment of the law and order that President Trump campaigned to represent. The President once infamously railed “Where is my Roy Cohn?” by dispatching those who refused to do his bidding regardless of its legality. He tends to veer towards the shades of Roy Cohn that hinted of totalitarianism. In the last few weeks, the president has reversed decades of foreign policy by responding to an offer of a meeting with North Korea with simple a simple “Tell them I’ll do it.” This willingness to ignore or ostracize his advisors and cabinet creates a concerning pattern. One man should not hold the power of the entire United States government and military in his hands and yet that is what President Trump seems to be doing by continuing to consolidate his power.
The man who has supreme power of the world’s strongest military has shown himself to be vindictive and irrational. This same man has used his Twitter account to lash out at a variety of figures in media and politics. During the campaign, MSNBC’S Joe Scarborough reported that President Trump repeatedly asked why the U.S. Military could not use its Nuclear power to blast other nations off the map.
Early on in his term, the President authorized a mission in Niger which killed a soldier. Leaks have suggested that this action was irrational and risky. This type of rash decision making is dangerous and extremely concerning when the lives of millions of Americans lives are on the line.
The concern with Trump’s stranglehold on power does not simply extend to military power but also the President’s manipulation of financial markets. Gary Cohn left after the president instituted a universally opposed tariff on steel and aluminum with no planning or consultation. The Justice Department opposed the merger of AT&T and Time Warner over a financially miniscule but politically crucial part of the business CNN. This week’s tariffs against China have caused the stock market to plummet. A Global Trade war has been brewing with the massive amount of trade restrictions and tariffs growing under a supposedly pro-business president.
Donald Trump’s re-organized cabinet should scare most Americans. He no longer has as many restrictions, and he is free to institute military and financial actions that could hurt America and its allies. Mr. Trump’s restrictions could cause a global trade war–an economic catastrophe which would play out on a global scale. The President’s willingness to use military force endangers the world and America.
Many were concerned that the world would be more dangerous under the presidency of Donald Trump. With this reshuffled White House, it certainly is.
First-year Ethan Beller is a Staff Writer. His email is ebeller@fandm.edu.