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Trump's contempt for his job is evident in shutdown threat

By Jules Witcover, Tribune Content Agency on

Editor's note: Clarence Page is away. Today's column is by Jules Witcover.

WASHINGTON -- Every American president's responsibility is to see that the government in his care runs smoothly and continuously.

Consider, then, Donald Trump's blatant declaration in his White House meeting last week with the Democratic congressional leaders: "I am proud to shut down the government for border security." This may be the most telling and irresponsible utterance yet from this man so unfit for the office he holds.

In the face of the Dec. 21 deadline for a partial shutdown that would send home about one-third of the federal workforce just before Christmas, Trump's ultimatum of full funding for his border wall is particularly heartless, as well as unproductive.

In their meeting with Trump, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer and prospective House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made it clear he was not going to get the $5 billion he was demanding for the wall. He ought to settle for the $1.3 billion offered by Democrats, along with a deal on the so-called "dreamers" -- immigrants brought to this country without documentation as children, through no volition of their own, who are seeking a path to citizenship.

However, true to form, Trump doubled down with brass braggadocio, insisting: "I will take the mantle for it, I will be the one to shut it down. Because the people of this country don't want criminals and people that have lots of problems and drugs pouring into this country."

 

His apparent willingness to take the heat from his critics reflected his confidence that his faithful base will stand by him, which may be so. But no effective government can be run on the fuel of angry followers of a president who incites hate and division on a daily basis.

Pelosi and Schumer since have offered funding a quarter of the government on a one-year continuing resolution in the next Congress. Schumer warned Trump, however, that "his temper tantrum will get him a shutdown but will not get him the wall."

In Trump's nearly two years in office, he has treated the presidency as if it were just another business enterprise subject to his avaricious desires and dictatorial dictates. He seems yet unable to grasp the immense change in his own stature beyond the celebrity prism through which he manages his new reality.

Many previous presidents have come into the office with awe and awareness of their need to seek advice and guidance of people with experience and wisdom in government. Not Donald Trump.

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(c) 2018 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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