What should be the guiding principle of the United States president? We know this from the Constitution, that the major duties of a president are:
Commander in Chief
appoint judges, ambassadors, and department heads
“shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed”
There is a guiding star for presidents written in the Constitution. But there is also a way it is being handled today.
The American Way
1. “to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity “
2. I will find a way to help accomplish this.
For example, a president might try to ensure that American citizens can access medical care in a quick and affordable manner.
But instead we have this, The Trump Way
1. They have done something terrible to us.
2. I will react in a cruel way.
For instance, Trump rails against how other countries are somehow “ripping us off” in trade. So Trump declares a national emergency and slaps high tariffs on our trading partners, even those that we have had many years of stable, friendly relations.
In order to remedy this perceived trade balance problem, Trump is trying to bully foreign companies to open production facilities in the US, so they not only sell their products here, but Americans will build those products. This has recently hit a snag because another group that has done something terrible to us (according to Trump) is immigrants. To correct this problem, ICE raided the Korean Hyundai plant in Georgia, arresting 475 mostly Korean workers, declaring that they were all illegal. Foreign companies considering whether to cave into Trump’s pressuare and open factories in the US will now know that their employees are not safe from the US government arbitrarily deporting them.
The American way is to treat people with respect and dignity, and seek ways to be helpful. The Trump way is to treat people with suspicion and even animostiy, and try to force some capitulation from them. But the Trump way has tons of blowback, wherein the US reputation itself is tarnished. People will not trust us. They will view us as unstable. And they will go elsewhere for trade and partnerships.
