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ÌýIs it safe yet to provide commentary on America’s recently installed President?Ìý
Donald J. Trump has been on the job for about two weeks and has spent most of his time, alienating trading partners, cancelling deals, arguing about crowd sizes with news reporters and issuing a slew of executive orders.Ìý
While he has been doing all this, the mainstream media in the United States, and to a lesser extent, those in Canada, are floundering right into the Donald’s wheelhouse. He feeds on chaos and inconsistency and that is what the traditional media outlets in the U.S. are giving him.Ìý
If we were in a position to deliver any kind of friendly advice to our neighbours to the south, it would simply be the suggestion that they should perhaps not expect a four-year-plan from their newly minted President. They will be very fortunate if they can get a four-hour plan from this guy.Ìý
The media and the general population for that matter, will have to play by his rules or the leader of the world’s strongest nation (so far) will pick up his ball, jets and U.S. banking fraternities and go home.Ìý
America is in for a whole new reset in Presidential processes.Ìý
President Trump will be ruling by tweet and won’t require any advice.Ìý
It has already become an established fact that established facts don’t matter under the Trump regime. Facts will be what he says they are and if they just happen to turn out to be alternative facts, so be it. What’s the big deal? They won’t be lies, just manufactured facts.Ìý
The presidency will, we expect, move along on executive orders and President Trump will love declaring victory even when there is no evidence of victory. It won’t matter though, because facts don’t matter in his world.Ìý
Some find this whole Fantasyland system of rule amusing, others discover it as being frustrating while others see it as scary and dangerous and right now, we here in this corner, really don’t know what to think about the new president and his manner of conducting the business of a nation.Ìý
At last count, he had sent out dismissive messages to at least 11 nations by unilaterally cancelling the Trans Pacific Partnership and dismissing Mexico and we expected by the end of the week he will have been able to insult the United Kingdom and Canada.Ìý
We might be able to take some solace in the fact that he and his henchmen and women will grant the Keystone XL pipeliners the right to move forward on the project. But we should also expect that this will be done on his terms. That will probably mean insistence of exclusive use of United States steel, in spite of the previous agreement to have 26 per cent of the pipeline materials come from Canada. He will probably need more than that in concessions because he knows he has that particular industry at his beck and call. His hand will dip into that project much deeper than expected, but then, as noted earlier, all we should ever expect from this President, is the unexpected. He might even want to rename it the Trump line, rather than Keystone, after all, it was his idea all along … just check his fact book posted on his Twitter account. It will be there. Victory.Ìý
We can only hope for the best when the time comes for the Donald to lock horns with our Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who might still be insisting on carrying his optimistic sun filled outlook into the big picture.Ìý
We expect Sunny Ways to get Trumped.
At least he won’t be alone in that international locker room of U.S. exposed outcasts and leftovers.Ìý
