Trump's week of alibis and blame for faltering White House commitments
President Donald Trump in the Roosevelt Room at the White House on Thursday. Credit: Getty Images/Alex Wong
Aid to Florida for extensive damage from Hurricane Michael has been stalled in Washington. So at a rally in the state this week, the nation's highest elected official took two tacks. He faulted others and promised it will work out.
Donald Trump blamed Democrats for stalling in Congress. Then he overstated the amount of disaster aid already received by Puerto Rico that he doesn't wish to increase.
Sens Rick Scott (R-Fla.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.) wrote to key congressional figures this week, saying “we can’t wait any longer” for relief. Trump said "we're getting close" to a deal.
For Trump, it has become a week of finessing questions about what hasn't happened.
The United States has gotten nowhere in its goals for the disintegrating nation of Venezuela. An opposition leader favored by the administration remains out of power while President Nicolás Maduro holds on with Russian support.
Trump is reported to be blaming adviser John Bolton for pushing a war. Publicly, he's still on record as blaming the mess on the socialism of Maduro and predecessor Hugo Chávez. There is no timetable for a resolution.
Similarly no major concessions from China have resulted from the administration's tariffs.
Trump's defensive spin on this issue runs in three directions. He says the status quo is fine for the United States due to tariff revenue; that progress is delayed because the Chinese "broke the deal;" and that a deal may still be coming.
Trump also offered multiple explanations when confronted with his own tax declarations of huge business losses in the 1980s and 1990s despite having claimed enormous success.
Everyone in real estate at the time was involved in the "sport" of showing losses, he said. The New York Times report on the filings was inaccurate, he said. The losses were "non-monetary," he said.
Take your pick of which you might find convincing.
On Thursday, North Korea reportedly fired three short-range ballistic missiles into the sea from the western part of the country. Negotiations with Kim Jong-Un have snarled. Trump deflected the last launch — a show of what has not changed — by expressing optimism that it will.
The president said he was still hopeful dictator Kim will denuclearize, adding, “He also knows that I am with him.”
This year's refugee crisis on the southern border continues, with the administration so far unable to stem the influx. At his Florida rally, Trump sounded plaintive, saying of the federal border patrol: "Don't forget, we don't let them use weapons. We can't. Other countries do. We can't. I would never do that.
"But how do you stop these people?"
As for his border wall, Trump uses another multipronged alibi that boils down to something like: It is being built — and if it isn't, that is the fault of open-border Democrats.
Strong admissions of responsibility seem to be out of the question.
Dan Janison is a member of the Newsday editorial board.
