Playing Whack-A-Mole with Trump

Last August in this column, I played a game called “Whack-A-Mole” and received several inquiries as to what in the world was a “whack-a-mole (WAM)?”  WAM became known as an arcade game in which the player would whack a mole with a rubber mallet when he popped up randomly from holes, increasing in speed.  It has now become a term that describes a situation in which we can’t wrap our brains around one problem before another pops up. 

If you miss a week with Republican President Donald Trump and his Administration, you miss a lot.  Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s time to play Whack-A-Mole again!

Trump’s rein of chaos continued when he started the week by confusing and alarming the world by announcing a Muslim ban.  Even his staffers were confused.  His press secretary, Sean Spicer argued ad nauseam that it was not a ban.  I think, if it walks like a Muslim, talks like a Muslim, then, it’s a BAN (if they can’t come into our country).   Whack-A-Mole!

Last week, Trump’s National Security Adviser, General Michael Flynn, stormed into the White House Press Briefing room and said; “We have put Iran on notice!”  If your child’s Principle sent home a note that read, “We have put Little Johnny on notice,” wouldn’t you want to know why?  No explanation still has not been forthcoming from General Flynn.  I think it’s just something he always longed to do.  Whack-A-Mole.

Sean Spicer shed some light on the “Iran on notice” situation.  At the press briefing the next day, he accused Iran of attacking a U. S. Navy vessel.  In his loudest outside voice, he called it an “act of war.”  When corrected by a journalist, in his lowest inside voice, he said, “Yes, it was a Saudi naval vessel.”   Big difference, Mr. Spicer.  Whack-A-Mole.

Not to be outdone, in defending the Muslim travel ban that is not really a Muslim ban, Kellyanne Conway referred to the Bowling Green (KY) Massacre and spoke of the Iraqis who masterminded it.  “Most people don’t know that because it didn’t get covered.”  You bet your sweet bippy it didn’t get covered because it never happened!  Talk about alternative facts!  Whack-A-Mole.

Meanwhile, some world leaders got their long awaited law-of-the-jungle calls from Trump.  This is where Trump flexes his muscles and shows his dominance.  Did he, or did he not, tell the President of Mexico that he “may need to send troops down there? Either way, it monopolized the news all week. He picked a fight with our closest ally of all-time, the Prime Minister of Australia.  Trump told us it was because President Obama had promised to take in thousands of illegal aliens from Australia.  Turns out it was only 1200 refugees who had been waiting in an encampment on an island for three years to be moved.  Whack-A-Mole.

We know very little about Trump’s call with Putin of Russia because the recorder was cut off.  However, the one thing we do know, soon thereafter Trump issued an Executive Order that eased a sanction that would allow some American businesses to do business with the Kremlin’s Security Service, the FSB, formerly the KGB.  What kind of business?  We don’t know.  Whack-A-Mole.

The Muslim ban, that’s really not a ban, and the easing of sanctions for the Russian FSB, sound suspiciously like the ideology of Steve Bannon, Trump’s co-president.

Bannon does not echo what Trump says; it’s quite the opposite.  In this case, Bannon is the mole!  He has to go before we lose every ounce of respect in the world and any semblance of our democracy is left.  Whack him!

The only authority figure Republican President Trump respects, besides Putin, is himself. It never occurred to him that when his decree, i.e. Executive Order, banning travel to and from seven countries, may be considered unconstitutional.  When a Federal Judge halted the ban, which really wasn’t a ban, Trump disparaged him by calling him a “so called” Judge.  Add that to the ever-growing list of things you never thought you’d hear from a President’s mouth.  Forget the rubber mallet; take this sledgehammer.  Whack-A-mole.