Trump is losing on all fronts
Op-ed: Last week was one of the toughest since Trump took office: Falling Dow Jones; failing trade war with China; and the president's former fixer was sent to prison for covering up his boss's 'dirty deeds.' Make no mistake, 2019 will be a nightmare.
Unlike the prime minister of a parliamentary democracy—Britain's Theresa May, for example—when the president of the United States has a difficult week, nothing actually happens—there's always next week, and the one after that, and the one after that. In terms of the presidency's stability, a "difficult week" can be monotonous. Presidents do not face votes of confidence nor votes of no confidence. They don't need to maintain a parliamentary coalition that pulls in eight different directions.
But in terms of a difficult presidential week, last week appears to be one of the toughest in the two years since US President Donald Trump took office. It has less to do with the week's events and more to do with the direction those events signal for next year: 2019 is going to be a nightmare.
There is no way to seriously assess how bad it is going to be for President Trump or how it will affect the 2020 elections, but 2019 will likely be the year Trump would most wish to avoid.
It is dawning on the American president that he is in for a tough time. The concurrence of certain events has not been a good omen.
The sweeping victory of the of the Democratic Party in the mid-term elections and the party's majority in the House of Representatives suddenly became real when the soon-to-be Democrat-led committees started threatening Trump even before the 116th Congress convenes on January 3, 2019.
The Democrats' win was a hard political blow for the president. Not only did they gain 40 seats in the House of Representatives, they received 9.5 million more votes than the Republicans. The Democrats received a staggering 17.5 million more votes in the Senate too—but ultimately lost two seats thanks to the distorted voting system.
The coalition of voters that handed Trump the 2016 electoral victory has completely disintegrated.
Meanwhile, the Dow Jones is falling, and Trump is responsible for 10 of the 20 worst days in its history. Clear signs of a significant economic slowdown, perhaps even a recession, are beginning to emerge.
At the same time, the trade war Trump declared with China is not yielding the fruits he claimed it would. North Korea is not dismantling its nuclear capabilities (a promise Kim Jong-un has never made, despite Trump's declarations).
Europe—with all of its problems—doesn’t see the American president as the leader of the democratic world. Even the criticism he received for defending Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi crossed political lines.
Above all, Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation of Trump's alleged ties with Russia is apparently nearing its conclusion. The investigation will receive another political boost when the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Judiciary Committee start summoning witnesses for questioning in public hearings.
A raucous Oval Office debate with the likely new speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer exposed Trump as a nervous and irritated president who doesn’t understand policy.
And then on Wednesday, Trump's lawyer and former confidant Michael Cohen was sentenced to three years in prison for covering up Trump's “dirty deeds.”
The president, who publicly smeared Cohen's name, was certainly not happy with the statement made by Cohen's legal advisor: "I look forward to assisting Michael to state publicly all he knows about Mr. Trump… that includes any appropriate Congressional committee interested in the search for truth and the difference between facts and lies."
Even a person like Trump, who is completely oblivious to the world around him—living in a parallel universe and filling his head with fictitious "facts"—knows that 2019 is going to be a very tough year.
