Views 2906

2019-08-23 22:23:28

By Laura Tucker, Staff writer; Image: Donald Trump (Image source: Screenshot)

The same guy who made a catch phrase out of "you're fired" also made a campaign catchphrase that really caught on: Make America Great Again. With that phrase and with a ton of promises that sparked something in people tired of politics as usual, Donald Trump was elected.

Looking around at the news the past few weeks, is this what he meant? Are we great again yet? 

The billionaire insisted he knew how to bring this country out of the deficit and how to turn the economy around. The economy was better for a while after a tax cut, but now the experts say we may be headed for a recession.

The Dow dropped 800 points last week, then recovered the next day. On Friday it dropped more than 600 points amid news that the trade war between the United States and China worsened.  

Both sides are throwing tariffs at each other. China has its own problems with protesters in Hong Kong, yet still they took the time to throw tariffs at the U.S. Trump struck by throwing tariffs back at China and ordering U.S. companies to not do business with China.

Is America great again now? That's okay to lose China as a trade partner. Trump has assured us Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro has a great relationship with him and that the trade prospects there are strong. I'm sure that will be very helpful to Brazilians watching the Amazon burn down. 

Trump has had other foreign policy problems this week. A rumor got out that he was considering buying Greenland and wanted to make an offer to Denmark. He confirmed the plan and tweeted a Photoshopped image of a Trump Tower stuck in the middle of Greenland, joking (we think) that he wouldn't do that.

Greenland and Denmark thought it was a joke and said they weren't interested. The Danish prime minister said it was absurd. Trump packed up his toys and went home. He canceled his planned visit since they wouldn't consider his offer. Then he topped it off by calling the prime minister "nasty." Would he call a male prime minister nasty? 

Maybe this is what's making America great again.

A few weeks ago the country suffered a big tragedy with two mass shootings in less that 24 hours that left 31 people dead. The country was in an uproar and once again calling for gun control.  

The House passed background check legislation earlier this year, but up to that point Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (D-KY) didn't seem interested in bringing it to the floor. Trump thought he would find enough support now for background checks from the GOP, including McConnell.

After he didn't talk about much else, NRA head Wayne LaPierre had a chat with Trump this week. Trump is now insisting we have plenty of background checks in place now and that we will instead invest in a four-year research of the effects of mental health on violence. Meanwhile, there have been more would-be shooters who have been identified as having plans to carry out mass shootings. 

This has to be making America great, right? Everyone gets to keep buying guns, even assault rifles, as long as they haven't been labeled as mentally unfit. It's okay if they have been, though, as Trump plans to build more mental institutions.

Trump first told a group of congresswomen of color to "go back" to where they came from, despite all but one being born in the U.S.  

He followed that racist statement up with another, knocking House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-MD) and his city of Baltimore as being rodent-infested, claiming he should be paying attention to that instead of Trump's wild immigration plans.

When two of the congresswomen wanted to visit Israel, he personally called up Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and told him to not allow the women to visit, so he didn't. He relented and allowed one of them, Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), to visit her grandmother for what could be the last time, but she refused, not wanting to agree to sign something that was against her beliefs. 

This made America really great, I am sure. All Trump's supporters can don their hats and shout, "Send her back."