Plumber-in-Chief
(Door Hugo Kijne te Hoboken USA)
During an average seven-day time span Trump produces a fair amount of nonsense, but this time he was exceptionally productive. His most bizarre statement was, literally: ‘Right now, in a number of states the laws allow a baby to be born from his or her mother’s womb in the ninth month. It is wrong, it has to change.’ On another occasion he complained about LED lights that ‘make you look orange,’ which he doesn’t like because he’s ‘vain.’ Apparently the president doesn’t know that he looks orange in any light, and even at night in the dark. In what appeared to be a meeting with plumbers Trump philosophized about ‘many states where they have so much water that’s coming down,’ adding ‘it’s called rain.’ In spite of all that water many sinks and showers are apparently barely functional, and the president said ‘we’re looking very strongly at that.’ Possibly an even bigger problem are toilets, some of which according to Donald the Plumber have to be flushed up to fifteen times! Speaking to a Jewish audience Trump repeated an anti-semitic trope by saying ‘you’ll have to vote for me, because the Democrats are after your money.’
Following all that gloom and doom about bathroom fixtures the president also had some good news. He had called with the King and Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia after one of their officers killed three people at a naval base where he was in training, and they promised to pay cash to the relatives of the victims. Cash, in Trump’s eyes, is the ultimate remedy for everything. Maybe the disproportionate number of insanities the president supplied this week had something to do with the articles of impeachment the House Judiciary Committee has drawn up. To keep it simple Trump will ‘only’ be charged with Abuse of Power and Obstruction of Congress. A House vote on his impeachment is expected early next week and a trial in the Senate in January. In probably the most provocative move he (or Putin) could think of, on the day the articles of impeachment were drafted the president met with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov in the Oval Office. Afterwards Trump told the White House press corps that he had issued a warning about possible Russian meddling in future US elections, something Lavrov immediately denied.
In anticipation of testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee by the Inspector General of the Justice Department, Horowitz, the president attacked FBI Director Wray, who had stood up for his agency, calling him ‘the current director’ and the involved FBI agents ‘scum.’ In spite of Attorney General Barr’s stated opinion that the FBI investigation into Russian impingement on the Trump campaign had been insufficiently predicated, Horowitz maintained that the FBI had every reason to start the investigation, although serious mistakes were made with FISA applications.
The length of Trump’s trial in the Senate is yet to be determined. Mitch McConnell wants it over as fast as possible, but the White House wants a big show, including an interrogation of Hunter Biden. Democrats also prefer to keep it short, because they want to get back to the people’s regular business, but if they have to they’ll subpoena Mike Pompeo, Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton, making the president’s obstruction of Congress even more visible than it is now, something McConnell wants to prevent.
Lost in the avalanche of reporting about House committees and Senate hearings was the news that Trump paid a $2 million fine for stealing from his own foundation, while Don Jr., Ivanka and Eric must be about to enroll in mandatory training how to run a charity. In all, Washington’s ‘Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics’ counted 2,300 conflicts of interest for the Trump family, which is definitely a national record.
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