Trump Has To Stop And Focus.
Focus is a matter of deciding what things you're not going to do. (John Carmack)
In the last few days Trump has made statements about buying Greenland, renaming the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, and making Canada the 51st state. Whether he’s trolling or he’s serious, he has to stop. Well, he doesn’t have to stop, he is the President elect and can click farm all he wants. However, if he continues, he runs the risk of losing focus and duplicating his first administration, you remember - chaos, deficit spending, an unfinished border wall, and a swamp that was anything but drained. So instead of going off in all directions like a claymore mine, he needs to focus on what he was elected to do and stop posting amusing, but nonsensical things that can only cause distractions; result in unnecessary friction with other countries; and give the left ammunition to oppose his policies. In other words, he has to stop before he once again has an administration mired in chaos.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m 100% behind Trump on the issues he campaigned on:
- Securing our borders;
- Deporting illegal migrants;
- Fixing the economy;
- Getting inflation under control;
- Significantly reducing the number of “bureaucrats” – i.e., “drain the swamp”;
- Revamping the DOJ and FBI into non-political and efficient organizations that protects, not persecutes Americans; even if that means firing everyone in those agencies, burning their buildings, salting the ground they stood on, and rebuilding;
- Turning D.O.G.E lose on federal departments with a chainsaw;
- Expanding American energy production;
- Getting rid of wokeism in the military;
- Putting a stop to males invading female spaces and participating in female sports; and
- Stopping the mutilation of kids in the name of “gender affirming care”;
The magnitude of tackling these problems is immense. However, successfully resolving, or at least making significant progress towards resolving them, is necessary to “Make America Great Again.” Since we don’t have the time or resources to go off chasing stupid stuff, Trump needs to concentrate on the important stuff.
Stating he’s going to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf or America may be funny, but where does it get us? At best we get into a chest thumping contest with most of the countries in the Americas that we don’t need.
Honduras has already stated they will close our base if we deport their citizens. China and Brazil are moving closer together, and China’s influence in the rest of the region is growing exponentially.[1] We need to address these problems, so why give the people of Mexico and the rest of Central and South America a reason to form a de facto alliance to oppose our legitimate goals?
Insulting people while acting like a petulant bull in the Mar-a-Largo gift shop is certainly one way to help fuel mass opposition to our efforts to deport the estimated 22 million illegals in the U.S., as well as drive many Latin American countries closer to China. Think I’m overreacting? How did calling Trump supporters “deplorables” and “garbage” work out for the Democrats?
It would have been more productive for Trump to address Honduras’ threat instead of wasting time making silly statements about changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico that many found offensive. How? Simple. Issue a public statement that come January 20, 2024, he will save Honduras the trouble and close our base in that country and then go about deporting those here illegally. This sends the message that we are not going to put up with any country that infringes on our sovereignty…without alienating most of the western hemisphere.
As for Canada becoming the 51st state, again funny, but why make that statement? If Trump is serious it’s a bad idea that’s exceeded only by the stupidity of the Democrats selecting Harris as their presidential candidate. Of more import, do we really want the Canadians to become U.S. citizens? They voted in, and then kept Trudeau in power for almost 10 years; as a result, they’ve gutted their free speech rights, done away with gun rights, flushed freedom of religion down the toilet, and violated every civil liberty known to Americans when they persecuted the Truckers. I believe Canadians are good people, but I prefer they vote in Canadian elections and not American elections.
If the 51st state comment was a joke, then why make it? Though some Canadians find it funny, many find it insulting. So again, why give Canadians a cause to rally around in opposition to what looks to be an upcoming and necessary fight over their open border?
Oh, and how about buying Greenland? Not sure how much it would cost, but I can guarantee you it’ll be more than the $0.02 an acre we got Alaska for. Here in Arizona, you can pick up land with no mineral rights, no water and no utilities for about $500 an acre. Greenland is about 535 million acres. Assuming we can pick it up for the fire sale price of $500 an acre, the cost would be just over $1.33 Trillion, which would make our debt almost $38 trillion – before the rest of our out-of-control spending is added.
Of course, since Greenland is supposed to be mineral rich, I doubt we’d be able to pick it up for several multiples of $500 an acre, even if it was for sale.
Yes, I know, the argument is we’d make our money back because of the mineral rich nature of the island, but is that true? As of 2022 we had 48.3 billion barrels of untapped proven oil reserves. The estimates for total recoverable oil in the U.S. is an additional 264 billion barrels. Of equal import, China is the leader, or was the leader, in proven rare earth mineral reserves with 44 million tons. However, recently 2 billion tons of rare earth minerals were discovered in Wyoming – over 40 times that of China’s known reserves.
The U.S. does not have a lack of minerals problem, we have an over regulation problem that makes it hard to mine our mineral wealth. If we bought Greenland, those regulations would stifle exploration for, and recovery of the mineral wealth there just as they are doing here.
The other argument I hear for acquiring Greenland is it’s a strategic necessity because it’s part of the “Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap” (GIUK Gap). Every Russian ship that transits to the Atlantic from the northern Russian ports must go through these restricted waters. For most of the Cold War we had underwater sonar arrays in the GIUK Gap that detected every Russian submarine moving into the Atlantic from those ports. That is what made Greenland a strategic asset. But is it still?
With the increased range of Russia’s submarine ICBM’s and conventional missiles, there is no longer a need for Russian submarines to transit the GIUK Gap to be within nuclear missile range of the U.S., or conventional missile range of the rear areas of Europe. Instead, they can sit in the relative safety of the Artic, Barents and Norwegian Seas and be within range of both. Given these advances, the strategic importance of Greenland has been significantly reduced, if not eliminated.[2]
Perhaps we should talk about acquiring Greenland one day…but not today.
If Trump does not focus on what he was elected to do, then his second term is going to be a continuation of his first. Yes, he accomplished many things in his first term – no new wars and a strong economy were two - but his administration was also marked by chaos that resulted in a number of less than stellar results and some failures.
As much as I want Trump to succeed, there is no denying that his first term was chaotic. Fourteen confirmed Cabinet Secretaries resigned or were fired in four years. That’s more turnover than any President had in their first four years in office since at least Regan. In fact, Trump had more than twice as many Secretaries leave in his first four years than any President since Regan. A constant turnover in leadership is a recipe for chaos, and chaos leads to poor results and even failure.
What about illegal immigration? Glad you asked. In 2016 – the year before Trump took office - 416,816 known illegal migrants crossed the border. By the end of Trump’s third year in office that number had climbed to 859,501 before he brought it down to 405,036 in his last year. Reducing illegal migrants by 11,780 from the start of his administration to its end is not something to brag about. This poor result was due to Trump’s lack of focus on the border until late in his term.
Yes, the number of illegals skyrocketed under Biden, but Biden’s failure does not make Trump’s lackluster results a resounding success. At best, his efforts were a wash. (chart by Statista).
Then there was government spending. During Trump’s first term, the debt climbed from $19.573 trillion to $26.945 trillion. Yes, under Biden the debt climbed to $35.464 trillion. However, just because Biden’s fiscal policy is a failure does not make Trump’s out of control spending a success. Again, Trump did not focus on this fundamental problem and as a result government spending was, to be kind, horrendous.
Trump learned a lot in his first term, and I believe he’s chosen an inner circle that will move his goals forward…as long as he stays focused. However, his meandering off the path to play social media troll instead of herding the cats towards his goals is concerning. I fear that unless he gets back to playing chess instead of Chubby Checkers, he will lose focus, chaos will return, and he will fall short of what Americans elected him to do, what the American people expect him to do, and what America needs him to do.
Thanks to Biden we cannot afford an average presidency, or even a good one. At this time in our history, America needs an exceptional presidency. So, I urge Trump to stop imitating a comedian at the Improv, focus on fixing our problems, and get what must be done, done. The American people deserve no less.
[1] Trade between China and Latin American countries increased from $12 billion in 2000 to $315 billion in 2020 and is expected to more than double to $700 billion by 2035.
[2] For a good article on this subeject see: (Un)Mind the Gap, Proceedings, U.S. Naval Institute (October 2019).