The world has seen more than its share of tyrants who knew better than their advisers. Caligula, Hitler and Stalin spring to mind. How did they turn out?
Yet none have been so open about it as President Donald Trump. He is on record as stating that "no one knows more than me” about corporate finance, technology, trade, the military, banking, negotiating and many others.
What’s more, he has acted on that belief, often against the advice of his hand-picked experts in his Cabinet. Past examples include pulling out of agreements on NAFTA, climate change, Iran, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights and just about any initiative implemented under President Barack Obama — in all cases weakening U.S. influence in the world.
Just last week he decided to pull all troops from Syria and half our troops from Afghanistan — prompting the immediate resignation of his secretary of defense. And, of course, to go against the leaders of the House and Senate and close down the government if they don’t fund his border wall.
All of this raises the question, "Is he losing his marbles under the pressure of the Mueller investigation? Or, has Vladimir Putin decided he can't survive and ordered these actions while he can?"
Frank Fish, Park City