2017 Feb 3^rd

President Trump took advantage of the National Prayer Breakfast to congratulate himself again. An insatiable ego is, by definition, insatiable. Arnold Schwarzenegger has replaced our president at one of his previous jobs, host of “Celebrity Apprentice.” Arnold’s ratings, a critical measure of success, are not as high as Trump’s were when he left that gig some time ago. Naturally, besting another human being at much of anything is a cause for a chortle by our new president, so of course he had to chortle. He suggested that the prayer breakfast attendees should pray for Arnold’s ratings to improve. This, to some of the humorless, might seem like a trivial suggestion for prayer, but a spokesperson for the president assures us that he “was just being light hearted.”

Arnold, who attended the prayer breakfast, responded: This was a dangerous thing to do but Arnold did it anyway. He said that perhaps he and the president should change jobs so that both of their ratings could improve. Ouch! Trump’s ratings as president are in the 40s, the lowest for any newly elected president since new presidents have been rated. You can be sure that our newly minted commander-in-chief is unhappy about that and that this uppity response by Arnold would get a quick reply…and so it did.

Trump doubled down on criticism of his reality TV replacement, writing on Twitter at 8 o‘clock Friday morning that Arnold Schwarzenegger “did a really bad job as governor of California” but is “even worse” as the host of “The Celebrity Apprentice.” So there, Arnold Schwarzenegger, take that. It is now two P.M. Friday afternoon and Arnold has yet to respond. He should quit while he is ahead…and he is way ahead.

Trump continues to be the perfect Russian agent. He has now begun undermining our relationship with one of our oldest allies, Australia.  He had a phone call with Prime Minister Turnbull and he managed to throw a temper tantrum while on the phone. He finally ended the conversation but not before telling Prime Minister Turnbull that this phone conversation was the worst one of the several he had that day. Several Senators, McCain included,  hastened to tell Australians that they are still important to us.

Trump is famous for his unpredictability. He claims this is an advantage because one should not advertise plans to the enemy…but what about friends? This unpredictability could well be unplanned. What evidence is there that Trump, himself, knows what he plans to do from one day to the next, perhaps even one hour to the next. His “unpredictability” has another description… his behavior is erratic. The description of him as “unpredictable” sounds better to his admirers but it still means that the man is erratic. That is a serious concern for someone who has the power to unleash our nuclear arsenal.