President Trump Can Tweet But Can He Actually Do Things?

There is so much going on that it is sometimes hard to comment on things on a timely basis.  For example, I only yesterday read that President Trump tweeted, the day before the Vice Presidential debate:

“We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas!”

Wow.  That would be a big deal – if it happens.  Which is the thing, of course.  VOA (i.e., Voice of America) reported the next day that “[s]pokespersons for Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Joint Chiefs Chairman General Mark Milley and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees military operations in the Middle East, declined to comment and referred VOA to the White House.”  Also, Secretary Esper did not answer questions about a speeded-up withdrawal from Afghanistan during a press conference the day after the President’s tweet.  In fact, per VOA, “[o]ne military official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told VOA the president’s tweet was the “first word” anyone had seen about an accelerated withdrawal timeline in Afghanistan ….” 

The purpose of this post is not to comment on whether a quicker withdrawal from Afghanistan is a good idea or not.  Certainly, some supporters of President Trump would applaud the move, saying it is another example of President Trump following through on the campaign promises he made in 2016.

Except it is unclear whether he is – following through, that is.  There are things President Trump campaigned in 2016 that he has done: the tax cut, regulatory reform, and judicial nominations.  But as I said elsewhere, those were policies he outsourced to other people, competent people, to get done.

On lots of other things, President Trump has done the tweets, but he hasn’t done the work, and nothing has been accomplished.  Sometimes he has delegated the work to incompetent people.  In other cases, all he does is tweet.  The result is the same: Nothing gets done.  It’s not a matter of a deep state opposing him.  Rather, it’s matter of him not understanding how government works and what he needs to do to actually get it to do something.

Which brings me back to Afghanistan.  If President Trump had really wanted to get the troops home by Christmas, he needed to start planning for it in April or earlier.  You don’t just tweet in October; you give orders in the spring, and you follow up on them in the summer to make sure they are being implemented.  You have to give people lead-time and direction.  Not just a tweet out of the blue. 

Those who like President Trump’s policies should be sad because of his incompetence.  Those who don’t like them, should be glad.