Happy December, everyone! As 2016 winds down, so does Barack Obama’s presidency. Now that the sitting president has been a “lame duck” for about a month, President-elect Donald Trump is phasing himself into the presidency, while his sons are wondering what a lame duck is and whether you can hunt it.
In the process of taking the reins from Obama, Trump has already begun ruining things. This shows proactivity on his part, since many people were under the impression that he was going to wait until he was actually in office to ruin things. Way to get ahead, Donald!
One thing he’s begun to ruin is U.S.-China relations. He did this by taking a phone call from Taiwan’s President, Tsai Ing-wen, on Friday. You might be thinking, “Why is this a big deal? I answer calls from numbers I don’t recognize all the time, and in my experience it has rarely led to war with China.” Well, the difference here is that Trump is the president-elect, and U.S. presidents have a tradition of not acknowledging the sovereignty of Taiwan. Then again, they also has a tradition of not having any sexual tension with the Russian president, so I don’t know why we figured this would be different.
Another thing Trump has been up to is assembling his Cabinet. He hasn’t been doing an entirely bang-up job with this, but can you blame him? Building a cabinet is tough work. Anyone who’s been to Ikea knows this. In fact, I’d venture to say that assembling a White House Cabinet is a lot like assembling an Ikea cabinet. I mean, you simply put those two pieces together, you put that thing in this thing, and damnit, how did a white nationalist get in there? Go back, look through the pictures, and see where you went wrong.
Of the many questionable appointments Trump has made, the most recent is that of Ben Carson. Apparently, the fact that Carson grew up in a house in an urban environment qualifies him to be the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Now that I know this, I’d like to publicly inform Trump that I know how to ride a bicycle, so I’d like to be considered for Secretary of Transportation.
If you’re sad to see Obama’s term end, just think about this: At least this means 2016 is almost over! And I, for one, am confident that 2017, the year in which Donald J. Trump actually becomes president of the United States of America, will be just peaches.
Kevin Lawson* 