Lazy and Xenophobic

I've been heavily criticized for my most recent post (thus the extensive edits) and one such lasting criticism is my "portrayal" of Donald Trump as lazy and xenophobic. So, as is my prerogative, I am going to justify that characterization.

"Xenophobic" is significantly less subjective, so I am going to start with "lazy." How does one lend a bit of objectivity to the definition of laziness? Why not use both the definition of the word and the standards that Donald Trump himself has used in criticisms of others?

Let's start here:

lazy adjective 

1. averse or disinclined to work, activity, or exertion; indolent,
2. causing idleness or indolence,
3. slow-moving; sluggish

Now, to be fair, nobody becomes president by being what the normal person would consider to be lazy. The campaign schedule doesn't come anywhere near allowing such a thing. So, in an effort towards consistency, this is really a comparative study in reference to other modern presidents.

Along those lines, Trump himself has levied countless accusations of presidential laziness at his predecessor, Barack Obama, implying that he didn't work enough, spent too much time caring about sports, and specifically played way too much golf. Trump actually tweeted on 27 separate occasions about Obama's golfing habits between August of 2011 and August 2016. And Obama did play a lot of golf, at least compared to George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. But, not compared to Trump himself.

Obama spent 2922 days in office and played 306 rounds of golf. That's one round of golf every 9.54 days. As of the writing of this, Trump has been in office for 994 days and has played a confirmed 102 rounds of golf, with another 119 trips to golf courses during daylight hours that lasted more than 4 hours (the average time for a round of golf) during which no official work was done or scheduled, but due to the truly unique lack of documentation or accountability of this presidency, whether or not he actually played a round has not been confirmed. Now, one can reasonably argue about the merits of golfing versus just being at a golf course, but either way, the person doing so isn't working at being president. So, I don't think it's unreasonable to count all 221 golf outings considering the issue at hand is ultimately leisure time versus working time. That makes one golf outing every 4.49 days or more than twice as often as Obama. Now, that still wouldn't come anywhere near Woodrow Wilson's estimated 1200 rounds or even Dwight Eisenhower's estimated 800 rounds... but Donald Trump hasn't ever directly commented on either of their relative productivity.

There's also the issue of the cost of leisure time and traveling to the American taxpayer. Donald Trump and the wider right-wing media as a whole routinely misreported or exaggerated the cost of Obama's travels and leisure time. But, according to the conservative group Judicial Watch through documents obtained from the Secret Service, the Air Force, and the GAO (Government Accountability Office), during the eight years of his presidency, the total price tag on Obama's leisure time and traveling was just under $115 million dollars. By comparison, according to the GAO, just Trump's golf outings have already cost the American tax payers roughly $109 million... in less than three years. It's worth noting that much of this cost differential has to do with the types of golf clubs each president frequents. More than 60% of Obama's golf rounds were at military courses and averaged greens fees and cart rentals of roughly $45 per round, money that all goes back to the armed services. 100% of the courses President Trump has played on since taking office are privately owned, and all but two rounds were at his properties. The least expensive greens fees at a Trump golf course are more than $110 per round and the average rate is well over $250 per round, all money that goes back to the Trump Organization and ultimately Donald Trump himself. Now, it's doubtful that the president actually pays greens fees, and if he did they would almost exclusively go back into his own pocket... so it doesn't really matter. But, the federal government does pay for the Secret Service to be on the course, and the golf cart rentals, and the hotel stays of the federal employees. At Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey property alone, just since May 6th of this year, the government has spent more than $95,000 for cart rentals. Additionally, the local governments are responsible for local law enforcement costs associated with each stay; a number that Palm Beach, Florida (the location of Mar-a-Lago) puts at $60,000 per day and Bedminster, New Jersey (population 8,165) puts at $12,000 per day. Much, of this money is reimbursed by federal tax dollars, but not all of it.

So, that's twice the amount of time at golf courses (not including "working holidays" of which Trump has had more than 70 days worth already in office), at a lot more than twice the price... much of it paid back into his pocket from federal coffers.

Another aspect of what might be considered laziness could be productivity. The same person who inspired this post also made a comment about Trump supporters being results-oriented and appreciating his accomplishments.

I know, I laughed too.

But, in the name of thoroughness, let's try to figure out how to objectively judge this president's productivity. Legislatively, Congress really has a lot more to do with those results than a president does. But, a president does make a lot of campaign promises and often times, in order to achieve those promises, or some reasonable facsimile, they have to work with, not against, Congress. So, let's look at Trump's campaign promises:

• Take no salary. (True, but only if you don't consider the countless emoluments, promotions, funneling of government funds to Trump properties, etc... Trump's own heavily edited and incomplete filings have reported earnings upwards of $2.3 billion since announcing his candidacy, so $400,000 per year isn't much of a sacrifice, especially considering his unwillingness to divest himself from his previous holdings the way every other modern president has. So, true, but only in an especially craven way.)
• Enact term limits for Congress. (Nope. Not even any hint of it.)
• Impose the death penalty for cop killers. (Nope.)
• No cuts to Social Security, Medicare, or Medicaid. (Substantial cuts and shortened timelines for Medicaid funding, cuts to Medicare for those on disability, and higher penalties for alternative payment schedules for Social Security. So... nope.)
• Invest $550 billion in infrastructure. (Nope. Note even with party control of both houses for two years.)
• Hiring freeze for federal employees. (Nope. The State Department has had three periods of hiring freezes, leaving us at less than 13% staffed in our embassies world wide, but the government as a whole hasn't seen any sort of hiring freeze. On a humorous note, Trump has already had twice as many cabinet members - 38 confirmed and 14 more acting - than Obama did in his entire eight years in office.)
• Appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton. (Surprisingly, nope. Although I do find it mildly amusing and troublesome that a candidate would make such a promise, especially considering Secretary Clinton spent more days testifying in front of Congressional committees investigating her or her staff than all Trump administration members have since he took office, combined.)
• Eliminate Common Core. (Nope.)
• Two-for-one on federal regulations; for every new one, two get slashed. (Achieved. Actually, for every new regulation that Trump and his agencies have enacted, they've eliminated more than nine... but it should be noted that this kind of quantification is completely devoid of ethical or value determinations, just numbers.)
• Lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying for foreign governments. (Ha! So, technically, this has been achieved, and violated, and ignored, and probably litigated within a few years. This is another one where the American people got duped a bit by semantics; before he was even sworn in, he'd already hired at least four people who had previously lobbied on behalf of foreign governments, Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and Jeff Sessions. So, let's call this one a wash, unless we also want to get into how the president himself has been soliciting help from foreign governments.)
• Eliminate gun-free zones at schools and military bases. (Nope.)
• Defund Planned Parenthood. (Nope.)
• Achieve energy independence. (Nope. Not yet, despite substantial subsidies for the fossil fuel industries and attempts at hamstringing competition from green energy by eliminating many of those subsidies... still, not yet.)
• Expand mental health programs. (Not yet.)
• Expand national right to carry to all 50 states. (Nope.)
• Open up libel laws. (Nope.)
• Ensure funding for historically black colleges. (Not yet.)
• Cancel global warming payments to the UN and cancel the Paris Climate Agreement. (Sorta, but not really. While he did remove the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement, and has spoken twice now at the UN about the supposed sham of global warming, we are still making the payments because they are authorized by the House, not the president.)
• Renegotiate the Iran Deal. (Nope. He left the Iran Deal, but has not renegotiated anything. On his watch though, Iran has made more advances in nuclear armaments than during the previous two administrations combined, according to the CIA.)
• Build a safe zone for Syrian refugees. (Nope. And really nope considering he has now abandoned the Kurdish SDF to die at the hands of the Turkish military.)
• Close the parts of the internet where ISIS operates. (Nope... not that this is a thing that even can be done.)
• Bring back waterboarding. (Nope.)
• Develop a plan to defeat ISIS in 30 days. (Ha! Nope.)
• Establish a commission on radical Islam. (Nope.)
• Increase the size of the Army to 540,000 soldiers. (Not yet.)
• Rebuild the Marine Corps to 36 battalions. (Not yet.)
• Provide the Air Force with 1200 fighters. (Not yet.)
• Restore the Navy to 350 ships. (Not yet.)
• Reverse China's entry into the WTO. (Nope. In fact, by removing the United States from multiple trade agreements and isolating our trade relationship with China, we have even less influence on China's economy than we did three years ago.)
• Reverse Barack Obama's Cuba policy. (Sorta, but it would be a very big stretch to call it "reversed." Maybe, "abridged," but definitely not "reversed.")
• Guarantee 6-week paid leave. (Nope.)
• Repeal Obamacare. (Nope.)
• Change the vaccination schedule for children. (Thankfully, nope.)
• Allow health insurance across state lines and deduct premiums from taxes. (Nope, and nope.)
• Create HSAs. (Um... this was already a thing, and has been for more than fifteen years, so, technically, nope.)
• Require price transparency from health care providers. (Nope.)
• Administer Medicaid through block grants. (Nope.)
• Allow free access to the drug market. (Nope.)
• Increase veterans' healthcare. (Not yet.)
• Build a wall and make Mexico pay for it. (Ha! So, the president loves to talk about the wall actively being built, especially at rallies, but as usual, the facts are contrary to the rhetoric. Before Trump became president, there was 654 miles of barriers along our southern border. After securing $1.6 billion dollars last year for replacement fencing and taking money from more than 60 congress-appropriated projects, that number is now... 654 miles. Ha! And, after the president's pseudo-renegotiation of NAFTA, Mexico will actually be making more money from the United States than it previously did... just ask the UAW. So, they aren't paying for anything. In short, NOPE.)
• Remove all undocumented immigrants. (Not yet.)
• Ban Muslims from entering the United States. (Attempted, sorta, but nope. Especially not if you're from Saudi Arabia or the U.A.E. and have a lot of money.)
• Cancel all funding of sanctuary cities. (Nope.)
• End birthright citizenship. (Nope.)
• Remove existing Syrian refugees. (Nope.)
• Eliminate the federal debt in 8 years. (Ha! Nope. In fact, it has ballooned more under Trump than any other executive while presiding over a growth economy, ever.)
• Sue his accusers of sexual misconduct. (Nope. Although, that would be fun to watch.)
• Release his tax returns after an audit has been completed. (So, not only has he not done this, but now we know there doesn't appear to have been an audit to begin with, and even if there had been it wouldn't have prevented him from releasing them. And he's fought the release in nine different courts now. So... big NOPE.)
• Not take vacations. (Um... I think we've covered the big NOPE on this one, right?)

Okay, I think you get the point; a few minor Pyrrhic victories, but an overwhelming lack of follow through or results. There are more promises, but I also tried to weed out those that were based in a completely false narrative, or else the failure rate would be even higher. So, is this the result of laziness or incompetence or stupidity. Hmmm...

And, of course, there's the most literal manifestation of the word "lazy," Donald Trump's actual schedule. Axios managed to get their hands on more than three months of the president's real-life schedule, something that we would normally have access to in any other administration (it used to referred to as "the tick-tock," but this administration has refused to document time in any meaningful way, even though some of it is actually legally mandated), but is a rarity for the Trump presidency. On average, well over half of Trump's average day in the White House is occupied with "Executive Time," a term, apparently, that pre-dates his occupation of the White House. According to multiple White House sources, including now three books by former staff members, and former employees of the Trump Organization, "executive time" is when Donald Trump watches television and tweets. To me, that certainly qualifies as "averse or disinclined to work."

Now, to move onto "xenophobic," let's start with the definition:

xenophobic adjective

1. relating to or exhibiting fear or hatred of foreigners, people from different cultures, or strangers,

2. relating to or exhibiting fear or dislike of the customs, dress, etc. of people who are culturally different.

So, how exactly can somebody prove that the president is xenophobic? Well, to be completely honest, you kind of have to be actively ignoring his words and actions to have not already come to that conclusion on your own, but, here's the case anyway.

As I've written before, it turns out, you can prove when someone is xenophobic.

In response to multiple media sources pointing out that the administration's favorite line about immigrants - that they bring crime to the United States - didn't have any real facts to back it up, the Trump administration commissioned a report about refugees and immigration, illegal or otherwise, and the associated crime rates and costs to the country. The report did not read the way they wanted it to; in fact, because it was leaked to the New York Times, we now know that the administration learned that immigrants, and especially refugees have been a net positive to our economy over the past decade, at least as much as $63 billion. But the administration chose to ignore it. White House adviser Stephen Miller even reportedly told the Department of Health and Human Services (the department that issued the original report) that the next report should not include any benefits of immigration, only the costs.

This isn't necessarily proof of xenophobia or racism. It could be that this administration earnestly believes that immigration is bad for the United States, despite its own reports and dozens upon dozens of other studies to the contrary. It could be that this administration earnestly believes that we bear no responsibility for the refugees coming to our borders. The problem is that other actions have proven these generous assumptions inaccurate.

This administration is only concerned about central American immigrants and people coming from "shithole countries," but wants more "from Norway." The Canadian border is more than twice as long as the Mexican border, but the president has only proposed building a wall at our southern border, while actually ending the proposed increased funding to our northern border facilities. Simply put, this administration doesn't like black and brown people that speak different languages and have different customs, especially those coming from other countries.

Last year, the New York Times made a list of Trump's racist statements and actions, and while I don't think all of them are necessarily racist or xenophobic, the vast majority certainly are. Here are a few of my favorites:

• The federal government prosecuted Trump's real-estate company in the 1970s for racist rental practices; giving preferential treatment to whites and avoiding renting to any blacks or Hispanics. The Trumps settled with the Justice Department for an undisclosed amount.
• Trump began his 2016 presidential campaign with a speech that included calling Mexican immigrants criminals and "rapists."
• Before his campaign officially kicked off he proposed a complete ban on Muslims entering the US, including those legal citizens who are Muslim that were out of the country at the time.
• Trump falsely claimed that President Obama "issued a statement for Kwanzaa but failed to do so for Christmas."
• He has offered completely false crime statistics for some of the blackest cities in America, including Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Oakland, and Ferguson, MO.
• While meeting with Navajo World War II veterans, he publicly mocked Senator Elizabeth Warren calling her, "Pocahontas."
• He publicly called a Hispanic Miss Universe, "Miss Housekeeping."

And these are just words, for the most part. This same administration has separated families at the border to be used as political bargaining chips (by their own admission), refused to follow through with disaster relief funds in Puerto Rico (an American territory), and last year started making it possible for asylum seekers to be deported before they are even given a hearing, in direct contradiction of law.

Trump is the grandson, son, and husband of immigrants. But they were all white Europeans. His nativism isn't based on immigration reduction. It's based on blaming people who look different than you, act different than you, and speak different than you for all of your problems in life. It's the politics of xenophobia. Do you know who uses the politics of xenophobia? Someone who's xenophobic.

Donald Trump is lazy and xenophobic, and, at this point, I don't think it's merely a matter of opinion.