what did our esteemed empress (Merkel) say?
God damn finding a primary source has become so hard these days, online journalism is really garbage. Here's the best I got: "The times when we could completely rely on others are, to an extent, over"
https://www.cnn.com/2017/05/28/politics/angela-merkel-donald-trump-g7/index.htmlNot nearly as potent a statement as I thought it was, maybe she didn't say it best. The meaning is still there, however.
How is this any different to other presidencies who make these appointments is what I don't get. Obviously if you are a Democrat, you aren't happy with who the Republician will put into these positions, and vice versa. Can't the next president simply appoint their own preferred heads of agencies? How is it "creating chaos for years to come" do you just mean years as in only the years in which he is in power.
Fundamentally, it's because he's appointing
stupid people. Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush Jr., Obama, all utilized the agencies for their own political agenda, sure, and the other side Republican/Democrat disliked the choices the president made, but the last time we had such bad officers was the McCarthy era back in the 50's. He's making appointments that even Republicans don't like (though he isn't really a republican to begin with). Because of this, a ton of people have been resigning, heads of our military branches, agency directors, etc, and when you lose those people through abrupt change you lose all of the knowledge they have garnered over the years. So much of how the government works is based on having people who just know who to talk to to get things done, or know the process or stupid form ID you need to make something official. He's been shooting himself in the foot since day one, which at least most presidents try to avoid.
Bush took America into two wars. Trump has yet to do that. Surely that makes Bush worse?
Bush took the U.S. into two wars after an event which redefined the
global status quo on terrorism - the U.S. Congress voted 420-1 in the House and 98-0 in the Senate for the Afghanistan war, and a year later to invade Iraq with a supermajority. Bush cannot solely be blamed for that, his actions were very aligned with public sentiment at the time. What he did perhaps do poorly, is manage the next five years of the war. But I think there's a big difference between someone managing a difficult situation, and someone like Trump who is creating difficult situations - INTERNAL TO OUR COUNTRY NO LESS. People will never dislike Bush as much (and I think rightly so) because we can see how his actions were at least supposed to be for our benefit. I would give credit to Trump for the same thing - I genuinely believe Trump is doing his best, but I would also say he's so blinded by his own mythos that he thinks his shit don't stink.
None.