For that answer we can turn to Elaine Marie Benes, an expert on the topic.😊
Or maybe we should check with Woodrow Wilson. Exactly one hundred years ago Wilson, arguably the best-educated president we’ve ever had, was seeking reelection. War was raging in Europe, and Wilson hoped to exploit America’s non-involvement with the campaign slogan, “He kept us out of war.” He won a razor-thin victory and was inaugurated on March 4, 1917. Twenty-nine days later he asked Congress to send troops into battle against Germany.
D’Oh!
(In fairness to Wilson, a letter from Germany to Mexico promising to help that country regain Texas had a lot to with it. I wonder if Mexico would still be interested….)
So it took President Wilson less than a month to involve us in a war. It has taken Minority President-elect Trump fourteen days to start three of them.
One is with England whom we have defeated twice already—something Trump would know if he ever opened a book. Now he wants to appoint a new British Ambassador. No, not an ambassador to England—an ambassador from England. This is something the foreign country usually does itself, but Trump really likes this anti-immigrant, pro-Brexit guy named Nigel Farage. The Britons’ response? Nicely reserved: “There is no vacancy. We [already] have an excellent ambassador to the U.S.” (I expect a Trump-tweet soon declaring that if we let England win this, there’ll be a fish-and-chips truck on every corner.)
The second is with the New York Times which has had an on-again, off-again interview scheduled with MP-e Trump for two days. As the twit tweeted yesterday, I cancelled today’s meeting with the failing @nytimes when the terms and conditions of the meeting were changed at the last moment. Not nice. And not true—no conditions were changed and as of this moment, 11:56 a.m. on November 22, the meeting has been rescheduled—off the record with the publisher, on the record with reporters. Yesterday he gave a tongue-lashing to TV journalists; today newspapers; tomorrow, probably the Kohl’s circular. Trump and the journalists in the same room—what could possibly go wrong?
The third war is with China and it’s just beginning. MP-e Trump’s threat to impose a 45% tariff on goods from that country is seen as a way to reinstate American jobs. It won’t happen, and if you’re reading this on an iPhone, better hang on to that device. It’s produced from Chinese raw materials, many of which are available only in China. For Apple to build that phone here in the U.S. would be next to impossible…not that the average person would be able to afford one—most experts predict an unemployment rate of 9% if we confront China in a trade war.
I didn’t even mention the ongoing war on minorities, women, and the LGBT community because, well, we’ve grown accustomed to it…unless we fall into one of those categories and confront the battle daily. Then there is no growing accustomed.
I also discounted the pitched battle between the Trump White House and Hamilton. Apparently, until last weekend, Trump thought the “Great White Way” meant something else entirely. Imagine his disappointment.
