Wild D.C. Weekend Overshadows Donald Trump's Promises to Forgotten Americans

By Joe Guzzardi
January 25, 2017
As seen in:
Noozhawk

What a weekend! On Friday, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office to President Donald Trump. The decorum and dignity of the inauguration of the 45th president overrode protesting on Friday, which included children, criminal looting and lewd language.

Riot police were summoned to break up the mobs, but not before costly damage had been done to several businesses. Criminal mischief that results in destroying $500 of property or more is a felony, but the anarchists felt protected because of the Obama administration’s hands-off policy toward destructive, organized gang mayhem.

This time around, they weren’t so lucky.

The District of Columbia’s U.S. Attorney’s Office hauled about 230 rioters into court where they may face 10 years in prison and up to a $25,000 fine.

More good news: the Secret Service, it was reported, will launch an investigation into enterainer Madonna after her vulgar and profanity-laced rant during the Saturday Women’s March on Washington in which she said that she fantasizes about “blowing up the White House.”

By comparison, other weekend dustups were tame, involving the inaugural cake, Trump versus the CIA and White House spokesman Sean Spicer versus the media.

Trump had spent less than 36 hours in office before the masses assembled to heap scorn on him, with the media and celebrities piling on with Adolf Hitler comparisons and a social media attack on Trump’s 10-year-old son, Barron.

Trump deserves a chance to govern. In his acceptance speech, he made heartfelt, unifying promises to the nation to improve everyone’s life, and that all citizens should support.

In a bold indictment of the Bush and Clinton administrations, Trump charged — correctly — that “a small group in our nation’s capital” reaped government’s rewards while American factories closed and jobs were shipped overseas.

“Their victories have not been your victories,” he said. “Their triumphs have not been your triumphs. And while they celebrated in our nation’s capital, there was little to celebrate for struggling families all across our land.”

Every decision Trump makes on trade, taxes and immigration, which disproportionately hurts blacks, he vowed will benefit American workers and families.

To drive home his patriotic point, he said: “We must protect our borders from the ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our companies and destroying our jobs.” He added: “We’ve defended other nations’ borders while refusing to defend our own.”

Too bad that the roughly one-third of Democratic representatives in largely black congressional districts boycotted the inauguration and missed Trump’s message. Their constituents include many of the 50 million Americans not in the workforce, 12 million more than in 2000.

High on Trump’s agenda is renegotiating the 1996 North American Free Trade Agreement, which the Economic Policy Institute estimates cost about 700,000 jobs, mostly in manufacturing, and depressed wages nationwide.

An improved NAFTA agreement would put Trump on his promised path to creating more American jobs. Not protesters, but more jobs is really the weekend’s big story.

— Joe Guzzardi is a senior writing fellow for Californians for Population Stabilization (CAPS) who now lives in Pittsburgh. He can be reached at [email protected], or follow him on Twitter: @joeguzzardi19. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.