* How ironic that the South American leader with the friendliest relationship with Donald Trump also has the most notable immigration issue on his continent. Argentina President Mauricio Macri, who has known Trump since the 1980s and called him shortly after his presidential triumph, has issued his own immigration-curbing decree. Something about those arriving from poorer Latin American countries that can’t help bringing crime with them. Opinion polls have been supportive.
But the Macri government has taken pains to underscore that they don’t plan–as some right-wing politicians are advocating–on building any walls. That includes, most notably, along the Argentina-Bolivia border.
* Word has been leaking that President Trump is not overly comfortable with his White House life. As in, well, it’s a step down and kind of confining–especially for a non-reader. No surprise. The goal of a narcissistic billionaire celebrity was not to become president, but to win the presidency. Big difference. As we’ve been seeing.
* Every time I look in on a Sean Spicer–or is that Melissa McCarthy?–press conference, I’m reminded of a historical quote attributed to Benjamin Disraeli. “There are lies, damn lies and statistics.”
* Now that there’s Steve Bannon sitting at the alt-right hand of the president, there could be some revisionist thinking about previous White House influentials. Imagine, Dick Cheney never looking so good.
* By all accounts–straightforward and alternate–the largely unread, under-briefed president got through his extended visit with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe practically incident free. Just that flap over talking out of school at a Mar-a-Lago dinner about that North Korean missile launch. But we can imagine staff holding its collective breath about a transposition gaffe right out of a “Saturday Night Live” script. As in every time Trump referenced–especially when media lurked–the Japanese prime minister, whose name is not Honest Abe Shinzo.
* For obvious reasons we’ve been seeing allusions to dystopian novels such as “1984,” “It Can’t Happen Here” and “The Handmaid’s Tale.” “Citizen Kane,” understandably, has also been referenced. But if you want a tale–that isn’t dark, let alone dystopian–about a (spoiler alert) successful candidate utterly unprepared for his Washington role as a U.S. senator, rent “The Candidate.” It’s a comedy-drama from 1972 that stars Robert Redford as a long-shot California candidate during the Nixon years.
After a campaign against an establishment figure that provides insight into strategy and political machinations, the Redford candidate wins and then waxes reflective with a key handler at a victory party at the movie’s conclusion. It literally ends with: “Marvin, what do we do now?”
It’s not a rhetorical question.