The Food and Drug Administration this week authorized the first fruit-flavored vapes for consumers 21 and older, which may not have seemed like a political story, though the broader context mattered: Just hours before the FDA announced its decision, The Wall Street Journal reported that Donald Trump personally “upbraided” FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, demanding that he approve the flavored vapes.
There’s room for conversation about whether this was the right policy move, just as there are related questions about why, exactly, the president has taken an interest in the issue, and the propriety of him directly lobbying the head of the FDA. But hanging overhead was a broader question: Doesn’t Trump have other things to do right now other than focus his energies on fruit-flavored vapes?
Hours after the FDA’s authorization announcement, the president reopened the “Rose Garden Club,” rechristening the patio outside the Oval Office, which he has redesigned to resemble outdoor space at Mar-a-Lago.
One day later, related questions about Trump’s priorities and attention span emerged. The Washington Post reported:
Flanked by UFC fighters around the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office to promote a June fight at the White House, President Donald Trump on Wednesday told reporters that he had “very good” talks with Iran over the past 24 hours.
The unusual scene highlighted how the president has been juggling the war he started in Iran with his other priorities, including festivities for the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States.
Amid widespread concerns about the struggling economy, a deadly and destabilizing war that has not gone according to the White House’s plans and a burgeoning global energy crisis, recent polling has found two-thirds of Americans are convinced their increasingly unpopular president simply has the wrong priorities.
Trump could take steps to change their minds, but he apparently doesn’t want to.
On the contrary, he seems intent on meandering from one distraction to the next. When he’s not barking vape-related orders to the FDA, he’s reopening a “Rose Garden Club.” And preparing for a UFC fight. And obsessing over the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial (which he labeled a “Reflecting Pond” this week).
All of this, of course, dovetails with the president’s preoccupation with his ballroom vanity project, his crusade to build a “Triumphal Arch,” his desire to turn the White House Executive Office Building into a giant white blob, his stated interest in renovating the White House Treaty Room, his specific marble and paint preferences for the Kennedy Center or the dozen or so other renovation projects Trump has prioritized in and around the White House complex.
In the 2004 presidential campaign, George W. Bush’s re-election team put together an attack ad targeting then-Democratic Sen. John Kerry, which featured a memorable seven-word phrase as a tagline: “Kerry has his priorities; are they yours?”
More than two decades later, as the incumbent president fixates on trivialities and distractions, he has opened the door to the same question: Trump has his priorities; are they yours?
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
The post As his approval rating sinks, Trump adds to his lengthy list of distractions appeared first on MS NOW.
