PERSPECTIVE FROM THE 19^TH HOLE: This is the title I chose for my personal blog, which is meant to give me an outlet for one of my favorite crafts – writing – plus use an image from my favorite sport, golf. Out of college, my first job was as a reporter for the Daily Astorian in Astoria, Oregon, and I went on from there to practice writing in all of my professional positions, including as a Congressional press secretary in Washington, D.C., an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and a private sector lobbyist. This blog also allows me to link another favorite pastime – politics and the art of developing public policy – to what I write.

What gives me status to write about President Donald Trump, you might say, after you read this blog? After all, I live in Salem Oregon, not Washington, D.C., so I do not have an up-close-and-personal view of national politics.

I have no status, but, for what it’s worth, I do pay close attention to national issues as I read the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times each day.

Does that provide status? Perhaps not, but I commented often as Donald Trump ran for and won the presidency, worrying that, perhaps in an overstatement, he came across a lot like what Hitler must have been in Germany of the 1930s. Trump, railed against the down economy and said only he could produce a recovery. He also criticized almost everyone, save for himself, the savior.

Recent processes with Trump – some call them missteps – underline basic questions about this most unpredictable of presidents, a question that began emerging in the campaign and now shows up full throttle in office.

• Is Trump the savior of a post-conventional truth in politics as he rallies the U.S. to his view of its place in the world.
• Or, is he always the smartest person in the room who leads the country to be, as he might say, “all it can be because of me…just like Hitler in pre-World War II Germany?
• Or, is he absolutely stupid without any real, down-to-earth knowledge of what he is doing in the nation’s highest political office, thus risking the security of the United States?

For my part, I vote for the latter, though there are evidences that the answer to all three questions could be yes.

The most recent example was the stupidity of Trump’s action to divulge sensitive intelligence material – gathered, it has been reported lately, from Israel – in his meetings with two high-level Russian officials. As president, Trump may aver that he has the right to talk about anything, including sensitive intelligence information, but it is easy to imagine him trying, as an egotist, to impress his Russian visitors with his grasp of inside information on terrorism.

The fact is that Trump, blowhard that he is, cannot be trusted to hear and keep sensitive national security information. To satisfy his narcissism, he will tend to blurt out information he is supposed to hold close.

With Trump, it is always me first, me most, and me at the center.

In the case of Trump firing FBI Director James Comey, Comey may have deserved it after a checkered list of recent missteps in one of the nation’s top law enforcement jobs. The word “one” is in bold to indicate that Comey should not have acted as an independent agent. His position reports to superiors at the Department of Justice…whether Comey liked it or not.

But Trump botched the firing, too, giving aid and comfort to his opponents, especially in Congress.

After his staff pointed to a well-written memo from Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein that made the case it was time for Comey to go, Trump reverted to the me-first attitude. He said, no, the Rosenstein memo had nothing to do with his decision, one he said he intended to make all along on his own.

The trouble with his contention was that it underscored the possibility that Trump was firing Comey to stall or stop the investigation into Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, an investigation that could reach to Trump’s campaign or to the Oval Office itself. The investigation gained even more momentum when Trump, before the firing, was reported to have asked Comey to stop the investigation into former Trump aide Michael Flynn. Trump also said he had tapes of meetings with Comey, a tale that recalled to mind the Watergate tapes.

The fact that Trump’s action to fire Comey produced the reverse spin effect – the intent to investigate Russian entanglements in the U.S., even those that could reach to Trump himself, gained more steam.

Wall Street Journal editorial writers put it this way this morning:

“The state of the Trump Presidency has been perpetual turbulence, which seems to be how the principal likes it. The latest vortex is over Mr. Trump’s disclosure of sensitive intel to the Russians—and whatever the particulars of the incident, the danger is that Presidencies can withstand only so much turbulence before they come apart.”

What’s at stake in all of this? A lot.

Trump is already perilously close to losing Republicans he will need to pass his health care and tax reform agendas. As the Wall Street Journal wrote, “Weeks of pointless melodrama and undisciplined comments have depleted public and Capitol Hill attention from health care and tax reform, and exhaustion is setting in.”

But beyond “just” Republicans, it appears he is perilously close to losing support from the general public, especially with polling numbers sliding down past a 40 per cent approval rating.

We need top quality persons in the nation’s top job and we don’t get it with Trump, even as the chorus grows that he needs to be impeached.