Perspective from the 19^th Hole 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 to 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 my professional positions, including as press secretary in Washington, D.C. for a Democrat Congressman from Oregon (Les AuCoin), as an Oregon state government manager in Salem and Portland, as press secretary for Oregon’s last Republican governor (Vic Atiyeh), and as 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.  I could have called this blog “Middle Ground,” for that is what I long for in both politics and golf.  The middle ground is often where the best public policy decisions lie.  And it is where you want to be on a golf course.

To illustrate the headline on this blog, I cite refugee families in the United States who supposedly had no idea Donald Trump would deport members of their own families.

They should have known or suspected.  For, that’s what he said he would do.

Stories like this abound, given what Trump and his ilk are doing, which is deporting immigrants, no matter their legal or illegal status.

That’s so America will be what they want it to be, which is free from immigrants, even though Trump himself is a child of immigrants.

Writing in The Atlantic Magazine, David Frum put it this way:

“Ask Trump supporters why they like the president, and chances are good you’ll hear something like:  He tells it like it is and says what he means.

“The question, then, is why so many of them refused to take him at his word.  Over the first weeks of the second Trump presidency, a recurrent motif is that Trump does exactly what he said he would, and then people who backed him react with shock and dismay.”

As examples, Frum cites the following – in his words:

• When Trump announced his plan (I’m using the word generously) to occupy the Gaza Strip and convert it into an international real-estate development, the chairman of Arab Americans for Trump, which formed to back him during the election, expressed shock and betrayal, and announced that the group would rename itself Arab Americans for Peace.
• Some Venezuelan Americans in Florida are feeling similar outrage.  Trump continued to make gains with Hispanic voters in 2024, but this month he ended Temporary Protected Status, a designation that allows non-citizens to stay in the country, for about 300,000 Venezuelans, with more designees likely to lose their status later.
• Some Kentucky educators who voted for Trump are aghast that his administration is trying to cut off federal funding that they need to keep their schools functioning, despite his campaign-trail promises to abolish the Department of Education.
•  CEOs and bankers who decided they liked Trump better because he favors low taxes and less regulation are suddenly chagrined to learn that he was serious about tariffs.
• A Missouri farmer who voted for Trump is horrified that the administration is freezing federal funding for conservation programs, even though Trump promised to eliminate environmental programs and slash government spending.

More from Frum:

“Other Trump promises were pretty dubious if you listened to the rest of his plans.  ‘Starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again,’ he said. But Trump’s signature campaign ideas were large tariffs and mass deportation. Both of these are inflationary:  Tariffs raise the price of goods, and mass deportation makes labor scarcer, raising salaries, which in turn drives prices higher.’”

So, I hope Trump voters at least will consider what they done. 

They have put a man who wants to be king in the White House where he can do what he wants, no matter what Congress or the courts think because he rules there, too.

How about public opinion?  It doesn’t matter.

But as Trump, aided by Elon Musk (who wasn’t elected to anything) work their will, consider this:  Trump did not get a majority of the public to vote for him.  He didn’t even get a majority of voters to vote for him.

So, regarding a wholesale mandate for Trump to do as he wants?  No.  He doesn’t have one and I hope the lack of it, along with a rejuvenated Congress (too much to home for, I suspect) and the courts, will catch up with him.