One of the most memorable lines of President Trump’s address to a joint session of Congress last week was his declaration that “the time for trivial fights is behind us.”
The morning after the address, I argued that any move on Trump’s part to undermine that claim would taint the country’s memory of his widely-celebrated speech. Here we are, less than one week later, and the president was back to taunting Arnold Schwarzenegger over Twitter by Saturday morning.
Disputing Schwarzenegger’s explanation for leaving the Celebrity Apprentice, the leader of the free world tweeted, “Arnold Schwarzenegger isn’t voluntarily leaving the Apprentice, he was fired by his bad (pathetic) ratings, not by me. Sad end to great show.”
If using social media to insult your replacement host on a TV show for earning subpar ratings does not qualify as a “trivial fight,” I’m not sure what does.
The president’s decision to wade back into a battle over reality television programming came just over an hour after he used Twitter to accuse Barack Obama of perpetuating “Nixon/Watergate” level scandal by tapping into the phone lines at Trump Tower during the election process.
In many ways, Trump’s Saturday morning tweetstorm was symbolic of his presidency, oscillating steadily between matters of grave significance and, to use his own words, “trivial fights” over crowd sizes and reality television.
By breaking a memorable pledge from a speech so many people saw as a turning point in his presidency so soon after it was delivered, the sincerity of the entire address is now subject to questioning. The worst part? Like so many other events, it did not have to happen this way.
I don’t disagree that presidents can entertain other, less significant interests while still keeping their focus on governing. But Trump told voters it was time to move on, and failed to heed his own words spoken directly into the camera at prime time.
If the president wants to bring up his own ratings, this is no way to start.
Emily Jashinsky is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
