“If we’re politicizing the weather, what is there left to politicize?”
This was a comment by Michael Halpern, deputy director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, reacting to Donald Trump politicizing storm forecasts related to Hurricane Dorian.
Political appointees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sided with Donald Trump and against the scientists in the Alabama National Weather Service office who sent out a tweet confirming that Alabama was not threatened by hurricane Dorian after Trump tweeted that it was.
Halpern was right. Under Donald Trump’s presidency there really is nothing left that has not been and will not be politicized. Nothing.
The reason is because everything must conform to the dictates of Trump world, which means everything has to be shaped and formed to serve his purposes.
It’s called pure corruption, and I predict that will be his most lasting legacy.
Politicizing the weather is more than the last straw. It is the tip of the iceberg of Trump’s willingness to sacrifice truth to serve his own desires.
The list of issues he has already politicized is a mile long.
Immigration?
Murderers and rapists, all of them.
Draconian border policies become an effective deterrent?
There was a dramatic decline in border crossings last month, only the figures Trump cited came from Mexican officials because U.S. data said something different.
An independent Justice Department?
Last week Justice officials filed a brief in the court battle between Trump and the House Ways and Means committee over his taxes, arguing that Congress has no legal right to enforce subpoenas of any kind from any committee, effectively establishing an imperial presidency with no system of checks and balances.
Climate change?
Trump appointed EPA officials deleted scientific findings in their annual report on climate change because they contradicted Trump’s claim that climate change was an open scientific question.
The border wall paid for by Mexico?
That he ever said Mexico would comes from “fake news.”
The trade war with China?
Easy to win and no cost to American consumers, American farmers, American manufacturers. Does anyone believe that?
It’s not that other presidents haven’t politicized issues. It’s just that none of them ever politicized everything, and certainly not weather forecasts.
I don’t know if Republican strategist Rick Wilson is right when he says everything Trump touches dies (see his book by that title), but this much I do know.
Everything Trump touches is corrupted. Everything.
This means as a country we are divided into two camps:
(1) Those who are co-conspirators with Trump in corrupting our government beyond anything we have ever seen:
(2) those who aren’t.
Trump cannot unite America because his very nature as a human being is to speak and act in ways that unavoidably divide people. That is what happens when a leader doesn’t care about truth.
The choice, then, is to accept his lies as truth or reject them as an attack on the idea of truth itself.
His supporters fall into the first group. Most Americans are in the second one.
That means the corruption we are seeing won’t last forever. That’s the good news. But a word of caution is in order.
Until we are rid of Trump and Trump world through resignation, impeachment, or defeat in 2020, the next time you hear a weather forecast, make sure it didn’t come from one of his tweets.
linnposts.com 
Seems like something new everyday Jan, And yet North Carolina just elected another Trump supporter. I just don’t get it. What am I missing? Interesting to see government officials in the UK have the backbone to stand up to Boris Johnson. Not sure if Nigel would agree but wish we had some in our Republican Party with as much backbone.
NC is still VERY Republican. The Democrat made it a close race, which tells me had he been a better candidate he would have won. It was a re-run and that seldom works out. He said virtually nothing about Trump, which was also a huge mistake. Democrats have to run smarter to make sure 2020 is not even close.
In the British political equivalent of throwing water onto acid, our Prime Minister decided to suspend (or prorogue) Parliament for the unprecedented period of 5 weeks. That was enough, not only for Parliament to goad itself into blocking Brexit, but also to bring people onto the streets throughout the UK.
More to the point, there is (at last!!) recognition of the fact that our system of governance is badly in need of reform, in areas such as the voting system, and even in the drawing up of a written constitution. I can’t but notice that in your country, there is mounting support for doing away with the Electoral College, and substituting for it a system of Ranked Choice voting. It’s Maine that’s leading the way, and others are following.
Nigel, I hope your country will reform its government system. I am less encouraged about us doing so. The process is an encumbered one where anyone or groups can block efforts for reform, the U.S. Senate being chief among them. Then there are unintended consequences to consider. As I said, I am not hopeful about it here. Perhaps your system makes it more possible. We’ll see. The goos thing is that ours will improve dramatically once Trump and Mitch McConnell are gone.
Politicizing the weather is corrupt, yes. In some sense, it’s worse than that, because corrupting the weather report has absolutely no purpose. It’s not even a good power grab. It’s just unnecessary and stupid.
The man is NOT playing three-dimensional chess, as some of his supporters claim, he’s playing hand grenades & that’s his only tactic.
Charlie, you got it right. The only thing Trump knows how to do is to blow things up.
The daily parade of Trumps dysfunctional behavior is dizzying and numbing! The Republicans are beyond comprehention. It is sickening to watch them behind the microphone passionately supporting his idiotic behavior.
Bob, Republicans are as dangerous as Trump. Their views on issues are not only unacceptable because they are beholding to the rich and privileged, they don’t even have the courage to stand by those views if it means crossing Trump. We need to vote then out with him.