What else did Donald Trump do this week?
He confirmed that he thought the United States should provoke (and could win) a nuclear arms race with... actually, it wasn't clear who he was talking about. The United States' main nuclear concern for most of the last half-century has been nonproliferation.In addition to dissolving the Trump Foundation (pending the conclusion of an ongoing criminal investigation into it), he was also forced to order his daughter and sons (Donald Jr. and Eric jointly, and Eric by himself) to stop fundraising practices that suggested they were selling access or breaking nonprofit rules.
He sought permission, from the Labor Dept. that is about to report directly to him, to hire temporary foreign workers to prune vines at his winery. (There is some doubt about whether Trump owns the winery now, or whether he bought it and then gifted it to his son Eric--the website says one thing, and Trump says another.) The workers would be paid $10.42/hour for 40 hours per week over the next six months. Trump has sought to hire at least 190 other foreign workers since he began running for president last year.
So why should anyone care about these things?
- Nuclear arms races make it more likely that unstable and hostile regimes will become nuclear powers, not less.
- It's bad if so many of a president's supposedly virtuous acts violate ethics rules or nonprofit laws.
- Voters may have taken Trump seriously when he said he wanted to protect their jobs from foreign competition.