Those Trump Campaign Promises: Several More Bite the Dust

Is it becoming clear yet that our nation is about to be in the grip of a man of has no principled core, no guiding philosophy, no standards of conduct for decision-making -- other than his own self-aggrandizement? Someone has said that he's much influenced by the last man in the room.

So, can we keep a running list?

1. Trump, who branded his rival “Crooked Hillary” and said she would go to jail if he were president, said yesterday in an interview with reporters and editors at The New York Times that he was no longer interested in pursuing Mrs. Clinton.

2. After talking to retired Marine Corps Gen. James N. Mattis, Trump has changed his position on water boarding "and worse" that he said he would pursue against the nation's enemies.

3. Trump had reassured his fans during the campaign that human-caused climate change was a hoax and that he would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords. But yesterday in the New York Times interview, that surety evaporated: “I think there is some connectivity. Some, something. It depends on how much.”

4. Trump has already downsized expectations for his famous Wall.

5. Trump previously started finding parts of Obamacare that he approved of.

Self-aggrandizement? That Trump sees no division between his new job and what's good for him also emerged bigly in the Times interview: He admitted that he probably did recently lobby British official Nigel Farage "to oppose the kind of offshore wind farms that Mr. Trump believes will mar the pristine view from one of his two Scottish golf courses.”

And it's clear that Trump intends to continue having big influence in his far-flung companies and to use his position as president to advantage those companies. He said in that interview, “The president can’t have a conflict of interest.” He actually said that.

Sadly, he's citing current law, since the POTUS is exempt from ethics laws that control everyone else. Why that's the case, I don't know, except that perhaps geniuses of a previous era never anticipated a self-serving greed-head like Donald Trump actually holding the office.

You can't really "drain the swamp" when YOU are the swamp.