Washington Watch: Donald Trump was half-right

Sometimes the things politicians say about their opponents reveals more about themselves than the other guy. That can be seen in many of the accusations Donald Trump leveled at Hillary Clinton in last year's campaign. He fulminated about all the terrible things that would happen if she were elected. Looking back over the 10 months since the election, some of those predictions turned out to be prophetic. He told us we'd have the most inept, dishonest, sleazy and unpopular administration since Richard Nixon. And he was right, it turned out, but about his own presidency. Here are some of his other predictions that have shown to be true, but not as he intended: • We'd have four years of corruption and scandals and investigations starting on Day One. • Presidential waivers would block moving the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. • The president would be a bad manager, and the White House would be a chaotic collection of warring factions and serial leakers. • Gross ineptitude in foreign policy would lead to embarrassing conflicts with our allies. They wouldn't be able to trust us. The Europeans would replace us as the leaders of the Free World. • The president's word would be worthless at home and around the world. • Instead of working hard and staying in the White House, we'd have a low-energy president with a minuscule attention span who would be sitting around eating junk food, watching television, hob-knobbing with wealthy friends and taking constant vacations at taxpayer expense. • Instead of openness, the president would hide in a shroud of secrecy, lies and fake news. • The wall along Mexican border wouldn't be built and there'd be no chance Mexico would pay a single peso for it. • We'd have a pathological liar for president. • The president would be feuding endlessly with the Republican leadership in the Congress. • Special interests would ride roughshod; precious natural resources would be put up for sale to wealthy contributors. • Obamacare would not be repealed or replaced, and your health care would be destroyed rather than repaired. • The president would ask the Israelis to “hold back” on settlement expansion and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would ignore that and accelerate construction. • Arms sales to the Saudis and other Arab states would greatly expand and without restrictions. • Instead of repairing relations with Russia, they'd only deteriorate to dangerous levels. • The North Koreans would build more and bigger nukes and ICBMs that could reach the United States, and we'd soon find ourselves on the brink of war thanks to White House ineptitude. • The US would surrender any role or influence in the Syrian civil war to Iran and Russia. • The president's approval rating would sink to record lows. • All those promises to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid were lies; they'd all go on the chopping block. • The White House and Cabinet would be stacked with cronies and so many Wall Street bankers that the administration would look like a branch office of Goldman Sachs. • Instead of cleaning the swamp, as Trump promised, it would only get murkier and more infested. • Instead of ripping up the Iran nuclear deal, as Trump vowed, the president would certify Iran is in compliance with the agreement. • It wouldn't take long before impeachment talk began. • There would be an extremist ideologue on SCOTUS . • The First Daughter would be give a top White House job for which she's totally unsuited and unqualified. Donald Trump was on target for much of what he said but wrong about one important thing, namely which presidency he was describing.

Washington Watch: Donald Trump was half-right

Looking back over the 10 months since the US election, some of President Donald Trump's predictions turned out to be prophetic.

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Washington Watch: Donald Trump was half-right

Looking back over the 10 months since the US election, some of President Donald Trump's predictions turned out to be prophetic.

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