California is practically another country and Gavin Newsom may soon succeed Jerry Brown as governor. I have wondered if he is presidential timber along with Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. I do not always pick eventual winners. I once got skewered by thousands of WSJ readers for suggesting a nominee -- Shirley Jackson Lee -- who remains in the House as an articulate spokesperson for good things.

Regardless, Gavin's Tweet this morning is a concise and just takedown of Donald J. trump. See if you agree.

I have a few comments on the tweets that Gavin notes came from the avid fingers of the former TV star.

Feeding the base

Rasmussen is a polling operation that veers toward the GOP but it was little better than the rest of the polls in predicting the results of the 2016 presidential election. It now records Trump's approval at 50 percent and his disapproval at the same figure. Trump's claim that this is higher than Obama's rating for the same period is false. But that is minor. The Rasmussen poll is an outlier.

The only thing the Rasmussen poll does is help raise the average of Trump's poll approval to around 38 percent. But Trump uses prevarication to feed the base and his lying about Obama will go down well with whoever remains convinced Donald is the leader they need.

How about one instead of 26?

Trump has signed only one major bill since taking office. That was the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as Scalia's replacement on SCOTUS. The 26 bills he claims to have passed are routine congressional actions and minor items. Nothing on the Trump agenda save the confirmation of Gorsuch has gotten through.

What Trump has done is decreed by executive order the rollback of Obama priorities. This has savaged the environment, opened the door to substantial deregulation and had a deleterious effect on many functions of government. This is consistent with the Trump-Bannon commitment to destroy what they regard as a corrupt and needless governmental bureaucracy.

They are privatization fanatics.

Business is booming ... for some

If you own stock you are doing well, but you are probably looking over your shoulder for the pack of bears waiting for a bubble to burst. If that should happen, that vaunted base of Donald's may suffer some erosion. The one percent will not be pleased.

Most observers believe we are in an apocalyptic time that makes things good for alarmists like Donald. It also means that events are more unpredictable all the time. When Amazon buys Whole Foods other grocers tremble. When AI gets bullish on itself, people who fear automation notice.

The best policy is to try to prevent harm, hurt and worse. Following that policy, most presidents would think more of lost sailors than of poll numbers and feeding the base.
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