Donald Trump's Only Policy Agenda Seems to Be "Undo Obama Stuff"

Donald Trump does not like Barack Obama. Why? Well, for a whole host of reasons. First off, Barack Obama had the audacity to be both the President of the United States and a black man, and Trump spent years obsessed with the racist idea that Obama must have been born in Kenya. Another reason Donald Trump doesn't like Barack Obama is that Obama famously dunked all over him at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner, and Trump is nothing if not petty and vindictive. And now that he's running the country? The president's only ideology seems to be: "Do whatever it takes to destroy what Obama did."

Now we've known that this was a piece of the Trump plan for a while now. Take this excerpt of a June New York Times piece:

Five months after leaving office, Mr. Obama watches mostly in silence as his successor takes a political sledgehammer to his legacy. Brick by brick, President Trump is trying to tear down what Mr. Obama built. The trade deal? Canceled. The climate pact? Forget it. Cuba? Partially reversed. Health care? Unresolved, but to be repealed if he can navigate congressional crosscurrents.

Now he couldn't navigate those congressional crosscurrents, so thankfully Obamacare lives (for now), but since then there have been even more examples of the Trump administration reversing course. The DOJ has attempted to roll back LGBT protections in the workplace. It seems that every single Department of Education decision these days seems to be designed to get rid of every policy the Obama administration put in place to help with student loans. But a new report from BuzzFeed shows the extent to which the Trump administration seems to be dead-set on getting rid of and going against everything Obama has done.

[European government officials] also believe Trump’s foreign policy is chiefly driven by an obsession with unravelling Barack Obama’s policies. “It’s his only real position,” one European diplomat said. “He will ask: ‘Did Obama approve this?’ And if the answer is affirmative, he will say: ‘We don’t.’ He won’t even want to listen to the arguments or have a debate. He is obsessed with Obama.”

Now look, I don't love everything President Obama did foreign policy-wise, but anyone can see that he approached international affairs thoughtfully and with the careful consideration that they deserve. The idea that Donald Trump, who these same diplomats go on to say knows nothing about foreign policy, is making so many serious decisions on the international stage based on being "Opposite Day Obama" is beyond disconcerting. These are decisions that impact the lives and safety of hundreds of millions of people, and rather than making informed choices or even surrounding himself with people who can make informed choices that he can co-sign, he is just trying to vindictively win some battle with Obama that only exists in his own head. And the real loser in that fight is literally everyone on the planet.