President Donald Trump is running a "rocking-horse presidency" and has "hardly done anything" other than giving us "the circus," CNN host Fareed Zakaria claimed Sunday.
"The first few weeks of the Trump administration have been an illustration of that line from the writer Alfred Montapert: Do not confuse motion with progress, a rocking horse keeps moving but does not make progress," the "Fareed Zakaria GPS" host said in his opening take.
"We are witnessing a rocking-horse presidency in which everyone is jerking back and forth furiously; yet, there is no forward movement."
Zakaria's scathing rebuke ridiculed Trump voters for falling for President Trump's "circus" and "freak show."
"In the midst of it all, what has he actually done? Hardly anything," Zakaria said.
". . . For many people, the bargain of the Trump presidency was that they would put up with the freak show in order to get tax reform, infrastructure programs, and wise deregulation. That may still happen, but for now, at least, reality TV is in overdrive, and not much is happening in the realm of serious public policy.
"The Romans said the way to keep people happy was to give them bread and circus – sustenance and entertainment. So far, all we have gotten in is the circus."
Zakaria went on to claim President Barack Obama has accomplished more in the opening of his administration, calling Trump's early attempts at presidential moves "hot air."
"Trump has issued a series of executive orders with great fanfare, though fewer than Obama at this point, but they're mostly hot air," he continued. "Lofty proclamations that direct some agency to review a law, report back to him, consider some action, or reaffirm a long standing practice. His one order that did something, the temporary travel ban, was so poorly conceived and phrased, it got stuck in the court system and will have to be redone."
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