Only One President At a Time? How Quaint.

Okay, so it begins. There is a tradition in American politics that "we only have one President at a time." We even passed a law to that effect called the Logan Act.

The Logan Act (1 Stat. 613, 18 U.S.C. § 953, enacted January 30, 1799) is a United States federal law that criminalizes the negotiation of a dispute between the United States and a foreign government by an unauthorized American citizen.

So, even if you have won a Presidential election, you are not the President until sworn in. Well, or until a mob of angry hippies and feminists storm the capitol and bring it to a halt to let Kamala seize power. Barring that, you can give interviews and continue the Fox casting call for a cabinet, but you don't start poking your nose in issues the current administration is working on.

Given the date of the act, it's a fair guess that a Founding Father or two thought this was an important ground rule to lay out.

When Barack Obama was elected in 2008, we were in the depths of a severe recession. Obama had plans and ideas for dealing with it as he said during the campaign, but any criticism of the Bush administration's handling of it stopped after the election. Only after President Bush generously invited the President-elect to confer with him on the next steps, as the auto industry was in real peril, did Obama join in and they worked together on soluti0ns. Here is how the Center for Presidential Transition put it...

Recognizing the urgency of the moment, Bush met with Obama just six days after the election, making him only the second president in a change of party transition to meet with his successor within a week of the election. During their meeting, Bush spoke to Obama about jointly confronting the impending bankruptcy of the Big Three automakers. This bipartisan collaboration between an outgoing, president and a president-elect represented an extraordinary effort not only to unify the country, but to advance aggressive policy responses to the worst financial crisis in 60 years.

But, again, this happened only after the sitting President issued the invitation. But as we have seen for years, the standard behavior of a leader doesn't apply now. As AP reported...

NEW YORK (AP) — He’s making threats, traveling abroad and negotiating with world leaders. Donald Trump has more than a month and a half to go before he’s sworn in for a second term.

And of course, he has already threatened Canada and Mexico with mind-boggling 25% tariffs if they don't do something about illegal migration and the drug trade. He talked on the phone with the new President of Mexico and said she acquiesced to his every demand. She then said, basically, this guy's lying.

I'm reminded of the Churchill quote from the William Manchester biography, “It was Churchill who called John Foster Dulles “the only bull who brings his own china shop with him.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came down to Mar-a-Lago to perform a full Joe Scarborough with Trump. My favorite part of the photo is the woman over Trump's left shoulder.

Now, Prime Minister McDreamy didn't get much out of the meeting, except an awkward Trump joke about making Canada the 51st state. To that end, there is of course, a Trump online post...

The President-elect doesn't think much of Trudeau, according to his former defense advisor John Bolton, played by Wally Walrus...

Bolton wrote in his memoir that Trump considered Trudeau "very weak and dishonest,” and that his boss only “tolerated” him, and that personal dislike “made it a lot harder to get things done.” Trump has even spread the debunked rumor that Justin is the love child of his swinging mother Margaret Trudeau and Fidel Castro. His dislike may be, though, fed by the women in his life...

And...

The only hope for Trudeau is if he finds some more documents hidden in the john.

And then there was another leader in trouble across the pond. President Trump announced he was going to the grand reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral so embattled President Macron laid out the red carpet as the President arrived in a festive mood for the joyous event.

Yeah, and of course he was seated next to Macron for the service itself, no doubt wondering when the Notre Dame football game was going to start.

While there, he decided to take part in talks with Macron and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, again oblivious to the Logan Act, protocol or simple good manners.

This came as the current President, you know the one in the White House, announced another, and probably last, $1 billion in arms to Ukraine. No doubt seeing the writing on the wall, Zelenskyy announced early in the week he would be willing to negotiate land for an end to hostilities, thus fulfilling a Trump campaign promise to give Putin pretty much what he wants.

One presumes, knowing flattery is the ultimate diplomatic tool with this guy, that Macron, Trudeau and even Scarborough are just being prudent and rubbing the big fella's belly, cooing like he was a pet poodle. I'll bet they even guessed his weight at the advertised 215 pounds.

Meanwhile, back in the land of the free, Trump told Kristen Welker on "Meet the Press" that he pretty much was going to fire the man he appointed, FBI director Christopher Wray.

“Well, I can’t say I’m thrilled with him. He invaded my home — I’m suing the country over it,” Trump responded. “He invaded Mar-a-Lago.”

Executing a search warrant after Trump lied about having classified documents in said home, negotiated for months, moved many of them, and had his lawyers lie again, isn't really an invasion. It's, uh, let me check...oh, yeah. Law enforcement.

Oh, and, on the program, he said he's going to have Bobby Kennedy, Jr. investigate the links between childhood immunizations and autism. You know that wacky, long since debunked internet rumor that apparently RFK wants to revive? It's nonsense, and yet, like eating dogs and cats, that will be another governing principle it seems. But, hey, as long as we have horse paste and bleach, we should be fine.

Oh, and with the fall of the murderous Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, some in the intelligence community are urging that his private files be obtained before they are destroyed. Might be a Tulsi Gabbard reference or two in there. And of course, we’d like to know the fate of freelance journalist Austin Tice,  who disappeared into the Syrian cauldron on Aug. 13, 2012.  Many others have disappeared without a trace.  

But now that Assad is the guest of our BFF in Moscow, they'd better work fast before January 20th. But then again, there are bigger fish to fry. You know, Hunter's laptop.

And to return to Notre Dame for a moment. The First Lady was there for her husband, and was polite to the President-elect who sat two chairs away. He took that in a flirty direction to sell cologne.

Yeah, really. All this while ads for Trump watches, sneakers and guitars are still airing on the radio. So he can run the free world, and the Trump Shopping Network at the same time? I'm impressed.