Editor’s note: The views expressed by guest columnists are not necessarily those of The Costa Rica Star, its advertisers, or its staff. 

Politics is now looking through the magnifying glass and seeing your president blown out of logical proportion as if you were Alice in Wonderland standing under a mushroom in a place called Mar-A Lago.

Last weekend President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump entertained the Japanese prime minister and his wife at the Florida White House, but behind the scenes was the carefully orchestrated resignation of Trump’s handpicked National Security Advisor Michael Flynn that was announced late Monday. According to news reports, Flynn apparently ‘misled’ Vice President Mike Pence some weeks ago about discussions Flynn had with the Russian ambassador concerning the removal of sanctions against Russia imposed by President Obama before Trump was inaugurated — a finger-wagging no no.

So Flynn becomes the first of President Trump’s top-level staff to be forced to quit within the president’s first month in office. Mainstream media is all over this controversy questioning every aspect of Flynn’s resignation and rest assured the media will not let this go. Pictures are circulating on TV news taken — from a private smart phone — showing someone handing the president a phone in a social situation at Mar-A-Lago. The media is asking all sorts of questions about Trump conducting presidential business on the phone at the dinner table closely surrounded by dozens of people most of which had nothing to do with government. Perhaps it was the president’s son Barron calling his dad on the phone, perhaps not? Maybe it was Flynn saying goodbye.

Talk about living under the public microscope, the presidency is so closely scrutinized these days that the liberal media would qualify as stalking voyeurs.  The media actually wants to know who called the president during dinner and why?

By all appearances Flynn should have resigned and not become a distraction, but this resignation is already a distraction. During Trump’s presidential campaign Flynn was frequently seen at rallies and spoke in full support of Trump and often introduced the candidate to the audience. But he came across as too aggressive kinda like a pit pull shredding a stuffed animal.

Naturally there is now speculation about who President Trump will pick to replace Flynn.

Retired Vice Admiral Robert S. Harward is the leading candidate, according to FOX News. Harward worked previously under retired 4-star U.S. Army Gen. James ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis, Trump’s Defense Secretary.

Seeing that President Trump is feeling his way into the presidency and he’s not about to be going anywhere it’s high time Americans on both sides of the political isle join hands and work together for the good of the country. But they won’t. The Democrats, the New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC and other mainstream media agencies are all apparently involved in a conspiracy to destroy President Trump’s presidency any way they can and this is not healthy for the State of the Union. But President Trump is the sharpest knife in the drawer. He’s dealing with all 52 cards and will play hardball with anyone.

The most troubling aspect of Flynn’s resignation, according to news reports, is that transcripts of Flynn’s recorded telephone conversations with the Russian ambassador — that took place before Trump’s inauguration — were ‘leaked’ to major newspapers. The suspected leak could only have come from deep within the U.S. intelligence community and should be fairly easy to trace back to the original source or will it? The FBI is looking into this blatant leak that apparently has happened before.

President Trump tweeted on Tuesday, “The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by ‘intelligence’ like candy. Very un-American!”

The media is clamoring away with that question coined during the Watergate scandal of the early 1970’s — “What did the president know and when did he know it?” Sure, President Trump probably did know about the Flynn situation before this week. But three weeks into his presidency Trump let go one of his most trusted aides that no longer could be trusted. Obviously, the president collected the facts before pulling the trigger on Flynn at Mar-A-Lago.

For those wanting to predict the future under President Trump, “Go ask Alice, I think she’ll know.” 

Looks as if we are all takin’ magic mushrooms travelin’ to who knows where on Air Force One.

About the Author

Britt Nelson relocated to Costa Rica in 2011 from Florida, where he served as news editor for the Palatka Daily News, a newspaper owned by the New York Times Regional Newspaper Group (NYT-RNG) for 20 years.

Nelson served the NYT-RNG for 18 years in Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, North Carolina and Florida as a correspondent, reporter, staff writer, senior staff writer training new reporters, copy editor, page designer, editorial writer, editorial page editor and editorial board member.