The New York Times is by far one of my favorite sources for opinion pieces because they are so well written and thought out. While I was reading some of the columns from this week, I stumbled across "The Art of the Broken Deal," written by Paul Krugman. As I started to read I was captured by the very first words of the piece.

It started by introducing King Louis XIV, and discussing who he was and what his contributions to France were, and some of the conflicts he faced while king. Something else that was brought up was the concept of an absolute monarch.

An absolute monarch is someone who has complete rule over a country. They are also not subject to following laws, which means they are able to dictate the actions of people within a country. This obviously differs from that of a constitutional monarchy, which is what Great Britain is meaning that some kind of congress or parliament has shared say in the ruling of the country.

Krugman is then able to compare the persona of King Louis XIV to the actions and personality of President Donald Trump. The past few weeks for the government have been wild to say the least. This is due to the fact that the government shutdown caused much distress within the relationship between citizens and the government.

The government shutdown occurred because Donald Trump stated that “if Congress came up with a plan to protect Dreamers — undocumented immigrants brought here as children — while enhancing border security, he would sign it.” As many know, he did just the opposite of that. A bipartisan piece of legislation to protect Dreamers was brought to him, and he rejected it. In turn, this caused a government shutdown led by Democratic leaders.

The next point that the author makes is that Trump is unreliable, and this causes tension between not only citizens of America, but the American government as well as the international political atmosphere. While Trump is unreliable, his actions can be regulated by Congress. This poses the question: why doesn’t Congress do anything to regulate his actions? The answer to this is unknown at this time.

My own thought on this question is that members of Congress, especially Republican leaders are too scared to go against what the President wants in fear of dents to their own reputations. If this is indeed the answer to that question though, my response would be that Republicans in Congress should be putting the citizens of America first.