While I am no real expert at the game of Bridge, I have learned that the best/cheapest bid to win a hand is ‘three no-trump’, but despite the advantage given in the rules to cheap no-trump bids, three no-trump is one of the most difficult bids to make with any regularity.

What does any of this have to do with anything else?

Since last fall, I have tried to swear off too many Trump-related blogs, but I still find myself drifting back to the Trump stump. I have wondered if I am off-base or if the Trump subject has genuinely become so pervasively dangerous that there really is no other public issue of comparable significance at the moment.

Allowing for a wide variety of opinion and views about Trump and his plans, it is still my view that we are all experiencing something that is not only unprecedented but that is putting the country at risk economically, socially and physically. That is the 3 TRUMP BID: Economic, Social, and Physical danger.

Economic: at the moment, Trump’s push on taxes, regulation, and spending is putting inflationary pressure on the economy when we are already near full employment. That puts the Fed in a position to raise interest rates to counter that upward pressure. And in the meanwhile a lot of Trump’s most ardent supporters are among those who will be injured the most and become ever more upset with their own lives and world.

Social: The second crack at immigration curtailment already appears to still be running afoul of our legal system as well as creating widespread uncertainty and difficulty among many minority peoples. The empowering of so many billionaires—who are personally unfamiliar with the real world– to steer the rules about the population in many aspects of their lives—in education, health and general social activity is sharpening  social divisions across the whole country creating much more divisive feelings and thoughts.

Physical Danger: With Russia in a peculiar position vis-à-vis  Trump and North Korea getting increasingly aggressive, our military is now destined to get much more money, which in turn increases the risk that a showdown somewhere will become unavoidable, despite the fact that such a showdown would endanger American lives.

Comparing the Trump era in the US in the world to the game of bridge may seem silly or even trivial.

We must remember, however, that the game of bridge requires careful, quick thinking and a good, strategic approach to playing the game.

The BIG game of life requires the same in SPADES but today seems to be getting a series of erratic, often self-contradictory actions.

Perhaps taking a few bridge lessons would do Trump some good; 1)he would have less time to tweet,  2) he might learn a few basic things to help his Presidency and 3] that THREE NO TRUMP is at least one too many!

Also remember that President Eisenhower was a serious expert bridge player.