As our one-time allies across the globe are discovering, you simply cannot trust Donald J. Trump to keep his word on anything — let alone honor pledges, treaties, and agreements already in place. Not internationally, and now, as the American Prairie bison operation just found out, not in Montana either.
Nothing proves it more than Trump’s disaster at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Rather than seeking international cooperation and peaceful coexistence for a better world, Trump unleashed his baseless fury at America’s longest-standing allies. Those include Canada, with whom we share the longest undefended border of any nations in the world. Toss in virtually all of the European nations, whom he derided and claimed were ripping off the U.S. and even went so far as to say they wouldn’t exist without us.
We — and the rest of the world — have all been drenched in his foolish propaganda to simply take over Greenland because “we need it.” But in front of world leaders, he unveiled a map showing all of Canada, Mexico, Greenland, and Venezuela as covered with the American flag, blatantly showcasing his insane belief that somehow the United States has the right to take over other countries — whether they like it or not.
It’s worth remembering that for Trump, this is nothing new. He made 30,573 documented lies in his first term and continues an unbroken pattern of simply lying through his teeth to the American people and our allies across the globe. This is the guy who was known for not paying his contractors on construction projects — and now he brings that same moral vacuity to the nation and international stage.
Closer to home, we have the stunning example of Trump’s Secretary of the Interior, Doug Burgum, abruptly deciding to cancel the Bureau of Land Management grazing leases for American Prairie’s efforts to bring native bison — the national mammal — back to the Northern Plains.
The benefits of bison on the landscape have long been lauded, numbering as many as 60 million across the undeveloped plains — which were healthy, productive, and supported a vast diversity of species prior to the sodbusters, cattle barons, and barbed wire fences.
Bison evolved in the Northern Plains and are far better suited to the often harsh conditions and natural predators like wolves and bears, than cattle. American Prairie’s efforts to restore a small part of those once-thundering herds is lauded world wide.
Well, except apparently by the Trump administration and Montana’s own benighted governor, Greg Gianforte, who facetiously paint bison as some kind of threat to the cattle industry. How? And like so much of their forked-tongue blather, they don’t bother to explain why they have to “save the cowboy” from American Prairie’s bison restoration efforts.
The fact is, American Prairie has followed all the laws and regulations for their operation. Their bison are brucellosis and disease free and they’re working with Montana’s tribal nations to restore the bison that were central to their culture and religion for thousands of years. They also allow 25 local ranchers to run 7,000 head of cattle on American Prairie’s land — exactly the opposite of a threat to the cowboys Gianforte and Trump’s toady Burgum claim motivated the cancellation of the BLM grazing leases.
No nation, state, or enterprise can function in the absence of trust because it totally eliminates the ability to plan, invest, and be confident in a secure future. Unfortunately, trust is wholly absent from Trump and his administration as our allies — and Montana’s American Prairie bison restoration effort — just found out.