I have for the past few months held my tongue, so to speak, about our new president, waiting to see if he would make the transition from loose cannon candidate to responsible leader and chief executive.

What I have seen so far from his performance, he hasn’t.

To be honest, what I’ve seen is embarrassing. Foreign leaders are standing in confusion and laughing at how the new president is messing up. The wall across the border with Mexico — which we will pay for, regardless of what he says — is a worldwide joke, so much that a museum in Hamburg, Germany, specializing in miniatures put a wall around its exhibit of the United States.

Instead of a leader, what we have is a thin-skinned, spoiled immature bully who has no concept of how our system of government works (apparently slept through civics class), chastises people and then whines and cries when he’s criticized. He’s following a basic political axiom, “If you have no program or record, attack people.”

Harry Truman has been quoted as saying about politics, “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.” My father once told me, “If you can’t take it, you shouldn’t be dishing it out.” Maybe the president needs to follow that advice and shut up.

While many past presidents appointed cabinet members and aides who didn’t hesitate to disagree with them, and used debate to help determine policy, Mr. Trump, it appears, wants to surround himself with “yes men” who will tell him mainly what he wants to hear instead of what he should be hearing. If there is any question about the consequences of having people blow sunshine in a leader’s ear, consult the regimes of Adolph Hitler, Chiang Ki Shek, Richard Nixon during Watergate, or George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld during the second war in Iraq.

But what is most disturbing is our new president has not moved to develop his program to “make America great again.” Issuing executive orders may look like he’s proceeding, but they are a smoke screen; a diversion hiding the fact that when it comes to domestic programs, he’s all talk and no action.

One can only give inaccurate information or cry “wolf” so long about Muslims or alleged mistreatment by the media for so long. After a while, people stop listening — and believing —you. He has not presented a plan to replace the Affordable Care Act, or a plan to create new jobs, or a system to reduce the tax burden on middle and low-income citizens — all those things he and his campaign ads promised he would do.

Donald, you were elected to do those things. So far, you have failed.

There’s an old political saying that dates back to Roman times, “Give them bread and circuses,” in other words, give the public entertainment and gifts to draw their attention from what’s going on in the government.

We’re certainly getting the circus. I seriously doubt we’ll get any bread.

John Surratt is a staff writer at The Vicksburg Post. You may reach him at john.surratt@vicksburgpost.com.