(Thanks DH)
It Wasn’t Supposed To Be This Way
Donald Trump must be wondering. Here’s a guy who acknowledges having been ‘raked over the coals (in public) for thirty years.’ He finally ascends to king of the hill, winning the presidency. It’s time for a little bit of respect, right?
But it is not working out that way. The press, which has never been friendly, is even worst to him. His political party cannot seem to get things done, which makes him look weak, which is the opposite of the strong presidential image he deserves.
Heck, he can’t even get respect from his own administration. The press continues to get plenty of leaks from the White House, which totally pisses him off unless of course he is the leaker. His press secretary doesn’t seem to be able to make him look good – he had to go. Even his attorney general won’t go to bat for him. This guy was one of his most loyal supporters and now he’s just ducking the hard stuff.
No, Trump must feel like he got the ultimate raw deal. Which may be part of the explanation for his tweets about pardoning. He may be thinking, “Screw it. I don’t care about the recognition and respect. I’m just gonna do what I want and if they want to come after me and my family they can. I’ll just pardon our way out.”
What The Dems Can’t Figure Out
Met up with some friends who were Democrats. When the conversation turned to politics, the ‘can you believes’ started flowing. “Can you believe what is coming out about Trump’s kids and Russia?” “Can you believe Sean Spicer just resigned?”
The ‘can you believes’ are almost always followed by the ‘how cans’ and this was no exception. “How can anyone believe/support/vote for/trust Trump?”
Unfortunately for the Democrats, while this is exactly the right question, they just cannot figure out the answer. They feel that Trump supporters must be uneducated/hoodwinked/bigots or worse.
What they cannot figure out is that there are legitimate reasons for supporting Donald Trump. They are actually very similar to the reasons for supporting Bernie Sanders. A lot of Americans feels like they are getting a raw deal and the deck is stacked against them.
They are right.
Income inequality keeps rising in the US, and it seems like the techies, Wall Street and corporate America are taking over.
Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders were the only candidates really calling this out during the last election campaign. That message still resonates with at least 30% of the country, probably more. And they believe Trump can fix it because he has too much money to care about getting rich anymore (very not true) and he is not afraid to throw verbal bombs in normally reserved Washington to shake things up (very true).
They realize Trump has flaws, but they still see him as the only chance of changing the status quo. Until the Democrats have a message and leaders that resonate with the part of the country being left behind, Trump will remain the only game in town.
Follow The Money
Where does Trump Inc. really get its money? In his interview with the New York Times this week, Donald Trump shot himself in the foot again and told everyone it was none of their business. Of course, now everyone will be focused on that very question.
Trump said that the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election would cross a “red line” if it started looking into his finances. But the special counsel is apparently thinking of doing just that, if he hasn’t already. After all, any crime investigator knows that the first thing to do is follow the money.
Trump’s supporters think he has a point: the investigation was supposed to be about Russian interference and should not be side tracked. These are also people who have no love for the Clintons and surely supported Bill’s impeachment. They should remember that the only reason he was impeached was because an investigation of Clinton’s business affairs got sidetracked to whether or not he lied about having sex with an intern.
Sex with an intern is not Trump’s style, but the investigation may find that his firm is financially in bed with a number of dubious characters and governments, which could have the same consequences.
Where’s Papa Bear?
So far, Donald Trump has been uncharacteristically restrained in his comments about his son’s dealings with the Russians. One would have expected him to be very vocal about the attacks on his namesake. There are a number of possible reasons why Trump is holstering his Twitter handle on this one.
- He knows it is bad and is hoping it blows over
- He does not want to say anything that may later be proven to be a lie by his son
- He is keeping his powder dry in case his son really gets into trouble
- He is selling his son down the river to deflect attention from himself
It is hard to imagine that the last reason is valid considering the tight family circle that is Trump Inc. After all, Jared Kushner, Trump’s son in law, was also involved, and if it turns out illegalities were performed, the two of them might go down together.
No, it is probably a combination of the first three reasons, with the emphasis on the first one. Trump is smart enough to know that the issue has absolutely no chance of blowing over if he goes to the mat on it.
It likely won’t blow over though, so look for papa bear to come out swinging on behalf of his cubs when things heat up.
Trump’s Media Smackdown
Donald Trump’s recent tweet of himself taking down CNN WWE-style has elicited a gaggle of news stories about how Trump has been modeling WWE fighters. But, as is the case too often lately, the media has the story wrong.
The story isn’t that Trump is using WWE tactics in politics. The real story is that the media has not figured this out until now even though it has been going on for a year. Why? Because the media are elites and have lost touch with the a large portion of America. For instance, the portion that makes WWE one of the top rated shows on cable TV. Have any of the national media even seen a WWE show or event?
Trump supporters know this. They can tell that the media has no clue about their interests, their lives and their daily struggles. Which is why they distrust the media. Meanwhile the media, which often reports on the very poor but hardly ever on the middle class, cannot understand where Trump’s support comes from.
Instead, they ought to be trying to figure out why Trump supporters would trust media that is so out of touch that it couldn’t figure out that Trump has been borrowing from the WWE (especially after he appointed the ex-CEO to his administration).
You Want Fries With That?
(Thanks BH!)
Don’t Ever Forget, Trump’s A Fighter
When asked what he admired most about Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump responded, “She’s a fighter”. It is really the quality Trump admires most about himself (psychology calls that ‘projection’).
There are many people, primarily Trump opponents, who believe that if he is confronted with a terrible scandal or starkly contrary facts that he will back down and reverse position. They are completely and utterly mistaken.
Donald Trump will never back down. He was recorded talking about groping women but did not back down. Pictures of his inauguration crowd showed it smaller than Barak Obama’s, but that is just an ‘alternative fact’. Backing down is just not in his nature.
There are two possible exceptions. Going to jail or losing a lot of money. But these are debatable.
So looking forward to when and if Congress and/or the special prosecutor implicate Trump with regard to collusion with Russia, financial conflicts of interest or anything else, Trump will fight back with everything he has.
That will include mobilizing his base. There will be demonstrations in his favor. They won’t be as large as the ones against him, but that won’t be the point. The point of the Trump demonstrations will be to show the country what kind of social unrest might happen if it doesn’t back off.
The Democrats’ Missing Message
Does the Democratic Party stand for anything other that ‘not Trump’? One has to wonder. Since Donald Trump won the presidency they have lost two special elections. The key point both Dem candidates were campaigning on was simple and negative: reject Trump. They lost.
At least Trump has a positive message: We’re gonna shake things up with that fossilized bunch of do-nothing blowhards in Washington. And while we are at it we’ll fight for the people that have been left behind by technology, gloabalization, environmentalism, etc.
The Democrats? All they seem to be saying is: “Trump a horrible person. It’s amazing that people are stupid enough to support him. He is going to ruin the country.”
Dissing Trump and his supporters is not a party platform. The Democrats need a positive message, one that resonates right in the gut of the people that agree that Washington is broken and who are hard working but being left behind economically. These folks should be the Democrats’ core constituency but they have given them up to the Tea Party and Trump.
Until the Democrats come up with a compelling, gut-grabbing positive message they will not be able to win many elections. It will probably take a change in the Democrats’ leadership away from elites like Nancy Pelosi for this to happen.
Charles Kushner Pardon Pool
The odds are pretty high that Donald Trump will pardon Charles Kushner before he leaves office. After all, Kushner is the father of his son-in-law Jared. More importantly, Charles Kushner is one of the grandfathers of Jared Kushner’s three children, and Donald Trump is the other one.
The question is only when this will happen? Will Trump wait until the end of his presidency like most other presidents have done when it came to controversial pardons? Or will he just do it when he feels like it?
If your office or political club is looking for a pool to bet on, it is time to set one up for Charles.
Rantastic 