President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

I miss Starman. Only difference between him and the Eddie Haskell routine of some of our esteemed colleagues was a last of subtlety.

 

Has it been noted that Mulvaney said it’s “kind of cool” that his hands are on the lever? WTF.

 

Well there is this:
Trump told Hicks she's 'best piece of tail' Lewandowski will have

 

Opinion | Republicans can win elections. But they can’t govern.

 

I was just thinking more about this while on a run.

One other negative personality trait in play for Trump here is the fact that his mind operates on primarily a transactional basis, and he sees transactions as a zero-sum game. For him, every transaction has a winner and a loser. There is no such thing as a "trade that's good for both teams." The thought that one might need to concede something one wants in order to drive a bargain, or that a good deal could expand the pie so that both sides benefit, are concepts that he is literally unable to grasp.

Trump's "gut" tell him that if the other guy likes a deal enough to sign it, he must think it's good for him. And if the deal is good for the other guy, then by definition it's bad for Trump. Thus: "So no matter what I said before, no deal!" As Webster points out above, Trump has always been this way. It's who he is.

That's a big reason why Trump reflexively opposes basically any kind of mutual agreement – the Iran deal, a trade agreement (Pan-Pacific, NAFTA), climate agreement (Paris Accord), etc. Hey, if Mexico is doing well under NAFTA, it must be because we're getting screwed! This is why his two most consistent issues – really his only two political issues – during the campaign were anti-free-trade and anti-immigration. If immigrants (even legal immigrants) are succeeding, it must be because "real Americans" are getting screwed, not because they're making the country better as a whole. Zero-sum.

On the other hand, he fancies himself a great dealmaker. It's a big part of his self-image. It was a major campaign plank.

Unfortunately, those two views are mutually exclusive.

That's past of what happened this week. People questioned his mental fitness, so he put a meeting on TV in which he said he wanted a deal, because he's a dealmaker. Many cheered. Not just the partisan hacks (hi, YF!), but those who voted for him because he'd "run the government like a business," and the members of the punditocracy who try extra-hard to show they're objective (like a Chris Cilizza). Never mind that even within this meeting Trump seemed to agree with contradictory positions; enough people wanted the "Dealmaker Trump" lie to be true that it carried the day. Or, well, two days.

Once a deal was brought to him, though, he reneged. Because if Dicky Durbin likes it, then he must think it's good for the Dems. And if it's good for the Dems, then it has to be bad for Trump. So no deal! The racist "shithole countries" stuff was just something he threw in for free. (And, incidentally, he then thought it played well for him; then when he thought it wasn't playing well enough, he lied that he didn't say it; then he got two GOP Senators to lie for him too, so he knows he has them by the balls; all in all, a good few days in Trump's mind.)

Alas, this isn't the only negative character trait that played into Trump's behavior this week. There's also his tendency to agree with whoever speaks to him last because he has no fixed principles, doesn't particularly care about the issues, and isn't that smart. Or his compulsive need for applause, so that once someone reminds him that the only people who are going to cheer for him consistently at this point is his hardcore base, he reverts back to playing solely to them.

But I try to keep it to one disqualifying trait per post.

 

Lots of women out protesting today, along with their neutered male companions.

Thousands take to streets in Women's March on anniversary of Trump's 1st year

 

Priorities

 

Must have been a real moderate who ran on that platform. Who was the Republican nominee that year?

 

Finger on the pulse of America

 

I wonder which Trump staffer wrote this. Sure as hell wasn't him.

 

The reason it wasn't Rockefeller sure does seem quaint.