There are many facts about Trump that most people seem eager to ignore or not consider. Let me list a few.
1)Donald Trump spent many years as a real estate developer in New York. He was fairly successful at it.
2)If you want to build a building in New York, he you have to negotiate, or “make deals,” with a variety of different people: politicians, unions, the media, rival real estate developers, contractors, construction companies, etc.
3)These are difficult negotiations and very complex. All of the involved parties — including Trump but certainly the politicians — are morally suspect in one way or another. These are all rough people.
4)These negotiations are about “making a deal.” Think about how often Trump uses the word “deal” in his public talks.
5)For a deal to get done, there will be winners and losers. The losers will be rival real estate tycoons. The winner will be Trump, if we are talking about a building being built with Trump’s name on it. But others will win. Some politicians will win because they are providing jobs to key groups. Union leaders will win for the same reason. Contractors and construction companies will win business. The media will win if they can break the story about the new deal (this is why Trump had such a good relationship with the media until he became the Republican nominee, and then suddenly, inexplicably, he became Hitler. It would seem strange if not for the fact that the same thing happened to Bush, McCain, Romney, etc).
6)Trump has spent most of his life doing this. His experiences will inform how he approaches his job as president.
7)Trump understands marketing. He puts his name on buildings. He says memorable, catchy things. He had a very popular reality show all about him. He understands modern media and entertainment better than just about anybody. He knows how to capture the attention of key groups and tell people what they want to hear. But most of all, he is an entertainer. If you have never done so, take a half-hour to watch a Trump rally. It really is quite entertaining.
8)So, let’s review: Trump will approach politics, both domestic and foreign, the same way he approached his job as a real estate developer. Trump wins if he builds something. All of his life, he won if he got a big shiny building with his name on it. How does this translate into politics? It should be obvious: Trump wins if he looks good, if he gets reelected and if the U.S. economy improves (ie, he “built” something). But note: in Trump’s world, other people win when he wins. In real estate, jobs are created and certain pressure groups win — bigly. So, the deal is not just about Trump winning — it is about most people winning (in Trump’s mind).
Dear reader, have you internalized these eight points? If not, please read them again, because U.S. politics with Trump as president will never make sense to you if you don’t internalize those eight points.
Now, let’s look at some questions about Trump’s behavior.
Why is he so loud-mouthed and rude and bigoted? This really is a silly question, but it is one that Americans seem to obsess about. People: he is a real estate developer from New York. How else would you expect him to behave? But I will note again that very few people seemed to care about his behavior until 2016, and there is a long, long list of minority politicians, Democrats, Socialists, women, gay people and transgender people who *loved* Trump until he became a serious Republican presidential candidate. He has not changed, but they have. So, who is to blame — him or them?
Why does he seem to support American enemies and not support traditional allies? This is a very good question, but when you internalize the eight points above the answer becomes obvious: Trump sees international relations the way a real estate developer from New York would be expected to see them. From Trump’s perspective, international relations are just like doing a real estate deal. Trump sees Putin like a rival real estate tycoon. He sees Xi and Kim as other rival real estate tycoons. Now, remember real estate tycoons are sometimes rivals, but sometimes they cooperate to build things together so they both win. But meanwhile, he wants to play them all against each other with the end goal of winning. Trump only wins if he “builds” something. That something for him is the US economy. He believes that if he can “build” the US economy he will be reelected, which is the clear sign of “winning.”
So, why does he sometimes say nice things about Putin and bad things about the EU and long-time US allies? It is all about the negotiation. He is trying to manipulate Putin to get things out of him that he wants. What does he want? Russian cooperation against ISIS. He does not want Russia to invade another country on his watch. That will make Trump look bad. In this world, Russian interference in the U.S. election is irrelevant. The US has intervened and manipulated dozens of elections over the years, and both Putin and Trump know that. So, Trump’s meeting with Putin is kind of like two mafia dons meeting with each other. The claim that Trump is somehow controlled by Putin is just laughable. No serious person can even consider it. The point of the meeting is to find areas of mutual interest, which happens all of the time with business rivals.
Consider how Trump negotiated with Kim: he would praise him (trying to manipulate him), and if Kim did something “not nice” he would threaten to cancel the meeting, and then the meeting was back on, and during the meeting Trump went out of his way to play nice with him. He knows that Kim is used to being treated like a god. So, he treated him with respect. What did it cost Trump? Absolutely nothing. He wants a “win.” What is a “win?” Some kind of deal where North Korea gives up nukes, which causes Trump to win a Nobel Peace Prize and to brag that he did something nobody else could do.
To be clear, everything Trump does is about furthering Trump’s interests. In the case of Russia, what Trump wants and what we should want are perfectly aligned: we should want a “win.” A win is where we don’t go to war with Russia, where we work together to defeat ISIS, where we do business together peacefully, where Putin does not invade another country. I am sorry to say this so bluntly, but the idea that Trump somehow colluded with Putin or is controlled by Putin or is a Russian agent is so stupid that anybody saying such things should be seen as either insane or blindly partisan or so unintelligent that you should not waste your time arguing with them because life is way too short.
So why did Trump go to the UK and insult the prime minister and the EU?It is all part of his negotiating style. Again, you need to see that Trump sees these other world leaders as sometime rivals and sometime partners, as if they were other real estate developers. He wants a bilateral trade deal with the UK separate from the EU. He either wants to 1)manipulate Teresa May into doing a deal with the U.S. or 2)force her out so he can deal with a prime minister he likes better, ie Boris Johnson. I have no idea if it will work, but his goal is obvious.
Will Trump’s tactics work?If forced to make a prediction, I will say that when it comes to foreign policy Trump will win more than lose. Again, you need to understand what winning means to Trump. Winning means: avoiding another big war. Winning means: bilateral trade deals that are good for the U.S. (In Trump’s world, multilateral deals are difficult and unlikely to work — what works is one on one deals). Winning means: the economy grows and more people are employed and more buildings and factories get built. Really winning bigly means North Korea gives up nukes and Russia does not invade one of its neighbors. Really winning means ISIS is destroyed. Winning means China opens up its markets in a way it never has to U.S. goods. And I am hopeful that winning may even mean the U.S. begins to get out of the Middle East and that government spending begins to decrease or stabilize, rather than increase. I have no idea if all of these things will happen, but I predict some of them will.
Why is Trump obsessed with immigration?Trump has been talking about immigration for decades. Besides deal-making, it is his favorite subject. Remember, Trump is about winning. If new people are coming into the U.S. and taking jobs from Americans, this means Americans lose (in Trump’s mind). By the way, this was also Bernie Sanders’ position for decades, but somehow Bernie gets a pass and Trump is “literally Hitler.” Trump talks about the “big, beautiful wall” constantly because it is good marketing and it is a good visual. People can imagine a wall keeping them safe. So, at the end of the day, Trump talks about immigration all of the time because 1)he wants to win and 2)it is good politics.
Doesn’t Trump fail all of the time — the White House is in chaos and he didn’t repeal Obamacare?Trump’s management style is deliberately chaotic. I worked for a boss like this once, so it makes perfect sense to me. Trump wants all of his subordinates to be rivals with each other because if they are fighting with each other they have less time to be disloyal to him. I would never, ever, EVER work in that environment — again life is way too short — but I understand it. His administration has made plenty of mistakes, but they have also gotten a lot done. Just ask liberals in DC what they feel about all of the regulations being repealed or all of the conservative justices getting approved. If Trump is so incompetent, why is he getting so many things done? When it comes to Obamacare, my personal opinion is Trump never truly wanted to repeal it. You will notice that he never talks about the true elephants in the room when it comes to government spending — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. I think Trump does not want his fingerprints to be on Obamacare’s repeal. He wants it to die quietly, which is happening behind the scenes. (Republicans in Congress obviously are also to blame for Obamacare not being repealed).
Isn’t Trump a bad, immoral man?Yes and no. As I said above, Trump is a New York real estate developer. Of course he has done and said very, very bad things during his life. But, strangely, he is a teetotaler, and his kids all love him. Even his ex-wives appear to like him. I happen to think almost all politicians, and certainly all U.S. presidents, are both good and bad. If you don’t like the way Trump talks, you should read a biography of LBJ and check out how he talked all of his life. If you don’t like Trump’s many affairs, you should learn a bit more about the private lives of FDR, Ike and JFK. I find the “Trump is a bad man” claims to be insufferable, to be quite frank. If you are expecting a politician to be moral all of the time, you will always, and I mean always, be disappointed — if you are honest with yourself. By all accounts, Obama was a good family man, but he had a personal kill list and he ordered the death of a U.S. citizen by drone. I could go on and on about the literally hundreds of horrible things Obama did as president, but if you are a partisan Obama supporter and Trump hater it would be a waste of time, and, again, life is too short. If you are interested in my opinion on the subject, I would encourage you to read this post titled “The inevitable hypocrisy of the political morality police.”
So, are you saying Trump will be a good president?Like all presidents, Trump will do some good things and some bad things. This is what I predicted way back in May 2016, and it has come true. I disagree with Trump on many things — the increase in government spending is absolutely scandalous, and I don’t agree with his trade or immigration policies. But the economy is doing quite well overall, people are working, and government regulations are being taken from the books. Trump is appointing excellent federal judges, and he got tax reform passed. But the main point of this post was to try to explain Trump’s behavior. I find that otherwise intelligent people simply don’t understand him at all. Hopefully this post will help.
Excellent review! Having lived for years in New York State and watched Trump take on both the Unions and the Democrats in Albany and NYC and find ways to out think them, I became a Trump fan. I agree with most of your review and hope that Trump will finally get the Wall built and the Democrats will be defeated for decades. They have turned into true socialist/progressives and are showing more indications of raving insanity every day.
I understand Trump as you describe him. That doesn’t mean i have to like it.
Reagan accomplished many great things, while unifying NATO and praising Maggie Thatcher. Criticism of allies was kept to private conversation. He transformed the USSR and Eastern Europe with smart words and statements. He sought solutions that would make everyone winners. With Star Wars, he offered to share the technology, so many nations could be protected against nuclear attack. I could list many more examples.
Trump prides himself in attacking everyone in public who doesn’t kowtow to him. He insists on being the only winner, with everyone else living under the heel of his boot. It qorks in real estate and in politics.
However, the long-term fallout may be a different form of devastation. Bill Clinton taught the world about oral sex and our youth now see it as acceptable. Trump is teaching us how to be hard and unbending. Just look at social media now. Trump isn’t the only one who can use Twitter as a weapon.
I fear that adding such coarseness to the sexual liberation going on will create the type of people the Nephites were in Mormon’s day. Ripened in iniquity.
Mormons are somewhat spoiled when it comes to leadership. Our current prophet is outstanding by practically any metric including morality intelligence and creativity which he amply displayed as a scientist and surgeon before becoming a leader in the church. But politics in our world are not conducted in the light of revelation. The left automatically gives themselves a pass when it comes to issues like morality, but they hold conservatives to a far higher standard. Trump upsets this balance. His style is far more reminiscent of a democratic boss. There is a lot about him that recalls King Noah, but the Clintons were a family of Noahs. For now, for all his faults, I feel that he is doing more good than harm, particularly with his appointments to the Judiciary.
Trump blamed our poor relations with Russia on the Russia investigation, repeatedly calling the whole thing a Witch Hunt, ignoring the evidence, guilty pleas, indictments, and publicly available details because it shows that his Presidency is due to a hostile attack on Democracy. He separates children from parents and detains them as though they were thieves and robbers, not coincidentally enriching donors who have also invested in Private Jails. He gives the super rich a trillion dollar tax cut, increasing the deficit, claiming that will super-change the economy and raise wages, which it has not done. He starts a trade war claiming that they are easy to win. He alienates our allies, and kisses up to dictators, calling our free press the enemy of the state. He trusts Putin’s denials more than the assessments of our intelligence community. He openly called for Russian Hackers to interfere in our election by getting the Clinton emails, and they actually started making the attempt that very evening. He boasts about how hard he will work, being to busy for golf, and golfs far more than Obama, doing so at his own courses, and thereby enriching himself. He campaigns on draining the swamp, and gives us the most openly corrupt administration we have every seen. Pruitt’s actions at the EPA cancels programs that were demonstrably the cost effective, but which happened to benefit the poor, rather than the rich. And the savings happened to be related to money spent on personal health of poor people, rather than rich corporations. His charitable foundation has been shown to be nothing more than a scam, a personal piggy bank, and New York AG has filed motions to ban the Trumps from ever sitting on the board of such foundations. Trump University? He’s openly rude, racist, petty, vindictive, shallow, cruel, ignorant, and corrupt, immoral, dishonest and hypocritical to a breathtaking degree.
But if he lets you stack the courts, …
Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
Trump is quite obviously the opposite of Charity.
Future commenters: please address the point of the OP if you would like your comments to be seen by anybody. I have allowed one person with Trump Derangement Syndrome to comment. I probably won’t allow anymore. 🙂
Scott Adams at www. dilbert. com (spaces intentionally added) has a reading list on Trumps “powers of persuasion”. Adams started calling him a “master hypnotist” but changed that to “master persuader.” Go there and look for the reading list of both his blog posts, and his book recommendations.
Trump works on a 3D level, using psychological tricks/techniques to get people to change their thinking and agree/go along with him. Bill Clinton and Barry O are also master persuaders.
Trump’s (and Bill Clinton’s and Obama’s) techniques come right from psychologists and professsional hypnotists. Trump’s “kill shots” are pure psychology… Lyin’ Ted, Little Marco, Low Energy Jeb, Crooked Hillary.
Trump has also taken much from Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People” as well as Norman Vincent Peale’s “The Power of Positive Thinking.”
If you want to understand Trump, you HAVE to read his “Art of the Deal” and the two aforementioned books.
(Peale’s book is great in that he starts out telling people to repent, and live righteously as a starting point for doing great/good things. It is VERY gospel-based, and that is why a lot of secular/atheist people panned him and his famous book. Get it!)
Tony Robbins, a current motivational speaker, is also a master persuader/hypnotist, and he, along with Adams, predicted Trump’s win.
Hillary C has NO innate persuasion skills that Bill C has. Adams even suggested that Bill did NOT want Hillary to win because he did not help her develop those skills, and he rarely used his skills on her behalf.
The problem is that Trump is also a narcissitic psychopath. He’s no Ronald Reagan, who was also a master persuader. But, ya know, it’s those personality types that get stuff done in business. As long as he’s on your side, or you’re on his side, you both win.
After that meeting with the European leaders and the summit with Putin, and all his dreadful remarks, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that we have the wrong man as a President. He had the nerve of denigrating the judicial system in front of Putin. I’d consider that treason. He insulted and belittled our allies, but behaved like Putin’s puppy, licking his hand and snuggling with the authoritarian thug. But, what can one expect from a man like Trump.
I hope you don’t classify me as one with Trump Derangement syndrome, which I find a little unkind, people have the right to their opinions. Any benefit of the doubt I gave him is now gone.
I totally agree with the teachings of the Book of Mormon to strive to elect honorable men to office. The politicians may not all be totally honorable but Donald Trump has shown over and over again the kind of immoral person he is. It surpasses all limits. He’s far from honorable. He lies and lies constantly and behave in an immoral way. If cheating on his espouses, sleeping around with porn stars, cheating people out of their money, treating and talking about women in such obscene ways (to name a few) is not being immoral, I don’t know what it is. I don’t think he’s behavior preclude him from being a good father, and I’m glad his children love him, but one of his daughters definitely stays away.
A country is not a business and cannot be run as a business. Also, Trump is not the best business men out there either. This country is not a piece of real state or a building with his name on it.
We have independent branches of the government and he’s not allowed to interfere with and undermine them in front of our enemies.
He might have gained fame in the entertainment industry firing people on TV, but our country is not a TV show he’s starring in, even though he still fires people just about every week, like in his show. Behaving rude to our allies and making them the enemy instead of Russia is just a total lack of knowledge of international diplomacy and foreign affairs. I’m not saying that he is a total loss, Trump is bound to stumble into correct decisions now and then.
Is this the only caliper of men that we have to choose from? We are in serious trouble. It’s a total disgrace for this nation, if this is all we can produce as leaders? It’s just so sad. In the 2016 primary election the GOP had so many men better than Trump as candidates, but the people chose him. It says a lot about the lack of analytic mind of the electorate and how little people expect of candidates these days. Character has to matter again. The central failing of the GOP with regard to Trump is its unwillingness to recognize that policy positions and ideology should be lesser priorities than public character. Honesty, integrity, kindness, transparency, humility, generosity and civility need to comeback. Now’s the time for reflection and evolution toward a presidential persona. That means being a role model when it comes to political rhetoric and truth-telling unaffected by partisanship. The country also needs to be looking for men with some expertise and policy proficiency by 2020 after an era of know-nothingism. Any viable candidate has to have a worldview and know a lot about a lot of things (like presidential candidates used to do!). That requires time for study, thought, reading and travel.
I guess we’ll have to wait for him to be out of power. I honestly hope that he doesn’t make any decisions that will make Americans regret voting for him.
In the lists of Jaredite kings we have a brief story of a king named Morianton:
Ether 10:9-12
9 And it came to pass after the space of many years, Morianton, (he being a descendant of Riplakish) gathered together an army of outcasts, and went forth and gave battle unto the people; and he gained power over many cities; and the war became exceedingly sore, and did last for the space of many years; and he did gain power over all the land, and did establish himself king over all the land.
10 And after that he had established himself king he did ease the burden of the people, by which he did gain favor in the eyes of the people, and they did anoint him to be their king.
11 And he did do justice unto the people, but not unto himself because of his many whoredoms; wherefore he was cut off from the presence of the Lord.
12 And it came to pass that Morianton built up many cities, and the people became exceedingly rich under his reign, both in buildings, and in gold and silver, and in raising grain, and in flocks, and herds, and such things which had been restored unto them.
Was Morianton a good or bad king? Were the Jaredites better off under him or his predecessor ? What about the other men who could have been king instead?
Is Trump a good or bad president? Are Americans better off under him or his predecessor? What about the others who could have been president instead?
The OP does a good job of explaining Trump’s behavior, which can lead to better understanding. Explaining and understanding are different than justifications for the behavior. I don’t see the OP as justifying Trump’s behavior but rather explaining it. There is a lot that has happened that cannot be justified from a moral or a good governance or a decency standpoint.
As for “Trump Derangement Syndrome”, today Fred Kaplan had a good comment about it:
“In a tweet on Wednesday, Trump taunted these critics for falling prey to ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome.’ It’s a phrase that he and others will no doubt repeat many times in the coming days in order to discredit his opponents as hysterical. The syndrome, to the extent it exists, has, of course, been set off by Trump: His malevolence, mendacity, ignorance, and cruelty—his abject unsuitability for the office and the failure of those around him to act on this obvious fact—are all making us a bit deranged.
“Still, it’s time to snap out of it. Hard facts are coming, and it’s important to recognize, highlight, and act on their significance. Things are outrageous enough without getting dragged down in Trump’s game and getting lost in empty rhetoric …”
Stephen, thank you so much for actually reading the OP and trying to understand my point. That is so rare these days when people seem to be triggered by the smallest things. And you are of course correct about TDS as well.
In this post, I describe Trump as a mafia don who is only focused on furthering his own interests. Does that sound like somebody I am praising? But you would not believe the many, many hateful comments I have received from people who obviously never even read the post. The most hateful comments were immediately deleted, which has been my policy for more than a decade now. Stephen: you made my day for actually trying to read and understand the post. Thank you.
Geoff,
Would you have changed anything in your post if you had waited until after the conference with Putin to assess Trump’s personality and worldview?
I can’t blame people for being upset. I’m upset. I believe it’s important though not to lash out at the wrong people in your frustration. Ideally, as saints, we would not lash out at anyone. But it is important to stand up for what is right and virtuous and what you believe constitutes good governance. This can be done respectfully and through the democratic process. There certainly is a lot of “enthusiasm”, as pollsters put it. The Nov elections should be interesting.
Old Man, no, I wouldn’t change a word. Actually, I thought my post perfectly explained Trump’s seemingly erratic behavior. As I said, their meeting was like the meeting of two mob bosses. As I said, Trump wants things from Putin, who is a vain dictator who is not used to being contradicted. You don’t get things from Putin, a vain dictator who is not used to being contradicted, by contradicting him in public. So, Trump played nice in public, at much potential political peril (which Trump acknowledged himself). I would encourage readers to actually read or watch the press conference, rather than relying on the media’s biased and hysterical coverage. It is clear to me exactly what was going on in Trump’s mind, and actually I predicted it in my post.
Judge Napolitano agrees with my take. The following was published yesterday, several days after my post was published:
‘For 18 months, Trump has sought to develop a personal relationship with Putin unlike any relationship that any modern American president has had with him or his predecessors. The Democrats and Republican never-Trumpers doubt Trump’s bona fides and even his intellect. “Who could cut a deal with a monster?” they have bellowed.
Make no mistake; Putin is a monster. He has invaded Ukraine, bombed rebels in Syria, shored up fanatics in Iran, imprisoned political opponents on false charges and stolen billions from Russian oligarchs and the Russian people.
To this litany of criminality, Trump has wisely asked: How have any of his monstrosities harmed the United States? Answer: None of this is morally sound, and all of it is profoundly unlawful, but none of it has harmed us.
This realization has led Trump — in defiance of the advice from his own secretary of state, CIA director and national security adviser — to try to understand Putin and to negotiate with him.
There is much to negotiate about. We want the Russians to stay out of our computers and away from our elections. We want them to stop trying to reorganize the Middle East. And we want them to reduce their nuclear and long-range offensive weaponry. Of course, they want the same from us.
I don’t know whether Putin can be reasoned with. But I believe that if anyone can do it, Donald Trump can. This is what made me think this past week of all those litigations I helped to resolve. Negotiations are often fluid. They take time and patience, as well as threats and flattery, and they cannot be successful under a microscope.
Stated differently, Trump knows how to negotiate, and his skills cannot be assessed midstream — because midstream is often muddy and muddled. Trump’s efforts this week were just a beginning. His public praise of Putin and giving moral equivalence to Putin and our intelligence services were not to state truths but to influence Putin’s thinking in order to bend Putin’s will — eventually — to his own.
But the neocons in Congress will have none of this. The power of American arms-makers is formidable and profound. They have acolytes in all branches of the federal government. They depend on the threats of foreign governments to animate taxpayer funding of their armaments.
They know that Russia is the only threat in Europe, and they fear that if President Trump reaches a meaningful rapprochement with President Putin, there will result a diminished American appetite for their weaponry.
And they know that Donald Trump understands that.
So they have jumped on a fluid long-term negotiation at its inception by mocking the president’s flattery. They would have mocked Franklin Roosevelt for calling monstrous Soviet dictator Josef Stalin “Uncle Joe” as he bent him to his will.
Where does this leave us? We have impatient media that hate the president, a bipartisan majority in Congress beholden to the military-industrial complex, and a president who knows more about negotiating with bad guys than any of them.
And unlike the warmongers, the president is willing to talk to anyone if there is a chance it could result in peace. President Lyndon B. Johnson often remarked that there are two things in life you never want to watch being made and only want to see when completed: legislation and sausages. We should add international peace to that short list.”
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/19/judge-andrew-napolitano-trump-knows-more-about-dealing-with-bad-guys-than-congress-hysterical-media-combined.html
So, to sum up, I nailed it. You M* readers are lucky to have had some insight into Trump’s behavior before it happened.
I appreciate very much your analysis. I am a Trump supporter because, like Trump, I am a pragmatist. Trump has seen our national problems for many years and has seen that neither party has fixed them. Rather, both parties have added to the problems. Trump is trying to fix the problems he sees. I see the same problems and hope he does succeed in getting them fixed.
People voted for Trump in the Primaries because all the other candidates would not talk about controlling our southern boarder as well as other obvious issues that the typical government Deep Staters would not touch.
I go along pretty much with Joel Skousen’s World Affair Brief, as far as Trump’s erratic behavior; he intuitively knows the right direction when he speaks out and latter his Deep State NEOCON staff have to maneuver him back to their direction. He is a political neophyte he know’s very little about world affairs let alone, a Deep State. The information from the CIA is contaminated before it get’s to him. It was the Russians who were able to pushed ISIS out the syria. the Deep State within the US, Saudi’s, Israel with other NATO countries have been responsible for supporting these terrorist groups to destabilize the Middle East – which refugees who have different ethics will destabilize Europe.
This destabilization is designed to cause the people to clammer for more government control. The same with the boarder situation here in the US. Let’s think of other things like 911 brought a TSA and more controls on our movement, involvement in the Middle East with possibly millions who have died, NSA information Center to collect all of our electronic media activity, All these shootings in Vegas and other areas were designed to cause the people to clamor for more gun controls with the goal to eliminate the Second Amendment and disarm the people so they are incapable of resisting more intrusions.
John Koyle stated that one of the events in our future is that a Republican President would die in office and they would look up and down the country for a replacement and would find none. – My interpretation is that the President would be assassinated in office and enough people would not accept another because governments fingerprints would be found out and they will not accept Federal Government control anymore.
Perhaps this is a bit of a threadjack, and I don’t intend to be insensitive or morbid. But I think it would be quite a dramatic moment of truth for the country if Trump were assassinated. No doubt some people would be happy about it, and some would be devastated. But a president actually being _killed_ would reveal some true colors in the country. No matter who the president is and how they are governing, no one deserves to be killed. It would be a tragedy no matter if it was Bush, Obama, or Trump who was killed. But how would people react? Would they revert to their political tribes or would it bring people together a little bit? I fear that it would result in further polarization rather than a coming together. And if we are at that state, we are in some degree of trouble.
Various ppl have pointed to our last 2-3 presidents and used their past professional experience to deride them. You stating it matter-of-factly is useful in understanding Trump regardless of how you feel about him. I used to take the “professorial” dig about Obama as a compliment. I like a president to be thoughtful and prepared. Others may actually like Trump’s inexperience in politics – surely its one the reasons ppl like him.
What really worries me is how increasingly flexible we are with politicians, if they seem to play for our “side”. Or, more accurately, if they fight “against” the ppl we’re fighting against *regardless of their policies, personal flaws or immoralities*.
I saw this when the left protested Bush over foreign policy hawkishness, then overlooked it under Obama. Then, of course, conservatives forgot that government spending and personal morality were their big issues for 2 decades under Trump. Sean Hannity did a whole week of TV about Obama’s inexperience in the run up to the 2008 election. Then suddenly it doesn’t matter. I’m not naive, politics have always been nasty. But the way we revile one politician and give a complete pass to the next, shows a real derangement on both sides.
Christian J, you wrote:
“What really worries me is how increasingly flexible we are with politicians, if they seem to play for our “side”. Or, more accurately, if they fight “against” the ppl we’re fighting against *regardless of their policies, personal flaws or immoralities*.”
I’m going to push back and say that politics is *always* like this and probably always has been. Both Bush and Obama were relatively admirable in their personal lives, but people conveniently forget about FDR’s lovers, and Ike’s lover (at least one) and JFK’s parade of lovers. And the more you study about LBJ’s personal life the more you come to loathe him. The guy really was a monster. Nixon was, apparently, loyal to his wife but filled with personal demons and drunken rages. The more you study presidents of the 19th century the more you find out embarrassing details of their personal lives.
I would have loved to see Ron Paul, whose politics and personal life were exemplary to me, in the White House, but it was never to be. I voted for Mitt Romney because I knew he was a good an honorable man, even though I increasingly disagree with his politics. People who hate Trump seem to conveniently forget that the more you learn about Hillary’s personal life, the more you cannot help but dislike her. So, in 2016, we had two very bad people to choose from. If you want to say Trump was worse, I am OK with that, but aren’t we really saying that Hitler was worse than Mussolini? It’s not as if you can argue the other major choice was admirable, after all.
In terms of giving a pass to people with checkered personal lives, I think we must come around to accepting that policy is more important than personality. If we only concentrate on personality, we are destined to be disappointed. If you are a true conservative, you cannot help but like Trump’s deregulation, the tax cuts, and the federal court judges. You can rightly say you would not have got any of those things with Hillary. And if you are a true liberal/progressive, you know that Hillary would have appointed judges you like and would have pursued a long list of left-wing policies. So, at the end of the day, perhaps it is not deranged to support the people whose policies you support?
The executive branch really is the business end of govt: managing things, people, and policies, and all the myriad things delegated/tasked to the executive branch by the constitution and laws.
So _business_ leadership experience applies directly to administering the executive branch.
And, Trumps’s enormous skill and experience in negotiating and deal-making is a perfect match for foreign relations, including statecraft, military relations, and economic relations. He’s not “giving away the store”, like so many previous presidents, both D and R.
As long as Trump stays on the side of the USA. He’s like a pit bull in terms of personality, but he’s the USA’s pit bull.
Reagan was the last president before Trump to stand up for the USA. GHW Bush and Clinton gutted our military. Clinton let the Chinese and Russia get a lot of our military tech. Clinton laid the ground work for 9/11 to happen by blinding our foreign intel. GW Bush squandered our blood and treasure. Obama was pretty much batting for the other side letting China steal ocean territory (within the 200 mile limit) from the Philippines and other countries, and turn those shoals into militarized islands. We could have prevented that takeover before it happened, but now that they are dug in, it can’t be reversed. Obama also gave away the store in the JCPOA deal with Iran. That was prima facie evidence of batting for the other side.