The entire time Trump was running I never believed he wanted to win the election. The more outlandish he gt the more people seemed to fall in line. I think it just went too far to back out at some point. Any thoughts on this? I think if he runs again it will be an entirely different approach. I really doubt he will run.
Well, according to the Wolff book, he didn’t. However, I don’t trust everything in that book.
There is no doubt in my mind that the Trump brand will be tarnished forever. I doubt he wanted that.
I think he will run again though.
That is a tough one to answer I believe he didn’t think he would win. But he had mounted a Presidential run a couple of times before, and didn’t get any traction, so there is that.
I believe he is most comfortable being on the sidelines flinging poo - a protester, claiming he was robbed, it’s all rigged, etc… He really thought that is where he would end up.
So, maybe my answer is that he really didn’t want to win.
Of course he wanted to win. But, he did not really want the job.
Winning is what he is all about (in his own mind). Beating and humiliating an opponent is what he is all about. What he wins is not important - as long as he is winning, that’s all that matters.
Trump hates losing, there is no way he purposely set out to do so. Specially not to a woman. But he expected to and fully planned to take advantage of it. If you remember the last month of the campaign Trump pretty much spent it laying down the ground work for his eventual loss, his refusal to concede, and his claims that the system was rigged against him. Until the Comey letter came out and he immediately dropped the defeatist attitude and went into full attack mode. You can absolutely see the 180 in his attitude the moment he suddenly started thinking he had a chance to win.
Of course he wanted to win. Being a presidential candidate is absolutely grueling and exhausting. The campaign trail is a year-long marathon. You don’t do that under the R or D banner unless you are seriously trying to win.
I think that this is likely true, especially once he learned more about what the job actually entailed. He was surprisingly candid about this in a 2017 interview with Reuters.
Ultimately, it’s clear, to me, that he really doesn’t want to be president – he wants to be emperor, or generalissimo, or whatever authortiarian title sounds like the biggest win.
I doubt that he gave it much thought one way or the other. That would require thinking ahead.
His number one goal was to get everyone’s attention on him and how amazing he is. Running for president was his way to do that, and the better he did the more attention he got. So he just kept riding the ego train and eventually wound up winning. The only thing that changed then is that now he had to figure out how to get as much of everyone’s attention on him and how amazing he is while he’s president.
Asking this question is sort of like asking whether Trump actually believes the lies he tells. The answer being that to him truth or falsehood are irrelevant concepts.
Does my dog really want to catch the UPS truck? Yes, I’m sure he does. But that doesn’t mean he’d know what to do with it if he succeeds.
Like in those promotions for that upcoming three-part A&E special: always claim to win even when you really lost.
I think this nails it.
Which makes him the antithesis of the usual POTUS candidate who REALLY wants the job, but doesn’t know how to, or wants it enough, to win the struggle through the election.
I think it goes back to the primary. Trump didn’t really believe he’d actually get the nomination. Especially in a field that big. He intended to make a lot of noise, get his turn at the mic endorsing the candidate at the convention, and then berate them when they lost to Hillary or won and then didn’t govern like he thought they should.
My theory is he was so sure he wouldn’t win that it never mattered whether he wanted to or not.
I believe he did. However, it’s my personal theory that being the president isn’t what he thought it would be. Nor is he as happy as he with the job as he imagined, either.
But he’d never admit.
Remember that there was that chatter that he had offered the Vice-presidency to Kasich, saying that Kasich would do the nuts and bolts of governing, and Trump would go around speechifying and looking presidential. Sounded almost like the division of labour between the French President and the French Prime Minister.
I think that is what Trump thought : he’d do the fun centre stage stuff, and leave the hard work to a subordinate.
I think that is precisely what he is doing. Except that when the subordinates try to get their nuts and bolts job done legally and ethically, he goes ahead and fires them, because doing the job that way makes it harder to fulfill campaign promises, or makes El Guano look bad.
Bravo!
Trump was as surprised he won as everyone else. Accepting the invitation to run from the Republican Party (which was deeply dissatisfied with half-a-dozen heavily-touted candidates) was just an extension of playing to his WWE audience for Donald. He intended to try to get his brand in front of a wider audience. Donald never wanted a job. That’s how he sees the presidency. It’s a job. You can see by how he doesn’t actually *do *the job. His initial reaction was to delegate heavily, but his ego (remember: he’s got a severe personality disorder) refused to allow them to override him. He spends half his day watching television. He golfs, and golfs, and golfs…even during his emergency he golfs. Even now he’s not actually *being *the president. So, you are correct in what you surmise. Donald didn’t really *want *to be prez.
By the way, to him, he’s not being outlandish. His behavior, to him, is evidence of his superiority. He will run again. That is if he’s *eligible *to run. There is enough time until the election for the impossible to happen; indictment/conviction. Keep your eye on the money laundering for the Russian Mafi…uh…OLIGARCHS. That’s what will land him in prison. Ain’t history fun?
I do believe that he conspired with the Russians to subvert the election. However, I don’t think he thought he would actually win. I doubt the Russians did either.
This would still put him closer to his buds back in Russia to get sweetheart deals (that he was working on) and also, and this is important, start the anti-Hillary network that would make Fox ‘News’ look fair and balanced.
Trump is still pissed that he can’t bully people on ‘The Apprentice’ and would like a venue to bitch and complain. He’s not quite sure how to do that as President, but doesn’t really give a fuck. So just bitches on Twitter, the new Presidential communication bitch and complain channel.
NOW, he realizes (or his attorneys have informed him) the best way to stay out of Prison is to remain President.
Looks like 34 seats are up for re-election in the senate in 2020. 
Sleep well Mr. President.
Just to update: In Cohen’s testimony yesterday he said Trump wasn’t running to win and was using his candidacy as the worlds greatest infomercial. Oops!
Cohen also said °Mr. Trump’s desire to win would have him work with anyone.° insinuating Trump worked with Russia to win the election.
So which is it? Cohen’s testimony is contradictory. Not sure about anyone else but when a person makes contradictory statements, I tend to conclude the person is just making shit up.
I don’t like Trump but all the Trump mind readers are sort funny. Trump blew 66 million of his own money to run in an election that he didn’t want to win and, at the same time, Trump conspired with the Russians to win the election.
The cognative dissonance is rather amazing.