I mean, maybe he will be, but I think about some of the stuff he’s proposed (repealing the ACA, likely without replacement) and some of the stuff those around him may do (anti-gay federal measures, abortion restrictions, privatizing Medicare and Medicaid), and it seems to me that many of them are going to get a good portion of the country really angry.
Now, I know that the harm comes from the results and not the consequences, but my point is, I think there WILL be consequences politically. I’m wondering how he will balance that with the desires of the base that elected him, especially when he also has to deal with a Congress who’s much more sensitive to such things on both sides.
I guess I’m getting the impression that some people think that with the makeup of government the way it will be next year, that he and his party will be able to “get away” with everything. Again, I realize that the harm to people comes in the doing, but I really don’t think that there will be no price to pay later on.
Remember, since he’ll be the President, he can’t “make America great again” because that would be saying America wasn’t great under Trump. Unemployment numbers will still continue to exist.
This will be a reprise of “bunga bunga” Silvio Berlusconi with a Queens accent.
The demarcation line between government, entertainment and personal enrichment will cease to be blurred … it won’t exist.
As everyone from Jesus onward has demonstrated, people have a short attention span for Messiahs. Before election, people tend to project their wishlist onto self-proclaimed saviours, and everyone’s wish list is different, but they all seem to find a way to see their own private Idaho.
But the Presidency is not as powerful domestically as people like to imagine, and shit takes time. The problem with electing an outsider -rookie mistakes as he reinvents the wheel- will emerge quickly, and folksy charm will not go far in gaining forgiveness.
I predict his Achilles heel will arise when his apparent incapacity to understand boundaries kicks in.
His business empire is largely built on his own name, and when he has to sequester his holdings in trust, and distance himself from his business, the loss in value will mean he won’t be able to resist trying to tinker with it inappropriately.
He has managed to persuade people he is the honest man who will speak truth to power, but when self interest becomes apparent, the halo will fall, and the howls of the betrayed will be loud.
My worry is actually that he’ll be an easy target.
Fundamentally, the President is immune from any changes in popular opinion for four years. But, he’s not safe from impeachment, and while the people seem to have a memory that only lasts two weeks (based on the rate at which things regressed back towards the center, in the polls, after each time Trump was in the mass limelight), a courtroom is far less forgiving of hard evidence of criminal doings. And it seems plausible that Trump may be guilty of a number of financial crimes (and possibly some sexual assault cases).
If he is impeached, we’ll lose the one buffer we have against a Pence presidency. So I actually hope that the Democrats - if they find evidence of illegal doings - use it as blackmail material, privately, rather than impeaching him.
Trump was never bulletproof, it’s just that what was wrong with him was outweighed by the movement he represented. He cannot govern the way he campaigned and succeed. And I’d be shocked if he starts his term with an approval rating over 50%.
He will get a second term no matter what. Like he said himself, he could shoot someone in the street and his supporters wouldn’t give a damn (they’d cheer him on, most likely). He’s about to grab America by the pussy. Brace yourselves.
Not to denigrate Trump’s supporters, but I suspect that they are not going to be as complaisant towards him if he fails to produce the goods as, for example, Obama’s were when he let Guantanamo continue.
Trump may be able to spin his failures as being due to being the only honest man in a sea of crooks (both Democrat and Republican), and thus being stymied by them from doing the things he had promised.
But that doesn’t help him in four years. The best he will be able to suggest, at that time, is that the people elect independents who will follow him. But, where are these independent parties supposed to come from? And how likely is it that the people will turn away from the parties, just to give Trump a shot at doing the things he wants?
Trump is, in many ways, a President with no party. Once he gives the Republicans the Supreme Court, he’ll be out in the wild with no tools.