Do they give her the heebie-jeebies?
Both from Political Wire:
That’s two “legitimate” contenders for VP who don’t want the job.
It was always going to be Christie.
Sen. Bob Corker said the best vice-president for Trump is his daughter, Ivanka.
No link yet.
I agree; Trump’s bigotry is real, in my opinion, but it’s not what drives him. As you say, he’s not an ideologue. I don’t think he cares two cents about the ‘purity of the White Race,’ but if pandering to those who do will make him a buck, he’ll pander.
This gets said a lot, and some who say it intend a sort of comfort, I think: if he gets in, don’t worry, it won’t last long. (You may or may not intend that meaning.) In any case, I’m not so sure about this.
You only have to look at Trump’s wistful remarks about dictators—at his obvious admiration for Putin, Kim Jong-Un, and others who simply have their opponents put to death, no muss no fuss!—to realize that Trump would actually find being President For Life to be a worthy goal. Working towards that goal would not bore him.
He couldn’t do it alone, of course. But what he might be doing with the majority of his time in office could be networking with those at the top of the power structure of the USA who are a little “meh” about democracy and the rule of law. And don’t kid yourself–there are plenty of them who feel that they’d be doing something very virtuous and righteous by moving the USA to a “more efficient” sort of system. Trump might not be the figurehead they’d prefer, but they’d find reasons to move ahead anyway.
If Trump succeeded in talking enough of these guys into it, it would happen in response to an “emergency”–an attack by terrorists so massive, so shocking, that a large part of the population would accept that martial law was necessary. It would be child’s play to set up such an attack, of course. There is no shortage of actual terrorists who would be delighted to take advantage of any opportunities they ‘accidentally’ come across.
Then it’s just a matter of the Continuing Emergency which makes it necessary to postpone elections for the duration.
But “it can’t happen here.” Really. It “can’t,” it just “can’t.”
Twitter is your friend.
The NY Times Book Review published a rare piece of fiction, the payoff of which was that Ivanka was donating to Hillary and egging Donald on to do increasingly irrational things - thus explaining the campaign so far. I wonder if Corker heard about this - it might be a subtle joke.
It wasn’t meant to be comforting, believe me. Trump can do a great deal of damage in a short period of time, and that could include foisting off an incredibly bad successor.
This is one of the scenarios under which I think you’d see an impeachment. Bear in mind that
- Trump is widely despised by many Republicans and
- Congress can impeach for basically anything they want to call a “high crime or misdemeanor.”
Trump is short of allies at the top (postponing elections, furthermore, is a state power, so he’d have to get a lot of truculent governors to go along with his plan) and you can’t network THAT well in a short period of time. Were Trump to pull off an upset, the Impeach Trump scheming would begin before the electoral college even met, and handing the schemers a gift as wonderful as a plan to be President for Life would result in articles of impeachment passed faster than you can say “Nixon.” If anyone is smart enough to be elected President but sufficiently dumbassed enough to be impeached and convicted, it’s Donald John Trump.
I’m not saying American democracy is invincible. But if someone is going to kill it, they need a party to do it with. Trump doesn’t exactly have a party. He’s carjacked one but it’s not really his.
Ever notice how often his spokesbimbos use words incorrectly?
Back when the first demand was made for Trump to release his taxes, one of them said he didn’t have to because of his right to habeas corpus .
“Very personable”? I couldn’t even begin to guess what that babble was supposed to mean, if anything. Very “personal”, maybe? But what does that mean?
But it’s good enough for his audience. They don’t understand words of more than four letters anyway. I bet Hitler’s spokespersons were much better at this. The man himself certainly was – the Fuhrer offered up all the hate and demagoguery anyone could want, but with an actual strategy, and the ability to string many sentences together into actual coherent hateful ideas. The Donald is more like an empty suit bellowing hate and jingoism because he’s figured out that there’s money in it.
Well, yes, of course: if Trump were to announce ‘I’m going to be President for Life,’ he’d be impeached.
But that’s not the scenario I was describing. No dictator that I’m aware of has announced “I’m now PFL” and had that work out well. What happens is that there is an Emergency under which elections must, regrettably, be postponed for Just a Little While (which turns into years). Or, alternatively, Mr. Dictator simply “wins” election after election. We’ve seen this in nation after nation after nation.
If Trump managed to hook up with big names in our military who see it as their patriotic duty to Restore Order after massive terror attacks, he could, conceivably, pull off a declaration of martial law. If it were Trump alone saying ‘we must unfortunately suspend our normal peacetime rights and privileges, just until we understand what’s going on–I know all true patriots will agree’—he wouldn’t get far. But if he were backed by high-ranking generals and other well-known figures (a few Supreme Court Justices, for example), then it might fly–if the terrorism is massive and severe enough to really frighten people.
I realize that this sounds ‘out there’—but seriously, ask yourself if, a year ago, you would have thought it possible that Trump could achieve the GOP nomination.
We know Trump would love the chance to be a full-fledged dictator (can anyone doubt that?)
The danger, always, is that others in power might start to think that it would be the patriotic–or holy and righteous–thing to do, to back him as figurehead of a more authoritarian government. Just until we vanquish the enemies that want to destroy us, you know.
Latest Trump campaign tax problems
Is the Trump campaign ignorant, criminal, or some combination of the two?
Yes.
Eric Trump went on a profanity laced tear to the Washington Post editors about the articles questioning their charitable activities.
This naturally prompted the Washington Post to run another article detailing Eric’s objections to their original article. Well played, that man.
Eric went on to insist that Donald had given his (Eric’s) foundation hundreds of thousands of dollars but refused to provide any evidence. He also claims that Donald has given money to many other charities, but again - no evidence.
Yes, that’s right. We all admire Donald Trump for the way he abhors self-promotion.
Eric went on to take issue with recent Washington Post research about the tax fillings of Eric’s foundation:
The games just never stop with these Trump Foundations, do they? Well, of course they don’t! It’s much easier to hide money when you’re constantly swapping it around. Just as long as no one wants to see any evidence of your income and outputs.
Oh and that Tebow helmet the Donald J. Trump Foundation bought? Eric has some thoughts on that, too:
Sure, Eric. He gave it to a child. I don’t suppose you’d let us check your closet?
The FBI’s harsh assessment of Hillary could have been disastrous for her but Trump has done a fantastic job snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. First he tweets an anti-Semitic image. Now he is ranting and raving that he should have left the image up. In other self-defeating moves, he praised Saddam Hussein and called the FBI’s decision “rigged.”
Watch this video. Trump is getting unhinged. He needs sedatives.
Are you kidding? He’s running a perfect campaign.
Please proceed, Mr. Trump.
Wow, even I who is an immigrant (already a citizen) coming from a tiny place already knows that classic line of "when the enemy is making a false movement we must take good care not to interrupt him.” - Napoleon.
Or her, but unfortunately for the Republicans they wishfully expected a bigger payoff and told the rank and file about it. Can not backtrack telling their followers that they they were responsible for the blunder so instead they are falling into full conspiracy mode as the solution, but that only shows them as being mad as hatters to many independents and Democrats.
Fine with me.
Thank you! And frankly, I’m getting a little tired of his tireless humility.
More likely he just reads the dope.