The Trump Administration: A Clusterfuck in the Making

[dasmoocher]

@jsc1953

I’m trying to come up with Trump’s motivation for some of these actions – figuring he’s 100% motivated by “what’s in it for me?” – and I’m stumped. Is there a sizable contingent of Ohio voters who are thinking “Well, I got no use for Trump, but any friend of Eddie D’s is all right in my book!”? Enough to carry Ohio in November? Not seeing it.

I posted this in the How has Trump Pissed You Off Today thread:

@dasmoocher

OP/ED piece about Trump using his pardon power for political benefit:

Why did Trump just pardon a former owner of the 49ers? In part because he wants to win Ohio.

Howland is a bit east of the city of Warren which is itself due northwest of the much larger city of Youngstown. In Youngstown, the DeBartolos weren’t quite royalty, but they weren’t quite not. I knew the name DeBartolo within weeks of moving to the area. They were a family that had risen to national prominence from an area that was more often the subject of mopey songs or depressing news articles about the American economy. Youngstown was a big loser in the economy of the 1970s and 1980s — but could also boast of being the home to the family that owned a team that kept winning the Super Bowl.

…

Ed DeBartolo Jr. did eventually face criminal charges after being solicited for a bribe by the governor of Louisiana and failing to report it. He agreed in 1998 to serve two years’ probation and pay $1 million in fines. He transferred ownership of the 49ers to his sister Denise DeBartolo York in 2000.

On Tuesday, President Trump granted DeBartolo a full pardon. In the abstract, it’s an odd decision, focused on someone whose infraction was fairly minor and resolved two decades ago. It may be a function in part of the 49ers’ reemergence as a force in the NFL. But it may also be a way to send a signal to a critical part of an important state.

In the 2016 election, Mahoning County, where Youngstown is located, narrowly voted for Hillary Clinton over Trump, though Trump benefited from a 25-point swing in his favor. Trumbull County, where Warren and Howland are located, voted Republican for the first time since 1972. Trump won Ohio by eight points, but polling last year had him trailing some potential Democratic opponents. Locking down Mahoning County, 2 percent of the state’s population, doesn’t hurt Trump’s chances.

There are other reasons for Trump to have been sympathetic to DeBartolo, including that the Youngstown native supported Trump’s presidency. But someone, somewhere, no doubt kept Trump apprised of DeBartolo’s popularity in a region central to American presidential politics.