Trump, like his father, is running a criminal enterprise. He knows how to make illegitimate money look barely legitimate, or just legitimate enough to keep himself out of a criminal courtroom.
What I didn’t realize about Trump was how much he actually does understand about politics, and this is something that even today most people don’t understand about Trump why people perpetually miscalculate and underestimate him.
It’s true that Donald Trump doesn’t understand politics in the conventional sense - he probably knows little to nothing about Constitutional law, the history of American foreign policy, and all of the things a typically ‘qualified’ candidate would know. I’d agree that due to his inadequate understanding of the actual machinery of government, he is probably incompetent in the commonly understood sense, and for that reason, has demonstrated that he doesn’t necessarily know how to operate the levers of power the way that maybe, Nixon might have.
But that doesn’t matter, because contrary to popular belief, he understands the nature of power - much more so than people could have imagined. He understands how to manipulate people. He understands people’s fears and how to exploit them. He can detect weaknesses in his opponents, and he goes after them with a ferocity and viciousness that makes Nixon look like a choir boy. Sure, he sometimes miscalculates for the reasons just outlined, like not knowing how the institutional levers of power work. His shutdown showdown with Nancy Pelosi was a good illustration of this. But he also knows when to fold 'em, and he will learn from that experience and live to fight another day - and fight he will.
What I didn’t see coming about the Trump administration is how he took the Republican party establishment who thought they could control him, and made the entire party his bitch. I thought that Trump’s legitimacy was dependent on Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan and that the GOP would bring Trump to heel if he got too far out of line; instead it’s been entirely the opposite. Trump has made the Republican party heel. It’s his party now - no questions about it. And that’s because while Trump might not have the intellect of someone who’s been working the Beltway for years, he has political instincts few others have. And what all of us forgot or ignored was that Trump, through his mentor Roy Cohn, was working the New York political system for years and knew how the game was played. Everyone assumed that because Trump had never spent much time in Washington there would be a learning curve; instead, Trump simply took those lessons he learned from playing dirty politics in New York and used them to mold Washington into his town.
You mean like the Secretaries of Energy under every administration?
My point was that considering all the insanity and frankly inappropriate behavior by so many of Trump’s cabinet members, the fact that Perry of all people, even including his stupidity about the nature of the DoE, has turned out to be an extremely conventional, and even competent Secretary of Energy is surprising.
And I disagree- under this administration, finding a cabinet member who’s quietly doing their job in the conventional fashion IS something to celebrate. It shouldn’t be, but it is.
In for a penny, in for a pound. Nothing is going to turn the MAGAt’s away from him. They LIKE they he’s an immoral lying crook. Makes them feel better about themselves. They can identify with Trump.
Yeah, the fact that there was a GOP “Never Trump” movement at the beginning gave me some sense of hope(?) that there could be a leash of sorts on him. Nope.
Yes there are still a few dead-enders in that camp, but they have been relegated to the role of rarely seen pundits.
And, I also am deeply disappointed in my fellow Americans who find his antics, and his policies, to be just what the doctor ordered. I have always been able to at the very least appreciate the that my political opposites were motivated by the greater good, even if their strategies went in a different direction than mine. But now I’m having a real hard time seeing principles that are oriented for the greater good.
I’m surprised that any effort was put towards criminal justice reform efforts. In this highly partisan era I’m amazed that some bipartisan effort was expended on that.
One thing that has surprised me is how doggedly Trump is sticking to his campaign promises. I thought that the reality of politics and, you know, the law, would eventually sink in and he’d become a much more conventional president.
Here we are debating Obamacare again. Politically it’s a dumb move – Republicans have shown that the only way to win this one is not to play, but Trump campaigned on repealing Obamacare and you can see that he isn’t willing to accept a loss. You’d think the Republican establishment would just ignore him, but like asahi said, Trump somehow is controlling the direction of congress.
In a way it’s admirable. I was very upset that Obama campaigned on closing Gitmo but gave up when the reality of the situation beat him down. And I don’t really fault him for that – he really didn’t have a lot of options, and it seemed pointless to burn political capital trying. However, if it ends up that Trump can get something done on Obamacare and (apparently) won’t suffer politically for it, maybe Obama could have done the same. I think this is the “Trump the outsider” that people voted for. It’s just a shame he’s using his powers for evil instead of good.
Anyway, I think we see this tenacity in the Muslim travel ban and the war on immigrants. Both either politically or legally suicidal but if I were a Trump supporter I would be happy as hell that he’s at least trying, and he’s certainly done a lot more on both issues than I ever thought he could. Again, it’s just a shame he didn’t pick better issues to channel his stubbornness towards.
Keep in mind Perry has something that most of his fellow cabinet members lack; political experience. It’s why Perry and Pence look more competent than the people around them. They actually know how the government works.
That he championed – and got passed! – the FIRST STEP Act.
Republicans are most certainly NOT about criminal justice reform. The Conservative approach to criminal justice has generally always been more laws, more enforcement, more prisons. Yet somehow Trump and the Republicans got a law passed that addresses prison overcrowding and recidivism.
Now, of course, the law doesn’t go nearly as far as it should – it is, indeed, a first step. It leaves untouched the larger problems of police accountability, police brutality, over-policing, policing for profit, and the ferkakte War on Drugs. But it’s a start.
Yeah - and what I perceive as his strong chance of re-election doesn’t help me think well of my country or my fellow countrymen.
Not only the support from voters, but the willingness of ALL of Congressional Rs to line up behind him - including ones like Graham who had been SO critical of him before he was elected. Really puts the spotlight on how broken and corrupt our political system is.
The level of corruption is only marginally worse than I expected but I definitely agree on the other two points. I am astounded to see that his approval ratings are essentially flat regardless of what the news brings. The only thing that hurt his approval rating was the government shutdown and it bounced back right when the shutdown ended. It’s astonishing that his supporters want a functioning government and expect him to deliver it.
This is my sentiment thought I wouldn’t have expressed it this way. I thought that moderate Republicans would resist Trump’s worst impulses. I thought that many Republicans in congress would be candidates for the Profile in Courage Award and I was sincerely excited to see who might win it. Instead, effectively every Republican in congress is choosing to sell out American ideals out of cowardice that Trump might tweet about them.
At first, I figured this was a one and done presidency. But now, I’m afraid all I see is 4 more years. I do not see anyone rising above the juvenile name calling to defeat him. It is like big time wrestling - voters just want something fun to chant. The only person that could defeat him is a bigger bully and the democrats do not have one.
I did not expect the constant revolving door or staff and others close to him. Some turn-over sure; its how he has operated in business. But the total numbers of people dropping in and dropping out really staggers my brain.
The only reason this was passed was because for years the Koch brothers have been very public about supporting criminal justice reform. When someone is bank-rolling your campaign, you tend to have identical views as them.
I had the same thought, but something else I didn’t expect is that he would be still holding campaign rallies continuously through his presidency. And I think these are related. He LOVES the attention, adoration, worship he gets at the rallies and that recharges his batteries.
It’s clear, as noted earlier, that Perry had no idea what it does until recently – so no, it doesn’t get enough attention! This Michael Lewis piece on how the presidential transition went in the DOE was an example of the main thing I’ve been surprised by: how easy it is to royally fuck up the federal bureaucracy. Yeah, I know, insert jokes here, but I’m talking about just flat-out ignoring the idea of responsible governance and having at least limited success. I’m sure he could have done worse, so, yes, there’s been some institutional pushback. Still.
I’m NOT surprised by the grifting, lying, corruption, crazy tweeting, signs of cognitive decline, or our lowered stature in the world. That was all pretty easy to predict, since we saw examples before the election.
I honestly thought he would lay off twitter. Boy was I wrong.
I also thought, that maybe, maybe, he had a hidden “regular” persona that might be more presidential. You know how comedians are often not funny in real life? Something like that. When Trump had one of his early interviews after the election, and he said he wanted to move on on not “lock up” Hillary, that got my hopes up. That didn’t last long.
Yeah, I thought we were better people than this. I knew America had flaws but I had no idea how many morals huge chunks of the public would happily abandon to maintain a social hierarchy that put white Christian men on top. You can be a remorseless child abuser and as long as you support white nationalism you will get enough votes to at minimum make the race competitive if not win outright. A lot of us had no idea how fucked up we are collectively before all this.
People used to think ‘OK this line is too far’ but there is no line and never was.
From a realpolitik view I’ve heard the gop supported that law because it benefits rural counties full of whites without college degrees. Aka the gop base. In the past when prisons were just a place for black people the gop was tough on crime but now that people who vote gop are seeing the damage of that ideology they changed tactics.
That he would continue to be driven by pure partisan ship even after he took office. Rather than at least pretend to have the interests of the whole country at heart.
That he wouldn’t listen to experts and instead actually believe that he knew best.
That he would make so many blatantly false statements that are easily refuted.
That in spite of what I listed above he still has the complete unwavering support of the Republican party and voters.