Trump: GOP should sit out 2022 and 2024 elections

[Temporary_Name]

@BeepKillBeep

Democracy and democratic principles are in and of themselves important regardless of who is in power.

Unless that person in power is determined to undermine Democracy and all social and political norms for the benefit of himself and those who are forced to support him. In other words, unless it is Trump.

@flurb

I’m just baffled by the people in this thread who insist that Trump is a “toddler” who acts purely out of impulse and has no ability to plan. Obviously I agree that he’s a dumb, impulsive, petulant, self-gratifying egomaniac. But he also clearly makes plans and executes on them (often poorly). The Mueller investigation showed this clearly – with malice aforethought, he leaned on a foreign head of state to get him to take actions that would benefit Trump politically. I think the term here is “low cunning.”

The one incorrect word in this post (in my humble opinion) is plan (or plans). Plans indicate a strategic effort. Trump never uses plans, he uses tactics. Tactics are short term tools one uses to gain a brief advantage in a battle (not in a war). If Donald Trump was strategic at all he could have overthrown Democracy in his 2016 term. He never developed a strategy because his tactics were so successful in getting him out of trouble (after different tactics got him into trouble) and getting what he wanted.

Trump just hoped and assumed he was going to win re-election, and if he lost it would be so close he could “work his magic” (call up ONE states Secretary of State) to over turn the results. If the election was as close as he was being told it would be, he could just leave Brad Raffensberger after he said no (and before he started recording calls) and try a different SoS. As it was he had to get ALL of them and his preferred tactic was to get a traditionally red state like Georgia to tumble first which he (the master of the deal) would leverage into getting all the states to follow suit.

If Trump was strategic, he would have put cronies into select spots before the year of reelection. He would have replaced the Pentagon personnel with toadies. He does not plan, planning is proactive, it is strategic. He is reactive-- he is cruising along and he gets shot at, then he employs his tactics to defend himself and try to turn the tables. If he destroys those who shot at him - - it is a spectacular win, but even if he just survives it is a win because he was supposed to be killed in the ambush but he wasn’t.

One last point in a post that is already too long. The one thing he did that showed forethought and planning was still tactical (but it was proactive so it had a sheen of strategy to it and I am sure Trump saw it as strategic) but it backfired on him and led to failure.

When he cleared out the protesters for the photo-op with the bible in front of St. John’s church- he thought he had scored big !! All reports say than not only Trump himself but the entire administration went back to the White House and took selfies while raising toasts. He did not react to a personal assault (the protesters were decrying police injustice, not malfeasance from Trump I believe- although he may have taken it personally), he hatched a plan to aggressively show his power by running off the riff raff for a lame photo-op that would demonstrate who was in charge, dammit! But instead he painted himself as a bully because most people do not feel the same way about power that Trump himself does.

To summarize, Trump has tactics not strategies. His “plans” are always reactionary and short term, and short sighted because they are tactics. But now his team of sycophants know they have to arrange strategies if that guy ever gets them near the power of the White House again.

@BrickBat

“chaotic evil”. That works too. Sounds like a great name for a death metal band too.

Is Chronic Chaotic Evil too long for a band name? Yea I guess it is, and Chaotic Evil is better than Chronic Evil too.

[k9bfriender]

@Temporary_Name

To summarize, Trump has tactics not strategies. His “plans” are always reactionary and short term, and short sighted because they are tactics. But now his team of sycophants know they have to arrange strategies if that guy ever gets them near the power of the White House again.

I think that for most of his life, he has had goals, and has had people to do the actual work of planning and strategizing in order to achieve those goals.

When he was president, he had to rely on people with other interests than his own in mind, whether that be for their own gain, or in the actual interests of the country. There was less competent planning on achieve his goals.

@Temporary_Name

Is Chronic Chaotic Evil too long for a band name? Yea I guess it is, and Chaotic Evil is better than Chronic Evil too.

But Chaotic Chronic would be an excellent name for a marijuana strain.

[Temporary_Name]

@k9bfriender

I think that for most of his life, he has had goals, and has had people to do the actual work of planning and strategizing in order to achieve those goals.

I would guess (and that is all it is, but a somewhat educated guess) that most of his business strategies were actually tactics repeated over and over to a place that they became an operational strategy. With much less experience in Government than in “business”, there is no reason to believe he had even developed his tactics yet- he was still borrowing his tactics from his business experiences.

For example, the tax scam his company is now facing charges over was a simple tactic (let’s try to reduce our tax burden this year!), that once it was successful became his year after year default strategy (let’s hide income to reduce the taxes for both the company and the employee). That might have led to the idea of undervaluing assets for taxes and over valuating assets for borrowing. What the hell, we are cooking the books anyway- why not take it a step further?? Or it might have gone the other direction-- he might have been cooking the books on valuation and decided to extend it to employee compensation.

The point is that his business plan was not a long ranging strategy – it was a criminal tactic employed year after year. His business strategy was to criminally cheat to gain one time advantages over and over again. He obviously hired a very loyal person to run this business plan, but it was never a strategic thinker or planner and I believe he was probably unable to recognize it when others tried to convince him to try this slow growth strategy that will lead to success after thirty years.

@k9bfriender

But Chaotic Chronic would be an excellent name for a marijuana strain.

My brother would be so proud if he knew! The straight-laced, never been high kid finding the perfect name for his oldest hobby.

[flurb]

@Temporary_Name

I would guess (and that is all it is, but a somewhat educated guess) that most of his business strategies were actually tactics repeated over and over to a place that they became an operational strategy.

I think this is a good insight. Another example is how he would routinely use the threat of lawsuits to bully his vendors, ex-employees and competitors. The mere threat of expensive litigation was usually enough to get them to settle, and he and his legal team never had to argue his position on the merits in front of a judge and jury. When he tried the same shit after the election against elections officials who had ample legal resources and strong motivation to meet his challenge head on, it was a debacle.

[Ann_Hedonia]

I see him using the same tactics in business that he used as President.

Complain constantly to your accountants that you don’t understand why you are paying so much in taxes. Tell them that they are not very good accountants, they must be missing something, there must be a loophole or something that they are too stupid to find.

If your tax bill remains the same, fire the accountants and hire new ones. Tell them that you fired the old accountants because they were stupid and you were paying too much in taxes because of their stupidity. Maybe insinuate that they weren’t really stupid but criminal, in cahoots with the IRS, plotting to help them steal your money. Maybe you need to investigate them and let the world know they are dishonest thieves. Don’t be shy, tell them stuff like this frequently. If your tax bill still doesn’t go down, fire them and repeat.

Eventually you will find the “smart” accountant that “knows the loopholes” and is “honest” and not helping the government “steal” from you. Surround yourselves with people like that. Throw them under the bus as needed, there will always be a replacement waiting in the wings.

And you will have absolute plausible deniability because you never wanted anything but an honest accountant. You said so many times. You never told anyone to cheat at anything.

Trump doesn’t plan or strategize himself, he just does what I’ve described above. He’s very good at that. It’s all he knows, but it’s enough.

[Euphonious_Polemic]

@Stranger_On_A_Train

Despite his career in real estate development (which you would think would take an understanding of careful planning and weighing of competing alternatives),

His only experience in this area is picking out fabric swatches while others do the actual work.

[susan]

What’s to pick out about gold?

[Guest-starring_Id]

Oh come on - there’s gilded gold, fire retardant gold, septic-friendly gold. Other kinds that are too rude to mention.