What will Trump do when he starts to face the fact that there are no easy answers to our problems

Great Debates
1

Trump ran on offering easy answers.

ISIS? Just bomb and torture them.
Lack of jobs? Renegotiate trade agreements
Loss of coal jobs? Eliminate EPA regulations.
Crime in Chicago? Trump can end that in a week by clamping down on civil rights.
Mass shootings and domestic terrorism? Just register muslims.
Slow economic growth? We will have 5% growth soon.
11 million illegals? Deport them all.

We are going to get sick of winning.

These are all easy answers to very serious, major problems. Trump’s platform in one sentence is basically.

So what happens when Trump takes power and can’t actually deliver anything? The world is a very complex place. Lack of manufacturing jobs comes from automation. Coal isn’t cost competitive with natural gas or renewables. ISIS is fighting a war that, to them, has been going on for 1300 years and they have to face torture far worse than what the US could throw at them from middle eastern nations. Getting a wealthy nation to push 5% economic growth is not easy or realistic. Crime was a problem in the ghettos back in the 1930s when police were brutal and had 0 accountability. Domestic terrorism is an issue in nations with far more surveillance and oppression than the US (Saudi Arabia for example).

Here is why this issue worries me. I don’t think Trump really cares about America. When Trump says ‘Make America Great Again’ what his supporters hear is ‘Make America like it was in the 1950s when white males were the pinnacle of the social and economic totem pole and there were tons of good, reliable, high paying jobs that didn’t require education or training’.

But I think what Trump hears is ‘Bless America with Donald Trump’s brilliance and talented leadership, which will improve America’. I think Trump feels MAGA is just a side effect of blessing it with his brilliance.

But Trump is not brilliant. He is the opposite. And I think his ego is going to get really tied into the outcomes for the US. What happens when he not only can’t make anything better, but when many of his ideas make things worse?

Does he fall back on populist rhetoric (there are easy answers to all these problems, but the elites will not let us use them)?

Does he start becoming vengeful towards those who he feels stopped him (the media, critics, congress, both parties, his cabinet, etc)? Does he start totally firing his cabinet every 6 months, bringing in totally new members?

Does he push harder for simplistic answers?

I’m kind of worried what Trump will do in 6-18 months when he starts to realize that there are no easy answers. I don’t expect any introspection on his part, but how do people in these situations act?

I assume blame the elites, critics and subordinates, and either purge them or seek revenge.

What if he goes ‘back to his roots’ and pushes radical right wing views (thinking his problem was he was too moderate) and that makes things even worse?

Interesting times. Not good times, but interesting.

2

I think you’ve answered your own question - he and his followers will blame (irrationally, but who cares about that any more) everyone who doesn’t agree with them and who acted contrary to his vision. This includes the media, of course, and the Democrats, of course, and liberals and people who live in cities and so on.

Then there is the refusal to see actual facts - if unemployment goes up, he will claim that the reports are rigged and that real employment is better than before. It’s those entrenched bureaucrats who cause a lot of the problems, we should do something about the Civil Service act. If inflation happens, he can easily blame the Fed, which is not under his direct control.

Then there are his social policies. There are no leading economic indicators to indicate that those are failing and causing more misery than we have had in 20 years. He’ll have nothing to face there, if he can ignore the howls of protest, and I’m sure he can. It would take a movement as large and persistent as the anti-war movement in the 60’s to get his attention. Then, instead of declining to run again like Johnson did (the second best thing he ever did) he would probably institute martial law, which his followers will welcome and probably volunteer with their assault weapons to implement. You know, like the militia that they so fondly refer to.

Honestly, I think we are royally and truly fucked. At least that’s how it feels the night before Thanksgiving.

3

I would say early signs are encouraging, in that he’s walked back, or softened, most of his rhetoric already.

I think this is likely due to a combination of:

  1. Some of the people around him restraining and/or educating him (obviously not bannon, but there are a lot of people he needs to talk to now)

and more importantly:

  1. He knows he talked a lot of bullshit on the campaign. He’s done this self-promotion thing his whole life, and overreached plenty of times. This time though he can’t just walk away like Trump U. He has to somehow deliver everything he promises. So for the first time he’s nervous about what he says.
    Plus I don’t think he even believed a lot of what he was saying; it was a reality show.

I’m not saying I’m not worried, but we’re on course at the moment for the best-case scenario: very little of substance actually changes and trump just makes the occasional hair-brained comment when he goes off-script.

4

Already answered.

And prescient, too!!

5

You would think Trump would be the first to realize that simplistic solutions can result in bankruptcy (multiple times), but as long as people think it’s acceptable for man with no government experience and less than half the votes cast to be in charge of the biggest economy in the world, America will probably become great again in the same manner as the Great Depression.
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6

Years ago there was a huge argument on this board about how we couldn’t lower the price of fuel by drilling for more oil. Couldn’t be done.

Well it could be done. Instead of all that money pouring out of the country it’s now generating jobs, taxes and lower energy costs.

7

He will let other people do it, and, if it works, he’ll act like it was his idea, and, if not, he’ll act like he was always against it. Basically, typical business stuff.

The thing that makes him dangerous is that he gets so fired up mad that he might actually try to do something himself. And then we lose.

Do you have any cites for this? Because. from what I know, the only reason we have lower costs is that the OPEC countries are forcing the prices down to drive out the competition. And I’ve not heard of any job growth in that sector–though, admittedly, I’ve not been looking.

Also not sure what the relevance is to this thread. That was neither easy nor an actual answer, even if 100% of what you say is true.

8

Tell that to the folks formerly in the North Dakota oil boom towns, ghost towns now because the price of oil is so low it’s no longer profitable to bring it up out of the ground. You can’t have both high oil prices fueling taxes and generating jobs, and lower energy costs due to low oil prices.

9

On a fairly broad level, this is a fairly accurate description of every elected government everywhere. They make simple promises and then it turns out life isn’t that simple… but the true believers don’t care. People firmly in the Trump camp aren’t super enthused with carefully reviewing the facts anyway, and the ones that are more reasonable, or who are single-issue voters, are the ones who assumed that the “lock her up” stuff was bullshit anyway. (And yes, they do exist.)

10

Do you have any evidence he ever really cared about fixing America’s problems?

I mean he blathered on a lot about non sensical walls, mass deportations, jailing Hillary, etc, etc, on endlessly. And then, reversed, denied and abandoned craploads of his own nonsense.

He has been pretty blatant about not really caring to actually govern, just let the kids fuss with that, it’s of no real consequence to him. He’s got graft and profiteering to undertake. And his phone’s already ringing, I’m sure.

If you were expecting him to care about actually solving ANY of the nation’S problems, I don’t think you were paying attention. Nothing that ever comes out of his mouth actually has ANY substance, or actually MEANS anything to him. That’s why he’s offended when called on it, or questioned why he dropped it. Because it’s ALL ‘just blather’.

And he’s always visibly taken aback and then shrugs that anyone listening still doesn’t get that!

11

What will Trump do when he starts to face the fact that there are no easy answers to our problems

You know how Presidents seem to visibly age about 15-20 years in the span of 4 actual years? I’m looking forward to that small, petty thing happening to Trump.

12

True believers? Oh please. What scale are you using as a metric to compare to the previous election? People on this very website renamed their location in honor of Obama the wonder puppy over the excitement.

Nobody who voted for Trump is wetting their pants over this election. He’s a horses ass. He wasn’t voted in, Hillary was voted out. Trump is the face of public dissatisfaction with the political status quo. Hillary IS the status quo. She lost 9% of the black vote and 26% of the Hispanic vote. Her entire campaign was “Trump SUCKS” and she spent twice as much money on this brilliant strategy.

Her career was nothing but a coat-tailing carpet-bagging stroll behind her husband. She’s been a gift to the Republican Party going back to “Hillary care” which was responsible for flipping both houses. The Democratic party could have pulled a name out of a hat and defeated trump.

13

I don’t understand what point you’re trying to make.

Tens of millions of people disagree with you. Between you, and the millions of people who volunteered for his campaign and sang his praises and wore his hats, I’ll believe them.

14

I’m referring to your talk of true believers in light of the previous election that had people swooning over Obama. I cited the all the people on this board who changed the name of their location as an example. It’s just not there for Trump.

Yes and hundreds of millions of people didn’t wear his hats and sing his praises and therefore disagree with you.

I think you’re assessment of Trump voters is more personal projection than reality. Nobody is expecting miracles. If he somehow manages a balanced budget and reduction in debt he’ll be the first president in this century to do so. Frankly I don’t think there are 2 testicles left between either houses or either party to make that happen.

15

I have a feeling Trump’s going to suffer a major health crisis (possibly a fatal one) before the end of his term. Possibly before the midterms.

16

No they don’t. I don’t know if you need a lesson in set theory or something, but the existence of true believers does not mean every single person is a true believer.

  1. He won’t, and 2. The budget was balanced in 2000 and 2001, so it’s not even true.
17

My assessment of Trump voters is based on my assessment of those of my relatives and neighbors who voted for him.

Yes, they (or at least a significant fraction thereof) are expecting miracles. They BELIEVE. God Himself sent Mr. Trump here to prevent the Whore of Babylon (that would be Mrs. Clinton) from destroying this great country. God Himself will make sure Mr. Trump achieves his great and divinely-ordained purpose of making this country great again. Some of my relations believe that with as much fervor as they believe in the special creation of Man or the Second Coming itself: Hillary is a minion of Satan, and Mr. Trump is blessed and will be able to do everything he promised.

Next Thanksgiving is going to be interesting.

18

Even his supporters would agree that during the campaign Trump played fast and loose with the truth. For him, truth was whatever he wanted it to be at that instant in time. Why do we think he won’t apply the same approach as president? “Look at this wall! It’s a big, beautiful wall!” “Uh, Mr. President, it’s only 20 miles long.” “I can’t even see the end of it! It’s a big, beautiful wall! And I built it just like I said I would! It’s yuge!”

On jobs: “I’ve beaten up the Chinese. We’ve got so many jobs coming back. People are saying they’ve got jobs again. It’s yuge!” “But the statistics show that we’ve actually lost jobs.” “We beat the Chinese! It’s yuge! Yuge! We’re making America Great Again!”

For his supporters, the choice is to believe him or believe the media. It’s not like anyone is going to go out and personally check whether the wall is in place. And the mainstream media is totally corrupt, right? Who’d believe them over The Donald?

19

It’s a stressful job. However, in order for the job to be stressful, first you have to actually care, and I genuinely don’t think Trump does. Before the election I said the presidency is nothing more than a trophy to him, and nothing he’s done since has changed my mind. You don’t install Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education if you’re taking the job remotely seriously.

20

I’m genuinely curious as to what these people said. Do you have any links?