Now we know what Trump is
A lot has happened in the last few weeks, to let us know what kind of president Trump is going to be.
He isn’t the new Hitler. And he isn’t the new Ronald Reagan. He’s Obama-Lite, or roughly what President Obama would have been if were saner and more authentically masculine and pro-American. (Like Obama, President Trump often talks about his own good intentions/hopes as if they were accomplishments.
They aren’t.) “The Swamp” and/or Deep State will stay in business for quite awhile yet. I suspect that Trump has cut some sort of deal with several of its important factions.
That still makes him 100 times better than Hillary.
- He appointed a pro-2nd Amendment Justice to the Supreme Court.
- He *might* still avoid a Syria war.
- At the margins, Trump is rolling back Obama’s excessive regulations.
He is cleaning up the EPA and approving pipelines. - He has signaled U.S. immigration agents that they can do their jobs again.
- (I considered saying the same about police who deal with pedophilia and human trafficking, but it’s unclear if Trump has made a difference in that area. Some say yes. Others say no.)
- (Update) Oh yeah, he abandoned Obama’s Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Hillary would have done none of the above. On his own, Trump is not all that hot. But when compared to Hillary, he still is.
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Good points, Jeff. I agree.
Comment by TAD — April 17, 2017 @ 3:52 am - April 17, 2017
Yes. Yes it does. It matters little what he does over the next 3.75 years (assuming it doesn’t vary that much from what has already transpired), he will still be better than the once-likely alternative. Every time I wake up and hear something the current administration has done, I am thankful because I know in an alternate universe the decision would have been worse.
To hear the opposition tell the story of the first 100 days, there is nothing but scandal after scandal (mostly involving one word spelled R-U-S-S-I-A). Yet in the alternate universe, there would be twice the [actual] scandals brewing, but they would be hidden until a later point in time. Then, no matter what they were, when they were uncovered the explanation would be “There is no scandal; they just don’t like me because I’m a woman!” Followed by another assertion of “vast right wing conspiracy”. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Well, not to you or I…but there are plenty on the left who still are somewhat convinced. That, or after the past two weeks, he is North America’s version of Kim Jong Un—both “unstable psychopathic dictators”.
Comment by RSG — April 17, 2017 @ 4:57 am - April 17, 2017
All projection aside from less than 2% of the population aka 2%er progressives/libertarians, the jury is still out.
Comment by rjligier — April 17, 2017 @ 7:42 am - April 17, 2017
So, when do the Death Camps for Gays open? Rachel Maddow and Joss Whedon promised us there would be Death Camps for Gays; just like under every other Republican president.
And where are Mike Pence’s Electro-Conversion Squads, ripping gay teenagers from their homes and shocking the gay out of them? The HRC and P-FLAG promised that Mike Pence would be electrocuting gay teenagers.
Comment by V the K — April 17, 2017 @ 8:35 am - April 17, 2017
No, Hilter was already in the White House and it was Obama. I have some choice words for him but I’m not going to say it.
Comment by James — April 17, 2017 @ 9:14 am - April 17, 2017
I’m not a yuge fan of Trump the person, but he is definitely better than Hilary, and that was the actual choice we had in the election. I sleep a little better at night knowing that the government isn’t getting bigger just because it can. The first 100 days have been messy, but I prefer that to having some slick professional politician running things.
Comment by Hunter — April 17, 2017 @ 11:00 am - April 17, 2017
I don’t personally know anyone who thought that Trump would be another Reagan, or that he would be some kind of messiah. Most people (including me) who voted for him considered him to be the lesser evil. I am actually starting to like him, though, if only because I like seeing the limousine liberals and Hollywood hypocrites melt down. Maybe Trump is more like Grover Cleveland. His fans “love him best for the enemies that he has made.”
The people who think that Trump is Hitler are the same people who think that Rachel Dolezal is black, that Bruce Jenner is a woman, that Obama is a genius, and that Elizabeth Warren was born in a wigwam by the shores of Gitchee Gumee.
They also think that the moon landing was fake, and that professional wrestling is real.
Comment by Tom — April 17, 2017 @ 12:02 pm - April 17, 2017
Yes, DJT has made some improvements and it’s still early but he certainly seems to be “going native” quickly.
As with the useless GOP Congress, our pols always seem to be trying to get kudos from the lefties that they will never get (short of unconditional surrender).
His posturing on Syria and North Korea is alarming and I find myself hoping that, per Scott Adams, DJT is playing n-dimensional chess and knows what he’s doing. If nothing else, the last 60+ years should have taught us that the military option goes pear-shaped far more often than not.
Comment by KCRob — April 17, 2017 @ 12:04 pm - April 17, 2017
But if Trump is only going to be a so-so President, then do we get Bernie or Elizabeth Warren in 2020? Yikes!
Maybe I’d better not worry, just take it one year at a time…
Comment by ILoveCapitalism — April 17, 2017 @ 12:20 pm - April 17, 2017
OK, Trump is not Hercules. But maybe, the swamp and/or Deep State are not the Augean stables, either.
First, we are at day 88 (my guess) of the highly vaunted “First 100 Days.” We sure as heck had no idea of what Carter was or what Reagan was or what Bush 41 was or what Clinton was or what Bush 43 was or what Obama was at this point. It we were fans of the President, we saw glimmers of hope. If we disliked the President we saw the seeds of failure.
The entire bureaucracy is not in the “swamp.” From what I read, the Trump Cabinet is each tasked to shovel their stables and get them back to working trim. Not everyone will succeed at the super hero level. Some might even have to be axed. If Jeff Sessions and the Mexican Border policing is any measure, things are looking pretty good.
Well, my wife would be the spitting image of Melania Trump if she had her looks, her figure, her age and her poise.
We may not agree, but Obama, under any circumstances, never once qualified or even cared to wear a Make America Great Again cap. I would go so far as to say that if Obama was “pro-American” in any degree, it was to back the Americans who want to rip the country down and build it back under the threat of government force to comply with their iron glove ideology about militant social justice and statist organized communities.
If he serves either one or two terms, the argument about “who Trump is” will occupy the chattering classes and their favorite historians for decades.
Trump is one of the titans in his trade. He can turn on a dime to take advantage of an opportunity or to avoid a mess. He is not mercurial. He is not predictable. He thinks on his feet and he works tirelessly. His experience-honed instincts undergird his wisdom.
The media and the DemonizingRats are going after Steve Bannon because they believe that Bannon is Trump’s Svengali. How many “right hand man” types has Trump burned through in his career? Take Trump’s team away entirely and he will get up early and build another one. There’s no Holder or Axlerod or Jarrett or Rove co-conspiring with Trump. Trump carves out the target and he tasks the job to competent people.
The proof of this is how Trump got his fingers burned by Ryan and McConnell. He put the burden on them to get it done and they dropped it all over the place and in public. Did Trump lose? Maybe the round, but not the fight. And he gave Ryan and McConnell enough rope to convince them not to come back with another Humpty Dumpty Circus.
I was never a Trump fan and I do not worship at his feet now. But from the outset, I saw him as a force to be reckoned with and from the outset, I knew that if he kept the media from ridiculing him into a corner, that he would have every chance of prevailing. And prevail he did. His Electoral College numbers are awesome.
I am sick of the news. They hang on every little gnat and perniciously pimp up the foreboding doom and gloom chatter. You can not wear this guy down. He has handled every obstacle in the swamp and learned how to swim with sharks, jellyfish, suckers, leeches, whales, pilot fish, squid and barracuda.
Everyone needs to ask himself: What nugget of advice would I give to Donald Trump about how to go about being “my kind” of President?
Comment by Heliotrope — April 17, 2017 @ 1:28 pm - April 17, 2017
That’s a pretty apropos comparison. While I’ve not heard that quote about President Cleveland before, during the campaign he was the prior POTUS I thought of most when tales of Donald Trump’s character were brought to the forefront.
Grover Cleveland was a serial womanizer who succeeded in getting the illegitimate mother of his child committed to an insane asylum until well after his time in the spotlight had faded. Indeed, a campaign slogan used against him was “Ma! Ma! Where’s my Pa?” with a graphic of an abandoned child. He also largely succeeded in suppressing coverage of a subcutaneous growth between his oral cavity and neck and the elaborately planned surgery to correct it which took place on a small yacht offshore the Atlantic Coast. So those who claim that President Trump is a horrifically unique person to occupy the Oval Office need to read up on history.
Comment by RSG — April 18, 2017 @ 2:35 am - April 18, 2017
Bernie will be 79 come Election Day 2020, so odds of him being a playa in the presidential sweepstakes are remote (particularly after the oldest elected president being currently in office). Amd Liz “Mitch Won’t Say Hello” Warren is yesterday’s hot candidate. The current Flavor Of The Month is Blandy, who warms the seat Nelson Rockefeller once had in Albany, as did Presidents Van Buren, Cleveland, and both Roosevelts before him. So why not him, fulfilling the unrequited dream of his father? He’s being given wide praise for the recent legislation enabling ‘free’ college (with a caveat) in the Empire State, thus proving that a current wet dream of the Democrats can come true somewhere. He’s even gotten props from the Queen Denied herself. Never mind that he has the charisma of stale bread; his pedigree will surely be enough to get deep-pocket donors to fund his future campaign.
Comment by RSG — April 18, 2017 @ 2:52 am - April 18, 2017
If Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren become president then we are screwed, we are done, adios America.
Comment by Pawfurbehr — April 18, 2017 @ 8:05 am - April 18, 2017
Every time I see this threadline, it puts me in mind of that old song by Foreigner. “I wanna know what Trump i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-i-s…. I want you to show me…”
Comment by V the K — April 18, 2017 @ 8:44 am - April 18, 2017
This morning, over at the WaPo, Dana Milbank wrote an op-ed about Trump as the Creature From the Black Lagoon.
In an effort to be fair and balanced, I thought it would be interesting to post a string of comments on “what Trump is” according to scads of WaPo readers:
Comment by Heliotrope — April 18, 2017 @ 9:58 am - April 18, 2017
Ugh. That is the absolute worse song by Foreigner ever to hit the charts. I cringe every time I’m in a public place and hear it on the ambient music feed. (And can’t change the channel fast enough when it comes on the radio.)
Comment by RSG — April 18, 2017 @ 8:08 pm - April 18, 2017
The problem with atheists isn’t that they believe in nothing; it’s that they will believe in anything.
Comment by Ignatius — April 18, 2017 @ 8:10 pm - April 18, 2017