Politics - News Analysis
Jennifer Rubin Eviscerates Trump Like Never Before: ‘Trump No Longer Runs the Government’ — He Isn’t ‘Capable’
Of course, he doesn’t run the government. Of course, he isn’t capable. He never was, only now it might be starting to dawn on him that he cannot.
Trump never wanted to “run the government.” He wanted to take the glory. He wanted to do the easy things, like sign those neat binder type things and hold them up like a seven-year-old’s completed homework assignment. He wanted adoring congress critters standing around him in the Rose Garden talking about the great tax cut “he” just did. He wanted “good relationships” with other dictators, ones he could make “deals” with (most we couldn’t hear about).
He wanted rallies! Playing one-man-god, basking in the cheers. He wanted to make one shit load of money, being as cheap and sleazy as possible, charging Secret Service agents at his clubs and hosting the G-7 at Doral. He wanted Air Force One. Gdamned right he wanted Air Force One, and he wanted golf, golf, and more damned golf. He wanted all of it, all of the good stuff, that is.
But governing? That sounds like work. Work is the last thing Trump ever wanted. He came to the presidency with two overriding missions; Undue everything the black guy did, and pay back his loan to the very white guy watching his every move.
Jennifer Rubin has it right, though. Never has it been more apparent that Trump isn’t even nominally running the government. She unleashed a takedown one rarely sees in the mainstream media. From the Washington Post:
“When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced she had reached a deal with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, it predictably did not include that payroll tax,” Rubin noted, citing Trump’s plan to help the economy. “Increasingly, the way to get anything done is for Pelosi and Mnuchin to hammer out a reasonable compromise, let Mnuchin sell it to the president and then present it as a fait accompli to the Senate Republicans who have no ideas or legislation of their own, having become vassals of the president. This is how it went on the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement trade negotiations.”
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Exactly.
Have Nancy Pelosi do the deals with the one guy who can’t get out of sitting down with her to do them, Steve Mnuchin. Have Nancy negotiate circles around Mnuchin, get him to agree, and present them to Trump as “must-do” and hope that he buys-in, since he doesn’t want to do the work anyway. Once Trump buys in, the Senate is already “in” since the Senate sold itself to Trump long ago. There is not Senate – Trump “is” the Senate, they gave themselves to him.
It is Pelosi who has all the power right now, since the country is demanding that something get done, and the country is NOT demanding that billionaires get fed sloppy, first. Anytime the agenda is not “gorge the rich,” the Democratic agenda will do well.
Jennifer Rubin states that Pelosi did not, nor had any reason to, hide her delight in getting a bill that mirrored what the Democrats wanted. Here’s what Pelosi got, beyond just free testing: paid sick leave, enhanced unemployment insurance, “strengthened nutrition security initiatives, including SNAP, student meals, seniors’ nutrition, and food banks” and “increased federal funds for Medicaid to support our local, state, tribal and territorial governments and health systems, so that they have the resources necessary to combat this crisis.
That is a Democratic bill, to be sure.
But it is Rubin’s characterization of Trump that hits it home, and tells a hard truth, though a welcome truth. Trump is entirely irrelevant at this point. He is insultingly irrelevant:
Trump is incapable of mastering any level of detail or accurately conveying it to the public. He either cannot remember, or never understood, what he is supposed to roll out and instead often chooses to make himself look better. His penchant for ad-libbing (as he did with disastrous result during his Oval Office speech Thursday night) causes more chaos and confusion.
Trump has neither the mental capacity nor the emotional tools to lead in a crisis. Increasingly, the best course of action seems to be to let him blather, but then hand off matters to the real adults who can correct his misstatements or take action in the real national interest.
QFT.
Someone had to say it.
Trump wanted to “play the president” in the show. He wanted to do the “fun things” like talk to adoring crowds and take credit for everything good about the United States. He wanted to bomb people and talk all badass. He wanted to talk about having his own “warfighters.” And he really, really, wanted to punish people he didn’t like – which actually encompasses most people, and most people bear some scars from that punishment.
But he never wanted to do the work of being president. So when the crises hit – and they all have a crisis – Trump wanted nothing to do with it.
He fought it the way he fights all bad news. He denied it was real. He lied about it. He blamed the media. He blamed the Democrats. He ignored it. He tried diversion. All his old tricks got a run-through, and yet none worked. None worked, because this crises was real and couldn’t be hidden by a flotilla of attorneys.
Hide the problem? Hell, this crisis was nice enough to announce itself on the other side of the world and give him a two month “Here I come!” and Trump still couldn’t handle it.
So now, having exhausted all his tools, Trump hides. To the point now that he makes a token appearance at the beginning of a press conference, pretends to be busy, and dives out to let adults do the work.
He wanted to “play the president” in a reality show. But never wanted to deal with the reality, because reality inevitably gets tough, and it always takes work. Just not his thing.
****
Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom
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