Donald J. Trump, Forty - Fifth President of the United States of America, made a major personal sacrifice by not going to his Private Club, Mar - a - Lago, over the Xmas holidays. The reason he explained was that he was waiting for Nancy and Chuck to bring him his Xmas present, a 5 billion dollar wall. If his statements about his wealth were true, not that there is anything to make anyone believe that anything he says is true, then he could pay for it himself. But this was supposedly a matter of principle, not that anyone would believe that he had any principles….
Melania had gone down to Florida and would come back to spend Xmas day with him. She was obviously not persuaded that him staying in Washington was such a big deal as he had spent twenty - five percent of his Presidency on his properties anyway. Any rate he could tweet from anywhere which he did reflecting his sad plight:
“I am alone, poor me, waiting for the Democrats to come back and make a deal on desperately needed border security…..not wanting to make a deal will cost our country more money than the Border Wall we are talking about. Crazy”.
So spare a thought for the President as he watched the ball drop to bring in the New Year, a year which the LA Times claimed would be the worst year of his life. But as “poor” Donald reflected he had had very bad times in the past and had come out tops. The good news was that he had cleaned house, (the WhiteHouse that is), of all those traitors in the Administration who were trying “to save the nation from him”.
THERE HAVE BEEN THE BAD TIMES WHEN TRUMP HAD TO GET INPUT
There was a time when he listened to his father but in truth Frank had been his piggy bank ever since he was a child so there was a big reward to appear to be taking in paternal words of wisdom. In fact when it suited him he left his dad’s cushy job, against his advice, to venture into the real glitzy world of Manhattan to make a small fortune, where in fact he lost a big fortune. The New York Times investigative team gave the lie to his lie that Fred Trump of blessed memory had only loaned him a million when in fact he had coughed up over $400 million and even committed fraud to try and avert his son’s bankruptcy in Atlantic City.
When Fred Trump was in his dotage his son Donald, the failed Manhattan property owner, conspired to lay his hands on all his aging dad’s money. He presented him, like Jacob did to Isaac, with a will to sign ensuring that all of the money would be his. The NY Times found that dad, unlike the biblical patriarch, had responded angrily and ensured that the money would be shared amongst all the siblings. Trump never one to bear a grudge joined with his sibs to syphon off Trump Senior’s assets thereby avoiding death duties. But that was then and this was now. He stopped himself he could not waste time reminiscing. He needed a miracle to bail him out of the escalating mess he found himself in and as dad and Roy Cohn were no longer alive he would have to get some other devotees to help make him whole again. He also had his uncanny gut that he would rely on.
DOES THE DONALD REALLY NEED ANYBODY WHEN HE HAS HIS GUT?
The pressure was really building and “poor” Donald who was all alone on New Year’s Eve because the Democrats wouldn’t help open the government that he had shut. This lonely period when even Fox was concentrating on New year celebrations gave the 45th President plenty of time to take stock. Donald hadn’t paused too many times in his life to get input. He mused that his gut was more on the money, (pardon the pun), than an army of bullshit experts and advisors.
As the POTUS has reminded again and again he was the biggest know all on everything and anything, so this was desperation to even contemplate counsel. After all he was more battle wise than his generals, more money wise than his economists, more worldly than his foreign policy experts, more balanced on trade than his secretaries of commerce and could build the best walls, “believe me”. The Donald mused for just a moment and compared what happened to the Trump Inc employees whom he fired. They shut up because they were scared of breaking their non disclosure agreements. Everyone he terminated now writes a book and makes a fortune! Nobody is scared of him around here. What Donald truthfully doesn’t fathom is why when he was head of Trump Inc he was above the law and now that he is head of the whole of America he isn’t?
The problem was who can he talk to besides the kids? Even with everyone gone the Fake News people still know what is going in the WhiteHouse. There is Giuliani and of course Hannity. They will tell him that he is on the right track. But can he trust even them? Roger Stone has sworn loyalty but when push comes to shove won’t he sell out like Michael Cohen who said he would take a bullet for him? Lindsey Graham plays games - he disagrees on Foreign Policy and then swears blind that the POTUS can do whatever else he likes. Maybe he like the rest he is secretly putting the brakes on him? KellyAnne has stuck by his side through thick and thin. But if she is so committed why does she let that fool of a husband of hers tweet his opposition to all his legal moves? Sarah Huckabee Sanders - now there is a star. Trouble is she is getting battle fatigue and always defers to him…..
When push comes to shove he has four allies in this struggle against the overwhelming odds that now face him which were in order of importance: His undying faith in his own bullshit that his gut emits; his base, Fox and his other friends and his ability to divert attention from his real problems.
THE SOLUTION - UNLESS HE GETS HIS WALL HE WON’T PLAY
So the Donald, gratuitously prompted by his self elected Chief Advisors, Hannity, Laura Ingram, Rush Limbaugh, Anne Coulter and the like, resuscitated erecting his “Great Great Beautiful Wall” and threatened that unless he gets the money to build it he would shutdown the Government. To the undisguised glee of Chuck Schumer and the wily Nancy Pelosi he announced to them and the world that, “He would be proud to own the shutdown”. While this diverted attention - from Mueller, the Russian Thing, his fraudulent Charitable Trust, his bizarre support of Putin’s revisionist history that the USSR invaded Afghanistan because of terrorists, the scandal involving his clubs’ knowingly employing undocumented workers, the unprecedented legislative loss in the midterms, the seventeen legal investigations including two criminal cases were he was an unindicted coconspirator, the fact that Romney was now the leader of the opposition in the Republican Party and the realization that he was about to be exposed with House Investigations up the ying yang, - it was a proven political loser.
So he would reassure himself by publicly holding a Cabinet Meeting with all his Acting Secretaries who always pledge undying loyalty. Then he would hog the media limelight by holding meetings with Nancy and Chuck to underline the fact that he was sticking to his guns and would shut the Government till 2020 unless he gets his own way. His base and his Fox and other friends would cheer him on in the hope that that will boost their waining Nielsen ratings.
WILL IT WORK?
He then issued a hurricane of tweets where he trumpeted his achievements, cast aspersions on the Democratic motives, alleged that the Democrats’ objective was to impeach him and summed it all up in one grand tweet announcement:
“How do you impeach a president who has won perhaps the greatest election of all time, done nothing wrong (no collusion with Russia, it was the Dems that colluded), had the most successful first two years of any President and is the most popular Republican in party history 93%?
Interestingly enough this rebuttal to reality was not the focus of media attention rather they were covering Nancy’s triumphant ascendency to the Speakership, Even the faithful hardly took notice of this defining tweet with only twenty thousand retweets and eighty - five thousand “likes”. The Republican reaction or lack of it was deafening - Mitch McConnell disingenuously claiming that the shutdown had nothing to do with the Republicans - it was the affair of the Democrats and el Presidente.
THE NANCY AND CHUCK AGENDA
Now Schumer and Nancy had been collaborating since way back on their combined strategy should the Democrats retake the House. According to Chuck they confer over a half a dozen times a day. They had to maintain the balance of advancing a positive agenda while investigating Donald. There had been consultations with the possible future Heads of Committees to apportion chunks of the task to expose The Russian Thing as well. It was going to be responsible government from day one.
The first order of business was to open the Government. Their approach was sweet reasonableness. In effect what they were advocating had already been accepted by Mitch McConnell and the Senate Republicans and even Trump before he went rogue. They would fund all the other agencies that had nothing to do with the wall. With regard to Homeland Security that managed Border Security they would provide funds for it for thirty days so that a compromise could be worked out.
THE RESPONSE TO THE NANCY AND CHUCK AGENDA
The Fox and Donald’s other friends mainly ignored the Democratic moves to end the impasse egging the POTUS on to stick to his guns. They discovered the new threat to the country in a couple of Democratic radicals. There were two Muslim women one of whom was irreverent enough to claim that she was going to “Impeach the Motherf…er”. Most of the attention was devoted to the existential danger that the eloquent twenty - eight year old Alexandria Ocasio - Cortez, who was a dissolute Commie, posed. Videos were released where she was a college student dancing on the roof. This event became the focus of so much media attention that even the BBC covered the ludicrous bohaai. These subversive revolutionaries were the tail wagging the Democratic dog was the message not the mantra that the Democratic actions were conveying.
However Nancy and Chuck were too professional to take the bait they rather watched their Republican colleagues squirm. Seven in the House of Representatives unprecedentedly voted with Nancy. There were stirrings amongst the Senate Republicans who were in the hot seat in 2020. Two came out publicly as supportive of the Democratic duo, Senator Gardner from Colorado and Senator Collins from Maine who both faced uphill reelections. Lindsey Graham who really is in such a muddle unconditionally backing the President one minute but now believing that he can come up with a compromise. He wants to link DACA citizenship to border wall money - a deal that Trump is not interested in and the Democrats who are in the pound seats are more focussed at the moment on reopening ninety five percent of the government. Graham’s vacillating has left him with no credibility with either side. Graham, recognizing the threat that Trump’s intransigence poses, obviously wants this all to go away and has been trying to pressure Trump to offer the Democratic duo a deal they cannot refuse.
The real variable in this impasse would be Mitt Romney who has already put down his marker as not to be counted as a yes man to the Trump rantings by publishing an op ed in the Washington Post declaring Trump unfit to be President. The threat he posed has been lurking in the background ever since he announced his candidacy for the Senate a year ago. (Blog: High Noon: Trump versus Romney as Bannon Jumps Ship. 1/4/18).
Romney is a shrewd establishment politician so if he decides this is the issue to put Trump in his place and he has the support to force McConnell to bring Chuck and Nancy’s motions to the floor, he will go for it. According to Schumer, several of the Republican Senators rage against Trump in private. If they feel comfortable enough to share their feelings with the Minority Democratic leader how much easier will it be to liase with their new de facto GOP leader.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
The Donald, for the moment, is deeply ensconced in the bunker and relying on his gut and his army of way out media advisors. He claims he will shut the Government till 2020 to get his wall, whatever version he is now touting. It will be an irony if this issue rather than the Russia Thing, the Trump corruption or his actions depriving Americans of health care will be his first major parting with the GOP legislators.
Meanwhile Trump ups the ante tweeting that he can constitutionally declare an emergency and get military money to build the wall…. all this while the chaos already emanating from a two week shutdown escalates - 800 thousand unpaid workers, trash piling up at the National Parks, food stamp payments halted, tax refunds stopped, courts running out of money to operate, farmers not getting their subsidies, unpaid Transport Security Agents calling in sick at airports causing long lines…….
To be continued.
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