Why is everyone is looking at Trump thru "He's president so he must be trying to govern" spectacles?

[cheyanne]

When faced with what appears to be a Trump problem, pundits look at Trump and call him crazy, self-defeating or dumb. That's because they are assuming that he wants to govern. But if Trump is evaluated by the actual results of his actions, there is a clear pattern that appears. Here is an outline of his actions:

Target: business community: Calls out Carrier for exporting jobs. This strikes fear into the heart of the business world. Trump has just put them on notice that he will use his bully pulpit for actually hurt a particular company for no reason at all. Lesson: I can make your stock lose $$ in one day.

Target: Intelligence community: By constantly demeaning the FBI and CIA, he is delegitimatizing them so that they are no longer trusted.

Target: Judicial system: By attacking individual judges not the law, he is destroying it as a power center.

Target: Congress: Every time the House has attempted to get a bill to the floor, Trump changes the agenda on them. First Healthcare, then no let's do taxes, then healthcare again just as the House is about to prevent a shutdown.

Target: State Dept.: He refuses to staff and cuts programs that help our allies and strengthens our international standing. Thus all international policy must come from him. And America's position in the world is weakened.

So no legislation is a win for Trump, no State dept. staff gives him a free hand.


This is the way that a demagogue makes it possible to take over a democratic country. With other power centers weakened, he can induce a "crisis" that will let him take over all power. Like Russia, another "democracy", he will have all the power and a lapdog congress to rubber stamp his decisions.

[Orsino]

1. Because it's less terrifying than...

...acknowledging that we have installed in our highest office an addled man-baby who has no idea what he's doing.

[vlyons]

2. Not everyone is looking at him as tho' he's just trying to govern

While the effects of all his actions are probably true, I seriously doubt that he has planned it out that way. Bannon may have planned it out that way. But not Trump. Trump is incapable of making long-range strategic plans. His actions are mostly ad hoc decisions made with little or no thought, except to curry favor with Wall St, the far right wing, racists, and the war machine. Trump has no rigid ideology about a great war between Islam and christianity. But he is interested in stealing middle-east oil, because - ya know - money.

[cheyanne]

3. I agree that he did not plan this out.

He didn't know that he could knock 17 rivals by calling them names and not allowing any policy discussions. He didn't know that crowds would love his fear-mongering, his impossible goals "from day 1". He didn't know that a lot of the rules for campaigns and presidential elections could be ignored without retribution. And his growing power kept feeding his incredible need to be top dog.

Instinctively, he understands that power rests on the illusions one can create. He knows how to undermine any opposition. If it's the courts, pick on the judges. Don't even bother with legality. Make the administration attractive to the money men: give them high positions they can use for their own benefit. Set up a culture of graft.

And he will find the people who will give him the cover of legitamacy. Surrounded by these people, he is in the bubble of his own making.

And there are two ways this can end: total power or impeachment. . .