Josh Marshall : Paris Decision Was Driven By the Presidents Rage and Fear

[babylonsister]

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/paris-was-driven-by-the-president-rage-and-fear

Paris Decision Was Driven By the President’s Rage and Fear

By Josh Marshall
Published June 1, 2017 7:34 pm


A friend wrote in and said: Wait, you don’t think this was about the battle between Trump’s “nationalist” and “globalist” advisors, his need to feed his core voters and stuff like that? You think it was driven by a spat with Merkel?

Yes, of course, it was those things. But the decision was driven by contingent events and emotion. Here is what I mean.

I told someone today that if you’d asked me on November 9th, I would have been shocked that it took Trump this long to pull out of the Paris accord. He ran on doing so and talked about it constantly. But he also talked about moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem. He railed against Goldman Sachs. He said he was going to build a ridiculous wall along the US Mexico border. He did and said a million other things that he promptly forgot about or came up with some excuse for not doing.

There’s always been a core of advisors that wanted this outcome. But if not for the events of the last few weeks I think we’d have remained in the Paris accord. Trump got into a growing fight with Europe. France rejected Bannon’s favorite Le Pen. He met with and got disrespected and criticized by the leaders of NATO and the EU. He got mad. Both Merkel and Macron spoke about him as a bully and a child. Macron has happily spoken publicly about over-manning Trump when they met in person.

This isn’t about climate and it isn’t about Trump’s base. It’s about sticking it to the leaders of Europe. That’s what gave the Bannonites the edge. That and one other thing.

Trump is scared. He’s entering a a widening gyre of political crisis over Russia. He’s scared and he’s angry and he needs friends. So he’s more and more likely to hug his base – both the most aggressive advisors and the most committed supporters. He’s trying to bring back Corey Lewandowski, his wildest and most troubling-driving advisor who has the unshakable loyalty and lickspittledom Trump now requires. Indeed, we can take it as a given that as the Russia scandal crisis deepens Trump will become more aggressive and more extreme in his policies both to maintain his emotional equilibrium and reinforce his backing from a shrinking base of supporters. This is as certain as night follows day.

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/paris-was-driven-by-the-president-rage-and-fear

[longship]

1. TPM: A daily must visit.

Josh Marshall is always most thoughtful and prescient. Make sure that you visit his Editor's Blog.

R&

[WinkyDink]

2. Rage, fear, and REVENGE. "America (I) will not be laughed at." Will not be taken for a chump.

[Atman]

3. Spot on.

This was my first observation. But I don't have a famous blog.

[barbtries]

4. it was the handshake (Macron).

the look on trump's face when he made the announcement. was that not full Mussolini style? it's all personal to trump because he is the center of the universe. nothing else matters but he had to show them.

[bigtree]

5. Dan Rather said the same last night

[lunasun]

6. Yes he must keep his base drooling and ready for attack

Expect more bits of our current ways to be chopped up and thrown to his mob to devour
100% agree this is how he stays in place and keeps his voters happy

[catbyte]

7. He needs to keep his ignorant & hateful base happy. He needs those horrific

Nuremberg-Lite ego stroking Klan rallies to be well-attended; it's like oxygen to him. It's one of the very few ways that he can convince himself that he's loved & admired. It's so pathetic. It's pathological. I hope we survive this because it's only going to get worse the closer Mueller gets to him.

[kairos12]

8. Bet on a new war coming.

[yuiyoshida]

9. HIS HATE for Obama and Democrats probably fueled it as well

don't ya think?

[Grins]

10. Corey Lewandowski, ...the unshakable loyalty and lickspittledom Trump now requires.

"...has the unshakable loyalty and lickspittledom Trump now requires."

I'm keeping that one!