The Trump Philosophy isn’t hard to understand. Hell, it’s so small, it barely exists. The body of things he really believes are only a tiny subset of all the stuff he does. I have no idea why the press focuses so strongly on something that doesn’t appear to actually exist. God protect me from another tiresome story about Trump’s changing positions.
But, you know… once you realize that Trump doesn’t have beliefs so much as influences, listening to his latest outrage takes on new meanings. First, you can toss out all the “Why does he think that?” nonsense the chatting class loves — there isn’t much he actually believes — and get down to more important questions of what’s really happening.
First, though, what is Trump’s tiny, stubby-fingered philosophy? Most of the garbage spill he sneers out every day are just Whack-A-Mole responses he doesn’t believe. The cultural wars are usually just a means to an end. What part of it does he believe?
Start with his first priority: Trump. Trump is the center of his universe like nobody before him. (Hey, I wrote a superlative for him!) Sure, we’re all the heroes in our own stories, but Trump sees his own welfare as so much bigger, so overwhelmingly flooding his every moment, it crowds out sympathy, empathy, rational thought, or, really, anything else.
Hannibal argued that Trump is either a psychopath or a sociopath, something I’ve been suggesting for a while. Trump doesn’t seem to show empathy or sympathy so much as clumsily emulate emotions he doesn’t feel. None of that’s conclusive, of course. We don’t really know the inner bits of Trumps’ mind unless we’re his personal brain care specialist. Still, most people won’t argue that Trump’s first priority is his own personal protection and gain.
The Trump Philosophy’s second priority? It’s traditional to say Trump’s family is his second priority, all evidence to the contrary. Personally, I can’t see the love. I think he’d throw Eric or Junior under the bus without much provocation. Still, let’s go with that for now.
Third place in the Trump Philosophy? Hard to say. Terror about brown people is a biggie. Trump’s fear of women is in the list, too. Still, I’ll say that Trump’s third goal is to get the approval and endless praise of… whoever’s in front of him, really. He seems to need endless hyperbolic praise, and he doesn’t care how much smarm drips off it. Just think about Trump’s cabinet meeting in December, 2017, when he pretty-much insisted every minister and department-head tongue-bathe every aspect of Trump, head to toe. It was shameless, and you could see Trump basking in each unlikely and unfelt compliment like it was his air and water.
For the other side, remember that Trump deals with most opposition like a coward. He can’t push back against anyone who’s actually in the room. No matter how badly Trump savaged someone from a distance, once they’re in the room, Trump caves. (Say ‘Hi!’ to the President of Mexico for me.)
So, watching Trump do another impromptu cabinet meeting/TV show on Tuesday was educational. This meeting was purportedly about immigration, and Trump included Democrats as props, too. He let the news cameras roll as he unctuously agreed with every speaker, no matter how much that contradicted the prior politician or any of Trump’s published positions.
That was a window into his soul, wasn’t it? Trump was open to… well, anything the last speaker had said. He caved to each and every person. Still, Trump waxed on about getting a bipartisan immigration bill — any bill — swearing he’d ‘take the heat’ as if that was a real thing for him.
Was this Trump Philosophy in action? Oh, please! But it’s an interesting example of how to manipulate Trump, and who’s really in charge.
So on Tuesday, Trump was gung-ho for any bipartisan immigration bill. On Thursday at 10 AM, Senator Richard Durbin called Trump to say he and Sen. Lindsey Graham had an actual bipartisan immigration bill they’d already drafted. What good timing! Trump asked them to come over, presumably to brief the Republican President on it. And two hours is really, really quick turnaround for getting to any President.
White House advisor and well-dressed skinhead Stephen Miller (R-KKK) must have pissed himself when he found out. He scrambled the GOP White Supremacist wing of Congress into Trump’s office like he had them on speed-dial. We don’t know what happened next, but the Washington Post has a surprisingly broadly sourced story about the meeting: “Inside the tense, profane White House meeting on immigration“. From that and other reporting, I can make some guesses.
Durbin and Graham arrived at noon — all of two hours later — to find that a swarm of racist hardliners, including Senators Tom Cotton and Bob Goodlatte and a knot of staffers. They’d gotten there first, and it sounds like they’d spent their time spinning Trump up with their side of things. By the time Durbin arrived, Trump (big surprise) had changed his position 180 degrees. Not just that, now Trump was angry and shouting… exactly whatever Tom Cotton and the rest had just suggested to him.
Trump told the group he wasn’t interested in the terms of the bipartisan deal that Durbin and Graham had been putting together. And as he shrugged off suggestions from Durbin and others, the president called nations from Africa “shithole countries,” denigrated Haiti and grew angry. The meeting was short, tense and often dominated by loud cross-talk and swearing, according to Republicans and Democrats familiar with the meeting.
— Washington Post, Jan 15, 2018, Inside the tense, profane White House meeting on immigration.
The Post cites Democrats and Republicans for their story, and claims over a dozen sources. Pretty good sourcing for a limited meeting. Did everyone talk to the Post on background? I mean, how many people fit in a White House conference room?
[And another quibble with the Post. “As Trump batted back the Democrats, he was urged on by Republican lawmakers.” Lindsay Graham arrived with Durbin as the co-author of this bipartisan bill. Does the Post mean to suggest that Sen. Graham changed parties, or do they mean that Senators Goodlatte and Cotton are simply more Republican?]Attendees who were alarmed by the racial undertones of Trump’s remarks were further disturbed when the topic of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) came up, these people said.
…
As Trump batted back the Democrats, he was urged on by Republican lawmakers. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) told Graham and Durbin their proposal would not fly, and he told the group they should instead embrace his more conservative bill. Durbin was not interested, White House officials said.
— Washington Post, ibid.
So I’m just guessing here, but imagine that Cotton dashed in a few minutes later, gasping for breath after running down Pennsylvania Ave. He greased his way into Trump’s psyche through some strategic false flattery. Pretend that Cotton then started feeding Trump his trademark ‘white’s only; white’s forever’ conspiracies, with Goodlatte as his white supremacist wing-man. Imagine Cotton had included some interesting views on how the Congressional Black Caucus was subverting the very idea of white America.
If you want, think about whether Trump would pull the word “shithole” out of the void. Seem likely? Maybe, but I wonder if it leapt to his mind because he’d heard that specific word earlier that morning, maybe used by someone who wasn’t Trump. Just guessing there. Trump certainly seemed proud that he’d said it.
Trump isn’t resilient. Facing any public argument, Trump usually folds. Looking at a crop of angry GOP racists, Trump would cave extra-quick. Now imagine how Trump would act when Durbin and Graham arrived at the White House while Trump was still in the middle of a Cotton/Goodlatte demagogue. Trump hates conflict, so I can’t imagine he’d be calm at that moment.
Just for that last courtesy detail, add a spaghetti-western soundtrack. (Hey, I like it.)
Wouldn’t the outcome of all that be a lot like what we just read in the news?
My point isn’t that Trump is a fool (we knew that), or that he’s a racist (ditto), but that he’s accurately parroting the majority opinion of… whoever was last in his face. A Stephen Miller special, apparently abetted by Chief of Staff John Kelly.
Worse, this is the new GOP of Lee Atwater, Carl Rove and Steve Bannon. You think most Republicans don’t really support racism? None of the purported GOP leaders called him out for his racist nonsense. They still they seem perfectly OK with each unconstitutional edict someone else wrote for him.
While I’m on the subject, does anyone want to argue that barely literate Trump dictates those Executive Orders by himself? Or that he chooses the horrible candidates he nominates for federal positions? Again, think about Trump as mostly a meat puppet, with someone else’s hand… um, well…. moving Trump’s lips for him.
Trump is a miserably incompetent President. Given. The GOP wants him as their stooge. Given. But if that was just it — his vote and his mouth — they’d simply chide him when he screws up. It’d be easy, he could keep spouting off, and the GOP would look competent and perfectly re-electable. It wasn’t like Trump might vote against their rich guy’s tax cut. His vote has been in the bag the whole time.
And yet, Republicans don’t do that. Instead, the appease Trump, lie for him, and cover for him, all while flattering this narcissist boor endlessly, and never, never, ever call out this racist and bitter demagogue. Why?
The Republican party lies for Trump because Trump’s racism uses the same engine the GOP has been building for themselves, for decades. That’s the motor to the modern GOP: fear, racism, populism, and scapegoating. Governing just isn’t part of that mix. Sure, Trump is mostly a worthless stooge, but he’s accurately representing the GOP.
I don’t know if Republicans choose not to govern, or simply can’t. It doesn’t make much difference in the end.
