And here I thought I’d just be sitting around moping, with nothing good to write about now that it was a done deal. Shows how much I know! Trump is like a line from those Zulily commercials, “Every day is a little surprise”.
Did anybody catch any of those images and videos coming out of the Capitol and White House yesterday? To my eye, Trump looked like a train wreck survivor. He walked slowly through the halls, mostly looking down at his feet, and kept almost a death grip on Melania’s hand, like he was hanging over the edge of a lifeboat. I think I saw him smile once, and that was when he cut off the reporters from questions, and even that smile looked almost wistful. Even when Paul Ryan took him out onto the Speakers balcony to describe his inauguration to him, he wasn’t tall and proud, he nodded his head and his shoulders seemed slumped, as if under a tremendous weight.
Welcome to reality Donnie. And no, I don’t mean the t.v. kind of reality you babbling poltroon, I mean the kind of reality the rest of us live with every day. Reality t.v. is great, you strut into a room, sit in your high backed chair, scowl at everybody and snarl insults at all and sundry, until the part where you point your finger at one of them and angrily say “You’re fired”! And they just lower their eyes and nod their heads, good little sheep that they are.
Not anymore fool, not in 70 days. Yesterday you just met your worst nightmare. People who aren’t scared of you, nor intimidated by you. News flash laddie, you can’t fire Mitch McConnell or Paul Ryan, and you can’t order them around like the myriad of minions over in Trump Tower. These guys are going to eat you up and spit you out. You may not have a clue as to what you can actually do as President, but they know perfectly well everything you can and can’t do, and every single thing that they can do. Good luck stiffing them if you don’t like the quality of their work, the people pay them, not you, you have no leverage there either.
The next two years of this Congress, if not longer are going to be a disaster. KellyAnne Conway told a reporter recently that her secret to success in dealing with Trump was to make sure that she phrased everything she wanted him to do to sound as if it was his thought in the first place. The kind of stuff that Trump is going to want to do is most likely not stuff that McConnell and Ryan are going to think of as gifts under their Christmas tree. And since Trump strongly dislikes and doesn’t trust either man, and they fully return the sentiment, it’s going to be hard for them to communicate effectively with Trump to get their own agendas moving. Their best hope is that KellyAnne Conway retains a high profile job in the West Wing, close to Trump so she can act as a back channel conduit between the two groups. And don’t even get me started on the kind of trouble Steve Bannon is going try to foment that will have to be dealt with.
I said months ago that I didn’t honestly believe that Trump ever actually wanted to be President. It was all about making a buck, pushing his brand, and feeding his massive ego. You could see that by the look on his face when he made his victory speech after winning the Indiana primary, and he realized that he actually was going to win the nomination. He seemed almost shell shocked. He looked the same way all day yesterday. No more stretch limo rides for four years, no more private jet, no more gold plated toilet fixtures, and no more palatial office complete with on demand taco bowl photo ops. Just an actual job to do, and with absolutely no clue of how to do it, and no real desire to learn. Buckle your seat belts folks, we’re in for a bumpy ride!
Thanks as always for reading, you are ALL the wind beneath my wings!