So many Trump voters pinned their desperate hopes on him because they bought into his delusional belief and self-promotion of his “superior” persuasive and deal-making skills. Alas, their lack of understanding about how government actually works erroneously let them believe that somehow a “business man,” with multiple bankruptcies, frauds and scams, would reshape federal policies in their favor.
As it turns out, as so many of us suspected from the beginning, Trump, like Molly Ivans used to say: “Is all hat and no cattle.” Trump Steaks, anyone?
If you had paid any attention whatsoever to his actual business “career,” you would have known that the New York business community and his “fellow” billionaires held the “short-fingered vulgarian” in utter contempt. Real business whiz Mitt Romney gave an impassioned speech warning us all, before he crawled on his knees after the election to The Worst Dinner Date Ever. Mark Cuban just keeps chuckling on the sidelines, as he fends off requests that HE run for president next time.
No American bank would lend Trump a dime, his credit-worthiness a joke, forcing him to beg the Russian mafia oligarchs and spy-infested Putin-controlled state banks for the capital to keep his failing business “empire” afloat. His reality TV image of competence was a complete illusion created to get ratings and enhance the value of his “brand,” not remotely connected to any evidence of actual business success.
During the campaign, about the only evidence of any persuasive success whatsoever was in the famous Billy Bush interview, where undeniably Trump claimed to be able to use his celebrity to have his way (along with a few well-timed TicTacs) with any supermodel, beauty pageant contestant, or golddigging bimbo he set his sights on.
Unfortunately that same persuasive prowess failed to have any effect on Congress when it was time to count the Republican votes on his first legislative promise and “top priority” of the passing of TrumpCare. The much-ballyhooed action scheduled for Day One actually occurred on Day 64, which seems like plenty of time to grab the necessary votes.
After seven years of Republican promises to liberate Americans from the “horrors of failing Obamacare,” Obama’s signature achievement is now over twice as popular (54% and rising) than the Congressional Republicans themselves (22% and falling), who never screwed up enough courage to make it happen when they finally had the chance.
Despite Trump and Steve Bannon grabbing and twisting as hard as they could, Congress failed to respond to their powers of persuasion, brushing off the grip of those tiny hands as having less power than a two year old trying to hold on to his candy.
Only poor Paul Ryan was emasculated in the fracas, (so every cloud does have a silver lining) because he put his political balls into Trump’s minuscule mitts and trusted him. But the teflon-coated Great Orange One turned around and blamed poor Paul for the fiasco and denied his own feckless “leadership” and obvious weakness had anything to do with the biggest legislative failure in recent history.
Ouch! That’s got to hurt!
Nancy Pelosi could have told them, in her sweet grandmotherly voice: “You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar,” as she jumped for joy on the Capitol lawn.