Above: Thanks to my friends Keith and Sandy who brought me this made in China dog toy (above) all the way from New Zealand where they live a few years ago. See photo of toy with one of my Westies here.
The title of this Washington Post article, Trump’s PAC collected $75 million this year, but so far the group has not put money into pushing for the 2020 ballot reviews he touts, led to my prediction as to what Donald Trump is likely to do as we move towards his own D (for decision) Day about personally running for president again. The paragraph that got my attention in this article follows:
The tactic allows Trump to build up a war chest to use in the 2022 midterms on behalf of candidates he favors — and to stockpile cash for another potential White House run, an unprecedented maneuver for a former president.
As one of the legion of mental health experts trying to understand how Trump’s mind works I think trying to predict his behavior based on his personality is a worthwhile endeavor, however I think there is an easier way to do this. It doesn’t require a degree in psychology. Simply, just follow where he decides to spend his money.
I am dubious about whether he’ll really open his checkbook for those loyalists running in the 2022 midterms when he’ll need the big bucks for his own 2024 campaign. I am even more doubtful that he’d want to spend his money to help the Republicans take control of the House despite this reporting (“Donald Trump and Kevin McCarthy meet in Bedminster as 1/6 committee hearing looms” ):
In a statement after the meeting, McCarthy said he and Trump had a "productive conversation regarding House Republicans' record fundraising, upcoming Congressional special elections, and the latest work being carried out to target vulnerable Democrats."
"As the midterm elections draw closer, I look forward to working together to build upon our success in 2020 where House Republicans flipped 15 seats, lost zero incumbents and elected the most women in conference history," McCarthy said. "I appreciate President Trump's commitment to help House Republicans defeat Democrats and Take Back the House in 2022."
CNN July 15, 2021
I doubt that Trump wants the GOP to take control of the House so he can be made Speaker because this would entail too much actual work for too little personal reward. He’d get a lot of media attention whenever he craved it (which is always) and he wants to stick it to Nancy Pelosi but I doubt this would be enough for him after having been president.
Well Duh…
Trump will always do what is best for Trump, not what is best for his loved ones unless you count that his only loved one is himself. He has three additional loves in his life in addition to himself: adoration, power, and money. While not entirely mutually exclusive to a large degree these three are separate. If he had to choose one of these three I lean towards thinking he’d chose money. He wants people to worship him, he thrives on having power, but he has always measured his self-worth in how much money he has. An indication as to how important this is to him is how he’s always tried to convey the image of someone far richer than he really was.
Hal’s Crystal Ball...
This brings me to how to determine Trump’s intentions for his future. If he forgoes using a significant amount of his money to help other candidates in the midterms and focuses on building a cache of cash we have to look carefully at how that money is spent between 2022 and 2024. If much of that money goes into campaigning for an election he may or may not win I think it suggests he may really want power more than money. If on the other hand he figures out ways to grift as much as possible out of the money raised for his campaign for personal enrichment it tells me he is hedging his bets lest he lose. If he does this he may not really want to be president all that much and would rather make sure that should he lose he has more than the superficial trappings of wealth but actually is a bonafide mega-billionaire, something he never approached being with estimates of his net worth having fallen from $3.7 billion to $2.3 billion since 2017. When you compare him to the likes of these men Trump is a pauper (from most recent Forbes list):
- Jeff Bezos $208.9 billion.
- Elon Musk $159.1 billion.
- Mark Zuckerberg $132.4 billion.
- Bill Gates $131 billion.
- Larry Page $114.6 billion.
- Larry Ellison $113.2 billion.
- Sergey Brin $110.9 billion.
- Warren Buffett $101.3 billion.
When it comes to what I think Trump values the most I consider that being adored, being worshipped, by his MAGA cult doesn’t give him much nor does having sycophants bow down to him when. While totally lacking in self-awareness I believe that at some level he is aware that these people suck up to him because they want something from him.
I think Trump discovered that being president didn’t really give him the authoritarian power he hoped it would especially since he compares himself to dictators like Putin, Kim Jung-un, and other less lights like Erdogan. This is why I think he values money the most of these three. Take the poll and comment on your opinion.
