You know what? I’m getting too old for this shit. Like most of us I’ve been spending the last 26 months calling Trump nothing but a rampant liar on pretty much a daily basis. But having to come out on consecutive days and admit that he’s told the truth, about anything, is too much of a culture shock. But that’s the world we live in.
In a diary yesterday I had to remind everybody that there shouldn’t be anything surprising about His Lowness following ;Chuck and Nancy; around with his tail wagging like a puppy as long as they throw him a positive feedback puppy biscuit every once in a while. Back during the campaign he repeatedly said “I deal with Republicans, I deal with Democrats, I deal with everybody”. And now he is, and the RW media and GOP leaders are furious with him for backing up his words with action.
And now Trump has done it again, dammit. Back during the campaign, Trump constantly, almost ceaselessly reminded people that he “wrote The Art of the Deal”, and would bring all of his wheel and deal skills and experience to the job of President. Yada, yada, yada, right? Yeah, except that he’s actually doing it.
Stick with me for a minute here. What is Trump’s vaunted expertise that he’s bringing to the Presidential bargaining table? He’s an alleged real estate mogul. Those are the kinds of deals he knows. But how does Trump deal? A building catches his eye. He talks to a few people, gets some input, confirms the property’s valuation, and then makes an offer. And being Trump, he makes sure that the offer immediately gets into the media to provide him with the ego boost he constantly craves.
Folks, that’s exactly what Trump is doing now, and has been from the start. Healthcare caught his eye. He knows all about healthcare, Obamacare sucks, and he promised everybody over and over again that he would repeal it on day one. So, he sends his marching orders to Ryan and McConnell to get to work on healthcare, and he transmits them through the media just so everybody knows it was his idea in the first place. Notice any similarity?
Der Gropinfuror took it in the shorts from establishment Republicans for not being intimately enough involved in getting the healthcare legislation passed. Who are they kidding? Trump is a big picture mogul, not a detail guy. When he announces a $675 million deal for a tower, he doesn’t sit down and write a 300 page contract himself. He’s got lawyers and accountants to do that. They do the donkey work, and he signs the contract. As President, he has McConnell and Ryan to do the grunt work, qnd he’ll sign the bill and hold the leather folder up to applause. As for the media, he is once again totally consistent. Once the bid was announced, it’s all about what will be. “This building is gonna be beautiful, the most beautiful of all time”. Compare that with “Healthcare? You’re gonna have healthcare. You’ve never seen such a beautiful healthcare as you’re gonna have thanks to me”. Anybody ever hear that before?
But the most important aspect of being a real estate mogul that Trump has brought to the White House is that he himself is never wrong or to blame. When Trump’s businesses have gone belly up, he has never slunk in the back door to try to wriggle off of the hook. He went in the front door, surrounded by microphones and cameras, blustering about how he was going in there to cut a better deal cuz “that’s what he does, make great deals”. If he’s such a great negotiator, how come his original deal had to be done over again? The way he sees it, he did his job. He gave the master idea to Paul and Mitch. and they couldn’t get it done. Don’t blame Trump, he got it right, it was the morons below him who couldn’t carry the water. And he used the media incessantly to make damn sure that everybody knew it.
So, there you have it. Trump really is doing his best to bring his vaunted negotiating skills to his government service. There are a couple of problems here. If you’re a first round draft pick in the NHL, do you want a tax attorney negotiating your contract? Of course not, you want a sports agent. Trump is negotiating blind, he knows nothing about how to negotiate legislatively. And unfortunately, unlike putting up a schlock palace tower, Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan are two contractors that he can’t just fire and replace. But cut him a little slack, willya? He’s actually trying to follow through on a promise, something he’s never done before.