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President Donald Trump: The Thread


Steve9347

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So time to take a deep breath? I’d say a shallow one. I can see two possible scenarios that could follow a drawn-out Trump slump. One is the nightmare I’ve been having for more than a year now. A president hobbled domestically by his own party’s divisions and the opposition’s new energy may be tempted — Putin-like — to change the subject in a way that vaults him back to popularity. A foreign altercation from which he will not back down? A trade war? A smidge likelier, I’d say, is an over-the-top response to an inevitable jihadist terror attack in a major American city. A demagogue loses much of his power when he tries to wrestle complicated legislation through various political factions, in the way our gloriously inefficient Constitution requires. He regains it with rank fear, polarization, and a raw show of force. Heaven knows what the Constitution will look like once he’s finished.

 

The other possibility is that Trump really does at some point realize he’s sinking fast and decides on a hard pivot. He wants to win and be loved, and if he keeps losing and becomes more widely loathed with his current strategy, it’s by no means out of character for him to recalibrate. He could use the possible failure of Trumpcare to feed Paul Ryan to the Breitbartians, and reach out to Democrats on a tweaked Obamacare and infrastructure package. He could dump Bannon the way he dumped Manafort and bulls*** his way through all the inconsistencies (the one thing he remains rather good at). He could wrest himself like Kong on Skull Island from the giant lizards and become the tribune of the forgotten men and women he wants to be, and combine nationalism and protectionism with, er, socialism, like his heroine Marine Le Pen. He could finally realize the potential he has thrown away so far, and become an American Perón.

 

The only snag with this strategy, of course, is that he could hard-pivot only to find himself a Kong who’s alienated from the GOP and obstructed by the emboldened Dems, a rogue, bleeding president without a party, marooned on his own island of polarized irrelevance.

 

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/...nald-trump.html

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the...m=.751d2e694763

 

Edited by caulfield12
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So basically all Trump is capable of with a house and senate majority is signing symbolic or unconstitutional exec orders domestically. Hopefully he doesn't try to make his name in foreign policy where there are less road blocks.

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QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 26, 2017 -> 11:17 AM)
So it turns out that Trump handed Merkel a NATO invoice for $374 billion dollars during her visit. What a despicable conman and an embarrassment to the US.

 

And that adjustment to 2% of GDP isn't even a rule/law...it's a "guideline," and those 23/28 countries under 2 all still have until 2024.

 

Not to mention Merkel is dealing with the refugee crisis and immigrants that the US is largely responsible for...they're spending is over 2% already including their "soft" spending on unwinding the crisis in that region. That doesn't even include the political costs and consequences.

Edited by caulfield12
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QUOTE (BigSqwert @ Mar 26, 2017 -> 12:17 PM)
So it turns out that Trump handed Merkel a NATO invoice for $374 billion dollars during her visit. What a despicable conman and an embarrassment to the US.

 

Laugh all you want but he just solved the national debt problem. Once all those countries promptly pay those invoices in full, there will be money for everyone. Businessman of the century.

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