Trump Reportedly Tried to Convince Kasich to Be His VP by Offering Him the President’s Job

[brooklynite]

Source: Slate

The New York Times’ Robert Draper has a rather remarkable accounting of how Donald Trump went about picking Mike Pence as his running mate more or less by default, which includes this doozy:

One day this past May, Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., reached out to a senior adviser to Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, who left the presidential race just a few weeks before. As a candidate, Kasich declared in March that Trump was “really not prepared to be president of the United States,” and the following month he took the highly unusual step of coordinating with his rival Senator Ted Cruz in an effort to deny Trump the nomination. But according to the Kasich adviser (who spoke only under the condition that he not be named), Donald Jr. wanted to make him an offer nonetheless: Did he have any interest in being the most powerful vice president in history?

When Kasich’s adviser asked how this would be the case, Donald Jr. explained that his father’s vice president would be in charge of domestic and foreign policy.

Then what, the adviser asked, would Trump be in charge of?

“Making America great again” was the casual reply.

Read more: http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/07/20/trump_reportedly_wanted_kasich_as_vp_to_be_in_charge_of_domestic_and_foreign.html

[underpants]

1. But what about THE WALL?!??

Wow Trump Is actually his own joke

[NewJeffCT]

16. Trump will be too busy

promoting the newest Trump golf resort. Or, maybe he'll rebrand some national parks - The Trump Grand Canyon, or The Trump Yellowstone National Park.

[SCantiGOP]

17. Not sure if you're not correct

I think he might view the Presidency as a money-making opportunity.
That is scary.

[muriel_volestrangler]

2. Interesting - believable, though whether it happened or not, who knows?

It could easily be a bit of revenge from the Kasich camp to make Trump look unsuitable as president (I mean, it's not as if they can now say "Pence can do all the real presidenting", after the way the introduced him as a ventriloquist's dummy). But we've said more than once that we can't see Trump actually wanting to to the day-to-day work of the presidency.

And that was why I posted this a couple of months ago:

The president’s job - and if someone sufficiently vain and stupid is picked he won’t realise this, is not to wield power, but to draw attention away from it. Zaphod Beeblebrox, the only man in history to have made presidential telecasts from the bath, from Eccentrica Gallumbits bedroom, from the maximum-security wing of the Betelgeuse State Prison, or from where ever else he happened to be at the time, was supremely good at this job.

http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/THHGTTG/THHGTTGradio9.htm

The major problem - one of the major problems - for there are several - one of the many major problems with governing people is that of who you get to do it. Or, rather, of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarise: it is a well-known and much lamented fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarise the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made president should, on no account, be allowed to do the job. To summarise the summary of the summary: people are a problem. And so this is the situation we find. A succession of Galactic Presidents who so much enjoy the fun and palaver of being in power that they never really notice that they’re not. And somewhere in the shadows behind them, who? Who can possibly rule if no one who wants to, can be allowed to?

http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/THHGTTG/THHGTTGradio12.htm

Beeblebrox was, however, a nice guy, underneath. Unless he really was responsible, in league with a consortium of psychiatrists, for getting the Earth blown up to avoid the Ultimate Question being found, that is ...

[Darb]

3. More proof that it is all about his ego. He doesn't want to do the job.

It's a really tough job and that prick is not nearly qualified. Not even close. Dangerously close to winning though. We must take him down with extreme prejudice at the ballot box. Embarrass him. Make it over as soon as the polls close on the east coast. Then we can sleep that night in peace.

[TeamPooka]

4. So Pence will run the country if Trump's elected. @#&%$#@ nt

[ChairmanAgnostic]

14. ruin, not run

Don't mean to be a spelling cop, but, it is impotent.

Important.

[pandr32]

25. Boom!

Love it! Ha-ha!

But, you're right--all laughter aside--sigh

[Saviolo]

27. Double DUzy.

[getagrip_already]

5. trump won't even let his campaign manage itself....

how does anyone expect him to let a vp manage the country?

trump will be micromanaging everything after the faact. it will completely paralyze the executive branch at the top. nobody will be able to trust pence since he will not be the deciderer.

[rpannier]

34. That's why I am kind of skeptical

This story sounds invented
Though with Trump you never can tell
But, I just can't see Trump giving anyone any responsibility that didn't require his stamp of approval
I think if Trump was having brain surgery he'd insist on being awake so he could instruct the surgeon on how to do it correctly
And... make brain surgery great again

[cynzke]

46. This Is Soooooo Trump!

This was the "Art of The Deal" text book maneuver. Offer your opponent something THEY want in order to get what you want. Getting Kasich on board with the Trump campaign would have given him a big boost/support from GOP voters. But once you get an agreement, there is always a way to wiggle out of it if you have no intention of honoring the agreement in the first place. Trump is amoral. He does not value or care about his reputation only his public persona. The end justifies using all means, including unethical ones. In business Trump has proven he has no ethics. Ethics get in his way. Of course, as usual, Trump had no intention of keeping his promise to Kasich as he probably has no intention of honoring any agreement he made to Pence. What is Pence going to do, quit!

[getagrip_already]

52. i'm not sure he has no ethics...

I think he has rotten/bad ethics. Tis assuming that ethics can be either positive or negative.

If given two choices which are both equal in all ways except ethics, trump would chose the unethical approach just because in his mind it has a higher chance of working out in his favor. He will always go to the dark side, probably even when taking the high road shows better economics and success possibility.

He just doesn't BELIEVE that working within any system works. This is a guy who would charge you to tell you the time of day, and then intentionally adding 15 minutes to it.

[moonscape]

6. Surprises me not at all - he never wanted to do the actual job n/t

[sarae]

7. I can imagine Trump's response now...

"Kasich, a loser who couldn't get elected dog-catcher, just made up nasty LIES about me and my son. He approached me begging for a position, any position, but I wouldn't even hire him to fetch my coffee."

[NewJeffCT]

15. that sounds like par for the course

and, his fans will eat it up.

[Botany]

8. Kasich wants no part of being linked to Trump

John knows that Trump is gonna go down in flames and doesn't want
to go along for the kamikaze ride.

[hamsterjill]

26. This^^^^^^^!!!!!

Kasich joins Romney, the Bushes, et al.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. It's not to laugh

that is exactly what is going on here

Trump will resign quickly if elected
and we'll be left with Right Wing Pence

[sarae]

11. I agree. It's terrifying.

And if he doesn't resign, we'll all be nuked. Either way, we're screwed if he wins.

[PatSeg]

10. It kind of reminds me of GWB

It seemed he cared more about becoming president than actually governing. I'm not sure he put a whole lot of thought into the job, just the title.

[Cosmocat]

50. That is absolutely correct

Bush II didn't want to DO the job, it was a bother to him.

He wanted two things:

1) To outdo his father to satiate a father son complex
2) To have everyone kiss his ass

Past that, he could have lived without it.

[PatSeg]

51. Oh yes

That was exactly how I saw it. He liked the status and prestige of being president and he could say, "Look Daddy, I'm not such a fuckup after all." 9/11 really screwed things up big time and cut into his golf game.

I do believe that because of his father, he did have one item on his agenda, take out Saddam. He was rather like a child playing a board game, with god on his side of course.

[ck4829]

12. Pretty sure the President's supposed to be some involved leader, not a figurehead

Awfully close to dereliction of duty. What Donny Jr proposed does not meet the standard required for Article II, Section 3 of the Constitution. Can we really expect Trump to be able to do that if someone else is in charge of the policy?

[no_hypocrisy]

13. And THAT'S the real reason Christie wanted that VP slot.

He would be President-behind-the-scenes for eight years and then run for a potential eight more years.

We could have had 16 years of Chris Christie in the White House.

[cynzke]

47. BET CHRISTIE GOT THE SAME SALES PITCH....

TO LURE HIM ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL. ALTHOUGH, CHRISTIE WAS PROBABLY READY AND WILLING TO SWALLOW THE PITCH! DIDN'T TAKE MUCH TO GET HIM ON BOARD.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

18. Policy is foreign to Trump. But he has foreign affairs, even marries some. . . nt

[AwakeAtLast]

19. Um, that was Cheney

Copying again....

[IronLionZion]

20. I doubt Trump ever wanted to be president

he's probably the most surprised that he's made it this far.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. Reagan treated the Presidency as an acting role....

Trump wants to treat it like he's the star of a reality TV show.

[63splitwindow]

28. +1000

Trump also encourages the caricatured good guy/bad guy version of reality portrayed in professional wrestling.

[rpannier]

35. Between Nov 10 and his inaguration

we'd see various persons doing assigned tasks with the winner getting the ___________ Secretary role
Every episode he'd fire one of them until only one was left
Thenjh he'd move on to the next cabinet post

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. Knowing him, he'll claim he can do it all himself.

[rpannier]

44. Bugs Bunny played all 9 positions in baseball

[Spitfire of ATJ]

48. Yeah, but "The Donald" ain't so swift.

[dawnie51]

22. Does anyone really believe...

Trump will "president"? He has zero interest. He'd contract out ALL functions of the president; from his penthouse in NY no less. He would not spend two seconds in Washington, he would expect his minions to give him a one paragraph report at breakfast, and the rest of his day would be spent on Twitter and jetting off to a golf course. This is the lowest point of our collective existence as a country. He has no curiosity, no true intellect and he has multiple psychiatric issues. He would have been thrilled to turn it all over to Kasich, just as Bush was happy to turn it over to Cheney. He just wants to wear the crown.

[elmac]

23. It will be President Pence

if people are dumb enough to vote for Trump. Pence=Cheney

[secondwind]

24. ....

[red dog 1]

29. Trump is a pathological liar, so even if his son did approach Kasich with the offer

"to be the most powerful vice president in history"..that doesn't mean that Trump actually WOULD allow Kasich "to be the most powerful vice president in history"

IMO, Trump wanted Kasich because Kasich would likely deliver his own state of Ohio, a valuable "swing state"..in November.

On the other hand, since Trump is insane, the offer to Kasich may have been genuine.

It's up to Hillary Clinton now...she HAS to defeat this dangerous mad man,
and she must choose a running mate who can unite the now-divided Democratic Party.

[yurbud]

30. so he wants to be Queen Elizabeth

[dlwickham]

32. I don't think he could pull off hats as well as she does

[dlwickham]

31. I was trying to figure out what would be left for Trump to do

guess I was right in thinking nothing

[Mc Mike]

33. Little donnie's really lazy.

[jimlup]

36. Fascinating ... says two interesting things about Trump

1. He isn't a leader.

2. He can't negotiate worth shit.

I guess we already knew both of these but let's throw it in their faces for 6 months.

[sueh]

37. OMG. For a few seconds I thought this came from The Onion.

[progressoid]

38. Oh sweet Jesus.

What the hell is going on over there?

[billhicks76]

40. Disappearances and Internment Camps

That's what Trump will oversee.

[LittleGirl]

41. I have this nagging feeling

we're all being pranked. Gawd, the awfulness never ends with this GOP. And Pence as VP? OMG, WTF?

[Judi Lynn]

42. Wow! This is so strange, isn't it? Sure hope the world gets around. Thank you.

[Craig234]

43. Well

President Truman offered to run as VP under Eisenhower in 1948, if MacArthur was looking like he'd be the Republican nominee.

[rug]

45. Sounds like trump wants to be Queen Elizabeth.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

49. Zaphod's ego

[olddad56]

53. I think the great negotiator has already sold the President's job to the Koch Bros.

why else would he have selected their fair haired boy, Mike Pence.

[JudyM]

54. Presumably Pence bought it.

Would be surprising if he weren't offered a similar deal, since we know what tRump is trying to orchestrate.