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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsIn my inbox: A letter from Michael Moore about Trump Self-Sabotaging the campaign.What do you think?
Trump is Self-Sabotaging His Campaign Because He Never Really Wanted the Job in the First Place
Friends,
Donald Trump never actually wanted to be President of the United States. I know this for a fact. Im not going to say how I know it. Im not saying that Trump and I shared the same agent or lawyer or stylist or, if we did, that that would have anything to do with anything. And Im certainly not saying that I ever overheard anything at those agencies or in the hallways of NBC or anywhere else. But there are certain people reading this right now, they know who they are, and they know that every word in the following paragraphs actually happened.
Trump was unhappy with his deal as host and star of his hit NBC show, The Apprentice (and The Celebrity Apprentice). Simply put, he wanted more money. He had floated the idea before of possibly running for president in the hopes that the attention from that would make his negotiating position stronger. But he knew, as the self-proclaimed king of the dealmakers, that saying youre going to do something is bupkus DOING it is what makes the bastards sit up and pay attention.
Trump had begun talking to other networks about moving his show. This was another way to get leverage the fear of losing him to someone else and when he quietly met with the head of one of those networks, and word got around, his hand was strengthened. He knew then that it was time to play his Big Card.
He decided to run for President.
Of course he wouldnt really have to RUN for President just make the announcement, hold a few mega-rallies that would be packed with tens of thousands of fans, and wait for the first opinion polls to come in showing him what else! in first place! And then he would get whatever deal he wanted, worth millions more than what he was currently being paid.
So, on June 16th of last year, he rode down his golden escalator and opened his mouth. With no campaign staff, no 50-state campaign infrastructure neither of which he needed because, remember, this wasnt going to be a real campaign and with no prepared script, he went off the rails at his kick-off press conference, calling Mexicans rapists and drug dealers and pledging to build a wall to keep them all out. Jaws in the room were agape. His comments were so offensive, NBC, far from offering him a bigger paycheck, immediately fired him with this terse statement: Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump. NBC said it was also canceling the beauty pageants owned by Trump: Miss USA and Miss Universe. BOOM.
Trump was stunned. So much for the art of the deal. He never expected this, but he stuck to his plan anyway to increase his value in the eyes of the other networks by showing them how many millions of Americans wanted Him to be their Leader. He knew, of course (and the people he trusted also told him) that there was no way he was actually going to win many (if any) of the primaries, and he certainly would not become the Republican nominee, and NEVER would he EVER be the President of the United States. Of course not! Nor would he want to be! The job of being President is WORK and BORING and you have to live in the GHETTO of Washington, DC, in a SMALL 200-yr. old house thats damp and dreary and has only TWO floors! A second floor is not a penthouse! But none of this was a worry, as Trump for President was only a ruse that was going to last a few months.
And then something happened. And to be honest, if it happened to you, you might have reacted the same way. Trump, to his own surprise, ignited the country, especially among people who were the opposite of billionaires. He went straight to #1 in the polls of Republican voters. Up to 30,000 boisterous supporters started showing up to his rallies. TV ate it up. He became the first American celebrity to be able to book himself on any show he wanted to be on and then NOT show up to the studio! From Face the Nation to The Today Show to Anderson Cooper, he was able to simply phone in and theyd put him on the air live. He couldve been sitting on his golden toilet in Trump Tower for all we knew and the media had no problem with any of that. In fact, CBS head Les Moonves famously admitted that Trump was very good for TV ratings and selling ads music to the ears the NBC-spurned narcissist.
Trump fell in love with himself all over again, and he soon forgot his mission to get a good deal for a TV show. A TV show? Are you kldding thats for losers like Chris Harrison, whoever that is (host of The Bachelorette). He was no longer king of the dealmakers he was King of the World! His tiniest musings would be discussed and dissected everywhere by everybody for days, weeks, months! THAT never happened on The Apprentice! Host a TV show? He was the star of EVERY TV SHOW and, soon, winning nearly every primary!
And then
you can see the moment it finally dawned on him
that Oh shit! revelation: Im actually going to be the Republican nominee and my rich beautiful life is f#*@ing over! It was the night he won the New Jersey primary. The headline on TIME.com was, Donald Trumps Subdued Victory Speech After Winning New Jersey. Instead of it being one of his loud, brash speeches, it was downright depressing. No energy, no happiness, just the realization that now he was going to have to go through with this stunt that he started. It was no longer going to be performance art. He was going to have to go to work.
Soon, though, his karma caught up with him. Calling Mexicans rapists should have disqualified him on Day One (or for saying Obama wasnt born here, as he did in 2011). No, it took 13 months of racist, sexist, stupid comments before he finally undid himself with the trifecta of attacking the family of a slain soldier, ridiculing the Purple Heart and suggesting that the pro-gun crowd assassinate Hillary Clinton. By this past weekend, the look on his face said it all I hate this! I want my show back! But it was too late. He was damaged goods, his brand beyond repair, a worldwide laughing stock and worse, a soon-to-be loser.
But, let me throw out another theory, one that assumes that Trump isnt as dumb or crazy as he looks. Maybe the meltdown of the past three weeks was no accident. Maybe its all part of his new strategy to get the hell out of a race he never intended to see through to its end anyway. Because, unless he is just crazy, the only explanation for the unusual ramping up, day after day, of one disgustingly reckless statement after another is that hes doing it consciously (or subconsciously) so that hell have to bow out or blame others for forcing him out. Many now are sensing the end game here because they know Trump seriously doesnt want to do the actual job and, most importantly, he cannot and WILL NOT suffer through being officially and legally declared a loser LOSER! on the night of November 8th.
Trust me, Ive met the guy. Spent an afternoon with him. He would rather invite the Clintons AND the Obamas to his next wedding than have that scarlet letter (L) branded on his forehead seconds after the last polls have closed on that night, the evening of the final episode of the permanently cancelled Donald Trump Shit-Show.
Postscript:
Don, if youre reading this, do it soon. Give your pathetic party a chance to pick up the pieces and nominate Ryan or Romney so they can be the ones to lose the White House, the Senate, the House and yes, praise Jesus and the Notorious RBG, the Supreme Court. Dont be too hard on yourself. Youre only the logical conclusion to a party that has lived off the currency of racism and bigotry and fellating the 1% for decades, and now their Trump has come home to roost.
Me.
(35,454 posts)JNelson6563
(28,151 posts)lol...it all seems a bit familiar, no?
two weeks ago he went on record saying Trump would likely win. Takes away from his current statement and the CYA looks too much like CYA when done so closely to the previous statement.
Lunabell
(6,075 posts)First he says trump will win. Now he says he won't. Which is it?
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)Scaring people out of complacency works.
Yet, Moore kind of looks like a bozo here. In hindsight, we all knew the person that was going to defeat Trump was . . durrrrrrr . . . Donald Trump.
stopbush
(24,395 posts)There's no proof he got a single voter to the polls with his bs.
Wellstone ruled
(34,661 posts)complacent and stay home on November 8. Then this POS would win. Remember 2014.
Applan
(693 posts)Either Trump is a madman or he is too lazy and doesn't want the job. Or he got into this whole thing to make his family richer.
Or all of the above.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)He did plan to make money from this, even boasted about it.
Geeze, Michael. You're rather amazing. Why don't you at least know that Trump has a strong personality disorder that literally causes him to think and react very differently from normal? His abnormal speech patterns reveal recognized syndromes of abnormal cognition to experts. A major characteristic of people with his problem is that they contradict themselves constantly, and he does, but he usually believes what he is saying while he says it.
But you don't have to be a psychologist to clue in, Michael. Aren't his endlessly bizarre, shockingly clueless and soulless streams of thought enough?
Donald's astonishingly ignorant because he's incapable of caring about anything that is not somehow about him. He probably has not read an entire article that is not about him for decades, much less a book. He has no idea what "the generals" do, but he is totally sincere when he says they are all incompetent and he would be the best ever. He is a narcissist, Michael!
He has the emotional age of a child. He has a primitive conscience at best that allows him to worry about being caught but not to feel guilt. He has a very, very short attention span. He has no ideology and no moral code. He cannot care about others except sometimes for brief moments.
Like so many others, Moore really underestimates the depth of his disability. Donald is not only not capable of sustaining the kind of scheming Moore imagines for this long, but he would never knowingly behave in ways he knew would cause people to feel contempt for him. He is a narcissist and must have constant admiration.
Of course Donald would like the almost unlimited power and admiration that in his ignorance he imagined would go with being president, but not the work. We've probably all got that part right.
Rant over, Michael. Try not to get posted here for a while, okay?
radical noodle
(8,000 posts)why the hell does he want him to drop out?
reflection
(6,286 posts)He really should stick to what he does best, creating influential documentaries.
Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)your commentary on Trump is now getting downright embarrassing. First you say he's going to win, now you say he's intentionally throwing his campaign. You've been wrong so many times on this that I'm more than willing to trust my own amateur analysis over yours.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)extremely competent documentaries with the very different kind of...reactions that he's been bringing to elections.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,402 posts)He originally was a Nader supporter in 2000 and endorsed the belief that the two parties were essentially the same but reluctantly came around to supporting Gore to block Bush. He was super-critical of Bush II and made a huge effort with Fahrenheit 9/11 to deny Bush II (re-)election in 2004, albeit unsuccessfully. He wrote a book in 2008 (Mike's Election Guide 2008), which, while fairly entertaining, seemed pretty down about Obama's chances against McCain and seemed certain that the Democratic Party/Obama were going to blow it against McCain (this was *probably* written before McCain picked Sarah Palin but still). He seems like a smart guy and makes good documentaries but just seems like a huge "Debbie Downer" when it comes to politics and doesn't hold the Democratic Party in much higher esteem than the Republicans in general.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)I'd already crossed him off for various statements I did not concur with around the 2000 election.
That last bit is probably a clue in itself that Moore has a tendency to extremist thinking patterns. As one scholar simplistically but humorously pointed out, while those on the far right hate "everyone else," those on the far left hate "themselves," i.e., the nation they belong to, the main party of the left, etc. A lot on the far left are so critical of Democrats and liberals that they recognize little difference from Republicans and conservatives, but very interestingly their greatest hostility is reserved for the Dems, with little attention left over for anyone else.
I believe he'd do better if he imposed the same standards on his partisan attitudes as I believe he did on his documentaries, at least the ones we've seen.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,402 posts)and I just don't get it. I'm a Democrat through and through. Yes, sometimes the party disappoints me but there IS a clear difference between them and the Republicans and there is almost nothing that would make me want to abstain from voting, much less vote Republican and, at present, the Democratic Party is the only viable vehicle for progressive change in this country- and they agree with the left on pretty much virtually everything but the left frequently gets disappointed that the Democrats can't do more faster (mostly because Republicans keep getting put in charge of government due to the left not voting and/or working to demoralize progressives against voting Democratic due to above).
Mira
(22,380 posts)Downtown Hound
(12,618 posts)I predicted he be the Republican nominee when most other people thought he didn't stand a chance. In fact, I wished for it. Because I knew that there was no way he'd win the general because of the changing demographics of the country and the simple fact that Trump can't help being Trump. That attitude might have served him well when he was pandering to a bunch of ignoramuses and bigots, but it will carry him nowhere in a general election where the electorate is increasingly less white and more liberal.
If Hillary was up against Ted Cruz or another Republican right now, I'd be more worried about her chances. But against Trump? She was always a shoe in.
Therefore, I'm much more likely to listen to my own voice on this than Michael (Romney's going to win, Trump is going to win) Moore.
Mira
(22,380 posts)Does solidify the rule. I'll be looking for you opinion in the future, Downtown Hound. And that is said without sarcasm. I want this to end with Trump in the ditch, permanently.
Proud Liberal Dem
(24,402 posts)and that he doesn't have any specific inside knowledge-but I wouldn't really be surprised. I've been half-expecting Trump to announce that his candidacy was a joke from nearly the beginning.
lindysalsagal
(20,648 posts)http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michael-moore/trump-self-sabotage_b_11545026.html
https://www.rawstory.com/2016/08/michael-moore-just-dropped-a-massive-bombshell-trump-is-self-sabotaging-his-campaign-heres-why/
http://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/in-the-know/291620-michael-moore-trumps-never-wanted-the-presidency
BTW- I've been saying this from the start: He never wanted the job.
using the presidency as an audition for a bigger TV gig makes perfect sense: Get the network to put up the money and take all the risk. And TV is way more fun than construction, or casinos.
I have to agree with him. But I wonder why he's blowing the whistle- At this point, let's let dying dogs die, and take the entire GOP with it.
lindysalsagal
(20,648 posts)Holding. Breath.
Yup.
Still holding.
I'll be fine. It's coming any second..........
Still holding