Chairman Trump
(posted with permission)
Chairman Trump
Yesterday we learned at last exactly how Donald Trump plans to make America great again.
It does not involve building a wall, deporting 11 million undocumented immigrants, or preventing Muslims from entering the country. We won’t have to repeal Obamacare or renegotiate trade deals. Nor will we have to take out ISIS in a matter of weeks or let smaller countries develop their own nuclear arsenals.
Thankfully, it does not involve paying off the national debt in eight years by requiring debt holders to “take a haircut,” thus causing the rest of the world to question the validity of the “full faith and credit of the United States.”
All we have to do to make America great again is elect Trump president – not for what he will do as president, because he plans to delegate all the actual work to his vice-president.
No, in Trump’s self-absorbed mind, the mere fact that he occupies the Oval Office is what will make America great again. It’s really just as simple as that.
The New York Times reports that several weeks ago Donald Trump approached a senior advisor to Gov. John Kasich (R-OH) with an offer: if he joined the Trump ticket, Kasich would become the most powerful vice-president in history. As Trump’s vice-president, Kasich would assume full responsibility for domestic and foreign policy.
Then what exactly would President Trump do?
Trump Jr.: “Make America Great Again.”
So that’s it. President Trump, by his very presence, by his mere continued existence, is what would make America great again.
He wouldn’t have to formulate policy. Policy is for losers anyway, which Kasich was in the GOP primaries. He wouldn’t have to do actual work; worker bees do that stuff. He wouldn’t have to make decisions but he would reserve the right to second-guess Kasich’s decisions.
His one marching order to the vice-president and Cabinet secretaries would be, “Don’t make me look bad.”
In Trump’s self-centered world, he would sit as Chairman of the Board – the “Mr. Outside” – to Vice President Kasich’s CEO/COO – “Mr. Inside.” Kasich would do all the work and, if things went right, Trump would take the credit. Of course, if things went wrong – as they seem always to do with Republicans – then Kasich would shoulder the blame alone.
All this only confirms what has been apparent to many of us from the start: Trump has no interest in being president.
He wants to win the presidency, of course; he wants to win big.
He wants to be called President Trump, “Mister President,” for the rest of his life.
But he knows that a few days into his term he would get bored with the whole thing – the meetings, the briefing papers, all the reading, the accountability; the pressure of actual crises, domestic unrest, and world events he can’t control.
Then he would be stuck in a job he doesn’t want, secure only in the knowledge that within three years he will face a reelection challenge from that insufferable douchebag Ted Cruz.
So the Kasich offer is simply Trump’s attempt to have it both ways.
Kasich, wisely, rejected the offer.
Trump now says he never made any such offer to Kasich, which is true: his son made the offer. And he made it to a Kasich advisor, not to Kasich himself.
All this is classic Trump. Trump takes the credit, garners the glory, or scoops up the money; while others bear the burdens, do the work his machinations have made impossible, pay the costs, and suffer the losses.
Now Trump faces a dilemma: he doesn’t want to stay but he can’t go either. Short of dying on the campaign trail and leaving Pence to head the ticket, what can he do?
He can lose. And the present state of his campaign management and fundraising operation suggests he intends to lose.
But in Trump’s mind, that’s won’t make him a loser. If he intends to lose and succeeds, then he will be a winner. The losers will be the people who failed to get him elected.
Thus, Chairman Trump succeeds either way. It’s classic Trump.
~ Rick Wise
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