I think I’ll crank out another one of these, while I’m on a roll. Because why not? To me, Trump is just such a perfect emblem of the failure of our government, if not our country, that I can’t resist another exploration of him and the problems that we have because of him and those around him.
Trump just gave Associated Press an interview. Let’s analyze it. It’s here: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/c9dd871023064917932966816d6c2c2d/trump-100-days-its-different-kind-presidency
Basically, my takeaway from it is that Trump really doesn’t like the people who voted for him much at all. He doesn’t think as they do, doesn’t understand their ways, and seems to hold them in open contempt. At best, he likely sees them only as a springboard for his own success. At worst, he probably views them as embarrassing, and an obstacle to be overcome, if not removed for his own family’s sake.
The choice quotes here are Trump’s answers about the questions about the border wall. This is what he had to say:
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AP: … If you get a bill on your desk that does not include funding for the wall, will you sign it?
TRUMP: I don’t know yet. People want the border wall. My base definitely wants the border wall, my base really wants it — you’ve been to many of the rallies. OK, the thing they want more than anything is the wall. My base, which is a big base; I think my base is 45 percent. You know, it’s funny. The Democrats, they have a big advantage in the electoral college. Big, big, big advantage. I’ve always said the popular vote would be a lot easier than the electoral college. The electoral college — but it’s a whole different campaign (unintelligible). The electoral college is very difficult for a Republican to win, and I will tell you, the people want to see it. They want to see the wall, they want to see security. Now, it just came out that they’re 73 percent down. … That’s a tremendous achievement. … Look at this, in 100 days, that down to the lowest in 17 years and it’s going lower. Now, people aren’t coming because they know they’re not going to get through, and there isn’t crime. You know the migration up to the border is horrible for women, you know that? (Unintelligible.) Now, much of that’s stopped because they can’t get through.
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He (Trump) claims some estimates of the wall costs are too high. “Oh I’m seeing numbers — $24 billion, I think I’ll do it for $10 billion or less.”
AP: If you don’t have a funding stream, your message to your base is what?
TRUMP: My base understands the wall is going to get built, whether I have it funded here or if I get it funded shortly thereafter, that wall’s getting built, OK? One hundred percent. One hundred percent it’s getting built. And it’s also getting built for much less money — I hope you get this — than these people are estimating. The opponents are talking $25 billion for the wall. It’s not going to cost anywhere near that.
AP: You think $10 billion or less.
TRUMP: I think $10 billion or less. And if I do a super-duper, higher, better, better security, everything else, maybe it goes a little bit more. But it’s not going to be anywhere near (those) kind of numbers. And they’re using those numbers; they’re using the high numbers to make it sound impalatable (sic). And the fact it’s going to cost much less money, just like the airplane I told you about, which I hope you can write about.
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Personally, I can feel his contempt for his supporters practically dripping off the page with these quotes.
Trump really, really doesn’t want the wall, himself. He obviously hates the idea, probably because it would make him or his daughter unpopular amongst the other oligarchs. But he feels as though he has to, dammit, because of those annoying losers who voted for him.
In his response to the first question, I can practically see him squirming for some way to avoid fulfilling that particular pledge. He’s looking for an out- anything, really- that would excuse him from actually listening to the public. Note how Trump himself never says that he wants the wall. Always, it’s his base that wants it. Not him, not his family, not his administration, but those irritating losers in flyover country that just won’t shut up about it. It’s their fault that he has to do it, you see?
And in his blathering and obfuscating, you can see him desperately reaching for something, anything, that could let him off the hook. In his response, he tries to change the subject by turning it into a question of “electability” for himself and his friends, in the exact same way that John McCain, the Bushes, and Reagan did. I mean, in the exact same way. If you don’t believe me, look at those youtube videos of the townhall meetings where that idiot McCain confronted his furious “support base” over his want for amnesty. Always, the oligarchs try to reframe the issue in terms of “elections” for their own families and friends, as though that’s all that matters to them. Which is, unfortunately, probably the truth.
Trump even goes so far as to downplay the implications of his own landslide victory in an obvious and embarrassing attempt to dodge his responsibilities. Trump was all about bragging about the size of his support base leading up to the election, during it, and then after it, but now that it’s time for him to deliver he’s all of a sudden in the minority, without a leg to stand on, so don’t expect him to actually do anything, OK?
Which is where this “45%” B.S. comes from. Trump’s base demographic is probably the largest demographic on Earth, as I’ve already discussed, and in fact support for the wall is much higher and broader that just that. Trump neatly sidesteps this by trying to frame the issue as Democrat-Republican as though there wasn’t a huge number of Democrats that support the idea of the wall, too. Just think of how many blacks in this country- who are ardent supporters of the democratic party- would like to see the wall built, for starters.
Trump’s response to the second question is perhaps more revealing than his response to the first one.
Essentially, the important thing about the wall, to Trump, is how much it costs. Not what it would do for the country, not what it would do to help his base, and not what it would do for anyone else, besides those in upper reaches of the government. It’s all about money, for him. Not even security- he talks about building a “super-duper” secure wall as though that would be unreasonable, given it’s meager cost increase over an “normal” one.
Firstly, this is about Trump trying to dodge his responsibilities, again. What’s he’s trying to do, here, is to reframe the issue into a financial one, so that there might be a way during the budget talks for him to get out of building it.
See, Trump doesn’t really care about how much it costs. I mean, he just declared World War III, for fuck’s sake!
And consider that multi-trillion dollar infrastructure project that he wants. And he’s concerned about a couple billion for an upgraded, “super-duper” wall? Please.
No, he just wants an out, any out at all, that would let him leave his campaign promises behind him as quickly as possible.
Secondly, you can really see here in his responses how much he wants to distance himself, at all costs, from the people he supposedly represents. Any idea that a wall might protect American culture is absolutely not something he has any desire to talk about, ever. Because again, Trump is only about himself and his own family. Ours and our traditions can be damned for all he cares.
And lastly, you can see him try to change the subject, yet again, with that idiotic misdirection about some stupid airplane (IDK what he’s talking about there, and IDC, either). He just really, really does not want the wall to be built, at all. He doesn’t even want to talk about it, or even acknowledge the reality that other people might want to talk about it, even. So, always, he tries as hard as he can to redirect the conversation to anything at all that doesn’t have to do with the wall as soon as he can.
So- interesting interview, more for what Trump doesn’t say, than what he does.
My impression of Trump remains as it has been for a long time now. He is a pampered, spoiled oligarch that despises the working class every bit as much as any of his predecessors in the white house. He doesn’t think like them and doesn’t want to; he sees himself as above them and probably secretly views them as an annoying obstacle that will just get underfoot in his plans for his own family.
Trump isn’t a conservative; not even close. He never was. His only interest is in the perpetuation of the power of the ruling families of the United States, regardless of the cost to his own base or to the rest of the world.