I think there's some truth to this, certainly, given his well-publicized difficulty paying attention. If the debates weren't enough to demonstrate this, the ghost-writer for The Art of the Deal certainly made this a centerpiece of his descriptions. I'll also say that my gut reaction throughout the campaign was that Trump wanted to be elected president, but didn't actually want to be president. But I think we have to be careful. Deadspin is part of Gawker, which is basically the vaguely-left version of The Daily Mail or Fox. I'm skeptical of anyone that writes this gleefully about anything that doesn't involve sugar, caffeine, liquor, or small furry animals. Those of us who dislike Trump have to be careful that we don't allow our desperation and disbelief at how things are blind us to what actually is. That's in large part how Trump got elected, after all. Simply put, hope clouds observation.
Yeah, once Univision bought it and Nick Denton declared bankruptcy I decided to give Deadspin a little breathing room to see what it became. That said, no one will ever confuse it for The Intercept and this is quite clearly a humorous article. I sternly refuse to be scolded for indulging in a little schadenfreude.
I agree. Trump will not officially take the reins until late January. All this talk of what ifs is already growing stale after the seemingly endless march to last Tuesday. I think now is the time for everyone to take a deep breath and heal the wounds. We're going to need all our strength. I also think we shouldn't already be telling The Donald what he will or won't do. We know all too well that this is a man whose ego will always push back just to spite those critical of him, which was really the theme of his entire campaign. We need to stop underestimating him and the movement he's created.
I've been kicking this thought around my mind for awhile now. Heavy is the head, Don. I like to think Obama took him aside the other day and reality checked his ass. I hope his health is as strong as his ego...
He's gonna resign. And it's going to be sudden. And who the fuck knows what happens then. I mean, Pence is a monster but everybody that voted in Trump? They didn't really consider his understudy. A friend described Donald Trump as the dog that caught the car.
Why would he resign? I mean, given where we're at I wouldn't put anything off the table but what motive is there to step down and admit weakness, which is completely counter to his persona?
Does he really have to be involved with the daily workings of government if he does not want to be? There is no requirement I know of that he do anything besides being a figurehead and doing as little as he wants. Can he not simply delegate all his responsibility away? We have a man here that has spent his entire adult life apparently thinking mostly about how he can promote himself. He is the first President with no military or governmental experience and has shown no more than fleeting interest in the skills that are involved in running those non-business enterprises. Apparently he even wants to continue to live in NYC, which shows a basic lack of interest in being a hands-on President. He pretty much tipped his hand on how much involvement he desired by saying that Pence would be in charge of both foreign and domestic policy. So there is not much left for him to do besides showing up for photo ops, reading prepared speeches, going on talk shows, playing office politics and tweeting about what a fabulous job he is doing.
Does he really have to be involved with the daily workings of government if he does not want to be? There is no requirement I know of that he do anything besides being a figurehead and doing as little as he wants. Can he not simply delegate all his responsibility away?
I bet they hate him already. Trump Tower does not even have a helipad which means shutting down mid-town on the ground when he is there. That is a lot different than protecting a ranch in Texas. Impromptu appearance at the MTV Music Awards? Deal with it SS and NYPD. Even if his kid and wife choose to stay while he finishes his current school year would be a logistical nightmare. The SS push back on his scheduling flexibility is something else DT is going to hate.
If he continues to live at Trump Tower sometimes , it will be the first time in my life that a president is somewhat close to me sometimes. I live in northern New Jersey and it will be weird for a president to be near because when a president comes to nyc, it's a rare event that shuts everything down for a bit.
Exactly. He won't step down and admit weakness. That's not his thing. Instead, if it happens, some terrible hardship or situation will arise that allows him, in effect, to resign his responsibility. He's one very creative guy, especially at creating false narratives that work with folks that don't bother to actually look or think about evidence. I expect that he'll come up with a narrative that would leave some of his staunchest supporters applauding him for having the bravery to step down. Anyone have possible ideas of what he could say? Maybe, Melania has some incurable disease and she needs his attention? Or, he is stricken with some bizarre illness that cannot be medically proven?
Unfortunately, my most-likely is a disaster in which the gentlemanly thing to do is to step aside so that more competent people can save the day but Trump isn't a gentleman and he doesn't have a deep bench of "more competent people." I think the opportunities for face-saving are long gone. The question is how much Trump believes he can pull it off vs. the permanent mark on history he leaves the longer he lingers. My costs-benefits analysis on that one has Trump leaving way the fuck before he does because he's a narcissist but he's running the same equation.
Man, hadn't considered his ego getting in the way like that. He is like a two-year old in so many ways. Maybe we can hope his huge ego allows him to accept some silly narrative where at least he believes the only the mighty Trump will have the cojones to step aside. Some sort of "The Emperors New Clothes" scenario.
I've argued previously that this was a win-win for Pence. God help us all if he's running the show. As much as I despise the idea of trump-as-president, I've warned my friends and family to not be too loud with the "impeach trump" calls.
I wonder if it matters today though. In Nixon's day there was still a such thing as a Republican statesman and Republican embarrassment and dignity. Those things are in retreat at the moment as party continues to erode the state. Paul Ryan couldn't even denounce Russian interference in the election, and Mitch McConnell seemed to enjoy the whole thing.
God I hope not. Pence is even worse. Not that it matters, it's crazy all the way down.
I don't think Pence can govern either. Looking back at the Ford administration, the cloud hanging over an impeached/resigned office is no joke. There's a broad probability fan spilling out from November 8. The further we get from it, the more fractal it gets.
He is the oldest person ever elected president. But there's evidence that despite the stress of the job, presidents actually live longer than average.
Oscar winners live longer, too. Sciam did a breakdown on it way back when and pointed out that correlation does not imply causation and that the likely cause is that high-achieving individuals in general live longer simply due to being surrounded by better medical care and a wider social net.
That's a hard eight years. You can see the collagen degredation which I'm pretty sure is indicative of severe chronic stress
Now this is some awesome humor.Donald Trump is positively miserable. He hates this shit! He doesn’t want to walk around getting a tour with Mitch McConnell. Nor does he want to sit at a boring table next to boring Paul Ryan and talk about boring things that aren’t Donald Trump.