[Roger Slater]

Jennifer Rubin said something similar in the Washington Post: "En masse, most Republicans — including those at some premier publications (which are now unreadable to all but the Trump cultists) — declared willingness to defend ignorance, bigotry, dishonesty and ineptitude on the chance that they’d get a top marginal tax rate of 28 percent. "

[John Isbell]

Naked greed is a powerful motivator, but I am reluctant to oversimplify. I think establishment Republicans also desire power and its perquisites, as much as they can obtain of it. Which would suggest that two remaining GOP principles have in fact survived the bonfire that was the Trump campaign.
The millions who voted for him were told (repeatedly) at the time that they were suckers and bigots. It's not an easy thing to stand up and say, "You were right, I am a sucker." Nobody wants to be that person.

[Jim Moonan]

The Los Angeles Times editorial board composed this piece entitled, "The Dishonest President. I think it is a brilliant profile of the first days of the Trump presidency. Here's an excerpt:

“What is most worrisome about Trump is Trump himself. He is a man so unpredictable, so reckless, so petulant, so full of blind self-regard, so untethered to reality that it is impossible to know where his presidency will lead or how much damage he will do to our nation. His obsession with his own fame, wealth and success, his determination to vanquish enemies real and imagined, his craving for adulation — these traits were, of course, at the very heart of his scorched-earth outsider campaign; indeed, some of them helped get him elected. But in a real presidency in which he wields unimaginable power, they are nothing short of disastrous.” – The L.A. Times Editorial Board

[William A. Baurle]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

It's obviously too soon to be cocky about it, but signs are looking good for the Democrats to take over the House in 2018. If that happens, Trump is in serious trouble since they can subpoena tax records and/or impeach, and certainly stop his legislative agenda cold.

In the meantime, it doesn't look like Trump knows how to work and play well with others, so we can hope that he will continue to find it impossible to enact most of his agenda.

I just want to reiterate what I said a long time ago, in the Trump Watch thread: It looks like he is on the road to impeachment. Listen to Roger. We're not on the road to a fascist state. Not hardly. People panicked when Nixon was in, they panicked when Reagan was in, and they're panicking now, but Nixon and Reagan were polished politicians, whereas Trump is a business man - the paradigm bull in the china shop, to reluctantly use a cliche. The country is strong enough to survive the machinations of a macho, soccer-coach-style billionaire playboy in the White House. It has come through far more trying times than what we see at present.

*Putting on prophet hat (taking off the tinfoil one for the time-being)*

In 2021, DT will still be orange, though the grey roots will be greyer, and the lines in his face will be deeper. He'll write a book (with a ghost writer, naturally) about what it was like to be POTUS, and become even richer. He'll get another TV show, but by 2025 it will be cancelled, due to pressure from President Baldwin.

[Andrew Mandelbaum]

The most incredible thing about the whole mess is that it is forcing Trump to keep engaging with various subsets of people in a way that he has been able to avoid so far and as he does so it becomes more and more apparent that there is not a completely formed person hiding behind the schtick. He really is a small minded idiot deeply fascinated by his own reflection and little else. Like for real. Not "I just don't like him so I call him an idiot" but a for reals mindless thug is in charge of a nuclear super power. I think in the editorials that are popping up everywhere, that shoe is finally dropping for some who thought maybe behind the groping schmuck was something viable. But....no. At least some of the most vile subsets of American politics have tied themselves to this anvil as it is edged closer and closer to the precipice of bat shit crazy. Just read that Economist interview. Prime the pump. Awesome.

[Michael Cantor]

Thanks, Jim, for posting that link to the LA Times series of editorials. Powerful stuff.

[William A. Baurle]

I hope nobody overlooked this part:

On Inauguration Day, we wrote on this page that it was not yet time to declare a state of “wholesale panic” or to call for blanket “non-cooperation” with the Trump administration. Despite plenty of dispiriting signals, that is still our view. The role of the rational opposition is to stand up for the rule of law, the electoral process, the peaceful transfer of power and the role of institutions; we should not underestimate the resiliency of a system in which laws are greater than individuals and voters are as powerful as presidents. This nation survived Andrew Jackson and Richard Nixon. It survived slavery. It survived devastating wars. Most likely, it will survive again. - L.A. Times article. [emphasis added]

[John Isbell]

Thanks, Andrew, for the Economist interview. Here is an excerpt, with Trump speaking first:

"you understand the expression “prime the pump”?

Yes.
We have to prime the pump.

It’s very Keynesian.
We’re the highest-taxed nation in the world. Have you heard that expression before, for this particular type of an event?

Priming the pump?
Yeah, have you heard it?

Yes.
Have you heard that expression used before? Because I haven’t heard it. I mean, I just…I came up with it a couple of days ago and I thought it was good. It’s what you have to do."

To be fair, I don't think Donald Trump is an idiot. I didn't think George W. Bush was an idiot. I think Trump combines an ignorance, laziness, and narcissism that make George W. look stakhanovite, with a rare gift for unfiltered speech. And that leads to astonishing moments like the one above. He becomes hard to take seriously, or put another way, easy to underestimate. People have done so before.
One Trump topos is the powerful people who keep coming to his throne for approval. We heard from Trump how Comey did so, here it is heads of state like Trudeau. These are the rules of Trumpworld, and what a sad world it is.

Update. Here is the latest NYT headline: "‘Looking Like a Liar or a Fool’: What It Means to Work for Trump"

[William A. Baurle]

Originally Posted by John Isbell

To be fair, I don't think Donald Trump is an idiot.

Of course not, but he's no genius either, like Lenin or Mao. Let us be thankful for that.

Monty Python: "And there was much rejoicing..."

[John Whitworth]

Outrage is what liberals do, Richard. It's the same over here. Right now it's all they do. And it's likely that scenario will continue until... oh I don't know. Until the death of grass.

There was a chap called Mr Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells on a comedy show just after the War. He did outrage. But he was on the right. I don't know what that means.