How diminished the President seemed
CNN is rubbing his nose in it.
The most shocking thing about Trump’s statement announcing the end of the shutdown was how diminished the President seemed.
He appeared to acknowledge his weakness later in a tweet he posted after absorbing the unflattering TV news coverage of his climbdown.
“I wish people would read or listen to my words on the Border Wall. This was in no way a concession,” he insisted.
Hours before, aides had clapped as Trump entered the Rose Garden, often a setting reserved for grand presidential victory laps.
The man who bills himself as the ultimate winner was forced to disguise the most humbling loss of his two years in power.
Geddit? He lost. He’s a loser loser loser loser. Na na na NA na.
Sad!
My husband and I were talking about that this morning, how this was a loss, and Pelosi had bested him. She has more strength and endurance, more intelligence, and a lot more knowledge of how politics works than most.
Let’s all chant now: Trump lost! Trump lost! Trump lost!
Undeniably this is a political and PR loss for Trump. It is hardly the end of this particular conflict though. Trump has made it clear he intends to declare a National Emergency if he doesn’t have his way in three weeks time. Most commentators are saying that would be illegal and nearly everyone except the deluded and the liars do not consider there to be a National Emergency. At least not one fixed by getting funding for a wall. Question is, how prepared are the various branches of Government to deal with such an event? How effective will those tarnished checks and balances be? We can’t rely on the Senate to stand up to Trump. Can Congress do anything other than initiate legal action? Would a Supreme Court full of Trump patsies actually do anything effective, even if the case reached them in an expedited fashion? Would career military men stand up to their CiC and tell him they regarded his actions and orders as illegal? That would almost certainly be career ending whether they were right or not, win or loose. I’d put money on there being senior military leaders who would also happily follow Trump all the way into a coup. I’m pleased to see Trump loose so publicly, but I see what happens in three weeks as by far the more important test. The Democrats need to find a way to assert the processes of normal government now while they are still in the honeymoon phase.
There’s a way to go yet. He’s going to lose so much, we’re going to be sick and tired of Trump’s losing.
“we’re going to be sick and tired of Trump’s losing”
Challenge accepted!
after the impeachment (or whatever)
I want to see him stripped of every dime of his money.
I don’t care if his feefees are hurt, I want him in a cardboard box under a bridge.
I’d love to see him in jail for the remainder of his years.
chigau, surely it would be more fitting for the wannabe crime boss to end up in a conrete pylon holding up a bridge.
Is he diiminished enough that the rest of him now matches the proportions of his tuny hands?
As far as declaring a National Emergency, the government shut down that Trump instigated by his little own self constituted much more of an emergency and threat to American security and wellbeing than anything immigrants (legal or otherwise) would be capable of mustering. I’d say the National Emergency just ended.
YNNB, Trump is the national emergency. Until he is gone, it is not ended.
He didn’t just lose, he lost to a woman
Pelosi seems to know what battles to pick. I’ve always assumed that’s one of the most important skills of a politician. Not the most desirable one by a long way, but a good indicator of successfully getting things done and of having an eye on the ball. Also, let’s all admit that the way she is dealing with Trump is absolutely hilarious. She’s like a cat with a mouse, purring in satisfaction while poking feebly at its increasingly livid corpse. “I’m in control here. You’re about to realise it.” Marvelous.
Meanwhile, Trump has never in his life had to face the consequences of his many, many losses. He doesn’t understand loss because it has always been other people who suffered because of them. He doesn’t even understand the concept of opposition for the same reason.
It seems likely that he’ll declare an emergency in a few weeks and while it’s all tied up in legal argument he will quietly back away from his position before his Decree Going Forth Across The Land that he didn’t even want a stupid wall anyway and never said he did.
I will genuinely not be in the least surprised if he ends up claiming it was Mexico who wanted the wall and wanted America to pay for it and he’s a hero for not building Mexico’s wall.
Before blithely putting on the jacket with the extra-long sleeves and being wheeled into padded obscurity, we can hope.
On a tangentially related note, you know how dignified the Obamas look when they (rarely) comment now upon political issues of the day? Even if it’s just by comparison, I can’t tell any more.
We all know that Trump won’t adopt the same sort of moderate, hands-off approach, regardless of how his stint as president ends.
My point is that it’s going to be highly entertaining either way, assuming he doesn’t nuke us to slime on the way out. Barring our all being dead or driving around deserts in unlikely cars wearing spikes and eating dog food, it’s going to be hilarious. So…. there’s that.
Yes, I forgot. His appallingness has become wallpaper, part of the landscape, omnipresent and taken for granted. The list of institutional norms, traditions and courtesies that will need to be restored and recovered once he’s removed is very, very long. He’s gonna take a lot of cleaning up after. He has set an awful precedent for refusing to colour inside the lines.
Think there are limits to what he can do from inside a cell block. In the meantime, I look forward to the perp walk and mug shot.
(But of course, Pence will likely ruin all this by pulling a Gerald Ford. If things can be strung out long enough, without further damage or harm, so that Trump gets carted off just as his term is ending so that Mikey never gets to park his ass on the chair behind the Resolute Desk.)