Donald Trump: The Desperate President

How to make sense of Donald Trump’s increasingly erratic moves, whether on Syria, the Kurds, or his desire to hold the next G7 Summit at his own estate in Florida (even though he has just pulled back from that move)?

The U.S. President is engaging in these moves to get his Republican Party to dump him and free him from the scourge that serving in the White House has become.

What’s more, there are some serious worries about Trump suffering from clinical case of narcissism and needing serious medical help, rather than being caught in the public glare.

For all those who question this train of argument, they should recall that Donald Trump never expected to be elected President of the United States. When he rode down that escalator in the Trump Tower on June 16, 2015 to declare his candidacy, this was nothing more than one gigantic publicity gig for him.

The “hugest” reality show ever

Proof point one: Trump’s behavior during his campaign for the Republican nomination was so outlandish that it would have destroyed any previous presidential candidate.

But unbeknownst to Trump, Republicans proved more than ready to vote for somebody who finally spoke the ugly words that so many of them had harbored for so long in their soulless hearts. That was the one fact that Trump had never counted upon.

Proof point two: After being nominated, Trump still did not really believe in winning the 2016 U.S. presidential election. In fact, the entire 2016 campaign could be viewed as effectively running away from getting into the Oval Office.

To that end, Trump’s behavior from back then became more bizarre by the day. He prepared his fans for defeat by charging that he would likely be cheated out of his deserved victory.

There really wasn’t any downside in any of this politicking for Trump. Even by losing the election, Trump knew he would score a big win for the Trump brand.

Was Trump just not cynical enough?

It is often argued that Trump was counting on the appeal of racism to get elected. But the opposite assumption also holds. He played to racism because he didn’t want to win. That’s proof point three.

What Trump just hadn’t realized was that throughout the country, there were enough voters who preferred a racist, sexist, white-male nationalist over a woman who bore the name Clinton.

Onward to 2020

As his first term enters its final year, President Donald J. Trump is sticking to his guns. He is doing everything to lose.

While disgraceful behavior has marked basically every single day of his presidency, Trump has now seized on the one thing that he thinks will assure his presidency to end on January 20, 2021: Tanking the economy!

As Bill Clinton famously stated in his first campaign for president “It’s the economy, stupid.” With that one-liner, he stunningly defeated the incumbent George H. W. Bush predominantly because the economy was in tatters.

Trump = Steppenwolf: Yearning to be free

Donald Trump really wants to get back to his golf courses and make more money with reality shows. He is tired of sitting in meetings with heads of state who are way smarter than he is (after all, about every one of them is — including Erdogan).

Trump understandably hates the confines of the presidency (truth be told, it’s an awful job for anyone to have). He cannot wait for the day when he can berate his successor as an incompetent fool. That’s why he throws an unpresidential temper tantrum almost every day.

Republicans as gatekeepers

To Trump’s great dismay, “his” Republicans have been ready to let him get away with just about anything. No matter how bizarre and unacceptable his behavior, they found a way to stand by their man, Republicans’ principles (not that there are many to begin with) be damned.

But now after the Syria episode and statements such as that the PKK is worse than ISIS, the mood among Republicans may slowly be changing.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, a particularly spineless man and a ruthless Republican if ever there was one, seems to be having second thoughts about Trump.

Impeachment?

Much of the debate about Trump is still focused on the impeachment proceedings. But it is worthwhile to remember that Richard Nixon didn’t leave office in 1974 because he was convicted in the Impeachment Trial by the Senate or because he was even impeached by the House, but because he resigned as Republican leaders of Congress made it clear to him that his removal from office was indeed imminent.

Republicans in the Senate may increasingly favor such a scenario. Unlike Trump, a pretend Republican and giga-charlatan, Mike Pence is a real conservative.