Donald “Arse of the Deal” Trump just showed what a great deal maker he is. He announced today that he has been defeated on his attempt to hold 800,000 federal workers (and over 1 million contractors) hostage to get a ransom of $5.7 billion to build his vague wall/steel slats/beaded curtain.
While he tried in vain to pour gallons of racist blatherings on top of his announcement today, so his base might not notice he was declaring that he was the loser in this “deal”, the sane majority of Americans know what losing looks like.
And it has an orange artificial tan.
Trump even tried to appear like he was declaring victory by stealing what Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Dems had been pushing and he had been refusing, to end the shutdown immediately then discuss and negotiate border security (but there still ain’t gonna be no wall!).
The government is now funded until Feb 15th. Trump impotently threatened that without a deal he likes that includes the wall, he may shutdown government again after then. But after this spectacular crash and burn, that’s highly doubtful.
He’ll eat what Pelosi pours into his bowl now.
Trump’s “brilliant” choice to first declare full ownership of the shutdown, force it to last twice as long as any shutdown in American history, turn even his own voters against himself (down to 34% approval, -8% from where he was in December) and display, along with his elitist family and cabinet, no understanding or empathy for the millions suffering because of him, has permanently damaged him.
And his chances of winning re-election in 2020.
Trump has critically harmed farmers and businesses through his trade wars, students and young women through Betsy DeVos’ weaponizing of the Department of Education, has whipped up followers to commit racist/bigoted murders of innocent people and now, harmed millions of people economically through his heartless and tantrum-based shutdown. Let alone his racist demagoguery of Latinos, non-Christians, LGBTQ folk, etc.
Who but the 35% or so of America who are Trump cultists will vote for four more years of this madness in 2020?
For many Right Wingers, he has to look like a traitor and an embarrassment. His biggest campaign promise was that he would build a massive, beautiful concrete wall on the southern border and Mexico would pay for it.
They could rationalize away that Mexico wasn’t paying for it anymore but his white nationalist fan base really, really wanted that monument to their Grand Dragon Trump and their own racism. Now, they’ve watched him cowed by a…gasp!…woman…and their dream of a wall has evaporated (Speaker Pelosi’s taking away the State of the Union speech from Trump was a genius move, losing that huge spotlight may have twisted Trump’s arm more than anyone could imagine).
How small does Trump look now to his rabid cult (at least his tiny fingers now look proportionate)? No doubt they will outwardly appear to justify or ignore it but they know now, Trump failed and was beaten by a woman (not just Pelosi but she is the symbol of all those resisting him) which to misogynist believers in Trump, is a double whammy.
And Trump’s promise to them has been snuffed out. How enthusiastic are they going to be to re-elect him and get more of the same disappointment on that and similar promises? And won’t the RW extremists like Coulter and Limbaugh make it their mission to tear him apart for “betraying” them?
Trump did threaten to declare a national emergency, to grab emergency powers that would allow him to raid departments to get his $5.7 billion and build his wall…but Republicans oppose that because of the precedent it could set for a Dem President and Trump’s use of it as a bargaining chip de facto proves it’s not really an emergency… setting it up to be easily blocked in court.
So no wall. Depressed poll numbers. Low or even zero GDP growth for the quarter and maybe another push towards recession. Empowerment of Nancy Pelosi and the Dems in Congress and most of all, a very public showing of being a terrible dealmaker and a big loser.
This stable genius king of dealmaking turned down a $25 billion package last year for his wall and border security…he could have had it! But because he’s such a genius at dealmaking, he changed his mind on the deal and refused to fix DACA as he had offered to do. He just wanted a deal that gave him everything he wanted and Dems nothing.
Who gets nothing now? And who gets what they wanted? Trump negotiated himself out of the wall!!! The RW should pillory him for that, being a fool and a fraud who threw away their most worshiped symbol of white nationalism.
Art of the Deal was ghostwritten, that should be clear at this point.
Meanwhile, the news exploded today of Roger Stone being indicted and in the indictment, Robert Mueller detailed that someone high enough up in the Trump campaign, who could tell a high ranking Trump official what to do, knew of Stone’s dealings with Wikileaks and their Russian-provided and hacked data from the Dems.
Meaning, someone at the top tier of the Trump campaign appears to be guilty of conspiracy. Could be Jared Kushner or Mike Pence…but could also be Einstein J. Dealmaker.
Ironically, Trump has built walls just as he promised in 2016…but they are closing in on him…and he’s going to pay for it.
AdLib, the image that keeps coming back to my mind is the day that “Chuck and Nancy” met with The Cave (in) Man in the Oval Office.
As The Orange One waved his arms and declared how proud he would be to “own this shutdown!” how “unlike the Dems” he would “take FULL credit for it,” Chuck Schumer sat to his left — with his elbows resting on his knees, tapping his fingertips together, nodding his head up/down, up/down. Chuck’s thoughts — projecting chess move after chess move into the future — were clearly saying: “Yes. Keep talking. keep talking… Just keep it up.”
Lo and behold it all played out just the way Chuck and Nancy foresaw it.
And I think you’re absolutely right: Nancy’s move regarding taking away the pageantry of the SOTU address probably stung much more than the Arse of the Deal (great nickname) ever wanted to let on to the public.
Well played, dear Lady. Well played.
One of the best pieces you have written.
I am going to post the link at Yabberz, share it the community there and invite them to view it here.
Brilliant. Just brilliant. A fine summary of what was, reasonable prediction of what is coming, and all done in your inimitable style!
Bravo!
Thanks so much Murph!
See you at Vox shortly!
Oops. Check this out:
Americans for Legal Immigration PAC Launches Campaign to Draft Ann Coulter to Run Against Donald Trump in 2020
https://secondnexus.com/news/americans-legal-immigration-pac-ann-coulter-2020/
Heh! I did see that. Would be hilarious!
Don’t forget, we’ve got Vox tonight at 7pm PST!
“Her name was McGill
and she called herself Lil…
but everyone knew her as Nancy!”-Lennon/McCartney!
“Nancy With the Laughing Face” sounds about right.
A Fart of a Deal. During his anger, the only nickname he could muster for Speaker Pelosi was, “Nancy”. The first woman to tell him no not counting the ones he sexually abused and defamed in public. Nancy just castrated him in front of the whole world and stuffed his wall where the sun don’t shine. Ouch!!
I suppose it’s better than Trump calling Pelosi, “Mommy”.
In fact, Pelosi should ask him, “Who’s your Daddy?”
Trump seemed cowed after all of this, like Pelosi exercising power over him brought him back to his childhood and his mother disciplining him.
I’ve heard that Trump’s mother was supposedly a tough character, didn’t show him much affection or approval. Maybe this explains why Trump resents and tries to demean women…but when a woman has power and stands up to him, he’s that cowardly 5 year old again.