The reason Trump is winning - at this time - is partly based in the poor job this newspaper does in holding Trump accountable for his conduct.
Why is there no coverage in this newspaper of Michael Avenatti's analysis of Juliani's admissions regarding false accounting amounting to fraud and conduct amounting to money laundering which is apparently evidenced in a bank Suspicious Activity Report prepared in regard to transactions between Cohen and Trump?
The facts about Trump are always obvious, but this newspaper refuses to spell out the obvious - for reasons I can only attribute to a lack of understanding of the role of the serious news media. If this newspaper had been more professional in its coverage before the election, Trump might not have been elected in the first place.
Michelle Wolf was spot on about you people.
9
I predict that come November, the Republicans will retain control of Congress, and before year end significant progress will be made to ending the Korean problem, with an announcement of full, verifiable, denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, the ending of sanctions, and moves being made for reunification.
Iran will be acquiescing to Trumps demand for total denuclearization as well, after being guaranteed removal of all sanctions.
And the threats of tearing up trade agreements will end, as numerous trading partners agree to relax some of the unfair restrictions on the importing of American products.
See, this is how Trump works, bluster, threats, nutty prognostications, leaving all who need American markets in shock, and sufficiently weakened to accept anything less onerous.
Trump is a NY Real Estate tactician, and this is how he makes deals.
Sure, it's easy to look at some of his deals which seemed to not work out, but if you look closer, even in his bankruptcies, he always came out ahead.
Winning is the goal for him; it has always been so, and will always remain so, and if the rudderless Democrats don't get their act together, and come up with real people friendly policies, 2020 will see them still lost in the wilderness, and Trump breezing into his second term.
50
Trump may be “winning,” as you assert Mr. Douthat, but has done nothing to keep alive the ethos manifested by the patriots that founded this nation and kept alive by patriots since then.
The Preamble to our Constitution sets forth the guiding beliefs of the nation:forming a more perfect union, establishing justice, insuring domestic tranquility, etc.
Instead of working to form a more perfect union, Trump has promoted division, e.g., the NPR/PBS News Hour/ Marist poll several months ago found 86 percent of the public having a negative view our political discourse. Justice is obviously of little concern to him, e.g., pardoning Sheriff Joe Arpaio, maligning the Justice Department, Robert Mueller, and the FBI. Insuring domestic tranquility is clearly not a priority, e.g., his support for white nationalist in Charlottesville. Providing for the common defense is another low priority, as is so evident in his unconcern about Russia’s interference in our elections, a sine qua non for protecting our democracy. If he embraced the goal of promoting the general welfare, there we would surely hear about a plan for health care for all Americans, since that would protect and save lives. When it comes to securing the blessings of liberty, he apparently believes his venomous tweets will do the job.
Trump is incubating a "snake pit,” and the Republicans controlling Congress are indifferent to the direction he is taking the country. Trump may be “winning,” but we, the people, are not.
48
"a rallying point for all the disparate groups who feel threatened by having our cultural elite in full control of government. " Who exactly are the 'cultural elite'? I hope that Douthat is using this term ironically, since if there is such a category of American society, it is self-appointed as an elite sector and its values are as superficial as the term 'elite' suggests. The distinction between cultural elites and the rest of American society is largely created by the media that puts itself in the determining position of who qualifies.
17
I see two problems. The first is that you cannot remain shocked for too long. Trump is becoming "ordinary" and we are less and less surprised the longer he goes on.
The real problem though is that he is doing enormous harm to the United States, both internationally and domestically. The world is having to learn to get on without the United States. By the time this is over it might well have done so.
Domestically, he is (almost single handedly) destroying the State Department, the EPA and the eductation department. He is still trying to deny health insurance to most Americans and wants to dismantle the social security safety net.
43
The GOP exists to make the rich richer, and keep everyone else uninformed. The Democrats are an antidote to the GOP. That’s it.
37
If you consider the downfall of the Republic as winning, then,yes, Trump and the Republicans are winning.
31
Gwen Vilen
There is an upward trend of the Republic; so , yes, the President and the Republicans are winning.
11
Trump is "winning" because he lies -- and no one is challenging or countering him. Trump and his cronies (which includes the media/"news") are spinning a web of lies, deceptions, cheating, and bullying, which is all wrapped up in an authoritarian package that tricks people into unquestioningly believing these things are leadership.
The more you people in the media say that he's winning without any context that encourages people to explore the facts and informs then to make better conclusions about the information they're getting, the more the false narrative grows in Trump's favor.
For example, Trump supporters have been told (and so they regurgitate) that the economy is great at 3.9% unemployment because of something Trump has done, which is exactly opposite of the truth. But what Trump supporters fail to understand (because no one in the media is addressing) is the context in which those data exist. The unemployment rate has nothing to do with tax cuts or anything Trump has done. Idk what but it seems more related to seasonal (summer) part-time hiring, the underemployed or low-wage workers in multiple jobs (they have jobs but terrible pay and benefits), and a lot of people who have simply stopped looking altogether.
Just because unemployment is "low" does not mean the economy is strong. The only people who have strong economy (and extremely disproportionate at that) at the moment are the top 10%.
17
Donald is winning only because the legal probes into his shenanigans is just that-legal. He knows he will never be indicted. The democrats and really all Americans need to recognize this is a political problem. The only check on Trump is via votes either on impeachment in congress or at the ballot box. Waiting for a legal remedy is useless-there is none. Degrading the legal probes is a smart political move and thus trump is “winning” while the democrats sit on their hands and wait for Mueller.
8
Doctor
The rule of law will win.
11
Mr. Douthat observes that Congressional Republicans have put forward a "totally nonexistent agenda" since passing their wretched tax bill. True, but Democrats also give the appearance of standing only for elections.
Remember that one of the major "knocks" on Hillary Clinton was that voters couldn't figure out what she stood *for*. Is that so different for Democrats today? The closest I can remember Democrats coming to enunciating a program was a vacuous label – a Better Deal, I think (but I don't remember, like most Americans).
Or Democrats bombard us with terms like Resist – not with forward-looking policies that engage and inspire the uncommitted voters. Or Democrats reflexively turn back to courting "demographics" instead of demonstrating concern for people instead of categories (no way to connect or build loyalty). Or Democrats simply fight among themselves for "control" of party apparatuses.
Democrats don't *deserve* to win Congress in the upcoming elections. But I hope they do, if only because of the alternative. How ennobling that is!
8
Ross, in order to trump Trump, we need to put our heads together, to come up with the best ideas. Why not have contests to find good ideas?
Trump has his team, Fox News, and millions of Trumpsters working to defend him. The opposition is fragmented, so the resistance is weak. Why not have anti-Trump contests, nationwide?
"United we stand."Divided we fall. (Aesop)
-----------------------------------------------------
7
Bill Clinton on his worst day was 1,000 times better than DT.
Regarding 'How Trump Is Winning,' it's because of people like Ross Douthat and his war on people who are not just like him and who do not make decisions in exactly the same way in which he would. And, of course, he assumes he has god on his side.
I'm an agnostic. Any slight leanings I may have had in favor of religiousity have been squelched by the likes of DJT purporting to speak on behalf of Jesus Christ. I have nothing against JC. I have nothing but disdain for DT. For anyone who thinks Donald Trump is leading them to the promised land, I'd say, 'Look out for a plague of locusts. I can hear the buzzing; pestilence is on its way.'
No one - not even the rich, maybe especially even the rich - will be spared. We have brought this on ourselves. We were warned not to worship golden idols. Instead we elected one.
16
As usual, there will be no redemption, or partial redemption for Christian conservatives, except in their own warped minds
4
Alexander Harrison is "d'accord tout a fait" with author's analysis, and that is not because I supported our vox populi at the ballot box, which tens of millions of others did as well, and which is why he won. Douthat has taken a step back and viewed the current admin. with an objective eye, highly unusual among Times newspaper columnists, especially those who pose as humorists, but who, as the years add up, have become bitter, sour proselytizers for the anti Trump crowd, and whose articles r, in my view, more bones than meat! More his critics blast him, the more hardened Trump
's support among his aficionados becomes! Combine that with a good jobs record and he appears at this juncture in any case unbeatable in event he runs for re election in 2020! Add hominem attacks add up to nothing, and may please the mainly white liberal school teacher crowd, but lack substance!Douthat's writings are real assets for the paper!
7
let me finally take this opportunity to say a few good words about President Trump:
...
...
...
I'm thinking -
12
The Democrats have no message, therefore Trump will continue to be winning. Trump 2020
19
“Trump is corrupt and awful” is a completely valid and important message.
5
Don't be so certain. You ignore the recent Democratic wins at your own peril. Trump still needs to get past his numerous depositions and meanwhile 6O% of this country already feels about Trump the way that Trump's base feels about Hillary Clinton. And no Democrats will be staying home this year or in 2O2O simply because the media has told them every day for a year that Trump cannot possibly win. They are highly motivated to get rid of this lying, ignorant, corrupt and dangerous President. Also... the DNC has recently relocated to Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
8
The media got Trump nominated. They wanted ratings by covering the bizarre. They virtually ignored the normal candidates for ratings.
Now they are supporting Trump again by focusing on the sex story (for ratings) The real story is Russian interference and the oddballs running his campaign.
11
Of course he's going to win at politics, he's an archetypal PC Barnum and politics is a circus.
He's not likely to win reelection, unless corporate Democrats rig another primary. Nothing to do with ethics, good practices, or good government. Just rearranging the deck chairs gives rise to American style change. We have the perfect lousy, unresponsive, undemocratic system to handle the obtuse rot of politics. If we have a system where all our factions were well represented, we'd have civil war.
6
Trump is not "winning". We are all losing. A degenerate criminal has managed to become POTUS and the only question now is how severe and permanent the damage he is causing to our democracy will be.
19
North Korea has played it's hand - the same one we've seen before. Ratchet up tension, have talks, ease sanctions, make their people a little happier and healthier then back to business as usual.
The real foreign policy crisis is just starting. Bibi is lining up for an assault on Iran. Trump is got his hand an the door knob, ready to open it for him by decertifying the Iran nuclear deal. Saudi Arabia is in a transition and how they play into this is up in the air.
The middle east is still the tinder box. Trump has been blowing on the embers and heating it up. In one hand he has a bucket of water, in the other gas. Will he pour one into the fire pit? If so, which?
11
Mueller is the best thing to happen to Trump since Mitt Romney and the primary reason Trump's approval continues to rise. When will these people learn...
5
I'm not really surprised. It was inevitable the economy would improve and trump would reap the reward. This is in spite no real wage gains and more income inequality. And the world at least appears a little safer with the Korean situation. The Stormy situation might lead to charges but only those who obsess over political minutiae seem to care. Gorsuch is on the Supreme Court and the Bernie bros still blame Hillary they can't get a date.
6
His party completed their agenda - tax cuts for the rich. I'm sure they are now perfecting their drive or putt.
16
No, the Fake President is not "winning". Not a single word of analysis here concerning the actual voting by people that has taken place in numerous by-elections so far across the nation, with disturbingly reduced margins for Republicans even when they did "win".
The inability of Trump to significantly expand his core supporters will usher in, with near historical certitude, Democratic control of the House and a distinct possibility of the same result in the upper chamber. Unless and until Trump's favorability approaches 60%, or more, the G.O.P. is doomed come November.
8
Shouldn't we be rooting for the president to do well regardless of his strategies, crude and unconventional as they may be?
21
If we feel he is doing long-term damage to the country that outweighs any short-term gains (that mostly serve to boost his popularity in the eyes of his base) - then no, we shouldn't be rooting for the president.
But instead of just complaining and insulting, we'd better do our homework and craft convincing counter-arguments and do whatever else we can to persuade his supporters and help them to understand the risks.
18
No. We should be pressing for impeachment of BOTH Trump and Pence, along with every Cabinet member involved. To this administration, succeeding, in their definition, would be to make this country similar to the UAE. Only the wealthy have rights, women and the poor are only servants. Not something I'm okay with supporting.
14
No
Not at all He hasn’t taken a single step to reach out to those who disagree with him
just verbally abuses them
Let him sink along with his corrupt party
Then we start over.
3
A wake up call for the democrats. Now only Donald Trump could read....he would have read Ross's article and would have twitted left and right...."Look even low grade NYT thinks I'm winning." Ross would have been popular and famous over night.
9
I have spent the entire weekend reading commentary from right leaning pundits, suggesting that despite all evidence to the contrary, Donald Trump is ‘winning’.
And while I understand that the unemployment rate has dropped to lows it hasn’t seen in eighteen years, the fact is that rate is only marginally down from where it was when Obama left office.
As for North Korea, we have seen this picture before. Of course the issue is not helped by Trump threatening to tear up the agreement with Iran while courting Kim Jong Un, but at best a real resolution is years down the road, and dubious at best.
The bottom line is that Donald Trump’s single accomplishments after eighteen months are a grotesquely large tax cut for himself and his friends, and the fact that he hasn’t been arrested for money-laundering yet.
Mr Douthat’s suggestion that Congressional Republicans can best help Trump by doing nothing, while pathetic, is true. At best their actions remind those on the left of why they need to vote the bumbs out, at worst some ideas out of GOP pols border on criminal, and Trump has enough problems in that area on his own.
In all likelihood, Donald Trump will finish out his first term, and be consigned to the ashbin of history. That said, history will not forget Trump’s enablers and cheerleaders, and it will not be kind in it’s assessment of the damage they did to the US and the world by bringing a buffoon to the office of president.
30
Well said my friend
Well said indeed
Now if only America would listen and recognize
your wise assessment .
3
It's kind of like our country held hands with Trump and jumped off of the roof with him. We are passing the 20th floor and saying, "Hey this isn't as bad as we thought it would be."
Just wait.
Trump's Know-Nothingness will have consequences and I would point to farmers in the Mid-West as the canaries in the coal mine. They are suffering already for things that haven't even gone into effect yet--tariff threats have led our trading partners to take their business elsewhere. Our standing in the world is diminishing. The stock market is growing more volatile now after more or less ignoring Trump's idiotic tweets for a year. Racists are peddling their defunct ideas and preparing for action.
It's not like the Kims have changed their tune. They have always wanted to talk, to make peace on terms that no one in their right mind would accept, to be recognized as legit rulers rather than murderous despots. Trump has already given them way more than they deserve. True that jaw jaw is better than war war. But when the shoe hits the fan and talks break down, there is no longer a place to go but to war. Trump has made it more likely, not less likely, that war will be the outcome. Nobel Peace Prize? Well they gave one to Arafat so what is the value of it, really? Obama never lived up to his either.
13
It will be interesting to see how soy bean farmers vote in 2018 and 20.
4
I agree. But like old question asked, What's the matter with (name your state)?
The big difference between R voters and D voters is that R voters tend more to be single issue voters--guns, abortion, security, taxes--while D voters tend to bundle a whole bunch of issues together.
After Bernie was outed, I listened to Trump the populist. I liked what I heard but I didn't believe a word of it. And he has been a typical trickle-down R who hasn't yet invested in infrastructure to create better paying jobs than retail and service. The economy is doing fine but very few are benefiting. It must be disappointing.
Ross, if you call what Trump is doing winning in any sense how misguided are you? Was his speech at the NRA winning? I suppose to the zealots, yes. But England and France weren’t so impressed, neither were the kids from Parkland and neither am I. And I don’t think North Korea is capitulating, their rhetoric is completely anti-Trump. Or you might ask John McCain or Lindsay Graham if we are “winning”. Find another topic. This one is a loser.
26
I am 73. The vote for president has always been pimarily based on Personslity. Who knows who the Dems will nominate in 2020.
6
Mr. Douthat falls victim to the what's now being discussed -- the gossip side of news, and of course the current rage is the Cohen/Stormy Daniels scenario. But that doesn't mean Mueller's gone to sleep. He's got Gates, Flynn, Papadopoulos & no doubt others filling him in on the Russiagate details. Those 49 questions? Mueller knows the answer to every one. Otherwise he wouldn't want to ask them. The answers don't bode well for this president.
13
Thank you Ross
Here’s what’s missing:
Women, families , women and families snd every other party that has been beaten up disrespected and offended
They vote We bote
The Kochs know it
The Mercers know it
The donor class knows it
The GOP knows it
Only fools can talk themselves into believing constructive change can come from these
authoritarian, power at any price wanna bees.
And these same self deluding fools will have 45 out campaigning parting himself on the back
Until the morning of November 7th 2018 when the proverbial chickens will have come home to roost
See you all then
7
Give us a break Ross.
The Stormy Daniels affair was NEVER:
"A scandal that began with the promise of republic-shaking revelations about presidential treason"
Ridiculous hyperbole. Catch your breath man.
10
The "promise of republic-shaking revelations about presidential treason" is not in reference to the Stormy Daniels affair. Go back and read the paragraph slowly.
3
"A core fact of our era is that the national Republican Party is politically effective only as a vehicle for anti-liberalism, a rallying point for all the disparate groups who feel threatened by having our cultural elite in full control of government. Which means the G.O.P. is often more popular the less it attempts to legislate at all."
The above is just fake *opinion,* The conservative elite like the Koch brothers and the heartland and cato institutions...etc...have been in full control of the GOP for decades and have exercised extreme control of the govt. to their own advantage and at the expense of 90% of the population.
And the GOP just does not care....as the debt exploding tax cut for the rich will eventually show. The GOP is very happy to legislate restrictions on people they don't care about---such as restricting voting rights or breaking unions or restricting women's rights or now trying to cut back just about any type of help for low income people.
What is truly stated here is that the GOP propaganda machine supplying the masses with histrionic nonsense is working while the truth takes a back seat.
11
Glenmur:
No doubt about it, in addition to their never ending mantra that "government, taxes and regulation are evil" in recent decades, their "divide and conquer" approach to policy making has been quite successful in deflecting away from the "real agenda" you describe. Turn people against each other, to those that might support them, blame everyone else(immigrants, minorities, Muslims, teachers, unions etc. etc.) while implementing their only purpose to line the pockets of themselves and their rich friends and continually promise their Evangelical Christian supporters that by turning the clock back 100 years, everything will be wonderful again. Fox News has been the "poster child" for implementing this agenda.
It doesn't take much critical thinking to determine that, in reality, since the Reagan years, other than their own self-interest and definitely not America, the Republican Party has really never stood for much of anything.
9
"Turn people against each other, to those that might support them, blame everyone else(immigrants, minorities, Muslims, teachers, unions etc. etc.)..."
____
But aren't the Dems and their 'identity politics' enabling this? Instead of focusing on the common interests of the middle class - which includes working class whites, racial minorities, members of the LGBTQ community and so many others, Democrats seem to obsess over our differences.
We The People could hold our own against the Kochs and other self-interested plutocrats and their GOP lackeys - if we but had a party to unite our efforts. At one time that would have been the Democratic Party.
Trump is winning largely due to the hypocrisy running rampant through the community of the religious right. These people are winning to forgive and support a man with clearly the lowest level of character imaginable. Yet these same people were willing to go to war over the boldface lie concerning Obama's birth.
They perceive their faith is under siege while they wave the flag over their god-given right to own guns and forbid women any choice over their own healthcare. And let's not forget the whole immigration policy which is merely a disguise for ethnic cleansing. The whole situation feels far too much like the Taliban draped in an American flag. Winning what?
23
Maybe you can persuade your colleagues on the news side to cover something besides, "This is how awful Donald Trump is." We already got that. Most of us got it during the campaign. Maybe you could persuade them to talk to some Democrats and activists about their healthcare proposals, their plans to lower student debt, their climate change initiatives, their infrastructure and jobs proposals. All Trump All the Time is how he got elected. It would be nice if the media stopped getting him re-elected.
18
Democrats are on their way to losing. Bigly.
11
This President is a disaster for our country and, as our representative to the world, an abject embarrassment to all of us. That should be obvious to anyone with a brain. No need to overanalyze.
20
Stop clinging to false hopes re: Trump's illusory political "success." You will be singing a different song once Mueller's investigation is completed.
8
Douthat should have mentioned - and Democrats must take seriously - the developing attempt at character assassination of Robert Mueller. My conservative friends are buying into the stories and I've yet to come across a systematic rebuttal beyond that of retired judge Nancy Gertner https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/18/opinion/robert-mueller-smearing-compl...
Ultra-conservative Congressman Louie Gohmert is behind some of this: https://www.thepostemail.com/2018/05/01/congressman-issues-scathing-repo...
Even a former Bill Clinton advisor has weighed in: http://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/385646-how-about-a-few-questions-fo...
2
Democrats still can't believe Trump won and won't believe that he'll continue to win.
In 2018 and 2020 every single one of Trump's beatific 41% will vote.
His drooling voters will be lined up at the polls a day early with their colorful coolers and flags.
It'll be like the 4th of July.
And Democrats stuck on "But She Won" won't know what hit them.
8
His base is only 20%. That 41% is an approval rating which changes daily and doesn't control for likely voters. Research skills are crucial.
4
And we were sure Hillary Clinton was going to win.
Overconfidence in their opposition to donald trump has been a fatal flaw of Democrats in recent times.
1
His base must at least be in the mid-thirties or the spineless GOP in Congress and Senate wouldn’t be so worried about being primaried.
I appreciate that the New York Times is committed to providing a diversity of opinion about the Trump Administration. What I learned and I hope that the media take note.
I think Trump's lies, mistakes and foibles have become normalized. Douthat admits Trump is under investigation, embroiled in scandal, the GOP will lose many seats this fall and Trump is deeply unpopular. But, according to Douthat, who is really counting? The media has set the bar too low and needs to make the Trump WH accountable in the same way they would for Obama or for Bush.
The Trump team as Douthat says has pivoted the attention to sex and lies. Meanwhile, it has come out that Trump hired an israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a dirty ops campaign against key individuals in the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal. This shows Trump and Netanyahu (who is under investigation for corruption - need I say birds of a feather flock together?) plotted to undermine the Iran deal. The GOP in Congress are trying to bring up the impeachment of Rod Rosenstein. The media needs to keep its eye on the ball and not play into the Giuliani/Trump distraction game.
Saying the bar has been set low is like telling someone when they got 5 answers right out of 100, "at least you got a few right". Trump is a failing POTUS, his WH is based on lies and deceit and his administration is in a shambles. I hope the media does not let themselves be manipulated by Trump again.
16
Douthat's premise is that as long as the economy is going along well and unemployment is low Trump is safe.
He presumes that most of America reflects GOP and Evangelical political values, which currently are as follows:
- Character, morality, fairness and honesty don't matter as long as the worst sinner ever to hold this Office holds prayer breakfasts, supports extreme conservative positions on abortion, opposes any new gun control proposals, continues to thunder against immigrants and calls the press the enemy of the people (with a waiver for Fox and certain conservative Christian media) and the economy is ok.
Douthat is saying that we will hold our noses to the stench in the White House for the extra $400 a few of us might take home for just a few years due to his tax plan.
Understandable that Douthat feels this way - it is in fact the current reality. But despite Douthat and most spineless GOP legislators, there are still enough of us left for whom character matters, morality reflects shared values (rather than exclusively extreme Evangelical Christian values) and is expected to be a presidential priority, a president who lies constantly is completely unacceptable and is considered corrosive to our institutions and alliances, and paying off porn stars and then lying about it over and over means he is too much of a moron to be anywhere near the launch codes.
We are biding our time.
18
This analysis is exactly correct: The "Russia Collusion" inquiry has devolved into a petty investigation of efforts to hide a sex scandal. It is Bill Clinton all over again, but with the parties' roles reversed. The American public recognizes politically motivated prosecution when it sees it, and the target (whether Bill Clinton or Donald Trump) is ultimately viewed in sympathetic terms by the voters who supported them originally. Trump is not harmed politically by this while his political enemies - the Democratic Party and the liberal press - just whip themselves up into a feeding frenzy, to no political avail.
6
Dems need not only to wake up but also hurry up. They must immediately put forward a platform/agenda that ignites voters' hearts and minds.
This country cannot wait for the certain lamentations that will come from the Republicans' tax cuts. By that time, it will be too late for too many, not to mention our democracy and economy. The faster Republicans can drive this country to the brink of financial crisis, the faster they can present desperate voters with another "strong man," read dictator, who pins all the woes on a scapegoat du jour (e.g., immigrants, minorities, the college educated, gays, Muslims, Jews, Catholics, etc.). When people feel themselves in desperate straits, they are much less likely to make good long-term decisions.
The great irony is that the Republican plan to cede control of this country from top to bottom to our own oligarchs: e.g., Kochs, Mercers. And the GOP modus operandi is simple:
1. pass laws that create economic uncertainty and inequality, 2. make worried voters think that someone or some group (especially immigrants/minorities) is getting what rightfully belongs to the worried voters (e.g., jobs, social benefits), 3. claim public schools are the enemies of our Christian heritage and underfund them so they cannot educate, 4. claim that voters can trust only two sources of information: Fox News and the Bible, and 5. when the economy crashes, begin again at step 1: pass more laws to create more uncertainty and inequality.
17
I can't wait to read each Gemli and Socrates comments after either an egregious defense of Trump by one of the NYT Republican opinion columnists. They are always so much better written and so much better expressed. I usually agree with everything both say. This time, too.
3
They are by far the two best regular commenters.
1
The GOP isn't afraid of the cultural elite being in charge; they are afraid of the majority being in charge.
9
Her is an ugly truth. Those "cultural elites" the Trump voters are so fond of mocking actually have the capabilities to govern. A bachelor's is basic training for them and specialized and advanced degrees Help them to benefit from the experience of others in what will, and what won't, work. They are not immune to corruption but somewhat less likely to give in to the temptation and more likely to grift in sophisticated ways that also happen to be legal though not necessarily moral. We are seeing what happens when those who have been presented on TV as capable are actually put in charge. Galaxy Quest, anyone? Only this time the nukes are real and about half of them are aimed at us.
5
When Conservatives in my part of the South see Democrats, they see liberalism, socialism, Big Government, big taxes, welfare, open borders, advantages given to minorities, easy-on-crime mentality, marijuana legalization, acceptance of all things gay, communist college professors, the Clintons, BHO, FAKE news, and identity politics. Plus, their parents were Conservative, as are their neighbors and friends. They can talk for hours about the sins of the Democratic Party.
Not much brain-space is left open to another view.
They uneasily overlook 45's sins, but are relieved to at least be able to argue that he has some political victories under his belt: the yuge tax cut, Gorsuch nomination, NoKo peace talks, Muslim ban attempts, total support for the Second Amendment, antiabortion, the Mexican wall, and tells it like it is.
Thus, they can, and will, attack and defend their positions quite satisfactorily, at least in their minds. Penetrating and changing those minds is nigh impossible.
So any Democrat down here has two strikes against her from the get-go. The times, they are not a-changin'.
13
The Republican "Southern Strategy" of the late 1960's just confirmed an attitude that was always there and continues to this day. Just tell them what they want to hear and you get elected.
1
I have to sadly agree.
1
I love the constant Conservative drive to associate Clinton with Trump. How many times did Ross mention Clinton in this post?
I'm surprised he didn't drag JFK and FDR into it as well. Both so Trumpian. Mistresses! Shocking!
Trump is a moral and intellectual vacuum into which American popular culture has fallen. He is a mirror of our most selfish impulses. In other words, he is not like JFK, FDR or Clinton. He is not, and will never be, a leader.
10
Of course, Americans will continue to lose, but who cares about them? As long as Trump wins!
Donald Trump is 'winning' by profiting from being President of the United States while temporarily occupying the White House. As long as Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin does not disclose to the American people the contents of Trump's personal and family income tax returns and business records the House of Trump will keep on winning.
4
Trump is just a symptom of the malaise in this country and its body politic. The very fact that well meaning readers are finding new virtues in a debauch, tax avoider, scruplous, narcisstic, and racist person should help explain that Trump is just a symptom the malaise is larger and lies outside. America is an imperfect oligarchy, it is not a democracy. Even the foundation of the electoral system was "the grand compromise". The elections are just a sham, replacing one liberal oligarch with a conservative one.
People get the govermnent or leader they deserve.
2
Trump is as limp as a noodle regarding current and future wherewithal. He might as well be president of the Aunty Bees sewing circles because everyone include history views him as a low grade hustler, huckster, three card Monty New Yorker. If you assembled his entire support and their cumulative worthiness, you'd have exactly zero worth.
4
Maybe Donnie Dotard’s approval ratings have gone up due to the numbing down of America; a constant barrage Breaking News! articles about every single stupid thing that happens. I’ve had it. Just one day run a front page that doesn’t look like the National Enquirer. Thank you.
2
The parallels to the rise of the Nazis is frightening. People want instantaneous, easy, solutions. They want a savior. They also want a scapegoat. Hitler provided both. He was the savior, and the Jews were the scapegoat. And that lethal message brought more death and destruction than was seen in all human civilization. Trump has so many scapegoats he could start a farm.
Hindenburg and the German right viewed Hitler in strikingly similar terms to how Republican elites view Trump. Yes, they badly underestimated his fanaticism, which Hitler had downplayed in public. While they failed to anticipate that Hitler would launch a total war and industrial-scale genocide, they did consider him a buffoon. Alfred Hugenberg, leader of the German-Nationals, deemed the Nazis “little better than a rabble, with dangerously radical social and economic notions,” writes Turner. Hindenburg considered Hitler qualified to head the postal ministry at best. Hitler, in their eyes, was not a serious man, unfit to govern, a classless buffoon. His appeal, the German elite believed, came from his outsider status, which allowed him to posture against the political system and make extravagant promises to his followers that would never be tested against reality. What’s more, Hitler’s explicit contempt for democracy made even the authoritarian German right nervous about entrusting him with power.
If you do not learn from history we are doomed to repeat it.
8
Cable TV reality shows all eventually get old and even the highest rated ones eventually get cancelled. The audience tires of rinse and repeat of the basic premise and the characters become just as boring and tiresome. We have been watching the "Trump Oval Office" reality TV show for some time now. It has grown stale. He is running out of scandals to tintalize the viewers with and has few if any accomplishments. Watching him is slowly becoming like watching paint dry. His cabinet and advisors are all in one form or another a "Mini-me", inept, corrupt, self serving bullies. Since trump is all about ratings and star power he will have to resort to some extreme theatrics at the Mueller hearings other than to trot out his overworked expressions of "fake news", "you're a crook" and "this is a witch hunt" if he hopes to retain an audience. Congress largely ignores him and does nothing since the trump show so far has distracted the public from the fact that they have been MIA. Even boy wonder Ryan stepping down was a bit of a yawner as you tend not to miss someone who has done little next to nothing. Shows with little or no character development and virtually no action can't hold an audience. We hopefully will move on to newer and more promising things in November.
5
When Trump scraps the Iran Nuclear Treaty like he's been threatening to do in his series of 'worst deal ever' tweets, which will lead to another Middle East war and Americans coming back home in body bags, Trump's shelf life will expire and his command will be terminated.
1
Ross knows whereof he speaks when he says that the Republican party is effective as a vehicle for anti-liberalism, and Trump very much leads that charge.
Prior to the 2016 election this country was one step from Socialism.
And the man in the street did not know how to stop it.
Along comes Trump, looney antics and all, and many Americans begin to believe that liberalism is not going to overwhelm them after all.
5
The only reason Trump appears to be winning is he is still riding Obama’s coattails, this to can last only so long.
5
The only thing Obama's coattails were good for was erasing red lines.
1
Ross is leaving out the facts on multiple points.
Rasmussen's weekly survey has been far more accurate than those Ross quotes. Rasmussen has Trump up several points at over 50%!
He refuses to give Trump any credit for North Korea in spite of the failing of previous administrations of both parties.
He doesn't mention Trump along with Britain and France taking out the chemical weapons facilities of Assad.
He ignorse the popularity of the tax cut among lower income workers in spite of Democrats harping about the rich.
Ross refuses to a acknowledge the failures of Mueller including the freeze on his use of illegally seized attorney client documents, his dress down by a federal judge, his failure to prosecute anyone, his illegal refusal to turn over documents to Congress or the Russian company he has indicted, his acknowledgment on no collusion found by Trump or his campaign.
Most importantly, he fails to realize that what he and other media are doing is affirming Trump's assertion of media liberal bias and the need to drain the Washington swamp.
All that said, Ross at least suggests Trump could be winning while refusing to acknowledge the real reasons!
7
We will be getting the bill in the mail.
The 2018 deficit is going up after the Trump tax cut by almost double - $600 Billion is going to around $1 Trillion.
Most people I know will be getting about $1,000 a year for 7 years.
That's about $20 a week.
But after ten years, we will have added $10 Trillion to the national debt or about $67,000 for each tax payer.
I wouldn't mind if Trump voters got fleeced. But I am getting fleeced, too.
Reagan cut taxes and got 16 Million jobs and a huge increase in the deficit / debt. It’s the reason they put the debt clock in Manhattan.
Clinton raised taxes and got 23 Million jobs, almost 50% more than Reagan and balanced the budget, zero deficit.
W Bush gave us two "tax cuts for the job creators" and we got 3 Million jobs. He took Clinton's zero deficit and gave Obama a whopping $1.4 Trillion deficit. And he also gave Obama the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Obama got us through the Great Recession and cut the deficit by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion. He gave us the "jobs killing" Obama-care and we got 11.5 Million jobs, almost 400% more than W Bush. And 20 Million people got healthcare.
And now with Trump, Republicans have done it again, cut taxes and increased the deficit / debt. And I expect worse job creation than Obama.
Already the 2.06 Million jobs in 2017 was the lowest since 2010 when the recession ended.
But some people never learn.
10
The Rasumussen poll is one of the most conservative-friendly poll in existence. Real pollsters find it deeply flawed. It track only ''likely voters" and, regrettably, Republicans are more likely to vote. Second, Rasmussen calls only landline phones, supplementing that pool with an online survey. Very unorthodox.
In 2010, Nate Silver Nate Silver attributed Rasmussen’s Republican lean to a “house effect”: How it conducted its polls led to a Republican advantage.
“If you’re running a news organization and you tend to cite Rasmussen’s polls disproportionately,” he wrote, “it probably means that you are biased — it does not necessarily mean that Rasmussen is biased.”
3
Your deficit increase numbers are actually quite low. The CBO just recently sent out a revision to those numbers in that it has now escalated the deficit number addition by another 1.9 TRILLION and that only if the economy maintains its current growth status.
If there is a downturn or another recession, which is likely because of the irresponsible banking de-regulation just completed, look out! 2 TRILLION PLUS, here we come!
2
Trump absolutely will be unscathed by the Russian interference story. But a sorry tale of Trump being led around by the nose by the very neo cons who wanted to destroy him has now emerged. Trump had less to do with N. Korea than China wanting Kim's regime to survive as a buffer without helping the US. Trump seems to be drug further and further in the Syria disaster. As neo cons have led Trump to believe that Syria has no national sovereignty. Netanyahu seems to believe he can angle the US into a war with Iran. The giant Trump tax cuts that were supposed to raise all boats are going to be limited primarily to his plutocrat buddies with stock buy backs. A trillion dollars was added to the national debt and the Pentagon was gluttonously over fed. The bull market seems to have run out of steam with quantitative easing ending. The economy is not so rosy as Trump would like to believe. By 2020 it is likely to be a much different not so pleasant economic situation. The trade war with China could lead to a bad impasse and China could likely win.
9
I don’t see how Made In China could possibly win a trade war with third rate gadgets and textiles. Surely India can pony up better junk. Unless they are able to steal the electric car or cure for Alzheimer’s from under our noses, their Peking duck is cooked. The Communist copy-cats will blink!
1
Democracy dies when two of the three branches of government cede all responsibility to the executive branch. In our legislative branch no meaningful legislation is even attempted, a check on the executive is never applied, and alleged leaders McConnell and Ryan do nothing without the executive's approval. In our judicial branch we have a conservative majority that can't wait to stamp it's approval on whatever right-wing agenda priority comes before it. Our democracy is effectively dead.
14
It is absolutely ironic that trump supporters and other right wingers screamed at the power of the executive branch under President Obama
When all they really wanted was that power for themselves . Lying conniving hypocrites.
6
Rather unfortunately most of what the government can do to effect the economy is long term, and this president can easily coast on his predessessors legacy while leaving his successor a mountain of debt and hollowed out institutions.
The good news is that people have correctly judged the tax cuts harshly. Unfortunately thought there still is a large section of the population who dont pay attention and will credit whoever is in power with the economy.
The important thing is to mobilize the people that are paying attention, that's not just voting, it's volunteering, donating, talking to friends, convincing people that the errosion of democratic institutions is an important issue that demands active response.
13
i like your thinking. he's succeeding by not doing anything much.
4
If you reconcile how much money the Trump organization is making as a direct affect of Donald being president, then the Trump empire is winning beyond all historical measures. Hundreds of millions of dollars are going to the Trump family..... and at the same time, conservatives complain that Obama made a few million on a book deal.
Stop it. You intellectual dishonesty is very tiresome.
26
james
The President and working family members do not take salaries.
2
Intellectual dishonesty?
Please.Naked stupid ignorant hypocrisy is more like it.
3
Healthcare has always been my Number One issue because of all the experience my family has had with private insurance and the laws that support it. I could care less about Korea and Iran and their pitiful little nukes. I am not impressed by a pitiful little tax cut. I believe immigration must be effectively controlled by law but I believe a wall is a waste of money we desperately need for other purposes. So what has he done to make adequate health insurance available and affordable for all? Nothing but make matters worse. President Obama took on that huge task in the first year of his first term because he promised he would and because he knew how many Americans were suffering under the existing system. If by some miracle Donald Trump would "flip" and take a stand for a single-payer insurance program and ram it down the throats of the Republicans in Congress, I would overlook almost anything he has done otherwise and vote for him if he runs for re-election.
8
It’s quite odd the things you didn’t mention. That Trump is a pathological liar who lies 5-6 average a day. That he’s a racist and misogynist. In particular, he’s truly vile to African-American women, some members of Congress. Or that he’s a narcissist on a scale that we’ve never seen before. Literally, everything is about him. Finally, you didn’t mention that he, his family and members of his cabinet have been making money off of their “public service”. Your column leaves all that out and simply normalizes his administration when they are the furthest thing from normal.
36
If you're looking for every column in the NYT to be an echo chamber of things you already believe in, then prepare for disappointment. Kudos to the columnist for breaking out of the usual litany to shed a little light on why Trump is not doing as badly as we think he should be. All of what you say is true, but clearly doesn't matter to the electorate as much as it should. That's what we should be trying to understand.
7
Did I say I expected everything to be an echo chamber of my ideas? No. His take is no different than any conservative columnist who acts like we are not living in unprecedented times.
It is sad, but true, that nothing this President could do, short of possibly premeditated murder, is likely to erode his support among the GOP base. That is because that base, those individuals, have sacrificed whatever higher principles they might once have possessed to follow the rallying call of an amoral television huckster. This is especially true of so-called Evangelicals who daily ignore the teachings of their own Jesus Christ to support a man who cannot draw breath without contravening two or three of those teachings. The explanation they offer: I support him for his Christian-based policies. Right.
19
One could say the same about the mafia/organized crime. While there have been shady dealings and possibly a few murders, mafia leaders always took good care of their families and their businesses. While many of their businesses may have started out in a corrupt fashion, virtually all their businesses have morphed into mainstream American businesses. It seems that the mafia and other organized crime leaders have been wrongly maligned for many years when all they did was to provide for family and community needs.
8
Ha ha ha Just a few people tossed into the bottom of the sea as the price their ‘ taking care of their families”
Collateral damage to some
Murder to the rest of us
1
Trump is winning because the Democrats are too meek and timid to run on a progressive agenda that actually serves the
American people. Gone are the day s when they would have supported universal health care, free public education K-16, a massive investment in renewable energy, robust public investment in infrastructure, a war against climate change, a truly progressive tax system and a whole host of other issues the people could rally behind and get excited about.
Instead, they hide under their desks, hoping and praying that the Mueller or Stormy Daniels investigations might come to something and put Trump away. This allows the toxic faux populism of Trump to dominate the public mood, just as it did during the 2016 campaign. To make matters even worse, they have no candidate with the charisma and leadership qualities to go up against Trump.
No agenda, no message, no candidate add up to no win.
16
Like many, Mr. Douthat has failed to understand why Obama was awarded a Nobel prize. It was neither “premature” not unearned. You try being the first black man to become president, and have what it takes to bring enough voters together across historically deep divides...
26
President Trump - and all that he seems to embody - will never win as long as there are those of us who are not afraid to believe in a brighter and more peaceful future for All of Us. We cannot allow ourselves to be disheartened by events that may indicate otherwise. And I do pray for the President, for as much as I detest his words or his actions, I still believe that love will always conquer hate. And I pray that the President will one day realize this.
4
Olihist
Martin Luther King (paraphrase)
"I will take love. Hate is such a heavy burden to bear."
1
November is the time for saving the nation. Vote, Vote, as if your life depended on it.
40
RichardHead
The President has done many good things for America.
Vote Republican.
4
Pray tell, Sarah, what good things, specifically, has Trump done for America? Where are those jobs for coal miners? Where is that really cheap and wonderful health care (the best plan, the most beautiful plan) for everybody? Where is the help for those caught up in the opioid crisis? What about the victims of Parkland and other mass shootings? What has Trump done to help them? Oh, and where is that "bill of love" that Trump said before running cameras that he wanted for the DACA young people?
Trump has done nothing good for America, and has instead already inflicted very much damage. Unless you are a member of the 1%, you will see this before too long.
2
ExpatAnnie
President Obama illegally signed a bill for the DACA young people.
The president wants to keep illegal immigrants out of the United States. He has sent National Guard Troops to the southern border and intends to build a wall.
The U.S. economy is great.
Unemployment is down to 3.9%
Taxes are down.
Workers have increases in salaries and bonuses.
Families can take a significant reduction in taxes.
ISIS numbers are very much down.
America and our allies, the UK and France, successfully bombed Assad's research and storage areas in Syria.
I am a citizen who sees the President doing a very good job despite the left wing naysayers who wish to destroy the President of the United States.
1
Well, maybe the GOP isn't legislating everything the author thinks they could be doing, it is doing a great job hammering away on women's rights and dismantling environmental safeguards, among other things. Trump is a bit of an embarrassing blip on the radar. The real win is stacking the Supreme Court. And *that's* the win we should be worried about.
19
A big reason why Trump still has a reasonable chance of winning in 2020 is the dramatic failure of the Democratic Party to come up with an effective strategy for defeating him or even begin to unify around any credible or inspiring candidates. (If Biden's the best they can do, that illustrates the problem perfectly.)
Placing all bets on the Mueller investigation and Stormy Daniels may hearten the anti-Trump base but will never pull in the majority of eligible voters who don't already either love or hate Trump. (Believe it or not, that's the majority of the country. If you can't see that, you need to get out of your bubble.)
Most of the Democratic Party establishment is sticking with the scandal, impeachment and emotional name-calling playbook because it preserves their inside-the-beltway power, is totally compatible with the agenda of the big donors and lobbyists who finance their party and requires zero thought or courage.
It also allows them to avoid the messy job of work of tackling real day-to-day issues like unaffordable health care, drug and college costs, mass incarceration, shrinking minimum wage, the lack of decent jobs for most people and the hollowing out of so many communities across the country.
Of course, those are the issues that will motivate regular people who don't have the luxury of just hating Trump because he's an ignorant, bigoted, narcissistic boor because they're too busy trying just trying to stay afloat in a still perilous (for them) economy.
21
Absolutely correct. Trump won by sticking it to both Democrats and Republicans - i.e. the corporatocracy.
Democrats won't even get rid of their establishment embedded leadership, much less rip into themselves, because the low-energy Democrats think they "shoulda won" and can just rewarm Hillary.
Their only chance is a revolutionary strategy that will leap-frog Trump and destroy their corporate donors.
That won't happen so the future is all Trump, all the time.
4
"the most important boost may be coming from inside his own party, in the form of the totally nonexistent agenda that congressional Republicans have put forward since the tax bill passed." This may be true. But isn't it completely out of step with the liberal "sky is falling" message ? Our unemployment rate is now below 4% for the first time since 2000 (pre-Obama). Trump is on the verge of a foreign policy success. But liberals act like the Republic is about to end ?
By the way, Trump's net approval rating is not too far from Obama's (negative 4.5 by the mid-terms).
As far as "the deeply unpopular legislation that the Republicans might otherwise be pursuing", let's remember that Obamacare itself was incredibly unpopular at its passage and remains divisive. The simple fact is that much of America simply does not want to become like socialist France - and that's even absent the worst part - taxes. In Europe, even the poor and middle class pay high taxes - fairly similar to the rich. But liberals have only been able to push a "Santa Claus" type socialism for several decades - where most people pay very little taxes. Roughly half the country only pays payroll taxes - 7.6% - and even this is often offset by tax credits like EITC. By contrast, even the poor in Europe pay a VAT usually around 15% - 20%. But liberals haven't been able to persuade even other liberals to pay anything like this. Talk about unpopular !
8
That is not how Universal healthcare works. Taxes are bracketed for income. You must be a republican. Trying to say European governments over tax the poor, except that is exceptionally disingenuous. The "poor" in most of Europe are guaranteed housing, and in many cases a universal income. The taxes paid for healthcare are, on average, around the same or less than Medicare premiums (currently $143 A MONTH), and cover much more.
The Mueller investigation suffered a setback this week when lawyers from one of the three Russian companies the Mueller team indicted for allegedly waging a social media campaign to disrupt the 2016 unexpectedly responded to summonses. The expectation was that the Russian companies and Russian individuals named in the indictment would simply ignore the summonses, since they are located or reside outside of U.S. jurisdiction. But the Concord Management lawyers not only appeared as ordered, but asked the court to order the Muller team to turn over the evidence against their clients.
The Mueller team backpedaled Friday by arguing that summonses has “not been properly received” and asked that the formal arraignment, scheduled next week, be delayed. However, U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich denied the request for delay. Meanwhile, the Concord Management lawyers are citing their client’s right to a speedy trail. Suddenly, the Muller team faces the prospects of proving its allegations. Some experts are betting on a dismissal of charges.
11
This is an underreported story. Mueller's bluff has been called. If he has to produce material under discovery, as the Russians' lawyers are demanding, he may experience a tremendous loss of face.
These charges were always suspect. In my view, they were a sop to those who needed to see Russian involvement and necessary because the collusion evidence wasn't there.
8
I think Russia meddle, but so did other countries. Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto compared Trump to Hitler. Mexico urged Mexican nationals residing legally in the United States to apply for U.S. citizenship so they could vote against Trump. Mexico Consular General Carlos González Gutiérrez said, “There are more than 600,000 Mexican legal residents living in Texas who have the right to U.S. citizenship. We have been instructed by the secretary of foreign affairs to promote aggressively the benefits of dual citizenship.” Trump flew to Mexico City in the middle of the campaign to ask Mexico leaders to tone down the anti-Trump rhetoric. Hillary Clinton asked the millions of Mexican nationals residing legally or illegally in the United States to make their voices heard. Waving Mexican flags, thousands of them marched through U.S. cities. DACA recipients—who are 94 percent Mexican—worked as Clinton campaign volunteers. They stuffed envelopes, organized rallies, conducted voter-registration campaigns, posted anti-Trump messages on social media websites, and made campaign speeches. They helped Clinton roll up her four-million vote margin in California, which accounted for her victory in the popular vote.
1
Trump is winning because he knows how to play the media -he knows any publicity is good publicity.
The Stormy Daniels story is a great distraction for him from the
election investigation.
8
what a joke, election investigation is going nowhere. record low unemployment and a nobel peace prize. MAGA
5
And you know what Mueller knows how?
Ceri Willams
I, for one, want to hear important news, not the constant story about an aging porn star.
"That nonexistence is, of course, an indictment of the G.O.P., but politically it’s vastly preferable to the deeply unpopular legislation that the Republicans might otherwise be pursuing..."
So you admit that the Republican party has exactly zero good ideas? Why, then, are you still a Republican?
9
Trump is delivering. He is hammered for his "lies" but his veracity in terms of addressing taxes, regulatory burdens, immigration, North Korea and Iran has been proven.
While his critics "fact check" his jokes, his supporters see him delivering on immigration enforcement. While his critics deny economic progress, his supporters feel the benefits of a tax cut.
Speaking of lies: Tax tables don't lie. Tax rates are lower and brackets are larger. Only coastals, losing their high real estate tax deductions won't benefit. Americans with children cannot NOT benefit from a doubling of the Child Tax Credit. It's a lie to claim this won't affect their taxes positively.
7
No Trump supporter here, but Trump has an excellent chance of being reelected as long as the Republicans in Congress do not threaten Social Security, Medicare or wreck the economy. The strategy is simple: do not scare the old white people and do not screw up the phenomenal economy that you inherited.
23
While I get the point here--yelling about Stormy Daniels helps Trump, as does a do-nothing Congress, a fair economy he didn't build, and whatever the heck it is that the DPRK is up to--the point might also be made that the Country, not the President, is spozed to be doing the winning.
4
What it seems like here is that Mr. Douthat is acquiescing to Trump. Folks like him are looking at the Devil and saying oh he’s not that bad, I’ve got my gold, so all is good. Where in the Bible does it say it’s OK to abandon your Tenets and Principles as long as the economy is good? Mr. Douthat has lectured many in this column on his Catholic moral stands, yet here he is hiding the good book in the back closet to feel OK about his Party’s loss of morale compass. What Mr. Douthat should be righting about is how with all the President’s disgraceful actions can any so called religious person inure themselves to him and give him an increase in approval rating. Something tells me heaven won’t see it the same way.
9
Trump is winning because the news media are helping him, by focusing on sex, which sells papers and grabs eyeballs. Meanwhile, his most swampy and incompetent cabinet members are still wrecking the country, and his real high crimes go unnoticed. The media is doing Trump's dirty work, some without even realizing it.
Before Reagan, there were laws in this country for TV companies -- whose licenses let them profit hugely off the public airwaves -- requiring them to give Equal Time to opposing candidates (imagine if Hillary's speeches had repeatedly been run in their entirety, like Trump's - more folks might have realized how earnest, honest, wonky and competent she was, and how silly the email controversy) and requiring them to abide by the Fairness Doctrine (meaning MSNBC would occasionally air a legitimate conservative, and Fox News would occasionally air... the facts).
We need to reinstate these long ago FCC policies... as laws.
10
LOL, Hillary speeches would have won her the election? What about her Wall Street speeches, missing emails, failure to reach out to the rust belt, her life work in government with nothing to show but criminal investigations. Give us a break, take a deep breath and take your seat aboard the Trump Train.
4
There's a trend to now blame the media for the predictable negative coverage of Trump, which is backfiring on democrats. Progressives need to look in the mirror. They are the greatest consumers of this gossipy noise.
4
Criminal investigations that cost tax payers millions and found exactly NOTHING criminal. The GOP has been after her since Bill first announced his candidacy and as zero to show for it. And how many indictments and guilty pleas has Mueller produced?
In the beginning, I believed that Mueller wouldn't find direct links to Russia and Trump himself. However, the longer this goes on, the more I believe Mueller's got him on something big - and that something big would have to do with the mandate he was given - Russia "collusion".
Mueller is a straight shooter. While he may loathe Trump personally, (can't imagine any man of genuine honor having anything but contempt for Trump,) this isn't a personal vendetta. Mueller isn't that kind of guy.
The simple fact that his investigation continues tells me he believes he's onto something. Or that he already has it and just needs more to prove it.
The circus that goes on outside Mueller's office is just that. A feeding frenzy for media attention and ways to distract the public from the damage of this administration. But Mueller isn't fooled. Nor is he distracted.
I've come to believe we'll have a corruption that's earth shattering in its scope when he's finally done. I just hope the powers that be let it all come to light.
8
Whatever prompted the payoff to Stormy Daniels, it hardly seems likely that it was to protect Trump's election. Trump supporters...right, righteous and self-righteous...already knew him to be a lecherous scoundrel and were fine with it. If nothing else, the Hollywood Access tape and Trump's marital shenanigans showed his lack of character.
3
This is a depressing but not unconvincing assessment of the current situation in our country. Where is there a vision for a better America? The leadership of the Republican Party offers nothing. They propose a meaner (but not necessarily leaner) country with little attempt to create opportunities for those who are not already very well off. I don't believe this will sustain us even if the President slips through another sex scandal.
4
To state that felonious Donald is "winning" is to say that democracy, the rule of law, morality, ethics, truth, nobility, honor and compassion have all lost.
Abraham Lincoln demands to change his party affiliation posthumously.
11
The worst thing that ever happened to Dems was the 1991 recession, which was a major cause of Bush losing to Clinton.
Without it, Clinton might never have made it to the WH and we wouldn't be saddled with their legacy, which is what helped tRump win more than anything else.
1
The hush money paid Stormy Daniels doesn’t count as a campaign expense just because paying it helped Trump win the election. The FEC has ruled that campaign funds cannot be used to cover personal expenses even if paying them enhances a candidate’s chance of winning an election. However, candidates can pay hush money to improve their chance of winning an election, as long as they don’t use campaign money. Cohen used his own money to make the hush payment so Trump’s name would not appear in the nondisclosure paperwork, This isn’t illegal. The payment was not a loan to Trump; Trump is reimbursing Cohen for his expenses, not repaying a loan.
The Stormy Daniels affair is a contract law case. The issue is whether the nondisclosure agreement is valid. It provides another reason not to vote for Trump if he runs for reelection.
4
There seems to be this double reality. A world where Trump is destined to lose and a world where he is destined to remain in power. I think the idea of him disappearing is wishful thinking. Reading some of the commenters and columnists and watching Saturday Live one might think he no longer is in power. Sadly I think Republicans can win big in the mid-terms and Trump can definitely win in the next election. This country has a very long and ugly history. Both domestically and globally. There is a decent streak within it also. One of great struggle and sacrifice and vision. We see that manifesting everywhere. It is inspiring to be a part of that. But the ugly one is very powerful. In addition the conservative columnists at the Times in different ways want pretty horrible things themselves. Not the same things as it turns out. Each has their own vision of the type of misery they want to inflict. The left center columnists though significantly better don't offer much in resistance either. Just enough pushback that the corporate order will tolerate.
4
No worries there are plenty of other tricky situations to navigate, mainly the big spread btw Israeli and European positions on Iran, that will be very hard to bridge without making the US even more isolated on the world stage.
3
Douthat's comment, "...it’s clear that Trump’s North Korean strategy has not prevented diplomatic efforts from advancing," says it all when it comes to the NYT and Trump.
A quick perusal through the comments shows the bizarro world inhabited by many of my fellow NYT readers: an all encompassing fear that the Trump Presidency might not fail.
3
''Trump's success proves Goebbels, not policy. ''
No when it comes to doing a Goebbles that has been the MSM. 100% pro DNC and the Clintons, the MSM have pushed one unproven accusation after another, while expecting the folks to accept any such accusations without evidence, as though we do not remember the same lies told about WMD's in Iraq.
The Democrats were once the party of peace, anti McCarthyism, tolerance and the not wealthy. Since then (or actually since the Clintons took over the Democrat Party) it has become the new GOP.
We Democrats who wants no more endless ME wars, no Russiaphobic lies or McCarthyism are called "Bernie Bros', 'Putin's useful idiots' or 'Trump enablers' because we find the idea of elite selected one candidate races, a cheating DNC leadership along with the sabotage of Sanders to be the sabotage of US democracy (proven by the firing of Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Donna Brazile's book as well as Bills mafia style meeting with the prosecuting AG) to be the sabotage of democracy. NOT the $100,000 apparently spent by Russia vs the $ 9.8 BILLION spent by both parties in the past election!
Trump is succeeding BECAUSE of the DNC and the Hillary bots, the 'fishing expedition' by Mueller and his abuse of the legal process which is now all about 'Stormy Daniels', an implicit admission of failure.
Trump does not WIN! The DNC lose and are loosing as they attempt to undo the results of an election Trump won fairly instead of giving us a good candidate.
6
The only thing keeping Bone Spurs up is the republican party who are too cowardly to confront him. So far he's thriving on Obama's economy and Kim Jung Un's diplomacy.
In the background and barely noticed he is destroying the environment, clean water and clean air. Bannon advised him to treat the press as the enemy and ignore the democrats. He is following that advice and it's working because they keep trying to make him into something normal rather than the money grubbing, opportunistic chancer he is. He's a huckster and when they try to normalize him, it helps him.
9
Douthat and Trump are believers in the old mantra that if they repeat a lie often enough it will be seen as truth.
Unfortunately for Trump, he often gets his lies mixed up. Hard to make a "truth" out of something if it keeps changing.
3
Winning what? We never learn from this column. And the way Trump operates, if there are winners there are losers, and that means about 60% of us. So, again, winning what?
5
The number of comments rejecting Douthat's thesis is yet another metric supporting what he is saying. Yes, it is true that Trump is beyond the pale in so many ways. However, we need equipoise when critiquing the outcome of his performance to date. His tax plan may well turn out to be counterproductive but his approach to North Korea may have moved the needle, previous disappointments notwithstanding. Similarly, his racist tendencies are despicable but seeking a level playing field with China make more sense than ever as that Country seeks to migrate up the value chain. When it comes to Mueller, the most likely outcome is uncovering of financial malfeasance by Trump the businessman and his cronies. To believe that such findings will sway the majority of those supporting him today is wishful thinking. As a society, we value appearance, showmanship, wealth, sports prowess and being liked over thoughtfulness, critical thinking, character or substance. That is how we got Trump and that is why he is winning.
5
Great, so our new allies are N. Korea, China and Russia, while we turn our backs on Europe. Ask Tibet what it is like to be part of China migrating up the value chain. Ask the Russian satellites how great it is to be under their thumb, or the Russian people themselves--the ones who have not already been permanently silenced,
3
Likely in the eyes of the religious conservatives, if weighed in the balance, Clinton still comes out looking worse because his affair with Monica Lewinsky happened in the White House whilst he was serving as President. Thus he disgraced not only himself, but both the location and the office as well. President Trump's relations with Stormy Daniels predate his ascent to the top. It doesn't make it any less wrong, nor sleazy, but it probably explains to a degree why Evangelicals have given him a pass on this, at least so far. Were he foolish enough to emulate Clinton to the same degree, I think even his most ardent supporters would find that one line crossed too many.
3
Trump will never be the post-Reaganite policy maker for the GOP because neither he or his supporters actually wants to govern. Trump is in fact the culmination of the Reagan revolution, given his aversion to government itself. While we witnessed the economic shortcomings of the Reagan era a decade ago, we're only now viewing the political consequences of it. The relentless, unremitting assault on the New Deal is complete, but the end result isn't pretty.
5
Reality check: Is the economy - that is the trajectory of improvement - doing better since Trump took office? No. Annual GDP growth is the same as it was in Obama's last 3 years: 2.3%, despite the increasing deficits (trade and federal) since Trump took office. 2017 was better than 2016 but worse than 2014 and 2015. The pace of job creation in Trump's first 15 months is 12% worse than Obama's last 15 months, perhaps to be expected. The vast majority of the progress for which Trump takes credit (e.g., lowest black unemployment on record) was accomplished under Obama.
So, deficits (including trade deficits) are worse and the economic trajectory has not changed under Trump. Balance that lack of improvement against Trump's attacks on, well, just about everything that smacks of liberalism: a free truth-telling and corruption-uncovering press, the environment, our (liberal) allies abroad, democratic norms, basic decency and most of all, truth itself.
10
Why wouldn't South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong receive the Nobel Peace Prize? Little Rocket Man seems to be driving this deal and calling the shots. Moon Jae-in has been offering a hand to North Korea for a long time and told the US to back off. Why would Trump even be considered?
9
Trump and the Republicans may be running first in the proverbial fat man race but only because there is no major headwind. This Potemkin administration has not been really tested and I hope it never is at least until Trump and his cronies are out of office. Trump has a track record of being unable to control his urges. Not a good character trait for someone with his finger on the nuclear button. The GOP has no agenda because there really is no GOP anymore.
7
Trump is only winning in job creation for the endless lawyers he needs to help manage his sex scandals & unlawful election coordination with Russia.
And emolument clause violations that will inevitably be charged as he continues grifting at his own properties while president.
4
Winning what exactly? Never ending chaos 24/7? Spreading hate around the world and desecrating the office of the presidency and undermining our democracy? Lying non stop and insulting world leaders? Is the bar now really so low that even though trump is a total disaster surrounded by incompetent liars that any one thing that might even look potentially positive is a win? He may be winning in some upside down world, but we are all losing every minute of every day.
11
Trump is successful because he follows the "nature of the beast" - meaning America as a whole has gone insane. Why that is not clear but very dangerous.
5
If one were to look at the Stormy Daniel affair through the lens of the mid-term elections and beyond, one might see the peril for Democrats. First, Republicans are using fear of impeachment by Democrats as a campaign weapon for the mid-term elections. This automatically puts Democrats in the precarious campaign position of having to satisfy a base that wants impeachment and nearly everyone else who will find impeachment distasteful. Second, Democrats may either have to argue against a position they held two decades ago, that the president's illegalities that were solely to cover of an affair, are bad enough to warrant impeachment and conviction or admit that unless something bigger comes up that this is not worthy of impeachment, which forces the Dems to further legitimize Trump and all he is.
2
Democrats have learned from their visits back home that their constituents don't care about Russia. They care about jobs and the economy. Yes, democrats have a problem with their leftwing. They need them angry enough to vote but not so visible that they tank democrats in their appeal to their more mainstream voters.
There's a reason Schiff, who has been like a one-man band and still claims there's evidence of Russian collusion, suddenly puts the brakes on impeachment. He is trying to reel in the leftwing.
2
Imagine if he just kept his mouth shut, how much better off he'd be in the polls, with his fellow politicians and with the media.
1
While I don't like the way he says things, I don't believe he should keep quiet, especially in light of the deeply rooted efforts to do him in. Why allow Obama operatives free rein to promote false narratives? Why allow the media to repeat hearsay and innuendo as if it's real news? No, Trump has no option but to fight back. It's ugly but necessary, in my opinion.
2
It took Trump only a few months to wreck the USA after 8 years of Obama's sane policies. Be optimistic, we will need only a few months to correct the damage done by Trump after he leaves office.
10
If the Republican party is only the vehicle of the anti-liberals, the Democratic party is the vehicle of the anti-neocons. Neither party stands for anything that helps the average American. Trump was astute enough to recognize this fact and invent a rhetoric that sounded like he would actually make their lives better. Of course it was pure hogwash, but no one else had an effective counter narrative, and look at what happened next.
Someone with some credibility needs to come up with a plan that makes sense and offer it to the voters, or we can expect more of the same.
8
U.S. is doomed. Just electing someone like Trump was a ugly signal. That Democrats voted Trump is even a worst signal. They wanted a «change» after 8 years of a master in intelligence and relationship. With Obama plus Macron and Merkel the West would have its best cards, Putin and Xi being seduced by them. With Trump the worst is coming true. The world is aghast and many cannot but laugh at U.S. ugly decay: the tweeting policy, the fake news, the Cambridge Analytica scandal, etc. etc. But globally the world looks decided to continue turning and evolving.
3
How many Americans have "The Third" after their names the way Robert Mueller does? How many are doing book tours like James Comey? And how many, if they were being honest, would like to sleep with a porn star? Trump's supporters are neither deplorable nor stupid, as Trump is quintessentially American: brash, aggressive, ambitious, greedy, flamboyant, over-reaching, combative, opportunistic, lecherous, successful at any cost, eager to risk for great reward. He embodies all the qualities the world has always so admired in America, and displays all the impulses the world has simultaneously deplored. He is Joseph Kennedy without the pretense of polish. He is you.
8
He may be you but he is definitely not me.
4
Exactly! He is the quintessential American who embodies all the characteristics that built and made this country the greatest democracy and free enterprise system the world has known. Which is why anyone with ambition and hopes for a better life anywhere in the world wants to get here. All undeniable facts which the Liberal-Left has cast aside as their party has been taken over by the Far Left and their agenda of Free Stuff for everyone and, most importantly, their total abandonment of the ethos of Personal Responsibility.
1
WOW! You must travel in some pretty rough circles. Gotta say most of my friends, colleagues, and neighbors are not aggressive, greedy, lecherous or combative. And they're successful without disregard for the cost to others. NO, Trump is not me, or the people I know. Maybe he's you, and your acquaintances?
2
Robert Mueller was appointed as “Special Counsel” to oversee this ongoing investigation into “Russian interference and the Trump campaign” in May 2017…one year ago this month. This was done at the behest of overwhelming political pressure from the DEMS in the aftermath of Hillary’s unexpected and devastating defeat.
So, what exactly does all this mean? It means that even though no specific crime involving Trump has been identified, Mueller must be able to find something against President Trump, no matter what…which is in essence a “self-fulfilling prophecy”. Practically speaking, in order to “save face” and justify this open-ended and highly protracted “fishing expedition”, Mueller must find something against Trump or else he’ll wind up looking like an absolute idiot! Forget about blind justice, non-partisan arm’s-length impartiality and fairness.
Unfortunately, it’s all about POLITICS, plain and simple. And if the shoe were on the other foot, the DEMS would be screaming FOUL for here to high heaven…and rightfully so!
6
It is about TREASON and CORRUPTION, plain and simple. The fact that the majority of the media discussion is about politics does not change the fact that Putin's Russia now has a powerful foothold in our country and is able to advance his desire for war and unlimited domination--thanks to Trump.
6
The rich are winning. That's something Republicans don't talk about, because the rich own the Republicans.
7
I am bothered by the way Kim Jong Un turned away from his belligerent stance and started talking peace after a visit with Putin. It would certainly seem like a sort of win for Trump, which is helpful for his friend Putin, and also could clear the Korean Peninsula of nuclear weapons which would be a great advantage to Russia should any kind of hostilities break out. North Korea is right next to Russia. Kim doesn't need to keep his weapons in North Korea. I feel a disturbing alliance is forming under the radar, and for that reason, and until it is turned around, Trump is winning.
2
Positive grades on the economy and continuing control of Congress is the worst news Republicans could get - because the disaster that is Trump and the no-policy GOP is the voters placing responsibility for the results of their mismanagement where it belongs.
Bank it - there will be disasters: economic, stock market, military, natural - in 2019/2020 that a Trump/GOP will handle in the worst possible way. At least with a Democratic House or Congress, the GOP propaganda machine can blame the Dems.
3
That inaction -- "Trump’s North Korean strategy has not prevented diplomatic efforts from advancing" -- is welcome as non-interference.
The Koreas might well have concluded that Trump's hysteria was inconsequential nonsense, so they were well-advised to proceed without him. And so they have.
But it's easy to approve when the guy stops threatening war. That hardly amounts to good news for the largely spineless and all-but-invisible political leadership of the Republican party.
2
Should this be a celebration for having a corrupt administration, that we can be grateful for it's incompetence, so to minimize further harm to this ailing democracy? If this is what it takes to be proud of, so be it. But, should we? Can we possibly call this Trumpian scourge the 'new normal'? Why should we allow such an unscrupulous beast be so vulgar, and so 'illiterate', in his dealings, waste our resources and values for naught?
5
I think Mr Trump is doing a great job and given little to no credit!
5
The problem is Trump is taking all the credit, which is why now it's being reported that North Korea is taking exception to some of the things that he's saying about their pending agreement.
1
I agree. I wish his style were less combative and boorish but the man is delivering. He is the street fighter his voters elected. That's the elephant in the room for democrats. They are left denying what is plain to non-partisans: Tax rates lower, immigration getting under control, regulatory burdens lifted. These are anathema to progressives, but that doesn't make them less attractive to everyone else.
2
There is an element of wishful thinking in the column.
Mueller will ultimately file a report and charges which will rock us to our collective core. It will prompt serious introspection as a nation: how did someone so blatantly corrupt and treasonous as Trump attain the Oval Office? Trump is the symptom of a deeper problem. This has not been lost on the world either; frankly the world is far more clear eyed about the continuing decline of the US since 9/11.
3
Comparing Clinton's sleaze to Trumps is like calling a lizard an alligator. Clinton was a horndog who had an affair with a White House intern and denied it under oath. Trump is a multiple business cheat who abuses women and brags about it.
Meanwhile, there is front-page article about how his lawyer, Cohen, built a business empire' before having worked for Trump. I'm curious why someone with such an empire would have to mortgage their house to come up with 130k to pay off Stormy Daniels. Will someone connect the dots here?
10
All these judgments about Trump's morality or policy are beside the point, because they assume Trump has a clear mind and a consistent purpose. But in fact, he has neither. When asked what he means to do, he replies "We'll see." No doubt we will, but Trump really has no curiosity about the future. For him, the future, like the past, lies outside of his mental focus on the present. And that present in merely an extension of himself. What it may be for the rest of us he neither knows nor cares.
4
The problem with Ross' proposition is twofold: 1) truth; and, 2) time. The trump m.o. is lies and delay. In the court of public opinion/discourse such tactics are quite effective. This is because there is no consequence for the person that utilizes them. Ah, but the legal system is different. There are consequences WHEN the TRUTH becomes known. The Trump bluster will not defeat the charges of treason against them as well as the various other crimes.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
5
Looks like DT May just turn the house Blue after all. He got loads of people to enter politics. Millions have Registered and millions more will be voting because of him (and because people are learning the true costs of not voting).
10
My hope for the future is exactly expressed in this piece. For all the bombast Trump and the Republican party will do exactly nothing.
4
"the most politically successful 6 weeks of Trump's presidency" Really, Even a blind pig finds a truffle once in awhile. And this politically complicit, sell out, Congress has pushed through a huge tax cut for the rich and corporations with a couple of crumbs for the middle class and poor. It's the greatest show on earth.
7
Trump is not winning, fake news.
7
Progressives are losing on taxes, regulations, immigration, etc. If progressives were honest, they would acknowledge that he is delivering on many, although not all, of his promises. Because of their strong beliefs that these policies are wrong, they deny his success.
2
If one looks at actual economic data and trends, Trump is just a continuation of the last 8 years of trends, nothing more, nothing less. The do nothing Republican congress will continue to do nothing until after the midterms so they can't be blamed, where, if they retain control, will then put their slash and burn politics into motion. As to regulation cutting, the administration and Congress are doing an admirable job turning the clock so far back that they are even revoking Reagan era regulation that used to have the support of Republicans.
4
Trump may be winning your game, the game of opinion, but he is not winning the real game, the game of governance and life. The consequences of Trump have yet to fully manifest themselves. By this time next year, you will be writing a whole different opinion about the real story.
19
Trump is doing everything he can to undermine Mueller's investigation, the DOJ leadership, the judiciary (except the few times he has gotten a favorable ruling from a judge), our intelligence agencies and the press.
What may really bring Trump down, however, is his use of Michael Cohen who clearly has ties to Russian mobsters and Putin government officials. Today's article about Cohen got close to linking those ties to money laundering in Cohen's properties. Trump has been accused of money laundering with Russians by selling them condos in Trump Tower at inflated prices so they could move money out of Russia. Mueller may produce the evidence of such money laundering.
12
It is a cheap shot for Douthat to write, “there would be justice in his going down for porn-star shenanigans, and partial redemption for religious conservatives …”. The playboy philosophy served Trump well in his businesses as he promoted segregated housing (by wealth), gambling, strip clubs, beauty pageants, and tolerated abortion. In fact, the less sterling aspects of Mr. Trump’s life have led him to evolve in a redemptive process that has gained the respect of diverse leaders in China, North Korea, France, and even Russia. More importantly, he has gained the respect of religious conservatives that really do believe in both transformation and active opposition to evil.
Trump may have been on the wrong side of many issues in his younger years (who hasn’t) but it is good for America to have a Charlemagne figure on our side today. In 800 the Holy Roman Empire had Charles the Great. Today we are witnessing the making of Donald the Great – (an immodest self-image Mr. Trump likely sees in his gold framed mirror). Strong men don’t waste time saying they are sorry. They simply move forward.
4
..and sideways and backwards and in circles.
3
The penultimate paragraph summarizes again the columnist’s core argument. In my words, liberals/progressives tend to self-go down by being themselves too hard. That actually solidifies the support for Mr. Trump. I would call it “Through a mirror, L/P face the strength of the opponent. ** This point has been discussed at many times on NYT, not only by the columnist but also often by others. Is it an ironical effect? Some analysis (on NYT) in the past implied that the incentives/cheers by the supporters and big donners were problematic. In another word, “be cool” may be the way. As for the columnist, he takes a larger stance to view the situation. ** I am a Catholic. And, I observe this: *If* the legal matters are blurred in the minds of Christians; such would occur when priests or ministers selectively cite passages from the Bible to emphasize on the power of love over laws. Civic responsibilities exist apart from the modern-day Indulgence - this my opinion. **Moral issues have been well discussed, but there may be other aspects of “not easy to dismiss” on the Republican supporters’ base.
I have to disagree with the national Republican party as a "rallying point for disparate groups threatened by our cultural elite in control of government". Well, they elected a billionaire who measures success by fame and fortune and is preoccupied with those trappings. The Republicans are very happy with a king. What threatens them is not the cultural elite in control of government but people who are not White controlling government. Trump has made clear that contempt for darker skinned people is acceptable and deserved and that as long as he is president Whites will remain in control. They are suffering from Post Obama Stress Syndrome and Trump is the antidote. And Ross, any honest discussion and analysis of the Trump presidency can not ignore the racial animus that is evident and feeding what you call "winning". success he has
12
This guy is so busy saying, "Look over here!" that his supporters are fooled into thinking he can think.
1
Despite the Stormy affair, Mueller is investigating the Manchurian Candidate and I am sure there is now more than enough evidence to prove obstruction of justice, money laundering and collusion.
Mueller just obtained 70 additional subpoenas in Virginia, according to Maureen Dowd. Would this not lead one to believe that Mueller has a lot more proof now, than even last month?
And how about Rudy and his explanations? With friends like that who needs enemies.
I believe that the profile of Michael Cohen is not going to help his case. He probably will sing like a bird regarding Trump in order to get a lighter sentence.
The revealing that the Trump Organization or Trump's Foundation reimbursed Cohen also is very troubling.
I do wish the Congress would vote to preserve Rosenstein and Mueller so they can finish this extremely important investigation.
It needs to be finished to the end. Otherwise this country will be in bigger trouble than it is right now.
6
It sounds like Ross is not just claiming Trump and the servile GOP are “winning”, but celebrating it. Another enthusiast for decadence!
7
This is winning? Americans evidently are increasingly comfortable with not just the titillating scandals, but with the other trappings of this administration: the redistribution of wealth and short-changing of workers whose salaries are stagnant, the dismantling of environmental protections and the increasingly scary climate experiences, the defenestration of democracy and drift toward authoritarian rule, the blind eye toward de-democratization across the globe, and the quiet toleration of racial hatreds and violence here at home. Identity politics, that the right abhors, is the cashout for the Trump crowd, not the economics or the morality. They dismiss Trump as a boor, but they approve of the results. It's not too hard to peel away the veneer of MAGA to see what the animating emotions are. This is quite frightening, for it signals not just a political fad but a tectonic shift in who we are.
10
We will be getting the bill in the mail.
The 2018 deficit is going up after the Trump tax cut by almost double - $600 Billion is going to around $1 Trillion.
Most people I know will be getting about $1,000 a year for 7 years.
That's about $20 a week.
But after ten years, we will have added $10 Trillion to the national debt or about $67,000 for each tax payer.
I wouldn't mind if Trump voters got fleeced. But I am getting fleeced, too.
Reagan cut taxes and got 16 Million jobs and a huge increase in the deficit / debt. It’s the reason they put the debt clock in Manhattan.
Clinton raised taxes and got 23 Million jobs, almost 50% more than Reagan and balanced the budget, zero deficit.
W Bush gave us two "tax cuts for the job creators" and we got 3 Million jobs. He took Clinton's zero deficit and gave Obama a whopping $1.4 Trillion deficit. And he also gave Obama the worst recession since the Great Depression.
Obama got us through the Great Recession and cut the deficit by almost 2/3 to $550 Billion. He gave us the "jobs killing" Obama-care and we got 11.5 Million jobs, almost 400% more than W Bush. And 20 Million people got healthcare.
And now with Trump, Republicans have done it again, cut taxes and increased the deficit / debt. And I expect worse job creation than Obama.
Already the 2.06 Million jobs in 2017 was the lowest since 2010 when the recession ended.
But some people never learn.
25
Yes, if one considers that doing nothing is better than the alternative, Trump may be so-called winning. The deeper reality is that together with a know-nothing congress, our so-called president and his cheerleaders in congress are basically leaving the running of the country's economy to Wall Street and corporate America, while he plays president and grabs the headlines in the White House with his antics. When the corporate masters of the universe - after polluting the earth, enriching themselves, not paying taxes, and destroying what little is left of the middle class - start exaggerating again, as they always do, the economy, engorged in an orgy of capitalism, will crash, as it always does when the barons of industry are left to their own devices.
And we will be left with to pay the bill, as always.
The Apprentice meets Calvin Coolidge. What a winning show!
4
The general theory is sound. Republicans are more popular when they do nothing. That makes sense. That's actually the most accurate assessment of the GOP I've ever heard. My only sticking point is the characterization of liberalism as controlled by "cultural elites." That's partially true but the characterization is much more true for Republicans then for Democrats. What do you think the tax bill was about? Despite an anti-liberal populist message, Republicans are still the party of Koch. That's why they are more popular in absentia. Their zombie-Reagan agenda isn't actually popular. Trump is something of a sideshow to this underlying truth. Nobody really cares whether he "wins." We all have a laugh when the clown takes a fall though. McConnell on the other hand is much more persistent and dangerous threat to our overall well being. I get nervous when he's not saying anything.
6
If the Republicans don’t have an agenda, who could be against them. Silly column.
6
The only Trump victory — if we can call it that — is people getting exhausted by day-after-day revelations. But the real story is in individual Congressional districts. The only important polls are elections, and in special elections over the last year Democrats have either won or brought in a much higher vote percentage than in 2016. Independent voters, who may have gone with Trump in 2016 because they wanted change or hated Hillary, will decide the Republican future. If Democrats work hard for good results in November and in 2020, their chances of winning are excellent.
3
Trump is not winning. But I wish he was. I believe poor country, low skill immigration of 1MM a year is part of a plan to rob poor and formerly working class American Citizens of a real future, and bring in more needy people. The Dems want this, because these are votes. We can't have the debate, as well, because Republican donors want this, as these are serf-workers - low pay, no benefits, no bathroom breaks.
Only Trump supporters see this. All of the drama is about ignoring this debate, not having it.
2
All glory, if you can call it that, that Trump may have achieved in a couple of months has already shown itself to be fleeting. One can only hope that the electorate wakes up and tells this buffoon to clear out his Oval Office desk and go back to what he does best, which I am at a loss to codify.
6
I'm old enough to remember that Nixon's poll numbers the day he resigned from office were at about 30. And Nixon, Vietnam aside, was not a president without real accomplishments. Now Ross, who apparently is incapable of taking a real stand on anything, wants to chat about Trump polling at 44. (And Ross even links this with money laundering/sex scandal revelations vs the Russia investigation, as if federal prosecutors and the public can't focus on more than one thing at a time.) But poll numbers reflect only opinion at a particular point in time. They don't measure accomplishment or character. And they don't measure the real, legitimate anger in the country over Trump's chaos, his venal courtiers, the Republican elected official codependents and the dense Trumpistas. Those of us who opposed Trump are the majority. Polls change. Our anger will not, nor will our commitment to removing these people from office.
14
When the next recession comes we will be told the deficits are too big. Most likely there be a drumbeat to cut Medicare and SSI, as cutting Medicaid is already on the table.
Don't be surprised at a fight over unemployment benefits as the trillion dollar deficits explode even higher than they are now. All the winning will be temporary and rationalized.
It's a sad day when the frontman for Green Day is more clever and insightful than the President, most Senators and House members.
Never mind the non-existent infrastructure projects.
We will pay dearly for his idiocy. When the chickens come home to roost, about half of America will blame Obama.
9
Again the main stream media is missing the forest through the trees. Like Bush, often times all that is spoken of is the current moment and a complete lack of understanding of consequences of actions. The left cried foul often during the Bush years and the small dust-ups that were given attention failed to warn the public of the impending disaster of the Great Recession and the absolute failure of prolonged wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
And now the left talks about the horrific outcomes of the current administration's action and again the MSM cannot effectively convey the long term effects to the rest of the country. Our standing among the global community is failing, the flow of wealth increases to the wealthiest, threats and bluster and uncertainty only create animosity toward us, deregulation puts us in danger on environmental, fiscal and educational fronts, and the emboldening of white supremacy damages our communities. These policies can only lead to negative outcomes but hey, for the current moment we're doing just fine.
7
Trump's biggest victory is his absolute control over what we listen to, watch, talk about, and perhaps even dream about. He commands our attention with every tweet, falsehood, revelation of unseemliness. We are myopically obsessed with him. Trump's dominance of the national conversation has silenced any policy proposals from not only the Republicans in Congress, but also from the Democrats. What happened to the urgent need for massive infrastructure repairs? For an overhaul of our healthcare system? For a war on the opioid crisis? Cassius, trying to persuade his friend Brutus to join the opposition to Caesar's dictatorship, said it best: "The fault is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings."
5
Trump knows how to draw attention--and how to divert attention, too. Attention means clicks. Even MSM run on attention and clicks. There is great irony in the fact that the NYT and WaPo and CNN cannot resist this. Trump won the primary because he could get so much free publicity from the people opposed to him. This is a weird wrestling match with jujutsu elements and plenty of greed for power (rather than, say. hunger for truth or good government or for a stronger democracy). It really is a show, and it has the endless novelty and emotion required to play well in the technological environment in which we do our politics these days.
2
Sad but true.
We are traveling in the slow lane, and one day all the cans that were kicked down the road will collect into speedbumps, further hampering progress.
If problems multiply faster than solutions, sooner or later chaos will ensue.
We'll see what happens.
4
This essay was a complete waste of newsprint, white space, and my time. My hard copy subscription may end soon if I have to read much more of this malarkey. I will no longer click on his digital drivel that enables President Munchausen and the benighted bozos who actually believe there is a "Deep State". They deny the timeline of the meetings, evidence of collaboration with a foreign adversary, and the resulting Machiavellian mendaciousness of their "Dear Leader".
4
On April 12 and 13, President Donald Trump’s approval rating, according to the Rasmussen Reports, was 50 percent. At the same point in Barack Obama’s presidency, Obama’s approval rating per Rasmussen was 48 percent and 49 percent. But Trump inaccurately described his poll number as “much higher than President Obama at the same point.”
Polls don't correlate to performance - they're really meaningless. No one's ever satisfied no matter what the outcomes are.
4
People who know anything about polling ignore Rasmussen and so should you. All Rasmussen polls overestimate Republican support and have done so for years. Their job-approval polls run about five points more favorable for Trump than the consensus of other pollsters.
http://www.politicsbythenumbers.org/2017/10/27/technical-appendix-trends...
http://www.politicsbythenumbers.org/2012/10/27/the-world-without-rasmussen/
1
$130,000! that's peanuts compared to the $375,000 Obama paid as a campaign fine in 2013 for violations occurring in the 20008 elections. If this money was paid to affect the 2016 elections rather than just another business deal, it would have been millions.
2
I would challenge most NYT readers to describe the specifics of Obama's campaign violations. The media coverage was quite different then.
2
I often wonder how the co-author of "Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream," one Ross Douthat, feels about the way the working class was won by Donald Trump, who as a president falls into the same category as John McAfee as a high tech entrepreneur. Trump is as willing to blow up the US government then retreat behind his money , as McAfee is to blow up the tech economy and retreat to his hidey-hole in one of Trump's s***hole countries. At least McAfee's legacy includes a really good computer anti-virus program. And Trump's legacy?
Mr. Douthat might want to review Trump’s history: Every Trump win means somebody else lost. In this case, it is the entire nation who is losing credibility, honor, and integrity. It is hard to grasp how Douthat takes any comfort in our collective loss.
9
Ross, you claim the Republican Party is the political catch-all for all those who fear the cultural elite might control our government. By elite, do you mean expert? Is 45 winning when the experts are leaving EPA and the State Department? Are these exits good for the country? Is 45 winning when his cabinet fleeces America with their expensive travel and coziness to lobbyists for cheap residences in expensive locations? Who are the cultural elites? Is it the soybean farmers who lost $30,000 per day due to threats of imposing tariffs on China? Is it the workers whose wages have not increased significantly in spite of the fact many corporations took their extra money and increased salaries, bought back stock, and bought new machinery? Is 45 winning when 80% of the tax reform benefits goes to the 1% (One estimate is $1.1 billion goes to 45)? Are Thomas Kanewakeron Gray and Lloyd Skanahwati Gray, native Americans, considering attending Colorado State University , who were pulled off the tour by police and dismissed from the tour because a mother complained they looked suspicious, members of the cultural elite? Are Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson members of the cultural elite for being arrested in a Philadelphia Starbucks waiting for a friend? Is 45 winning when he prefers autocrats, opposes free-trade, and devalues upholding human rights as a core pillar of American foreign policy? To declare 45 is winning, and seeing the Republican ads, fear and hate are winning.
15
And apparently China has already stopped buying our soybeans which is why the price of Brazilian soy has soared.
VOTE November.
1
The uptick in Trump's favorability is not large, and it is not widespread, but, among independents and people who generally don't pay much day to day attention to politics--low information voters, I believe, is the term--it is nonetheless there.
It's likely due to a combination of outrage fatigue, very low expectations ("Who would have thought Trump could go to North Korea" is the type of sentiment that one hears right now if one listens carefully) and, of course, ignorance of the real threats of a Trump administration to health care and consumer protection that have been delineated by other commenters here.
The sad part, of course, is that most of the media, with a few notable exceptions, likes to cover the sex and the seaminess much more than the substantive policy debates, because the former draws eyeballs and the latter tends to close them.
I think that the Trump approving demographic may get a rude wakeup call next April, when they realize that the tax bill and its underwithholding that have allowed many to see small increases right now in take home pay result in not only no refund but a tax liability. Then maybe more of them will feel baited and switched. But, of course, that will be after the November Congressional elections, a timing that was certainly intentional.
Will the media point this out earlier? I have my doubts--they'll feel it too wonkish and boring for most of our electorate, and they may well be right.
5
Mr. Douthat's real definition of a Trump WIN is America's $1Trillion Deficit by the year 2020! Many thanks for "draining the swamp" and "making America great again." Moreover, you can extend your gratitude for the 4% unemployment rate to President Obama who rescued the nation from the Great Recession. Facts are still important.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-analysis-tax-cut-defic...
9
Obama set us back decades as a great America. THAT'S a FACT!
2
Your definition of "great" and mine (and most of America's) clearly vary considerably.
"...the partisan reflex on the right is too strong to expect anything save a replay of the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal with the parties’ roles reversed."
Ross, you guys can't write something about Trump without using the Clinton's as a foil. But Trump is in a class by his self when it comes to fraud, adultery, sleaze business practices, corruptions, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, anti-Muslim, lying, etc. (it is too wearing to go on since the list is much longer and you know it all) and if you are ok with the Republican Party glorifying and 'winning' with this mantra, you are more lost than you know
9
Yes he is winning. Resistance is futile. However, resistance takes patience and eyes on the prize. Trump will be gone one day and hopefully we who oppose him, will have also erected some decent foundations on the local level, that are counteracting his rancid and cruel influence.
6
Ross' observation hat "the G.O.P. is often more popular the less it attempts to legislate at all" says about all anybody needs to understand about our representative government today. Who needs representatives when you have a strongman who rules by fiat to keep the mob cheering?
6
Ross is confusing initiative with winning. Corrupt Donnie keeps the press off balance by using an ongoing series of outrageous acts. With this tactic, he maintains the initiative. This is not a winning strategy. It is an elaborate charade. It is defense, not offense. It accomplishes nothing.
Although some of his minions have some accomplishments, (tax cut for billionaires, reducing regulations on fossil fuel companies) Corrupt Donnie played a minor, if any, role in these acts. Corrupt Donnie's major accomplishment will be energizing the emergent progressive movement.
Storms pass, communities rebuild. Register and vote!
8
But, is he doing this as a strategy, a choice that accomplishes goals, or as the way he operates, always desiring the spotlight and being outrageous? In Psychology it was taught to not attribute to an animal anything not minimally required to accomplish the behavior.
2
If by "he" you man Ross, then, I think he is doing it as a strategy to keep his column relevant.
If by "he" you mean Corrupt Donnie, I don't think "why" plays into it. "Why" only matters if we are trying to influence him (or his minions.) I think we are, or should be, beyond that. Our challenge is to assert ourselves, particularly via voting, and put in office (local, state and federal) people who will honestly promote the general welfare and not their own net worth.
The liberal haters will never forgive Trump for his barbaric personality and lack of decorum and consequently will never credit him for anything he accomplishes. Very few Presidents have managed to combine an admirable image with real accomplishments.
6
Real accomplishments?
Trump has failed at most of the important things. He failed at repeal/replace health care (quickly, easily!), failed at Mexico will pay for an unneeded Multi Billion Dollar wall, failed at funding badly needed infrastructure enhancements, failed at passing a tax cut plan that will create a $1 Trillion deficit in 2020, failed at appointing Jared to create peace in the Middle East, failed at doing anything about global warming, failed at investing in future technologies (=jobs) like renewables in order to buy votes among the small coal industry crowd, failed at pulling us out of the TPP agreement that could create some leverage against our biggest future competitor, China. His accomplishments? The economy has been a continuation of the record breaking job growth of the Obama years. And his peace outreach in North Korea are still tbd. This approach has been tried several times before and NK just played us for their own financial gain.
I left out Trump's disgusting personality, his lack of respect for others, his lack of personal integrity as he lies to us every day and the lack of common decency as he turns away refugees, tears apart children from their families that he deports.
There will be a balloon payment due someday as a result of Trump's focus on mortgaging the future to live well now. But the Trump red hat voters don't care. They will probably all be gone by then.
Hater? There is a lot to hate if your just open your eyes.
3
And Trump has neither, if accomplishments are positive. If destructive acts count, he will be at the top of the heap. Now, there's a legacy to admire!
Refreshing to read the truth in the NY Times, of all places. It's really no contest. Trump is far too crafty for the Trump hating media and political establishment. He has succeeded in discrediting the Liberal MSM by calling out their Fake News agenda and if recent court decisions are any clue the Mueller witch hunt, a blatant attempt to overthrow the election results by the Deep State, will die of its own inertia and failure to prove its original mission. It's obvious to anyone with an IQ higher than a rock that after more than a year of trying to prove Trump 'colluded' with Russia, Mueller has failed miserably.
8
All in due time. Patience, patience, patience. I'm always humored by those who yell from the rooftops that the investigation has found nothing on this president. This could be said of any investigation that has not been completed. You have no earthly idea what Mr. Mueller has or doesn't have yet you claim to know! Unless you are a mind reader you might want to consider using a bit of restraint. Having said this I'm now laughing at myself for thinking that many who still support this loser of a president/human being, have any ability to look at his actions and take a measured view of the results.
7
Trump insisted that Comey tell him that he was not then a target of the investigation. Why? He lives in the moment, and in that space he has no need to consider the longer term consequences. That he was not a target then has no relationship to whether he WILL be a target in the future. The same is true of your statements. As someone whose IQ is considerably higher than a rock (yes, a proud intellectual elite), I can say with certainty that your certainty is unfounded. Just consider how long the investigations into Clinton and Nixon took, and lets be 100% clear, those were comparatively simple investigations. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Mueller HAS found evidence of conspiracy with Russia, and has indicted several for this. That he has not yet said anything about Trump is immaterial, it is all about the big picture, not Trump alone.
1
If Ross is right, and he may be, then this country is truly the Ugly America. Trump is a reflection of hate and greed that suffuse our culture. Complete the column Ross. If Trump is winning we all have lost. All Empires teeter, crack, and crumble. Watch out.
4
If nothing else it's FINALLY forced us to confront the so called social media when in reality it's betrayal media. ALL sites, all apps are designed to insure that they can betray the user by stealing their personal info plus their friends and sell it secretly. That's what I hate it's all so secret and all these companies no one has heard of and don't have addresses handle our information. Why are we not paid for our information it must be vital given the billions spent on tech just to steal our information? When asked Google says our info is worth nothing by itself only "in the aggregate". Yet another lie from Google whose feet should also be held to the fire to make them talk about the violations of privacy that are ongoing.
1
Trump can certainly thank the corrupt corporate
Democrats for his so called winning as well.
They cannot exactly point fingers at the GOP's
corruption with out exposing their own greed
and bowing to their donors. And I laugh at how
out of touch the Democrats are with what the
people desperately need and want. They do not
read the polls and fritter their time with possible
talking points and ineffectual jabs at the GOP
These corporate Democrats keep trying to rig
the primaries and set up Republican lights who
will surely lose.
Maybe there are more people working but wages
have not risen a mite in a decade.
There is also something laughable about such an idiot as
Trump getting credit for things which are beyond
his capacity to understand, much less to effect.
It is like some bad fairytale. It will make a great
comedy some day for those of us who live through it.
And the horrid thing about the horrid boy who would
be president, he does not even realize he will be
the cause of so many people dying needless deaths.
A careless stupid boy at the helm.
5
Everything is just ducky! Mainestream church-going white America is in love with a guy who lies constantly (the way supporters live their daily lives and would expect of their family members and friends, I suppose), has made a career of abusing women (no doubt, acceptable to all the mainstream white males who have mothers, daughters and wives, and secretly wish they could get away with such behavior). Frankly, the hipocrisy about ethics, morals, and about the "swamp" in Washington is beyond explanation.
6
The ''investigation'' part of the song-and-dance that is named for Mr. Mueller was over weeks before he was even hired.
All that he was needed to do -
- and to which he readily agreed to -
- was to run down all future upticks in President Trump's polularity numbers and to prepare the Senate for the intended impeachment of the people's choice as the completion of our country's first coup d'etat.
The comedy of this period is supplied by the flaming progressives who all told each other that THIS -
- whether it was the stripper -
- or the North Korea talks -
- or various events in the Middle East -
- or whatever could be dragged up about his kids -
- or whatever trashtalk he committed in Tweets -
- would be THE thing that got rid of Trump.
We have enjoyed all of these discoveries and the crestfallen looks on CNN as the world learned that the Democrats AGAIN had nothing.
A GOP victory in November thus guaranteed by the media over-reactions will be all the sweeter when we realize how much those contributions-in-kind from the media were worth.
3
Trump's success proves Goebbels, not policy. Goebbels stated that if you keep spreading the lie,eventually it becomes truth. So Trump is a success because he says so, over and over, and over.
Unemployment is at its lowest, but underneath those numbers, according to the analysis in the Times, and backed up by the failure of wages to tick up, is a large number of chronically unemployed people who have stopped looking. The financially desperate are still desperate, and those who cannot afford to buy healthcare are still in distress. If your home is in a dead zone, you are still unemployed.
But people will buy the story that the tax cut helped them because they want to, and when the costs come home and bite them, they will blame whoever is in charge then and not the policy now. Stupid is as stupid does, and Trump's folks spread the stupid thick and wide.
I am not optimistic about our near future. I an just hoping i gave my kids the tools to survive it.
6
I'm sorry, Ross, but putting lipstick on a pig doesn't change it's reality. Mr trump is an overrated ignoramus who casts about pretending to be something he's clearly not, namely, an honorable man concerned only with the best interests of our country. He and the GOP will eventually go but not before doing great harm to the country and the world. I just hope and pray it won't be too late to recover from the damage he and the repubs are doing to our once great country.
3
Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have said that those who would sacrifice liberty for security will soon lose both and deserve neither.
As this nation marches toward a one-party state and undermines all rights and means of opposing THE most corrupt administration in our history, where the President is blatantly using his office to funnel federal, campaign, and foreign moneys into his personal account, his feverish followers are threatening armed violence against any attempt to restrict him.
Once democracy is extinguished, it becomes very difficult and always very bloody to restore it, and may take decades of peremptory arrests, thousands of "disappeared", leadership-sanctioned death squads, GULAGs, and targeted assassinations of journalists and lawyers. Trump and his followers seem perfectly happy to do this. After all, prominent "musician", Ted Nugent, has called for shooting liberals in the streets.
A road sign in Maryland reads: "Hey Liberals better get your guns if you try to impeach PRESIDENT TRUMP
from all your deplorables in Calvert County"
Is this really what 40% of Americans really want? A return to violence for anyone who challenges their POV? Are we really on a path to true civil war to once again battle almost the same issues as the first one, racism, bigotry, and one-party statism?
4
No thoughtful person could root against a thriving economy or the prospect of peace on the Korean peninsula.
An yet the unlikely prospect this grossly incompetent man might actually succeed is almost too horrible to contemplate, since it would effectively validate everything I find so abhorrent--his vulgarity, his bigotry, his fundamental moral depravity, not to mention his blatant contempt for the rule of law--and thus reset the bar for acceptable presidential behavior for my lifetime.
So I continue to hold on to the tantalizing hints we periodically get from Robert Mueller. And those from the unlikely person of Trey Gowdy, who unexpectedly announced his retirement within two weeks of reviewing classified files from the Russia investigation and two days before his committee's release of the infamous Nunes memo, saying, "I like jobs where facts matter . . . ."
From Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer about "adoptions" to Trump Sr.'s G20 discussions with Putin about "adoptions" to more campaign contacts with Russia (and more lies about them) than we can count, I am convinced our president is indeed a Manchurian Candidate. I just pray that proof of that will be revealed before the rule of law is so badly eroded it will no longer matter.
1
Let's not forget that while Trump is claiming that peace is his doing, it would be like Stalin taking credit for the founding of NATO and Common Market (now the EU).
What's really happening is that BOTH Kim Jong Un and Moon Jae-In recognized that they are finally in the same boat: Both facing a catastrophic war neither wants instigated by a madman 7,000 miles away. In other words, their talks are the silver lining of the Trumpian cloud.
Is the economy actually improving, or is it still momentum from the Obama years that's bleeding off as Trump instigates catastrophic trade wars with all our friends?
But you're right: Somehow, Trump WILL find a way to take credit for the good, and blame Obama, Democrats, HRC and past GOP Presidents for the bad.
1
If Ross is correct we are doomed. Time to emigrate?
1
The Trump presidency induces a kind of schizophrenia in most liberals. On the one hand, we want him to fail spectacularly and suffer the disgraceful fall he richly deserves; and on the other, we want no one but his partners in crime to suffer with him. Can we have it both ways? Probably not. When fortune ceases to smile on Trump in the economy ,or foreign affairs, or something else, his rashness and foolish judgement will make him more dangerous than ever. No matter how you cut it, win or lose, having Trump in power at all is a terrible misfortune that we will be lucky to survive.
2
Donald Trump’s public praising of neo-Nazi marchers—one of whom killed someone who bravely stood up to them, several of whom marched armed with AR-15s on a temple during Sabbath services, and the rest of whom vocally threatened nonwhite and Jewish and other increasingly vulnerable Americans—is what defines his presidency and always will. That this man (and I use that term loosely) inherited a coasting economy, like he inherited his father’s fortune, is irrelevant to decent Americans. We have a president who is a Klan- and Nazi-sympathizer, and willingly accepts their support, an obvious fact that goes (conveniently) unmentioned by Ross, who probably hopes we’ll all forget. We’ve yet to see where that will take us.
4
Trump won as soon as he convinced you, Mr. Douthat, to URGE people to break their promises:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/12/opinion/you-must-serve-trump.html
3
MSNBC and CNN can't wait to get Stormy Daniels' grandstanding lawyer on the phone any time there is the smallest detail to report. Mr. Douthat is correct, this is becoming a ridiculous tabloid news story that most folks don't really care about, and are not surprised by - Donald Trump slept with a porn star? Yeah, so, what is new? These TV reporters are getting hooked on the adrenaline rush of these easy and salacious headlines. Let's hope the real journalists at the Times and the Post keep their noses to their grindstones.
3
A few years from now, historians will point to this week as the moment when China’s military crossed the line by placing missiles on artificial islands in the South China Sea.
And when the historians examine the headlines and opinion section of the New York Times to understand how the US was so blindsided, they will discover only articles and editorials about the peccadilloes of President Trump.
3
The Times blames Trump for its excessive allotment of space to Trump. Like true progressives it blames someone else for its own behavior.
Watch the price of gas.
2
Trump is personally despicable but that likely won't sway many voters. Just as liberals supported Clinton despite oral sex in the Oval Office, Trump partisans (I won't call them Republicans) don't care about who Trump had sex with.
Unless Mueller comes up with a smoking gun that despite lots of leaks and various indictments isn't evident, no one's opinion of Trump will change much.
1
"...the most important boost may be coming from inside his own party, in the form of the totally nonexistent agenda that congressional Republicans have put forward since the tax bill passed."
Yup - the GOP will not pursue its draconian policies against the working people, elderly and children unit AFTER the 2018 elections.
Even they know they are operating against the people who elected them. How horrifying.
1
Reading the article detailing Michael Cohen's business dealings is just a hint of the kind of info that Mueller has about Trump's own "business." Cohen's history is riddled with mob connections and classic real estate money laundering schemes. Three buildings sold for $32 million in CASH is just the tip of the iceberg. Since Sean Hannity took "real estate advice" from Cohen (free of charge) one can only assume that Hannity's real estate success also includes money laundering for Russian oligarchs.
Trump's part has already been revealed in the story of the place he bought in Palm Beach and then sold for millions more than he paid to -- guess who -- a Russian billionaire.
The corruption of Trump and his trolls is obvious even without Mueller having said a word about it.
Douthat was recently a guest on Bill Maher's program and looked like a dolt in the face of challenges from Maher in regard to his retrograde religious stance. Anything he has to say about Trump "winning" is as ridiculous as his wanting to cling to the most backward parts of the Roman Catholic religion.
1
Interesting, but flawed. I don't think Ross really gets this guy at all. He's probably right that impeachment won't happen, but Trump's entire political survival depends on almost half the nation choosing to remain in Idiot Mode.
Workers are looking at an extra $2.95 on their paychecks and wondering "What happened to the big tax breaks?" Medicare beneficiaries are NOT unaware of the slow drip, drip, dripping away of benefits. More openly, Obamacare beneficiaries are DEFINITELY aware of the chop, chop, chopping of the whole program by thinly disguised stealth. And Korea? The other shoe has yet to drop, but anyone thinking that Kim is as dumb as Trump is doomed to remain in Idiot Mode.
The man who loves the spotlight and loves to talk will eventually talk his way back to Manhattan, if he's that lucky.
1
Of course Trump is winning. It is clear for everyone to see. And Trump will go down as one of the greatest presidents of all time.
- On the verge of peace and denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, which will lead to the Nobel peace prize for Trump.
- ISIS destroyed in quick time.
- US economy is booming. Stock market has boomed since he won the election. Everyone's 401k's are up.
- U.S. Consumer Confidence Is at 17-Year High
- Unemployment at a low 3. 9%.
- Tax Cut Bill Passed which lowers the tax for the majority of Americans and opens up America again for business investment.
- Illegal immigration down big time
- Deregulation
- The awful Individual Mandate of Obamacare REPEALED
- He gas gotten America out of the awful Paris climate deal and the disastrous TPP deal
and on and on and on ........ Winning !!!!!
2
When you have 10,000 yapping dogs nipping at the heels of one orange-haired rider, no matter how ridiculous he looks, he gains some sympathy. The media have brought this disaster upon themselves. They invented him. And then they tried to destroy him. And now he's having his revenge. The media has never looked so ridiculous. And, of course, he will win the race.
4
If Trump is winning it is only because the alleged opposition party, the Dems, are asleep...and evidently don't care.
1
Winning, like much else, is in the eye of the beholder. The truth, however, is a different story.
1
Shorter Douthat:
Trump is winning because he's picking up speed in his race to the bottom.
3
True Americans don't care about the sex scandals but we don't like being embarrassed by our president either. If Trump continues to embarrass us all 4 years of his term then we may just vote him out so he'll go away. Trump fatigue is very real.
The next few elections will tell us what we as a nation stand for. Keep in mind he lost the popular vote bigly and I doubt that Democrats will make the same mistakes that Clinton made during her campaign. Don't count your chickens before they're hatched.
1
Trump has not embarrassed us in his dealing with the Koreans, his dealings with Europe in Syria or his dealings with China. Being embarrassed because he doesn't espouse progressive ideals and speaks bluntly is peculiar to progressives.
1
The G.O.P. is good for trashing the natural world - polluting the air, water and earth, for advancing global climate change, and for impoverishing everyone but their wealthy donors. If they could they'd outlaw abortion also, and then there would be a sharp increase in abortion!
2
Anything positive that has come about during the Trump presidency is purely coincidental. His ineptitude for this job is obvious. As the saying goes, "Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes."
2
Stupidity is the norm, belief is stronger than reason, and greed and avarice are the "virtues" of society.
2
Silly me. I didn't realize we were doing so well. When should we start clearing space on Mount Rushmore?
3
In the next to last paragraph, Ross names the Republican Party by name (as a do nothing party) but describes the other side, not as the Democratic Party, but as our "Cultural Elites."
Does Ross have an inferiority complex, or is this just another dog whistle?
1
It freaks me out that Trump has recently risen in the polls. I keep up with 538 and, yeah, he's up to 42 approval rating and down to 52 disapproval. This makes me feel personally crazed. The man is awful and getting more awful.
I know there's something deeply wrong with Donald Trump, but it scares me to death to realize there's something wrong with a lot of people in my country.
2
"Play like you are positive of defeat, even though they are leading big now."...what I hear when I read your columns Mr. Douthat.....I like Knute Rockne's approach better than yours.
Trump is winning in both the dumbing down and numbing down of America. He is a con man holding up shining objects to deflect his destruction of what has been exceptional about America. Opinion pieces like these just try to bring legitimacy to what otherwise in any other administration Democratic or Republican would have been condemned. Republicans are grasping at straws to justify what then have done to our future. They will forever own trump, his immorality, ignorance and hatred. History will forever reflect this.
2
Trump was elected primarily by White Men and White Women to put White Men and White Women First (and in that order). Nothing else matters to them and therefore to them he is a success.
The fact the economy is doing well just gives them more fuel to vote for him again regardless of why it happened.
The republicans are keeping him in office because they know this buffoon will more than likely sign anything they send his way (even though they are so dysfunctional they can barely manage this).
Ross, why those fiscal wing nuts, so loud in 2010 about Obama’s 12 trillion debt, which after Great Recession was justified, are so quiet now when Trump will leave 25Trillion?
Who borrows money in good economy when corporations have record profits? So they can have profits on steroids? That’s your kind of winning, Ross? What worth is our version of capitalism that requires constant injection of borrowed money? What worth is our version of capitalism that can’t succeed without destroying the environment? Given the fierce international competition, do we need to self implode as a country for our version of capitalism to succeed?
Ross, this conservative kind of “winning” today means a complete self-destruction tomorrow. What are you cheering, for God’s sake?
1
No. Trump's not faring well. His election resulted with help from a foreign government, our foe. He lies as easily as you breathe. He surrounds himself with the incompetent.
He's unsuited, ill-prepared and inept.
Make America Great Again = Many Are Getting Arrested.
He's engaging in assault on social programs + our environment. Ordered secretaries of 6 federal departments to gut programs + force difficult requirements for those needing government assistance: the poor + sick. Gave away our treasury to billionaires.
His cabinet's corrupt + grifting. He's making millions as president thru his businesses. Golfs, vacations + wastes time on TV + Twitter. Loud, vulgar + only engages his base. His sex scandals are nauseating. A new shoe drops every day.
His campaign met with Russians at his home base. His son's emails indict the campaign. Trump illegally funneled money to pay off women. He + his lawyer are disgraced.
Finally, South and North Korea get credit for the summit.
1
I believe, Ross, you have it backwards. Pope Francis is winning, Trump is losing bigly.
4
I am a Democrat and don’t want Trump impeached. I just want Democrats to win in 2018 and thwart Trump as the Republicans did Obama. I want both parties to select new leaders — no more Pelosi and McConnell. I definitely don’t want a President Pence. I’d also like to see House Republicans do their job and investigate Pruitt, Zinke, DeVos, and Carson. This administration is basically a revolution without the guns.
3
Trump strikes me as the evil twin of Chance Gardner, a fictional creation of Jerzy Kosinski's "Being There." Gardner led a life of bromides fueled by his life of watching television, absorbing and spouting sound bites confused by an adoring public for profundity.
Like Gardner, Trump is still running, and can't read or write. Gardner was a film fan, while Trump is a flim-flam.
GOP 2018: Vote Republican, we'll do nothing, we promise.
It is truly an oxy - "moron" that the disintegration of the republic and degradation of this country via an administration incapable of governing and haunted by scandal and investigations are seen to be "winning," that somehow chaos is a positive and that lack of strategy is a plus.
I cannot imagine who pollsters are questioning. Only in an alternative universe where today counts, but the future not at all, can this realistically and honestly be seen as anything but a complete and utter failure, a disaster beyond a nightmare that it is, and there is nothing about it that says winning.
All Douthat cares about is not the dismal aura of malfeasence, corruption and incompetence that Trump era has delivered but that to assure his base he is firmly and forever a misogynist determined to keep women in reproductive slavery.
What was wrong when Hillary called Trump supporters deplorable?
It was a personal attack which backfired mightily. She should have emphasized the mindset or behavior as disgraceful, not the individuals as a group. The aspirational tone was also missing. "We are better than this." Bernie stuck to the issues.
3
Nothing wrong with it at all. It is the truth.
Gloriann, I understand what you're saying, but I am finished with any respect for Trump supporters, and Republicans in general. I've been listening to their hateful baloney since Newt Gingrich in the 90s. I'm done with respect.
You spend a lot of time bemoaning the state of American morality. There is no greater measure of this than the continuing fealty of the so called religious right to a man whose every word is a lie and whose personal, public and business life is utter filth. Instead of worrying about those of us who think the sky fairy is nonsense, it's time to ask why so many Americans have bought such a load of garbage from a man who peddles nothing but filth and garbage and fear. That's the real question and the answer has nothing to do with anything but greed and fear and racism. It also means confronting the reality that #2, Pence, is every bit as bad as Trump as he slavishly follows the reek that surrounds Trump.
It is novel to have a President tell us that he could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and get away with it. Perhaps such a declaration of confidence on the part of Trump was enough to give some of us a sense that no matter what happened to our Country, Mr. Trump was infallible.
'He tells us bluntly the way America works, and does not use lofty words that make us feel small. So what if he has an eye for The Ladies, it is Macho to say the least, and he knows what he is doing because he has perfected The Art of The Deal.
There is no proof that he is best buddies with Putin, and if anything, the New York Times is a 'Commie' newspaper. We are not interested in who is running The Republican Party in Washington, because all politicians are dishonest.
It is those bleeding-heart Liberals that will do us in, with their plans to help some lazy people stay on Welfare. They also want to take away our weapons which are within Our Right to keep.
Trump does not mince words, and it was about time for somebody to tell China to take a hike. And, let us not forget those Mexicans who are raping our jobs. This is a President who knows how to create work and his Wall is going to be a warning to stay out of our Country.
Some of his close contacts are owners of Big Sports teams, and he is our All American Man. Nothing pretentious about Trump, and there are already volunteers ready to place his face on Mount Rushmore.
It was time that we got a Real Leader for our Country, and we did!'.
1
A thoughtful and sobering column, Ross, and I rarely agree with you on anything. I hope you are wrong about the mid-term elections, because if you are not, then it will show the world that the sewer rat currently masquerading as our POTUS truly reflects the American people. And he might. I wonder how many of those so disdainful of him in public privately benefit from what he has done, and quietly support him, in all his crudeness and disreputability.
The Democrats have Bill Clinton to thank for trivializing his personal peccadilloes. I never voted for a Clinton in my life, and I will never forgive him for demeaning the office in the way he did, paving the way for what we have now.
One victory you failed to mention, Ross. We were both raised Roman Catholic, and you still are one. The man in the White House has turned Evangelicals into Catholics, as they clearly believe in the sacrament (if it is still one, and still called that) of Confession. Own up to your sins and all is forgiven. That's why all the Italian Mafia members were such good churchgoers. They could murder whomever during the week, confess their sins on Saturday, truly and sincerely say they did not intend to do it again, get Communion on Sunday, and repeat the process over and over again. One of the things that helped me leave the church when I was 18.
So you see? Winning everywhere, that orange apparition at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. America is truly great again.
1
Trump's advice to Billy Bush ,when Bush pointed out that Trump had exaggerated the ratings of " The Apprentice" was "just tell them and they'll believe it". The con man understands that many in the body politic suffer from the GUS syndrome and they are quite proud of it. ( Gullible- Uninformed - Suckers)
1
I am very much looking forward to Trump denuclearizing the Korean peninsula, winning the Nobel peace prize - Obama got one for doing absolutely nothing - and watching liberals completely lose their minds.
2
Last week's wishful thinking was about California becoming a limo liberal state. This week it's "Trump is Winning". Next week from this columnist: Roe vs Wade overturned by SCOTUS 9-0.
1
As long as Alec Baldwin, Anderson Cooper, and the rest of the out-of-touch Hollywood and Media circus managers are making hay out of Stormy Daniels, Trump's poll numbers will continue to climb steadily.
2
Meanwhile our infrastructure is badly in need of work, health care is still unaffordable for millions, education is unaffordable for millions ... Trump "succeeding" (by which you seem to mean avoiding impeachment and taking credit for things he's had little to do with or even understands) and the GOP doing nothing is not exactly a win for our country.
It's one of those historic ironies that a subsequent administration takes credit for the work of the former. If Trump thinks 4% unemployment is his doing, show us how. This was Obama's work -- or perhaps just the natural healing of the markets.
By the way, does that 4% take into account people working multiple jobs just to make rent?
4
Here's the question: How can Trump be "winning" when clearly the entire country is not?
People keep bringing up the economy, which was essentially put back on the right track by the previous administration after years of recession; and they claim that the unemployment rate is at an all-time low, but they forget to mention that wages for workers have continued to stagnate while management reaps the rewards.
And how can Trump be winning when he continues to harrangue and ostricize non-white and non-wealthy Americans, while playing up to a racist and conservative base that doesn't even represent the majority of the electorate?
The fact that he is now; under investigation for even allegedly employing a foreign and adversarial government to help win the election, roiled up in a lawsuit involving a 'Pornographic actress' and possible campaign finance violations, shows no interest in severing ties with NRA as innocent Americans continue to be gunned down, and continues to isolate this country on the world stage all appears to be moot. And to think all this is occuring within the barely first two years of his term.
On almost every conceivable level, this country has rarely been so divided as it is now.
And you call this "winning"?
12
We are still living in Obama’s economy, plus disasterous tax cuts and anti-environment policies. All GOP policies. That’s it. We will pay for those changes dearly because they mortgage our future greatly.
Ross, we had that kind of winning in 2002-2006, what happened?
8
Rajkamal, you are right that predictions of impending electoral disaster for Republicans might prove incorrect. But, Trump is even worse than people think. Our once great country is vanishing before our very eyes. Steve Bannon's dismantling of the administrative state is proceeding apace while we are distractedly looking in other directions.
6
It is ironic...not in the funny sense, but in a truly tragic sense...that a right-wing conspiracy theory was that Obama was intentionally trying to destroy the American economy in order to usher in a muslim or socialist (or both!) paradise.
Now we have a president who truly does seem to be trying to destroy America. America's secret sauce is not just the words of the Constitution, but the *trust* people have in the institutions it establishes. If people stop trusting in our law enforcement and our judiciary, or if they stop trusting the journalists who watch over those institutions, then the whole thing falls apart. Trump appears to be trying on a daily basis to destroy that trust.
I don't think that's his primary goal, of course. His primary goal...or really his only interest...is The Donald himself. If he needs to destroy America in order to...oh, I don't know, get a 50% off coupon for skin bronzer...then he'll do it. Without thinking.
12
Trump is a one-man band who has never studied music. The Republican Congress has been reduced to a wall against any future and a gated community by and for the very wealthy.
If Douthat thinks this is winning, I've got a bridge I would like to sell him.
8
Finding the economy in great shape is the result of ignoring the human element in it. Yes, unemployment is below 4% but the wages are seriously lacking. The infamous tax overhaul brought greater wealth to the super-rich and the big corporations but the promised wage increases have not materialized and will not materialize. Nor will the corporations invest the money they reap from the tax breaks.
Add to these the collapse of moral and ethical standards not only on the part of Donald Trump but also the people around him and the Republican politicians and voters. Suddenly all the lightning rods they used to throw on the Democrats, the LGBT community, the African Americans, and many others turned into a convoluted defense of those who chew the moral standards and spit them out.
Calling all these "Trump is Winning" with a false premise that "success is relative" is nothing more than turning a blind eye to all who are losing: The people of the USA, the foundation institutions, the poor, and many other minorities. Is this really a "win?"
No, success is not relative at these levels and it is more appropriate to talk about who is losing rather than giving undue credit to Trump.
8
Trump's rhetoric has created an illusion for folks he says the Democrats abandoned. He has used a black/white language trick to reduce solutions to serious, complicated problems so readers are not thinking, but reacting with the reptilian portion of the brain. This is not to say people are reptiles, but when it comes to safety, we think like one - are we safe? how can we be safe? Trump provides the answers: walls, guns, eliminating otherness through laws based on xenophobia, ad hominem attacks on anyone opposing him. He feels safer just saying it and promotes himself as the preserver of safety even though the chaos of the administration and the exit of experienced government employees create instability in the country and the consternation of our allies. Leaders must have some humility, else their hubris will catch them. Mr. Douthat reminds all of us that many do not see Trump's "winning" as an illusion. Abracadabra. America has been made great again.
1
Interesting that Mr. Douthat speaks of an animating principle of Trumpism being a dissatisfaction with "our cultural elite (being) in full control of our government."
Better our economic elite?
2
The question should not be HOW Trump is winning but WHY.
5
Trump is winning because 50% of Americans have below average intelligence.
2
That's always been true, so that's not it.
Anyone who believes Trump has any interest or input into any agenda or what his cabinet members are up to .....they are sadly mistaken.
Regardless of how negative the coverage of him can be, he thrives on that. The Presidency is merely a game to him, an opportunity for his face to flash on a TV screen or to ramble in front of crowds, view the audience and feel adulation.
He is absolutely vacant, a glutton for attention.
7
Ross, I have long wondered why, from so many viable Presidential candidate cardboard cutouts, the mob chose DJT. Yesterday, it occurred to me: Whether the One Minute Hate is initiated by Donald Trump or Roy Moore or Don Blankenship or the adorably inept Devin Nunes, a sizable minority of American voters will favor the candidate who sneers and spits out "Obama" with the same disgust with which similar candidates 70 years ago pronounced a different word starting with the letter N.
Although it seems that "plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose," a scan of today's NYT reveals that the monolithic Church might finally lose its grip on the Irish people, that a Southern newspaper has accepted its role in dehumanizing African American people, that physically assaulting another human being because that person's lifestyle is non-standard has become harder to justify. How can today's conservative express his or her frustration when gay people and black people and brown people (sort of) have become off limits?
Remember, Ross, that this is the range of the political spectrum you justify, the religious fabulists and paternalistic sadists who have held sway since the Second Great Awakening. America has always provided a scapegoat to incur the wrath of those whose experience of the American Dream has been less than optimal and who have to blame somebody other than the boss or the landlord. On Sunday they're told that a better life is coming. Keeps them in harness.
So, Trump. QED.
8
Just because Ross isn't a fan of Trump's doesn't mean he has stopped being a conservative republican. I'm sure Ross doesn't care about the destruction of the EPA or the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, he's still republican. To Ross "winning" has a completely different connotation.
10
Thanks for the info on Ross, I have bypassed
the New York Times for years and so this all
new to me. Golly the Republicans are awfully
awful, talk about white supremacy. I still cannot
figure out Diamond and Silk or Kanye, well maybe
I can, of course supporting the Republican agenda
makes sense to the likes of them, money is more
important than anything. Power and money are
the only ethics of Republican and oh somehow
they seem to get an added thrill above and
beyond keeping people down and feeling powerless,
They seem to relish the cruelty an awful lot. I would
say sadism is their exercise of choice,
2
If Trump is winning, it is because Conservative Congressmen do not support any sort of morals, ethics, Rule of Law, due process or any idea of country over party. These Congressmen are supported by millions of voters who put them in office and agree with the abandonment of the oaths of office to protect the US. "Scandalous"? Conservative actions demonstrate... not so much. More like total, near unanimous, Conservative support.
4
Much of Trump's "success" is illusory or ephemeral. Most of the drop in unemployment occurred during the Obama administration. The stock market has been essentially flat for the past six months. Again, most of the runup was the coat tails of the Obama era. It is very easy to nominate someone for the Nobel Peace Prize. As an academic I can do it, and have done so three times. I could theoretically nominate my mother. The North Korea saga is a sad repeat of other failed initiatives in the past.
But Trump is a great success in one respect. He is an excellent huckster. He is shameless in his self-promotion and his utter lack of either humility or conscience. He is the Great Barnum in our political life--a perfect version of Buzz Windrip in Sinclair Lewis' *It Can't Happen Here.*
His administration is an utter mess. He oversees the destruction of our national institutions that protect the health and welfare of the American public. We are going to need decades to undo his damage.
But hucksterism depends on a lot of shouting and blather, and Trump has this in spades. The sad aspect of this is that 40% of the voting public is mesmerized by the razzle-dazzle and bloviating.
Democrats are equally stunned. They don't know how to confront anyone who is such a shameless liar with no conscience and apparently no concern for his reputation of his legacy. Trump blasts forward without the slightest concern for the wreckage he leaves in his wake or the damage he is doing.
May we last!
13
Yes Ross, we are all proud of our President.
2
I think Douthat is completely full of it. The argument that Trump is "winning" is absurd when you consider how very easy and lucky a time he has had of it, and yet how widely hated he is by a majority of the public - and, increasingly, by the conservative media who have grown utterly fed up with making excuses for his lies and corruption.
He appears to be headed for a historic defeat in the 2018 Congressional elections, which will expose him, his grasping family, his cabinet of low-lifes and his self-serving agenda to withering investigation.
In spite of his idiotic and potentially disastrous anti-free trade bluster, the economy continues its Obama-era expansion. Trump has not been able to sabotage this because he isn't taken seriously as an economic policymaker. His tax cuts goosed the stock market, but their high cost will not become fully apparent for another year or more.
Trump isn't winning, he's coasting on luck, lies and laziness. He watches TV for hours every day and plays golf in Florida most weekends. He has displayed none of the discipline, focus, vision or political skill of even moderately effective presidents. When Mueller and Congress call him to account, his "winning" days in the White House will end.
9
Good column even if I disagree with Ross D's inclinations. Because heavoids anything hinting at weakness or failure is Trump is highly focused on pleasing his base and winning elections. This focus forces him to take a broader view than directly serving his ego (loins, bank acct, family, ...), per se. It is cold consolation for those of us that seek a wise or moral leader, but he is constrained.
1
How to understand the dangerous, cowardly, treasonous behavior of Republicans:
Republicans are fully aware that Trump is mentally unstable and represents a grave danger to the country.
They know that -- if worst comes to worst -- and he is impeached and is replaced by Pence, they will have a President at least as palatable to them as Trump is, who will be in an excellent position to win the Presidency on his own in 2020.
A Trump, in other words, without a Twitter account.
And yet they continue to lie and cheat on Trump’s behalf because they actually admire and fear him.
4
Quite possibly right. All I can be sure of, with Trump, is my own reaction. He might well get re-elected in 2020, and at that time I'll start setting up a way out, working for citizenship somewhere far and pleasant. If he gets re-elected, then I will know for sure that America is going the route of bigoted fascism, and I doubt I'll want to stick around. If it starts sliding really fast, maybe I'll stick around to join the rebellion. If we have another civil war, Trump and the south had danged well better lose again.
Assuming America retains some sanity and Trump loses in 2020, to my dying day I will spread the word far and wide that he was the worst American president ever. I will never fully trust anyone who supported him.
So sure, he's winning right now, by blind luck and the idiocy of his supporters. But I'll outlive him, and I'll be working hard to make sure he loses in the end.
9
He’s not winning.
The investigation is just shifting into high gear and who knows how it will shake out.
You’re just surrendering.
4
It would be a shame if the president's sex life distracts G.O.P. from pursuing important policy goals such as legislating which bathroom I should be using.
We need a federal bathroom law enforcement agency. Because freedom.
5
"Bad sometimes turns into worse". This sentence says almost everything about Trump's style of politics. "Grotesque" would be another nice word.
3
“Cultural elite” = what conservatives like to call those disenfranchised by GOP discrimination. Supporting constitutionally-mandated equal rights for all citizens is deemed too outrageous for Republicans to accept.
Trump isn't “winning,” fascism is — at the expense of democracy and the republic.
5
The term “cultural elite” is too funny! My Republican children have all of the characteristics of the cultural elite, including good educations, food choices, neighborhood, cars, etc. Of course, they didn’t vote for Trump so I guess that seals it. They are cultural elites!
1
H. L. Mencken detested Franklin Roosevelt. Here he is writing about him a few days after his death. To me this reads like a perfect description of the road to victory in 2020 being taken by Trump.
"Roosevelt, if he had lived, would probably have been unbeatable, despite the inevitable reaction against the war. He was so expert a demagogue that it would have been easy for him to divert the popular discontent to some other object. He could have been beaten only by a demagogue even worse than he was himself, and his opponents showed no sign of being able to flush out such a marvel….
He was always a mile ahead of them, finding new victims to loot and new followers to reward, flouting common sense and boldly denying its existence, demonstrating by his anti-logic that two and two made five, promising larger and larger slices of the moon. His career will greatly engage historians, if any good ones ever appear in America, but it will be of even more interest to psychologists. He was the first American to penetrate to the real depths of vulgar stupidity. He never made the mistake of overestimating the intelligence of the American mob. He was its unparalleled professor."
1
I knew I detested Mencken but now I have new reason. FDR was a great President and it pains me to see how conservatives today have attempted to denigrate him. My dad was a Roosevelt Democrat because he lived through the Depression. He was a teacher and didn’t even get paid for quite a while. Luckily he lived with his parents on a subsistence farm so he didn’t starve and had a roof over his head. My mother’s family were Republicans but her brother worked at a CCC Camp and they understood that Roosevelt was the right man for the times. The main thing to remember about FDR is that he truly supported helping the struggling poor and the economy and did something about it. Did he have weaknesses? Of course, one being his attempt to stack the Supreme Court but in that era we still had three branches of government who understood their job and performed as they should. Wish we did now!
1
The only thing I agree with here is the phrase 'now successful is a relative term.' Trump and everything connected to him is a scandal. Now of course the scandal concerns sex and hush money and the contradictions concerning that, not that bad (considering) - whereas before it might have been Russian collusion, possible money laundering in his prior business dealings, or obstruction of justice, or his blatant incompetence, or his stupefying incomprehension, or his completely chaotic administration (still to be continued), or Cabinet members either visibly unfit for office, under investigation, or have already resigned or pushed off the sinking ship. Please Mr. Douthat, just where is this plausible 'success'? Can it be found perhaps in the numbed American mind, pummelled to death by sixteen months of Trump madness and drama, 24/7? Has it been possible to escape just one single day of this juggernaut of reality show hypocrisy? Of this disregard for truth? For facts? Tell us sir, where even a molecule of your version of 'success' be found?
1
Inspector Clouseau always seemed to win, too.
2
Fascism is winning. Ignorance is winning. Pollution is winning. Freedom of the press is losing. Factual reporting is losing. Gerrymandering is winning. Teachers are not winning.
And you are OK with all of it.
We are more apart than any time since the American Civil War. I am looking forward to moving to a blue or purple state. Mine is awful.
5
That 41 percent of the American public support this barbarian is revealing about the low moral character of approximately half the American public and the ruthless nature of this fanatically capitalist nation.
2
I disagree. There is an avalanche of legislation being enacted every day. The Republican Party has Trump. He is their unvarnished savior, one executive action after the other. The Republicans use him for make-believe bills that spins the bottle for one more day. Terrorists with guns; no problem. Dead children daily for the NRA; life-saving for them. Billions of taxpayer dollars to donor corporations guarantees their power. Just purchase the room for one more engorged white man. The rules of governance are too much work, and stand in the way. The only continuous work is making sure those pesky American voters never know how decades of regulations protected them from people like us. This winning formula for Republicans will never cease, even as soldiers continue to die in fifteen year wars and bridges collapse. Lives, other than their own, are an inconvenience. Trump is not winning legislation worth having. Republican grifters have stolen everything.
4
I don’t know if he’s winning but I know who’s loosing. But didn’t he claim credit for no plane crashes? I guess that’s just for the non military,we have lost 3 solders in air crashes to every combat loss.
2
Trump’s success is more a result of Americans failure to care what kind of nation we have. People are more interested in watching the daily episodes and arguing about what will happen next. They consider the lies, insults, crimes, disintegration of the nation and world as interesting plot lines rather than their lives.
3
If tRump is winning is it because the elite media continues to lower the bar for him. If he were held to the same standard as say...any Democrat or even any other Republican....he would be seen as the failure that he is. And our two year national nightmare would be over....
1
Trump is waging a War Against Humanity on all fronts via his proxies at the EPA, CDC, ICE, HUD, VA, and the GOP, while poised to shove President Moon aside to stand in the limelight himself although South Korea did all the hard work, and at the same time laying the framework for a Big Explosion to end all wars in the Middle East.
Mr Douthat needs to write columns about what Trump is doing for his Base to highlight all the lies he concocted in exchange for thei votes, the there’s nothing to write about.
The GOP strategy to dumb down the population is not sustainable
considering that it is continually
replenished with better educated
people from abroad. Maybe that
explains the their immigration policy wishlist.
2
Ross, it appears you dream of Trump "winning" as you pretend to dislike his immorality, his chronic lies, his disgrace of his office, and his dividing the country. Is it because you believe he will continue to work to stop the evil liberals from helping the American people from make a living wage, have healthcare coverage, insuring that the air and water are clean, preventing industry to dump its poisonous waste everywhere, protecting consumers from illegal practices, protecting civil rights, workers rights and voting rights, and promoting the general welfare of the people?
2
Ross speaks of Trump's "winning" in April and May... how it's now about the sex scandal (we can forget Russia), and maybe there is a spot for that Nobel medal on Trump's mantlepiece. And don't forget the Economy... billionaires get to vote too. Even Warren Buffet likes the Apple stock buy back. WOW. I guess 40% American support is all it takes to win these days. Ross should get out more and hear some of the dinner conversations around the world... and they're not just about Stormy. People are worried about the growing nationalism, militarism, and xenophobia... the widening wealth inequalities and the growing meanness that's becoming part of the American psyche. Trump maybe "winning" this spring, but it's looking like this is not going to be America's century any more.
PS - Please repeat this column just before the mid-terms to help us get out the vote Ross.
2
Ross Douthat is whistling as he walks past the cemetery, trying to take his mind off the ghosts which are taking form from Donald Trump’s past sins – personal appetites, financial misconduct and national security breaches for the love of Mother Russia.
It is true that as long as the scandal of the day is a one-nighter with a porn actress, the chances of completing his term looks good for Trump. But the sexual activity was always far less important than the elaborate coverup and the door that has opened to the shady life of Michael Cohen and his service to our president over the years.
It is also true that Trump, given the low bar, will be applauded for not bombing North Korea and starting World War III.
Mr. Douthat is also correct that as long as the economy is okay, reflected in reports of corporate earnings and somewhat in the stock market, Donald Trump has some breathing room.
The fact is, however, that the chickens have not yet come home to roost on the Mueller investigation, the entire Russia issue, the Middle East and the Trump loss of China and all of the Far East. A do-nothing Congress will not save this president.
On top of all this, the country is really suffering from Tweet fatigue, and Donald Trump's stand-up routine has worn thin.
92
It will be interesting Mr. Douthat to see if your definition of "winning" applies after POTUS is impeached, resigns or is defeated at the polls. I guess "winning" is a very subjective word, wouldn't you say?
"But it’s very clear that Trump is better off politically with the investigative focus on his attempts to hide his sex life rather than on the Russia business." So the strategy cooked up between Trump and Giuliani was that it was better Trump's sex life provide entertainment, in order to divert attention from the fact that there is an ongoing investigation into the role Russia played in his winning the election, with perhaps the complicity of those who were working on his campaign. So Trump first confirmed what Giuliani stated, then reneged on that statement, leaving Sarah Huckabee Sanders looking ever so foolish trying to explain it all. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
Mr. Douthat you seem to revile Trump's behavior, but tolerate it as long as Republicans stay in power in order to undo the social progress made in this country. Truth be told, from reading your columns, you revile liberals more than you do Trump.
All liberals are looking for is that all people be treated with the fairness and respect they deserve, regardless of sex, skin color, sexual orientation, or country where they were born. All we want is for people to have access to shelter, food, education, and affordable health care. If Trump is winning because of pushing back against liberalism, what does that really say about our values and sense of decency in this country?
1
Once again t remind Mr. Douthat and the rest of the right wing pundits suddenly so critical of Trump and Trumpism: YOUR President, YOUR Party, YOUR policies. REPUBLICAN policies :no taxes for the rich, no regulations for polluters, banksters,and Big Pharma, no healthcare for those (the unworthy)who can't afford it, and slavish conformity to the true owners of the Republican Party, the Koch Brothers and the NRA, with never any room for compromise or consensus. Relentless Gingrichian demonization and denigration of opponents, the usual Republican lies, racism, bigotry, homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, obstructionism, sedition and in the 2016 election, treason, and the ongoing 40 year discrediting of reputable news sources in favor of the Fox/ClearChannel/Sinclair/Limbaugh GOP propaganda machine. Far from an aberration, Trump is the apotheosis of the disingenuous Reagan Republicanism YOU and YOUR hypocritical ilk (Brooks, Will, Stephens, Fox) have been apologizing, excusing and enabling for 40 years. Trump merely says out loud what Republicans say behind closed doors at the country club, over a bourbon, when the immigrant help is out of earshot.
A reckoning is coming for YOUR Republican Party, Mr. Douthat, and it is not going to be pretty. Millions of Americans don't want to work with the GOP, or find common ground with the GOP. We want to END the GOP, for the good of our nation, for once and for all. And in November 2018 and November 2020, we are going to do just that.
2
Trump seems only be advancing in the polls, with the 'deplorables', but not with the media and DOJ. He seems isolated. What keeps amazing me is how little understanding the liberals have of the deplorables. Do liberals only talk to themselves? Why do they keep ignoring the people that live on a 10$ an hour? Trumps marketing people have been masters in turning these people against themselves. Fox news, the radio: they may all be cynical, but at least they know what politics is all about--Power and money. The Democrats want to follow the rules, but both the top and bottom of society instinctively know that rules are there to be broken at the right time. Rules are for sissies. There is no moxie with the Democrats, there is no New Jersey in them. Both Trump and Stormy Daniels appeal to a large segment of the public, but that segment will of course not openly admit it. Politics has turned into a strange mixture of greed and entertainment. In the meantime, the big issues do not get the attention required. Donald might even be reelected.
"How Trump Is Winning." Just the title alone- is suspect.
What exactly is Trump "winning"? What about America and America's institutions? Is the Environment "winning"? Is America's Infrastructure "winning"? Is America's HUD policies [now] a"winning" strategy? Is America's new tax overhaul a "winning" strategy for all Americans? Is America's foreign policy coherent and a "winning" strategy? Is America's Justice system a "winning" system for all of America? Is America's banking, finance and lending policies- "winners"?
How do we really measure HOW a president is perceived to be winning? Mr. Douthat's determinations are sophomoric at best and pathetic- at worst.
Trump was right...I really am tired of all the “winning” I’m not just tired of it, but actually disgusted by it.
There are a couple old sayings Trump supporters may want to keep in mind...”you reap what you sow” and “chickens coming home to roost”.
It is fascinating. An old, white, privileged , bloviating carnival barker, with racist tendencies, fascist political impulses, and a reality show sense of performance; literally a human dumpster fire, continues to float just above the precipice of legal and electoral Armageddon. The complicity and inaction of the Republican Party bears witness to the cringe worthy electorate they have cultivated since the 60s. All of the tawdry issues and general cacophony of scandal arising from a history of shadowy business actually form the underpinnings answering the how, and why Trump, his Campaign, and his Organization became an asset of a foreign intelligence and security service, and a favorite of autocratic governments worldwide.
2
Trump haters aside, who can argue with low unemployment, the bringing to heel of Kim Jong-un, and the crushing of ISIS? Obama never had it so good. Not to mention, Trump is calling China out on their unfair and bullying practices, both military and economic, making the liberal appeasement of China look like the weakness it really has been. Liberals, and the NY Times news and opinion sections, are reduced to "moral" criticisms of Trump, easily dismissed as the counterpart of Clinton apologism. Until the Dems find their sweet spot in issues of economic unfairness (see: Krugman) and abandon the moralistic, immigration-friendly, Identity Politics-driven drivel of Pelosi and Schumer, the Republicans will abide. By their focus on more immigration and Identity Politics, the Dems could again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory against this most vulnerable of modern politicians.
4
Ross, you point out an unfortunate fact, but you need to go at least one more step past this. All of this points to a general "sickness" in our political culture. If Trump truly was elected due to a general feeling among the working and middle classes that they were being left behind, then tax cuts for billionaires and inaction on everything else should be disgusting those same people. The economy might be good but nothing has really changed on that front in the last year and a half and wages are still stagnant. So that's not a great reason to be excusing his behavior. Meanwhile, there are policies out there (e.g., basic gun control) that have broad public support but can't even come up for a vote in Congress. So either there was a different factor that led to Trump's election or we're living in a broken system that we keep calling the greatest in the world for some reason. At what point do we take a look at what's happening and conclude that politics is not serving the people?
1
May I simply observe that unemployment is at a 20-something year low; the stock market is at or near its all time high; taxes have been cut; peace is breaking out in Korea after many administrations utterly failed; the Obamacare mandate is eliminated; the headquarters of the U.S. Embassy in Israel has been moved where it belongs, to Jerusalem; the nation's laws (Congress' laws!) with respect to immigration are seeing some real efforts at enforcement; the economy is rolling; Macron has come from France demonstrating obvious respect & affection for our President; Germany is thinking about what it has to do to meet its own defense obligations - I could go on, but the point is made. Whatever Trump's personal failings, which part of the foregoing is objectionable?
2
Trump is winning because the economy is chugging along. The 3.9% unemployment rate (lowest in nearly 20 years) is the only number that voters care about when all is said and done.
The rest of it . . . the adultery, the lying, the bullying, the narcissism, the incompetence . . . all of that is meaningless. Even if Mueller eventually recommends that Trump be prosecuted for sedition, it won't matter. The economy is the only issue that persuades voters to support a President or reject him.
Douthat's column is pure gossamer, as would an opposing opinionthat Trump's erratic, unhinged behavior will cost him control of the Congress in the mid-terms. As long as the economy stays relatively healthy, Trump and the GOP are in like Flynn for a second term (metaphor intentional).
18
I wouldn't say Trump is winning as much as not losing quite so bigly. This isn't a trend as much as a refection of the natural cycle of any president's popularity.
The current media focus on Stormy Daniels rather than Russia doesn't at all suggest that campaign finance violations are all there is. None of us knows where the Mueller investigation will go, and Stormy is just a distraction to keep us interested while the main drama plays out.
We are in a holding pattern until the inevitable constitutional crisis occurs. One way or the other, Trump and Mueller will come into direct conflict and the courts and/or Congress will need to intervene. This could occur in a few ways, including Trump's refusal to comply with a grand jury subpoena or his decision to fire Mueller or Rosenstein.
Until then, the country will remain stalled in its current state of anxiety and loathing, and Republican inaction on its reverse Robin Hood agenda amounts to winning for all of us, or at least not losing more.
4
I think all the attention paid to the Stormy story takes the heat off the Muller investigation.
If the SCP has to spend his time on discrediting his own lawyers he might have less energy and time to attend t the important investigation.
More Stormy all the Time!
1
What have we learned about polls in the past? They can be wildly incorrect.
Hush Money Trump is not winning, and even if he was it wouldn't matter. The American people who he swore to protect and defend are losing miserably, as are our allies around the globe.
8
"A scandal that began with the promise of republic-shaking revelations about presidential treason is increasingly dominated by sex and lies and possible campaign-finance violations — in other words, Clinton-in-the-1990s territory, rather than the Manchurian Candidate scenario."
This is the new conservative strategy: to falsely claim Mueller is like Ken Starr.
As long as the media lies like this and fails to report, or remind, the reader/viewer that the Stormy business is being conducted by the US Attorney for NY's southern district, people like Douthat will get away with this.
Remember, Trump's campaign manager, Manafort, met in Trump Tower with Kremlin operatives for the purpose of getting opposition research on Hillary.
On what planet; in what galaxy, in what universe is THAT not conspiracy with the Russians?
15
Hillary got opposition research on Trump from the Russians
1
Link? She got it from the Ukranians. Ukranian-AMERICANS, that is. And that is perfectly legal.
Especially since it was for the purpose of figuring out what the Kremlin was doing meddling in the election.
If he's winning, then the rest of us are truly lost.
15
Turning lemons into lemonade for a few weeks will not rescue Trump's doomed presidency. "Mueller may have revelations..." is the understatement of the year. The evidence Mueller is accumulating from Flynn and other witnesses, and likely including Cohen, is going to unleash a wave of indictments all the way up to Kushner and Don Jr for trading the promise of sanction relief for pinpoint-accurate Russian voter meddling and precisely-timed WikiLeaks of hacked emails. The Trump Organization money laundering indictments will ruin the family's meal ticket forever. And that even admits the possibility that a cowered Republican Senate will not convict Trump if impeached. What a legacy! Is that really "winning within limits"? If so, that means America is the loser.
9
Like some other conservatives, Mr. Douthat is embracing the fallacy that Trump has an actual strategy, that there is a method to his madness. There isn’t. A blind hen will find a piece of corn now and then, and even an erratic, impulsive president will occasionally stumble into some good news - such as a healthy economy that was inherited from his predecessor.
15
The internet is obsessed with Mr. Trump's personal life, the voters are not. Why is he becoming more popular? Because his presidency is really about the economy: freeing it from excessive taxation and regulation. People know that needs doing and the Democrats are not the party to do it. What are the Dems doing? Cheerleading a media laugh-fest focused on his peccadillos, not his policies. The Democrats need a new ethos. Instead of "Soak the Rich", they need to tell their followers to, Get down and help pull the wagon". Do they dare to do that?
5
Every year going forward the Koch brothers get a $1,400,000,000 tax break.(true) So glad we are walking. into a Iran war. So glad he's making a buck off his presidency all over the world (remember the Clinton Lincoln too rental? how much was that? Deficits will pay for what we are putting on credit. Hooray.
3
Trump does seem to be winning. He's still up there loud as ever - and we're all still alive.
The market has not yet crashed and the deep state (the corporatocracy) has been mollified with $1.4 Trillion from the Treasury.
The mainstream media is whooping it up with record profits from Trump cash, the military's budget is bigger than ever, big Pharma still has its Obamacare cash cow, and the Democrats are neutered because they're still Democrats and still stuck on Hillary.
Trump's daily high wire show continues to confound reality, which thrills his base and increases his ratings.
What will he do next?
As for the Mueller thing, you never know - it's building like a season finale. Will he escape? Will there be another season?
If so, we'll all be watching, same Trump-time, same Trump-channel!
4
Well said!
1
On the one hand, too clever by half. On the other, no one ever went broke betting on the stupidity and fecklessness of Republican voters.
5
Trump’s on borrowed time, Ross, but mostly on borrowed money.
4
The irony of it all. Trump is a success because his admitted crimes are merely venial. Or because because Republicans haven't proposed obnoxious legislation. Or because his enemies seem worse than he is to many folks.
On the other hand, Trump is a hero to many of us and nearly mythological. He is Hercules, flaws and all, fighting the Liberal evils of the world to bring us peace and prosperity. He is the best reality show ever. Now, who wants to turn off the something so effective and entertaining?
1
At least one pole, Rasmussen, is finding Trump's approval rating is 51%. But then there may be modifiers in the next few months, Unemployment is 3.9%, African American unemployment rate is the lowest since 1972, and Hispanic unemployment is the lowest ever. The GDP is 2.7 and inflation is 1.9. A federal judge has blasted Mueller and his team, suggesting they lied about the scope of the investigation, are seeking “unfettered power” and are more interested in bringing down the president. He goes on to condemn Mueller's investigation in the harshest terms. More to come on that. Now Trump is preparing to meet with both the South and North Korea to achieve denuclearize the peninsular and end the war there. If he gets that done, I'm going to invest in Prozac. The demand is bound to soar for all the Trump haters.
8
The Republican Party is really effective at supporting the financial elites while disparaging education in general and disparaging western enlightenment culture.
4
No, this economy does not resemble '98. Back then we had far more people in the workforce and improving wages. Now, the labor force continues to shrink and wages remain stagnant. Killing the public sector, as Trump and the GOP seem to want to do will only exacerbate both trends.
3
The Trump backers are spending money advertising going into the midterms. the Kochs are spending their dough to get behind Trump.
2
Perhaps the "nature of the news" isn't focused now on "Manchurian candidate levels", of potential treason, but that's only because the hard evidence of treason - or other high crimes and misdemeanors - is being held closely by Mr. Mueller. Hard to get front pages and high click counts when the prosecutor insists on following procedure and not tipping his hand. So what is the scandal-addicted media to do? Seize on all the other juicy, if not quite treasonous, story lines that Trump generates even in his sleep.
I don't know if treason or election fraud will ever be proved, and even if it could be, as long as the Republicans are in charge of Congress and the SCOTUS, I doubt they'll indict and/or convict. But I do believe there will be enough compelling evidence to expose Trump for who he is: a puppet for Putin, and heavily indebted to Russian oligarchs and gangsters. And if the Republicans allow that to stand, they will incriminate themselves as co-conspirators.
2
Many of us are hung up on entertainment and our cartoon version of a real American.
White, male, gun-slinging, self-sufficient cabin dweller.
A Horatio Alger hero, a paragon of tethered capitalism.
In a way of saying an espouser of the most "manly" authoritarian parts of Leviticus and Deuteronomy whilst a down-player of more "egalitarian" aspects.
Many are really so stuck in their own little regional fictional cultural version of what makes a good life that they cannot see or disregard the realty of the bigger picture.
Somehow they'd rather be a coal-miner's daughter or live in a Love Canal than march into modernity.
Let me put it a different way: essentially President Obama (typically imperfect especially in hindsight as we all are) saved this Nation from financial ruin and enhanced our place in modernity -e.g., re: environment and human rights
It is obvious Trump is riding President Obama's economic coattails while doing nothing to advance most citizens and actually regressing our modernity standing.
Yet about 42% will religiously support him. Indeed view an Obama unfavorably in comparison. Mind boggling but the 42% is a immutable statistical fact of human psychology.
So the 58% of us that can see a more modern bigger picture has to rid us of this reactionary regressive mess. VOTE and vote Trump and the GOP out! We need at least 65% EVTO!
2
Grading on a curve, Ross. An extreme curve. Shocking.
When was the last time you remember a national Democrat getting out front of any issue, or passionately fighting for it? Schumer and Pelosi made a lot of noise about DACA and the wall, and ended up fighting for neither (astoundingly, the Dem leadership offered to give Trump his wall if he pretty please try to move DACA forward). How many national Dems are out there telling the truth about the tax cut - that it's an egregious giveaway to corporate America and the rich, and will saddle us with gargantuan debt without doing squat for the middle and working class?
The only Democratic voices that make any noise online are a handful of Dem Congresspeople making noise about this or that scandal. Here's the thing: I don't think the American people care about the scandals. I recently read that polls show a majority of Americans know that the president is a corrupt liar. Focusing on the scandals is frankly not going to move the needle. Democrats are going to have to focus on issues - and they're going to have to fight! And unfortunately - especially under Pelosi and Schumer's leadership - I don't see them doing that.
The media also bears some responsibility. As the comedian at the Correspondent's dinner mentioned: You guys only care about Trump's scandals. I don't think most Americans know of the human rights violations that ICE carries out on a daily basis. It's authoritarian dictatorship level stuff. And it doesn't get any coverage.
3
The Clinton investigation was Newt Gingrich's playpen where Kenneth Starr to threw allegations about sex on the sidewalk and waited to see whether anyone picked it up. The Mueller prosecutorial investigation differs professionally in almost every way from the Clinton debacle. It may require an historic perspective, or having lived through it, but, point by point, the similarities between the Watergate investigation which captured Nixon in its claws after 2 years and Mueller's are striking.
The investigation of Watergate and Richard Nixon, a President easily as arrogant and corrupt in his soul as Donald Trump, is almost a roadmap for the present and very much resembles the professional successes of the Watergate investigators: working through daily attempts at obstruction, working up from the bottom, investigating what is important within the circumference built around Trump. Mueller is mum, despite political criticism, with no leaks. Investigators have established a circle, which they penetrate and work within, and carry off evidence. Trump should be very concerned.
No, Ross, the Clinton impeachment investigation was playtime for Newt until Newt got caught doing what he accused Clinton of. Mueller has no partisan motive, doing only what professional investigators do: target issues, penetrate resistance, find, and collect evidence, uphold the rule of law.
2
I would have thought that any economic upturn was in spite of Trump.
1
Mr Douthat has articulated the worry that has been gnawing at me during the Stormy Daniels soap opera. Not only is it reminiscent of Bill Clinton's lying and boorishness, it is a diversion from the issue of Trump's ties to Russia.
Republicans who support Trump will swallow all of his lies and his womanizing no matter their professed "family values." Yes, they are hypocrites who would have been burning President Obama in effigy or worse had he done a small fraction of what Trump has done.
The big issue is Trump's involvement with Russian oligarchs both as a money launderer and as a possible / probable conspirator in disrupting our election. The other stuff is just noise.
Republican voters don't want governance and they don't want democrats in office.
They pilloried President Obama's handling of the national debt created by President Bush administration's financial crisis. They are quiescent over Trump's $2T cost for his tax giveaway to the 1%ers and corporations.
Republicans voted 9 million times to repeal ObamaCare only to concede that the healthcare benefits are worth keeping.
The problem we face is much deeper than Trump. The problem is the core republican base voters and the republican party's incompetence in governance.
If Mueller turns up damning evidence about Trump and Russia, maybe enough Americans who consider themselves Trump supporters will see the light. If he doesn't, then the US will have entered a political version of the hunger games.
Imagine this: the LESS government does, the MORE people like it. Is there a lesson there?
1
Got any parents on social security or medicare?
Ever been unemployed due to disability?
Ever try to get health insurance with a pre-existing condition?
Ever try to juggle eating vs. buying the medication you need?
Ever lose a job because of your skin color or sexual preference? (Imagine that, if you can.)
1
"A core fact of our era is that the national Republican Party is politically effective only as a vehicle for anti-liberalism,"
Fox News has been on the air for twenty years now so this isn't anything new. The only thing most republicans care about these days is being against liberals. Most probably know very little about actually policy differences between liberals and conservatives. Trump ran as a liberal on many issues.
But the one thing that they do know and that they care most about is that Trump promised to build that wall and if the liberals have their way white people will become a minority in America.
4
All of this is a potentially fatal diversion from the economic plight of working families. The announcement of low unemployment rates and booming stock market just rubs salt in the wounds they suffer — skipped meals, lack of health insurance, one car breakdown away from the legalized sharking of payday loan merchants.
Working families have seen their slice of the economic pie (wages/GDP) deteriorate for almost 50 years, through both Republican and Democratic administrations. They turned to Trump because he appeared to be a fresh approach to improving their lot as they became increasingly desperate and depressed. But the result has been a total abandonment of any attempt to improve “... the general Welfare” in favor of a mafia-like financial strip-mining of America.
Wherever there is a large tranche of money in our society, this administration is attempting to privatize and tap it. From public schools to Medicare, Social Security and the VA, greedy sociopaths and narcissists, who have no compassion for others, are mercilessly making plans to enrich themselves at the expense of the public.
If we are to have any chance of reversing this end-stage decay of our society, we must start by recognizing that working families are the backbone of our economy/democracy and that their economic condition is the only indicator that foretells our fate. Then we need to present and support political candidates who viscerally understand this and will fight to rescue The American Dream.
3
Yes, let's rejoice that the GOP has no agenda and let's mourn that the Democrats also have none. Over a year and a half since the election and the Democrats still have not come forward with an economic agenda. This is entirely at the behest of their large donors and their lackeys Schumer and Pelosi. They are all convinced that the party could just coast back into power based purely on Trump-disgust and the same demographics which lost the election in 2016, now revved up into a frenzy. I'm sure, despite their protestations, there are many wealthy Democrats who are perfectly delighted with their tax cuts and will do everything they can to protect them. Both parties, completely subservient to the plutocracy, will try to keep all us chumps distracted with their particular brand of bright, shiny objects, none of which cost their donors a dime.
1
Trump is up in the polls not because of anything he did or he did not do. He's winning because of non-stop coverage of him in the media from morning shows through late night TV that he is an evil monster. CNN would cover him negatively if he went to inaugurate a post office.
Middle America has always liked an underdog. It knows that Trump couldn't possibly be as despicably bad as he is portrayed. So they're giving him a pass - and the danger is that they will look the other way even if Trump ends up doing something bad.
In a band, there's a particular time and period for a drumbeat moment. If the entire performance is a drumbeat, people will get bored and tune away.
Don't be surprised if November 2018 is not as bad for the GOP as conventional wisdom holds. Remember November 2016?
2
Even if it's accepted, for discussion's sake, that there is a sufficient basis to debate "Resolved: Trump is Winning," there is none for equating what Mr D calls the sleaze factors in this and the Clinton administrations.
As we are treading water, he and his petty thieves are robbing our till, rolling back hard won environmental & consumer protection regulations, surreptitiously lining pockets of donors, and devaluing our reputation and word in the international arena. The "religious" right, standing by his side should come to a tipping point if they have their vision of god wrong. If god is just, actually exists and turns out to approve of what passes for moral behavior of our President, and the support of his followers, we are lost.
1
Three years from now Mr. Mueller will still be at it and Mr. Trump will be nominated again.
The Democrats will field an inappropriate candidate (correction: an appropriate candidate for "liberals and progressives" in NY and CA) and ignore everyone else.
And then everybody will be surprised that they are surprised and get 4 more years and ~ 10,000 more editorials and op-eds on Mr. Trump and his 8 years.
6
Bottom line...to sustain all of this "good news" requires attention to the fundamentals---which in this administration are totally absent.
1
The gist of this article is that Trump is gaining in popularity because of his failure to enact any of his promises. He did not slash the corporate tax rate to 15%. He did not build a wall. He did not bring fire or fury to North Korea. He did not repeal Obamacare. He did not ban Muslims from entering the country. He has not backed out of NATO or NAFTA. He has not sued the victims of his sexual assaults. He has not cut federal social spending, but has in fact increased it. And he has approached the idea of protectionism a few times, but he backs down every single time and has failed to implement tariffs more drastic than anything Clinton, Bush or Obama did. As far as America is concerned, he can say whatever he likes as long as the engine is running and he doesn't tinker with it. But what happens when he manages to keep the House in November and starts forcing them to finally implement his random whims? Will he remain as popular if he actually starts doing the things he says he'll do? He gave it a shot during his first few months, and it was a disaster. But he's the kind of person who would easily mistake being popular for being right. If he starts to think he's popular because of his words and not his actions (or lack thereof) then we'll be in a lot more trouble.
40
I believe the phrase Douthat and others are looking for is "As long as the trains run on time."
10
There is no shot at the GOP retaining the House now that Ryan is out. The Senate is also up for major grabs in districts previously thought reliably red.
3
I'm not sure if Trump is " winning" but I am sure that the U.S .is losing.
1
I am continually charmed by Douthat's willingness to find the sunny side of the street during the downpour. His argument seems to consist mostly of: well, it could be worse... Truly, it could be, but its pretty bad. He seems to have conveniently forgotten that Trump has coarsened the political dialogue, alienated our allies, ramped up risks of war and near war, damaged the economy, and generally humiliated everyone around him. That doesn't seem like a victory, or even the cold comfort of doing nothing that Douthat seems to prefer.
Perhaps Douthat has forgotten that our historic and loyal allies in Europe are cutting a different course on Iran, China is ramping up its resistance to trade threats, North Korea is conducting a slick little campaign to further their own interests, the wealthy have become wealthier with the poor have less, and companies can't hire because DJT has terrified people who might like to move here and work. That's all nice work if you can get it, and he has.
Add to this small list the recent NRA beating he took, crawling back into their good graces after a moment of good sense, then spewing angry posturing across their Dallas convention not mentioning the too many who have died from guns. Shameful.
Douthat might want to give a thought to where this all will leave us when Trump finally lunges off the stage--broken, leaderless, and ashamed the we were snookered by a con-man.
114
Sadly, short term inaction and bluster as well as some actions soon to be taken (Iran - May 12) will not come home to roost until some point in the future, after the term(s) of this president. It's like the whole country is on a path to realize one day that 'we should have seen the signs all along but it's too late'. We are toast. Dead meat. Screwed. Choose your description... none of them will compare to how bad it will actually be.
12
We are actually still not that far from where we were at the last election. There is widespread discontent with political leadership and with both parties. There are many people who don't believe anyone represents them. The illiberal progressivism and repressive conformism and identity politics of the DNC and the universities and the cultural left repel many Americans. And RD is right about the Republicans--they are a great emptiness of political thought and vision, powered along by a few single issue passions. Lost. Trump undid the Republican Party with astonishing ease.
Most people have little regard for Trump's character, including people who voted for him. He has always been an expression of a rejection of both parties, of--let's say it--a rejection of elite leadership that assumes its own superiority and fails to touch many people where they live--and in many cases even despises and deplores them.
Americans don't want to live under the cultural dictates of government. They do want democratic processes. They do want respect for their communities and their ways of pursuing happiness. Many of them do not feel this respect now.
Good numbers of them will support a man who is unqualified to be president as a way of expressing their anger and discontent. And good numbers will still stay home.
This analysis rings true & it's depressing.
You'd think any republican or conservative with any scruples at all would join John McCain in denouncing Donald Trump.
But rare Republicans only seem to find any scruples if they're not running for reelection, or fired from office, or otherwise departing government.
For all their zealotry & moralizing, the truth of their tribe is now on record forever: Republicans are overwhelmingly corrupt to their cores.
Whatever critiques about Democrats, and there are many, Trumpism has exposed the true nature of virtually every faction of the redstate coalition, from the Christian right to the deficit-hawk fiscal conservatives, to the libertarian preppers & firearm fanatics.
This is the state of the two-party civil war schism in the USA: Dysfunctionally inept vs. corrupt hypocrisy.
But who cares so long as greed remains god & the war on liberalism continues to be won?
127
When is media - including Mr. Douthat - going to identify that the sappy program of the Democratic Party - and their team of sappy leaders - is a major contributor to President Trump's success? Voters compare, when "shopping" to decide what they are going to buy. The harsh reality of what is available is part of the buying process. Part of the sappy image of the Democratic Party stems from the lame explanations offered by Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton for losing the 2016 election.
4
@Maurice Gatien
South Lancaster Ontario
When are Republican partisans going to get over their obsession with Clinton?
4
"only seek battle after the victory has been won" (Sun Tzu, wikipedia)
Of course what this means is: Don't fight unless you know you're going to win. I'd like to add: EXCEPT when you HAVE to fight.
Like protecting your family. Or democracy
I don't know if Trump is going to win but this is a battle that I, and I hope many of you. will join because of what is at stake.
19
Yes, and if we dial our expectations for mobile communication technology back 30 years, bag phones will be the must-have gift this holiday season. Winning!
7
The Times Three--Ross, David and Brent--have the same ideological scratch in their groove, one they can't seem to get past. (Bump._)
Every printing, the Times three have the same flaws and deficits. They repeat twocommon forms: flaws of logic and important missing details. These combine into the pillar of political flaws: Alfred North Whitehead's (English philosopher, science/math) misplaced concreteness.
Trump's reality is collusion; ours obstruction. One an illusion, one concrete.
Misplaced concreteness (advanced denial!) is mainly myth. The idea that it rains when I wash my car ignores important data and denies trends (fronts moving, storms brewing, drought conditions, the carbon-eaten ozone). Myth repeats and grow, even if an event happens once.
So we see missing details: Ross ignores the effect of lower standards. A country with adjusted expectations to the rogue emoluments of travel, theft, and luxury. A corrupt White House that shows love to election thefts, the law as a blunt instrument to be used not followed, physical violence/dangerous words; inhumane expulsion, travel denials, and round-ups.
(Part 2 below.)
20
(Part two.)
We see repeated missing details: Ross ignores the effect of lower standards. A country that has adjusted its expectations to rogue emoluments of travel, theft, and luxury. A White House that shows love to election thefts; the law as a blunt instrument to be used not followed; physical violence/dangerous words. Round-ups.
Ross: merit is not popularity—you have misplaced the concreteness of the Presidency, its tangibles and intangibles, its tradition—its purpose! Not rising poll numbers! You omit the details, does it mean racism is also on the raise and the black-white income gap, unchanged, is a structural constant? What is the impact of limiting abortion access for poor women, young women, step climbing women, their children and families? (Poll numbers, really?)
The elephant of purpose asks the concrete question: can a man whose entire international economic strategy is fiat pricing and quotas and sees trade as tribute, govern a country with a diversity he hates? Denied attendance at the funerals of a former president and a senator of his party (before their deaths!), you want me to look at poll numbers?
16
This, just in from The Guardian (from the Observer):
"Aides to Donald Trump, the US president, hired an Israeli private intelligence agency to orchestrate a “dirty ops” campaign against key individuals from the Obama administration who helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal.
People in the Trump camp contacted private investigators in May last year to “get dirt” on Ben Rhodes, who had been one of Barack Obama’s top national security advisers, and Colin Kahl, deputy assistant to Obama, as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal.
The extraordinary revelations come days before Trump’s 12 May deadline to either scrap or continue to abide by the international deal limiting Iran’s nuclear programme.
Trump’s dirty ops attack on Obama legacy shows pure hatred for Iran deal.
Jack Straw, who as foreign secretary was involved in earlier efforts to restrict Iranian weapons, said: “These are extraordinary and appalling allegations but which also illustrate a high level of desperation by Trump and [the Israeli prime minister] Benjamin Netanyahu, not so much to discredit the deal but to undermine those around it.”
One former high-ranking British diplomat with wide experience of negotiating international peace agreements, requesting anonymity, said: “It’s bloody outrageous to do this. The whole point of negotiations is to not play dirty tricks like this.”
[https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/may/05/trump-team-hired-spy-fir...]
1
Thank you Mr. Rhett for your comment.
Trump's slight rise in popularity shows more about the lack of attention of the public than it does about the attentiveness of the President: Fox news continues to inundate sleepy minds with propaganda and our President continues to play golf. Meanwhile, the climate warms, international tensions escalate, the infrastructure deteriorates and the health needs of our own citizens go unattended. Trump's "win" is a loss for everyone else.
40
The "booming economy" is full of delusions. The low unemployment rate may well reflect both the absence in the job market of people who have given up and the number of low-wage jobs being filled by the desperate. If Trump deserves credit it is for leading journalists to research and report those developments and to call into question Trump's claims.
10
Y'all know something, I bet as a pugilist and an Irishman, I could arrive at the situation of encountering Mr. Doubt-that, on Fifth Avenue at Dawn or a prearranged time, and having an old-fashioned Catholic duel. And regardless of how misty it was or so on, not a single Trump supporter would change their mind. Because Trump supporters can't change their minds.
24
Mr. Douthat may be seriously prophetic or very much underestimates both public sentiment that will come at Trump in the fall and his ability to find trouble beyond Mueller.
Trump's comment about the Dem's losing a winnable election in '16 could apply to '18 and '20. They need more forceful leadership, that amongst other things, can better exploit their opponents' many missteps.
13
L. Martin states a good point. Right about now is the perfect time for Pelosi and Schumer to step away and allow their voids to be filled with folks like Murphy, Booker, Gillibrand, Baldwin, Casey, Duckworth, etc, etc, and etc.
In short, Ross believes Mr. Trump has had a successful few months because his poll numbers are up and because Trump supporters don't care about the likely Stormy Daniels campaign finance felony and because he has not started a nuclear war and because the Republicans have not tried to pass any of their wildly unpopular Republican legislation.
These requirements for success are not stellar.
97
"These requirements for success are not stellar."
Thank you for bringing a smile to my face, Robert. You are a master of understatement, to be sure.
3
As a general matter, people don't know why the economy goes up or down (even the economic experts usually disagree), but they blame or credit the president and his party nonetheless. In that regard, Obama had a tough row to hoe: the economy continued into a nosedive in 2009 as the G.W. Bush recession accelerated. Some even thought Obama caused the Great Recession.
So now, Obama and company built a mighty recovery and who is getting a lot of the credit? The guy who happens to be in the White House. Lucky timing. Reagan commanded the Berlin Wall to fall and when the communists finally threw in the towel, partisans said, "See there, he did it." History is written by the victors or those who shout the loudest.
One of the great fears of America's founding generation was that people would simply vote the way their wallets indicated they should vote. Turns out, a huge portion of the population does just that. Jobs, prosperity and paychecks are more important that almost anything to most people.
The best thing you can say about Trump is that he hasn't yet started an unnecessary war nor have his tweet storms and constant hiring and firing of top level people interfered with the economic recovery. We know now, however, that a lot of the prosperity of the G.W. Bush years was false prosperity built on too much borrowing and too much money seeking insufficient opportunity. If the economy stalls out, a lot of people will be looking at Trump far differently.
37
Trump's so-called success is based on an overt combination of racism and xenophobia, coupled to allowing the super-rich to loot the country. Governance is nowhere in that agenda. That almost half of the voting population supports this is a reminder of why many of the founding fathers were skeptical of democracy, even as they feared monarchy. And Trump's authoritarian personality and instincts remind us that we still need to fear one-man rule.
79
Could the economy be blooming due to Obama’s financial interventions? It’s hard for me to see Trump as an expert in economics. Especially with three bankruptcies under his belt.
72
Far more bankruptcies when you include his shell corporations practicing vulture capitalism.
4
Eventually we will hit a crisis that demands strong government action. It could be an economic collapse, a spread of disease, or an unfriendly government in Mexico. Actually, we already have such crises -- the Rust Belt, opioids, shootings, decaying infrastructure, health care that is too expensive and unavailable to some, indebted college graduates who cannot begin their lives -- but these are chronic and we live with them or find workarounds.
Kicking out large numbers of immigrants will give a momentary high, as will getting gays back into the closet or minorities back out of the better jobs and neighborhoods or women once again left without recourse if they fail to be chaste. But it will not make us happy to have to emulate Alabama.
31
The fact that the DEMs have no.desire to force the GOP's hand on any of the other topics mentioned in sdavids post and insistence on keeping Trump's sex life in the spotlight is reminiscent of Slick Willy's treatment by the GOP.
I expect the DEMs to be the adults in the room focusing on running the country. Instead we get Robert (Ken Starr) Muller. History is repeating itself because we have petty and vindictive people on both side of "the aisle" and millions of people who refuse to demand that their representatives focus on the boring stuff like infrastructure, millions of highly skilled Americans that cannot get work in their field due to discrimination, access to health care and so on.
6
Agreed. Maybe I'm just used to the parliamentary system, but where are the reports of the Dems coming up with ideas about health care and infrastructure and challenging the GOP. Or is it that the Dems just don't get coverage.
They should still be arguing for universal health care or is it the lobbyists who actually decide policy in the US? (Not that they don't influence it everywhere.) But the US government on both sides seems to govern, not for America, but for Wall Street.
You conflate the media with the Democrats.
Mueller is a Republican as are Rosenstein, Comey et al.
How is President Trump winning? He's not, but to the extent that he's successful, it's mainly media negligence and willful ignorance on the part of Americans not immunized from propaganda.
1. The number of uninsured is up 4 million since 2016, roughly 15%, thanks to his ACA sabotage. That is about 5,000 avoidable deaths per year, not to mention the financial uncertainty and stress that attends being without insurance.
2. The national debt trajectory was $10.1 trillion over a decade before his policies were implemented; now it's either $11.7 trillion (assuming his individual tax cuts expire) or $13.7 trillion (if they do not, a more likely outcome). That's a roughly 35% increase. In a booming economy, deficits should be getting smaller, not larger. It's a sign of terrible mismanagement.
3. Job creation is slower than 2014-2016. In other words, we'd have even lower unemployment if the Obama rate of job creation had continued.
4. Real wages grew slightly faster in 2016 under Obama than 2017 under Trump, mainly because inflation jumped up.
5. The ACA raised taxes by $21,000 on the typical top 1% family, to give $600 or more to the typical bottom 40% family. That's what progressive policy does to improve inequality. In contrast, only 15% of Trump's corporate tax cuts are going to workers, the rest to rich investors (the top 10% own 80%+ of the stocks).
Democrats should be holding weekly press conferences to get the word out. Time to end the honeymoon.
119
David Doney, you speak volumes of truth and in doing so highlight the Achilles Heel of American popular democracy and its electoral college.
While your data is right and your assessments are spot on, the issue we face is the reality highlighted by of all people, Mitt Romney, albeit in reverse.
Just as Romney observed that ~45% of the electorate would vote democratic no matter what, we have to internalize the reality that ~40% of the electorate will vote republican no matter what.
That should be good news for the democratic party, but as the last election amply demonstrated, the middle voted for Trump.
Why? Because the democratic party is leaderless and has alienated itself from the middle class.
Until or unless the democrats put forward new blood, younger blood as leaders and until the same abandons its failed strategy of identity politics, the critical middle will not abandon the dark side.
12
TDurk- trump campaigned on identity politics. He appealed to the racists, the bigots, the homophobes, the xenophobes, the misogynists. Hillary lost because the press focused on the non issue emails 24/7 instead of her actual policies. They misquoted her or took her comments out of context to twist her words to their ends. They gave the blowhard billions of dollars worth of free press and were amused rather than appalled by his words and actions. Did they truly want trump to win, to see if the great American democracy experiment could weather the onslaught? It's all so amusing and sells papers, after all. And makes oodles of money. To quote CBS CEO Les Moonves telling his wealthy audience that Trump media coverage “may not be good for America, but it's damn good for CBS.” If the country is destroyed in the end, who cares, we're making money! Many laughed at the cartoonish, off-the-rails silly little house painter too. History shows us how well that turned out. The biggest mistake Hillary made was believing that we were too good a nation, too kind, too conscionable, too moral, to elect someone as hateful and hatefilled as trump. She thought our better angels would prevail. It turns out we, "exceptional Americans", had no better angels. We chose to elect the most dangerous, disturbed demagogue to "lead" our country. And our country might not survive due to our reckless folly.
How much are the media and the Democratic Party partially responsible for the focus on the unimportant? The Democrats should be featuring the deficit enhancing tax give away to the wealthy, the effect of tariffs on farmers and other industries, and the negative effects of pulling out of the Iran deal. They have to start pushing back against Trump’s lies or the “blue wave” may be a bust. The media needs to let Stormy Daniels, Michelle Wolf and other non-stories go and start covering the real news that affects every day Americans. The amount of misinformation out there is staggering, without pushback Fox will continue to mislead the country.
55
But you forget who they're talking to! The VOTERS, silly, who are used to entertainment, and what's more entertaining than a good sex scandal? Who wants to read about boring ol' finance and war stuff and such?
3
On Friday’s PBS NewsHour, David Brooks said that the GOP tax bill is working better than he thought it would and the evidence “seems to be that what the Trump people told us would happen is happening, that companies are reinvesting the money.”
Brooks stated, “I was against the Trump tax cuts. But the early evidence is that they’re working better than I thought. And so, in the first quarter, among S&P companies, capital expenditures are up 39 percent. That’s a seven-year high. That’s far higher than a lot of us thought."
Just more evidence that President Trump is winning.
7
I heard Brooks and disagree. That large investment in capital improvements alongside the other major use corporations are making of the lower corporate tax rate and the windfall benefits of repatriation of money banked abroad rather than higher wages for employees. The bonus checks that we heard so much about in the immediate wake of the tax bill passing are similar to the corporations that announced they would not shut down factories and ship jobs to Mexico. It lasted only briefly and now we are back to the same irrefutable laws of economics: businesses do what is best for themselves. Trump might be winning, but American workers are not.
27
Given the extent of profits after tax cuts (free money for corporations), the extent of investment increase is paltry. Around the same as in 2011 when no tax cuts were dished out to them.
Remember, capitalism that needs extensive borrowing to succeed, is not working. It is degenerating. Keep cheering our fall.
27
Two recent articles on the tax cuts:
1. Eric Ohrn, in the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy.
This study estimates the investment, financing, and payout responses to variation in a firm’s effective corporate income tax rate in the United States. I exploit quasi-experimental variation created by the Domestic Production Activities Deduction, a corporate tax expenditure created in 2005. A 1 percentage point reduction in tax rates increases investment by 4.7 percent of installed capital, increases payouts by 0.3 percent of sales, and decreases debt by 5.3 percent of total assets. These estimates suggest that lower corporate tax rates and faster accelerated depreciation each stimulate a similar increase in investment, per dollar in lost revenue.
2. Lu Wang at Bloomberg
After months of heated debate over whether companies would hand the biggest tax break in three decades back to shareholders or reinvest it in their businesses, there’s finally some hard data.
Among the 130 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported results in this earnings season, capital spending increased by 39 percent, the fastest rate in seven years, data compiled by UBS AG show. Meanwhile, returns to shareholders are growing at a much slower pace, with net buybacks rising 16 percent. Dividends saw an 11 percent boost.
Source: Marginal Revolution
9
Douthat's blind refusal to understand Obama's Nobel Prize carries over to his blind refusal to see what is happening with Trump.
The Nobel Prize for Obama was not "premature." American had just elected its first black President. It was decades before anyone had expected that could happen, even before a woman President, which everyone had expected would be first because easier.
The Nobel Committee did make a mistake. It thought that the election of Obama was a sign of racial peace in America.
Instead, it was the war trumpet for new racial conflict, with the Republicans answering like an old warhorse that hears a bugle call.
Douthat simply doesn't see those events, and substitutes partisan nonsense to "explain," concluding that everyone else acted inexplicably unless just premature fools.
Now we have Trump. There are two partisan lines. Both have drifted off into nonsense.
The Republicans of Never-Trump are now defending the indefensible, the very things they hated both in Trump and in the Clintons. They are defending the very things they attacked for years.
Meanwhile the Democrats have turned their own response to Trump into a Ken Starr's fiasco. They apparently did not get the message that it didn't work the first time, and now is farce too.
Unfortunately, important things are happening in the world. Nuclear war is possible, huge conventional wars likely, and all the old wars revived again. We hear about Stormy every day as lead story, as if that was really important.
46
Mark why are you, Ross, and the so many Trump dead-enders so intent on defining Mueller's investigation a "fiasco"? Do you know something we don't know? I haven't seen any conclusions or leaks (!) from Mueller's team. Starr went on for years...YEARS... and ended up with the blue dress. I agree that Stormy is getting more than her 15 minutes, but in large measure that's thanks to Trump's inability to keep his mouth shut or listen to his own legal advisors and analysts. The scary part is that the chaotic pattern we see with his handling of Stormy is indicative of how he handles geopolitics and the growing nuclear storm clouds. It's a mess.
6
Sorry, but you're wrong.
Speaking as one who admires President Obama and is thankful that we were fortunate to have him steady the nation after the disastrous Bush2 years, President Obama did nothing to warrant the Nobel Prize. Other than his correct action of drawing down the American troop presence, his foreign policy was not very successful; much less so than his domestic policies in the face of GOP truculence.
You are spot on with your observation about Ken Starr. The spectacle of Trump and Stormy Daniels is merely Bill Clinton and Monica on steroids. Both trivial in the larger scheme of things.
The real issue is Trump and Russia. For that, we need to be patient.
4
Handing Obama the Nobel Peace Prize because he won an election cheapens the prize. It also cheapens the efforts of every other minority that worked hard and rose to power without violence in their respective country, often several decades earlier.
I was happy that my grandmother, who was the daughter of a black slave and the white master's son, saw a half black and half white person become president. However, Obama did very little to increase peace on the planet. The GOP shares the blame with chicken hawk establishment DEMs and Obama being spineless.
2
It has become a strange country when Trump is accepted and admired by so many. It is as if there is no reasoning going on in his supporters’ minds, only fears and emotions that Trump tapped into. Trump is benefiting from the end of an economic cycle begun 8 years ago but feels that the good news is because of things he has done. Some is due to the psychological upbeat effect of the deregulation steps taken that ease the burden on corporations and banks and other businesses that can prey on consumers, but at what cost?
What I see are assaults on common decency, ethics, truth, our election system, minorities, immigrants, other identity groups, affordable health care, our environment, our educational system, consumer protections, our diplomat corps, our intelligence agencies, the FBI, the Justice Dept, and our national parks.
Are we to excuse all that because of a good economy in which Trump has had only a minor role? His supporters think so and care little about any of the other issues. They didn’t want Clinton because they claimed she was a corrupt elite, yet we witness a grossly corrupt elite daily. They wanted the swamp drained, yet Trump expanded it. They wanted things shaken up, so we live with daily chaos. They wanted jobs, but that turned out to be a minor want (most were doing OK); the real want was someone to preserve white power. Trump has helped them with that goal. For the rest, I give failing grades and on his supporter’s judgment and credibility.
146
WOW! They eased the regulation burden on corporations, so now, we can have a Bhopal of our very own . . .
8
Winning worked out really well for Charlie Sheen, didn't it? Unfortunately we're all going to be paying for Trump's version.
23
"A core fact of our era is that the national Republican Party is politically effective only as a vehicle for anti-liberalism, a rallying point for all the disparate groups who feel threatened by having our cultural elite in full control of government. Which means the G.O.P. is often more popular the less it attempts to legislate at all."
What a sad indictment of contemporary American politics.
126
Yes, and even more sad is that fact that the analysis is spot on. Just more evidence that the American experiment is finished. It was a good run while it lasted.
14
It could be phrased much simpler: The Republican Party is the party of destruction.
The essence.
12
"all the disparate groups who feel threatened by having our cultural elite in full control of government"
Cultural elite? You mean people who read? People who understand what evidence and facts are?
11
Oh the economy is wonderful. There were more jobs created in 2016 than in 2017 and the economy grew at a faster rate in both 2014 and 2015 than it did in 2017. But hey, everything is great, right? Maybe. The budget deficit in 2016 was $587 billion. Under Trump in 2017 it grew to $666. With the tax cut projections for 2018 is $833 and for 2019 to $984 and over a trillion in 2020. But everything is great.
260
Our Country is hypnotized......
We look but do not see...
9
If Trump's approval rating has, in fact, risen it can only be because the roof hasn't (yet) fallen in. It's kind of like the comfort one gets from knowing that the felon who just killed your neighbor isn't likely to be returning to the scene of the crime. At least, not for a while.
58
Mr. Douthat,
You really feel like President Trump, you, we, are winning?!?
The collapse of the Republicans, Republican pundits, has been crushing to observe, even to a progressive like me -- after all, I grew up the daughter of a Rockefeller Republican.
This is not my Father's Republican Party.
The total disregard for our democratic institutions, shocking.
The total disregard of the blatant, flagrant corruption, shocking.
The total disregard of the law, shocking.
The idea that an intelligent, educated man like you, Mr. Douthat, can characterize President Trump's time in office as winning, makes me think that we're beyond lost.
376
What was lacking in this column was a slight alteration to the title: The Bad News: How Trump Is Winning.
As well, a clinching sentence was needed. eg. "... he could keep winning, within limits for a while. And democracy and decency could continue to lose."
13
What evidence is there that Douthat is intelligent? His religiosity tells me the opposite. Throughout history, the least educated people on the planet have been the most devoted because they have no defense against the brainwashing; that's why it's key to indoctrinate children, before they know enough to know better. As for Douthat being educated, there are plenty of examples of dunderheads graduating from college without learning a blessed thing.
13
The total disregard for the national debt that today's Republicans have... well, that was pretty much Reagan's refrain, too. But wait for them to bring up our shocking level of debt (that they've created) as soon as the Democrats are back in power and want to do things like fund better health care and education programs.
10
Let me understand this. Trump is supposedly a success now because of an unemployment rate unrelated to him, a GOP that has no agenda, and from everyone's relief that he has not caused a nuclear war with North Korea; and I suppose we are to believe that by calling Kim Jong Un "Rocket Man", Trump has miraculously ended the Korean War. The man has njo clue what he is doing or saying. He wings it and some 41% of the population think that's great. But to devote a whole column to an assertion that this all constitutes success is, quite frankly, baffling.
I just get the feeling we're being sold the Brooklyn Bridge over and over again. I guess that's great for Donald Trump, and some people are impressed. But can we go back to deciding what to do about it before the "bread and circuses" analogy leads to its logical conclusion of disintegration of the Republic?
180
As unfair as this is.... I don't think Douthat's wrong. Expectations of Trump were SO low on the left that all he has to do is not cause a nuclear war to prove us wrong.
3
"...some of the highest [approval]numbers since the beginning of his administration...."
Ross, 538's average of approval #s for drumpf last stood at 42.1% May 7 2017. He's about the same now, though Ipsos latest poll - the one drumpf has both exaggerated & bragged about - with its SEVENTEEN PERCENT week over week poll spike is REALLY weird, when NO OTHER poll displayed such a spasm - and he sagged all the way to a low of 36.4% in the interim, so the range of distaste is quite narrow.
Few approve of him, at all, & that has not changed much in a year. Republcan congressional candidates doubling down on slavish drumpf sycophancy will be like lemmings going over a cliff. And you surely know, if drumpf does not, what that means.....
If we're all diligent, we'll be rid of drumpf's "success" soon.
32
You get an improved poll spike by finding someone who gives the right answer, then asking them the same question over and over until you get the number of right answers you need . . . voila! poll spike!
2
People who wish it so, like Mr. Douthat, keep saying Trump is wildly unpopular. And yes, progressives and blue staters who hated him before hate him even more now.
But respected polling still gives him more than 80% support among Republicans, who would probably support Charles Manson if he gave tax cuts to corporations and billionaires, refused any efforts at gun control and appointed SCOTUS judges who would overturn Roe v. Wade.
It will still come down to the great undecided middle, many of whom hold their noses at the Trump stench but also hope he can somehow make their lives better when, in their view, the Democratic Party has not done so for many years.
Which brings us to the biggest question: Who is the great Democratic hope who can defeat Donald Trump in 2020? Cory Booker? Kamala Harris? Martin O'Malley? Bernie Sanders? Tim Kaine? Really?
The Dems better find an attractive candidate or else Mr. Douthat and the other Trump's haters (me among them) will be waking up one November morning in 2020 wondering how this happened . . . again.
90
Uh, Mr. Douthat is the Times' resident Republican.
3
It ain't up to the Democrats. Don't abrogate your responsibility. It is up to us to bring this country back.
5
Uh, I am aware of that.
There is a somewhat dated belief that if the economy is strong, then the president is winning and well on his way to re-election. That may have been the case with previous generations, but I think that slowed with baby-boomers and has come to a screeching halt with subsequent generations.
The younger voters in this country are far more concerned about health care, income inequality, the environment, equal rights for everyone (regardless of sex, sexual orientation, race and religion) than previous generations. Trumps has become the poster-boy for virtually everything younger people are against. I doubt they are going to be bought off by meager tax cuts for themselves while the rich made off like bandits. In essence, Trump may be leading right now, but he is far from winning. And every day, he manages to stumble just a bit more.
51
The younger voters . . . yeah, now if only they'd vote.
2
To me, the most troubling thing is that 41% of America supports this madness. It brings back to mind my original concern, after the election: what is WRONG with these people? What has happened to us over the years, to alienate so many people that they either are too blind to discern sleaze and snake-oil salesmanship, or so alienated that they hate their country and are so jealous or angry that they want to foul their nest.
Like James Comey, I still think our system will seather him. (I think Ross Douthat believes that, too, actually.)
Here is a recent poem about that (my own authorship):
VILLANELLE FOR OUR TIME
We’ve come too far to turn around.
Liberty flows in our blood.
No autocrat can beat us down.
Far from a brutish world we’ve grown.
The memory is in our blood.
We’ve come too far to turn around.
They will not last who lives impound.
Dignity shall rise in flood.
No autocrat can beat us down.
Brave acts of martyrs still resound,
Who perished for the Greater Good.
We’ve come too far to turn around.
The treasure long ago was found.
Inclusiveness is not a mood.
No autocrat can shut it down.
Progressive values will rebound!
Our beating hearts aren’t made of wood!
We’ve come too far to turn around.
No autocrat can beat it down.
20
If Trump and the GOP win by not legislating at all, just to spite so-called liberal elites, how are you defining what "win" means? Poll numbers? Staying in power? Education, bank regulation, the environment, immigration, our infrastructure, our military, our relationships around the world -- these things demand intelligent, world-class, competitive, forward-thinking legislation. Trump wins by doing nothing because he and his base hate when smart people do excellent things for the good of our country? Really? This is not how Trump wins. This is how America loses.
49
Yes, yet Trump is quintessentially American in his personal ambitions to be rich and vulgar. Those of us who live overseas see Trump in this light; we did not see Barack Obama as this, however. No, we saw him as a gentleman and a scholar. He made mistakes but he had a decent vision for all of mankind. This is why he was awarded a Nobel laureate for peace early in his presidency and why Trumpkins would never, ever be awarded it. Has an American besides Obama ever been awarded this laureate? Not recently, certainly.
3
We're normalizing Donald Trump
With the help of Mr. Douthat
What world is he living in?
We still have no official US Ambassador to South Korea.
Quoted from Bret Stephens in this publication regarding the both Koreas, yesterday:
"This is the kind of classic diplomatic blunder that, had it been committed by a Democratic president, would have produced thunderous denunciations from people like John Bolton and Mike Pompeo. Here’s an administration squeezing a close ally while telegraphing our negotiating terms to a deadly enemy. Expect Pyongyang to demand substantial U.S. withdrawals as its price for promises of peace and denuclearization. Beijing, which has long aimed to push the U.S. out of East Asia, will be thrilled."
34
I'm filled with dread about North Korea since it's a no-win situation.
If Trump fails, we lose. And if he succeeds and his popularity shoots up, most of us will lose anyway.
28
This is complete and utter nonsense.
We all are losing under Trump. Think about children who are separated from their parents at the border. Think about the failure to put DACA in place legally. Think about the failure to institute gun regulations. Think about the $1.5 trillion deficit thanks to the tax bill. Think about the failure to strengthen the affordable care act where more people are left without healthcare. Think about Jeff Sessions who wants to send more people to prison. Think about how the Republican Party has completely sold out to the fossil fuel industry. The list could go on and on and on . . .
79
When intellectual property begins to exit from the United States main land, then we know that Trump has won. I haven't seen that begin just yet, but I am one of those people who is very seriously trying to figure out how to exit. NOT that I am all "intellectual" but that all I do own primarily is my own brain. I have never been great at amassing tons of material property, but I have at least exercised my freedom of thought that has allowed me to collect some brain that seems not to align with that of the present American leadership (aka Trump and all his fans, one of which I am not). If I recall correctly, this is the sort of thing that happened in China, meaning, the exit of intellectuals who could figure out how to exit, in the late 1960s. At least for now I am thankful I am allowed to think about this.
23
Good for you! I wish you luck in your search
for a better country to go to and the bar is not
high right now. Your comment has made me
want to get out as well.
4
In the short term Trump may be winning. Trump is like any roller coaster, a great ride for a minute and half then eventually one wants to get off before they throw up.
29
Trump and the Republican party are "dead men walking". Make no bones about it they are on the verge of extinction. Forget about a snapshot of recent polls, consider this.
Here in Georgia the primaries are scheduled for May 22nd. There are 5 candidates running for Governor on the Republican ticket and 2 candidates on the Democratic ticket. 3 Republicans for Lt. Governor and 2 for the Democrats. Now the big difference, the 8 Republicans are all men and the 4 Democrats are all women. Point is Republicans are so far out of touch with mainstream America they can never catchup. Oh, and all those men are white. Dems split 2 African Americans and 2 white.
Looking forward to November, 2018.
34
The only thing that Trump is winning at is destroying our democracy. His constant mockery and derailing of our justice Department including demeaning James Comey, Rod Rosenstein and Robert Mueller is no victory for our country but a total defeat of the checks and balances that the Founders put in place to make it impossible for a tyrannical autocrat to seize our country.
However, with the Republican abnegation of its responsibilities to check the unleashed power of the presidency, Trump, unfettered, is trampling any vestiges of a republic. His Republican enablers are now attempting to procure documents in the on-going Mueller investigation into Russian infiltration of our election so that they can turn them over to Trump. They are turn-coats breaking their sworn duties to protect and defend our Constitution. If Trump is winning as Ross Douthat argues, America as we have known it is lost and Russia has won.
I
34
Seriously? Trump is waging a War Against Humanity on all fronts via the EPA, CDC, ICE, and GOP, while poised to shove President Moon out of the limelight for the hard work of making Peace with North Korea, while laying the framework for an explosion to end all wars in the Middle East. Mr Douthat needs to write columns about what Trump is doing for his Base in exchange for the promises he made in exchange for their votes. But there’s nothing to write about there.
32
I remember a while back the NYT asked who in history Donald Trump most resembled. I posited Peter the Hermit. It is May 5 2018 and the Children's Crusade in in full swing.
The Crusade that started in 1964 in San Francisco's Cow Palace led by Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan has reached Jerusalem and the slaughter of the innocents is not pretty.
I am a Canadian but was taught from the very beginning to love the USA watching it die is very painful. History has taught us that failure to adapt in changing times is fatal. Trying to turn the clock back is futile. All the prayer and optimism served America the same as it served the innocent sinless children of the Crusades. Prayer and belief is no substitute for education and adapting to changing circumstance. It is twilight for America.
11
Oh brother! Listen to Mr./Ms. Doom and Gloom up there in Canada. I don't think we're toast quite yet, amigo. LOL! But if we DO bite the dust, who, I say, who is going to have your back? China? You might feel a little less sanctimonious when you realize that If WE go, YOU go!
2
hmsmith0
In the bible there is the book of Jonah.
I don't pretend to know the word of God but I do recognize irreconcilable differences.
When are you going to recognize that the belief systems of red and blue are not capable of making purple?
I am a cockeyed optimist and believe there is a possibility of an amicable divorce. I don't believe the two sides are capable of finding an America that will satisfy the other. This is not gloom and doom it is two alien philosophies that cannot be blended.
Gloom and doom would be believing that Americans would choose to blow up the world rather than each side go its own way.
Unless you can point to a possibility of compromise then a United States of America will never again be a possibility.
I don't understand you belief system as our only existential threat is the USA and if we go we will go only if you choose for us to go.
There are an infinite number of ways what is the USA can go and I can see many ways where China is a preferred partner.
I am 70 years old and have had a wonderful life, I am looking forward to a few more good years. My grandchildren are Americans and I really fear for them.
I still remember Merrick Garland a justice most acceptable to both sides but watching a right wing ideologue being put in his place for me that was the end of any hope of a USA.
It is true that people vote their wallets and what they see as their best interests. The GOP with its talk of family values never truly believed in this as it was only a method to attack what they saw as the 'degradation' of 'elite' liberals who in their myth believed would destroy the country. The fact that these liberals have fought for individual rights, sought to bring down budget deficits, protect the suffering and bring into line our bloated military meant nothing to them.
It is ironic that the man Trump who believes in nothing, uses people like tissue paper and flip flops in his ideas to gain power is their vaunted hero. We without the leadership of a president we can depend upon are rudderless and subject to fickle weather and currents. Our rich play and the prayed upon only bask in the discomfort of those they call elite. What will be no one can say, but there will always be 9/11's and busts that will swamp our leaderless ship.
15
Trump appears to exude more personal confidence now. The media makes him the poster child every evening, giving viewers a lot of eye candy and normalizing his "I'm not involved. Don't ask me how all those Russian-affiliated people got on my campaign." He's courting the neo-conservative ideology or acting as if he believes all that frontier thinking.
The media misses the awful tragedies every evening when the same news becomes the feature of consecutive anchors. If it concentrated on human interest stories about deportations and about other declines in American society since he squeaked in without the popular vote, then viewers could know how we are faring as a country and get the truth without the entertaining flimflam.
20
The last few months are too narrow a time frame in which to make predictions. Political events are mostly contingent. But Trump's personality is fairly well known and predictable. He is not mentally ill and does not suffer from premature dementia. Nor does he have an addictive disorder. He is a man full of anger, resentment, and envy, and has a hard time controlling these negative emotions.
Contrary to what Ross argues, the sex scandal is hurting Trump if not his support. It is probably making his relationship with his wife and young son distant and uncomfortable. In addition to the investigation about conspiracy, it is putting more pressure on an immature man, who is more apt to lash out, fire people, and make errors of political judgment.
No one can say where this will lead to, but the signs are ominous.
37
Unfortunately, I think Ross Douthat is right on this one. Who would have believed that Trump's approval rating isn't cracking with all the headlines of late? It convinces me that his support is based less on partisanship than on tribalism and on the so-called cult of personality. His base believes what he says is true because he says it, plain and simple. Yet I can't help but sense an undertone of satisfaction in Douthat that I don't find with David Brooks and Bret Stephens when they write about Trump's perseverance. I hope he's wrong, for all our sakes.
30
Actually, Mr. Trump has succeeded in many policy areas - by appointing people to run federal agencies who hate them and seek to destroy them. Consider the gutting of the EPA's mission, the destruction of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau... all policy wins that have been crowded off the front page by the innumerable Trump scandals.
In World Wars 1 and 2, some ships employed a type of camouflage called "dazzle" - rather than hide the ship with neutral colors, ships were painted in wild patterns designed to confuse rather than conceal. I'd suggest that Trump's steady stream of scandals has a similar effect on news coverage. People are so distracted by the scandal of the day that they miss the real damage Trump is doing to our country.
221
Douthat writes:
"And if Mueller and Kim and the economy cooperate, he could keep winning."
Mr. Douthat: Trump's success or failure as a president has nothing to do with Mueller's "cooperation." (I assume that by asking Mueller to "cooperate" you mean that he should stop investigating Trump's possible crimes.)
Mueller is investigating objective EVIDENCE and FACTS. If the facts show that Trump broke the law, he should be punished just like any other US resident; and if the facts exonerate him, then that's that.
If Trump stops "winning" on his agenda because of the facts that Mueller uncovers, that's not Mueller's fault for not "cooperating"; it's Trump's own fault for breaking the law.
And if the "cloud" from the Mueller investigation that Trump complains about is getting in the way of Trump's winning, Trump could easily lift the cloud by cooperating with the investigation, and giving sworn testimony to Mueller.
It's not Muello's responsibility to "cooperate" with Trump and quicken the investigation just so Trump can "win" on his agenda. Mueller's responsibility is to the Constitution and the American people, i.e. to conduct a thorough investigation, no matter how long it takes.
29
Ross, it's the economy that is saving Trump at the moment.
But as the deficit grows over the next year or so, expect financial markets to begin to worry. And as worries grow, markets tend to decline.
Forty years ago, when many more Americans still had pensions rather than 401Ks, financial and employment markets were much less interrelated.
But today, with the disappearance of pensions for all but public sector workers, coupled to how executive compensation is much more closely tied to stock options, markets and employment are far more interrelated.
If the market begins to decline, will executives seek to cut payroll in an effort to keep their company profits (and personal stock compensation) as high as possible? That's my bet.
Will consumers and workers begin to freak out as layoffs spread, while their market-linked 401ks decline?
With the deficit soaring, trade war looming, financial safeguards beings cast aside, and the least stable or trust-inducing President in American history occupying the Oval Office, are we setting up for a repeat of 1929, 1987, 2006-07 or worse?
Ross, the economy will likely decide this thing - and my bet is that what goes up must come down, sooner rather than later, sooner than November 2020 for sure.
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Trump inherited the strongest economy of any post-war president. It's a metaphor for his life-- he inherits things and then gullible fools believe him when he claims them as his own achievements. But his ignorance and incompetence have brought him down before and surely will again.
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America's Great White Christian Male Dope is a catastrophe.
Like a giant ugly wart on the face of humanity, he stands tall, proud and hideous as the crown jewel of American boorishness, flaunting his exceptional ignorance and faux-Christianity and supremely confident in his broken English.
He's comfortable lying for a living while lining his own pockets and those of his country club playground members where he rolls around in chocolate cake and ice cream each weekend at taxpayer expense while America's infrastructure, healthcare, worker wages, pensions and education collapse into 3rd-world disrepair.
A clean green profitable energy revolution is taking off around the world while this fake Administration has its head buried in money-losing, dumb, dirty coal mines and Gas Oil Pollution as America regresses into another Republican replay of cultured stupidity and greed.
Instead of investing in the future, Trump and his Robber Barons are investing in billionaires and stock share buybacks.
As we saw with Dubya the Dunce in 2008, it takes time for Grand Old Poison to work its fatal magic, but GOP strychnine and national train robberies eventually destroy the country like clockwork.
As GOP hacks blindly support this Russian-Republican Interloper-In-Chief and their latest right-wing electoral theft, sane Americans prepare for November 6 2018 to show the world and Republistan what democracy really looks like.
Grand Old Polonium 2018: Killing America For a Few Extra Bucks
Vote.
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Socrates, as always I share your fury and appreciate the brio of your language. At the same timeI have to say that this is the first column by Douthat where I agree with every word. I have been tearing my hair out trying to notify Democrats that there has been a distinctive shift in Trumps favor for weeks but particularly the last 8 days. I have been appalled to see cable news turn into "all stormy all the time" when environmental regulations are repealed, reproductive rights taken away, and yesterday 50,000 Honduran people told they will have to leave and return to political instability and abject poverty. None of these stories are given the least attention. Note also that unlike David Brooks Douthat is not making some absurd claim that Trump has "fixed" Korea nor does he see the tax bill as a miracle drug. If Democrats are going to contest the narrative that we are living in a golden age we are going to have to get away from impeachment hallucinations and scandal fixation and explain just how the Trump administration is hurting real Americans. When coal companies are allowed to dump tracings in stream beds that lead into reservoirs this endangers the health of Americans. We need real journalists to do real news on these real events. Maybe Ross' column will wake up some of those who think Trump is a comic debacle that we can just grin and bare.We can't afford 6 and a half years of this.
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Last line says it all, VOTE.
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You can bet that the NY Times would not allow such insulting invective naming another race, gender, or religion.
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You don't have to look too hard to see the logic behind the President's words and actions. His method is to set obstacles in his opponent's path in order to gain favorable compromises. His agenda has remained the same while appearing, at times, to be open to change and quickly "tweeting" the opposite or holding a rally in front of his supporters. You ask "is this working". The answer is a resounding YES! Bread and circuses have always won the day.
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No disaster in the first year? Not to institutions? Not to norms or civility or basic decency? Not to the basic social fabric that Burke recognized as vital to maintaining the otherwise delicate fabric of civilization? No disaster, indeed. There are no conservatives left.
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I think Mr Douthat has totally normalized Trump and his minions' actions and behaviors. Trump would call that winning. Teddy Roosevelt would be swinging his big stick to drive some common sense into him.
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President Trump has not had a failed presidency much to the dismay of his critics and enemies. He has succeeded despite all the investigations into the Russian collusion and the Stormy Daniels saga. He has passed a tax reform bill, the job market is thriving and the economy is robust. He promised he would achieve these goals during his presidential run and he is delivering. He is even having success on the illegal front. He is stopping illegal immigrants from crossing our borders.
People once again feel confident about the state of our nation and feel optimistic about their futures. They are spending money and able to increase their 401ks. It is a good feeling and if things continue to progress as they are now, Mr. Trump can expect to see another four years in office.
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Trump and the GOP members of Congress forced through a tax cut that they made no attempt to pay for - and that will not pay for itself, just as every other GOP tax cut has not paid for itself.
This will not end well, least of all for Trump and his enablers.
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"People once again feel confident about the state of our nation..." Not in my nation.
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Kool aid , kool aid tastes great , wish I had some will wait .WPLMMT , wait til the damage of huge tax cuts to corporations and the one percent is felt and seen a ways down the road .The apocalypse will be blamed on the sap who happens to be in office , while Trump and his buddies have laughed all the way to the bank . How gullible .
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Mr. Douthat's belief that the last couple of months of the Trump administration have been "successful" seems more than a bit misguided.
In the months Mr. Douthat references, the FBI searched the office of Mr. Trump's personal lawyer. Mr. Cohen will likely be charged with crimes which could keep him in prison for decades. Sooner or later, he will "flip" on Trump. With the Mueller investigation closing in, Mr. Trump has fired one of his lawyers and brought in Rudy, who promptly talked him into further legal trouble. His cabinet is still dominated by scandal, with new revelations of wrongdoing emerging every day. He is currently being humiliated by an adult film star and her attorney on a daily basis. This is not success.
What we have now is a limbo presidency. The bar is set and Trump goes under it. Whether in action or speech he continually fails to clear the bar of what a real President should do and how a real President should behave. The bar continues to go lower with each passing day. The bar has gotten so low Mr. Douthat now declares "success" in that neither Mr. Trump nor the G.O.P. can get anything done.
Mr. Douthat can keep believing Trump is winning "within limits", but just what are those limits? In this limbo Presidency we sink further into the abyss, day by day.
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For Douthat, Trump is winning because he is anti-choice, and packing all Federal courts with judges who will rule against women, fair elections, health care, and a clean environment. I, for one, am sick of the winning.
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Just wait. Trump is a creation of Putin. Nixon was popular as well, before the end. Assuming the Russians do not succeed twice in a row, Trump will not be "re-elected".
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Well, the Nobel has their own sex scandal -- at least the one concerning the Literature Prize (not something our Prez would win unless it's a book ABOUT him).
Trump is winning, I suppose. His voters may enjoy him. How about the rest of us? I miss the Obama years.
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Trump won the election by claiming he would fight for American workers by reducing trade deficits and immigration. If he actually accomplishes even one of the two, tightening the labor market and lifting wages, his voters (I am NOT one of them) will vote for him again.
And given the total disregard the establishment shows those same American workers (or should we just go ahead and call it contempt?), he'll probably be re-elected.
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No one disregards the American worker more than the American worker, who since Reagan has consistently voted in Republican majorities which consistently undermine unions, their paid for Social Security and Medicare, the Consumer Financial Protection entity created by Elizabeth Warren, women's health care and anything else that supports American workers and their well being. When the American workers deserted the Democratic party for Reagan as payback for voting in Civil Rights under Johnson, the Democratic party had to find other support if they wanted to continue to exist, and so they did, but they continued to support progressive policies that helped American workers far more than their Republican counterparts. It is high time that the American worker took responsibility for their self created problems. Guns and hating women and minorities were far more important to them than preserving their rights as workers or their standard of living and that is precisely what got them to their current situation.
And they are so stupid that I agree, Trump will probably be re-elected as he drives the country into bankruptcy.
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Would somebody here please tell us one positive thing - just one - that Trump has done that (from your point of view, of course - Gemli, Socrates, hold off for now please!) any Republican president who had both houses of Congress in his pocket wouldn't have done.
Thank you.
PS: That was a rhetorical request.
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Senator Corker memorably described the Trump White House as an "adult day care center," with a handful of responsible individuals keeping us from the abyss. As those staffers have resigned, been fired or marginalized, Trump seems morbidly triumphant. It's like an out-of-control child who successfully pushes out the babysitters. Well, guess what? Eventually, that problem child is going to find himself as an impulsive adult with no one to contain his recklessness. He and he alone will be left accountable for trashing the house.
Terribly, for all of us, when that house is the White House, the whole world will pay a price for what a minority of Americans thought they could trust from a 'fun parent,' to borrow from Michelle Obama. If only we could have that "Mom-in-Chief" and the so-called 'Professorial President' back again...
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Why must the person be a "Mom -in-Chief"?
A responsible, mature adult (male or female or other orientation) ) is required.
At least one pole, Rasmussen, is finding Trump's approval rating is 51%. But then there may be modifiers in the next few months, Unemployment is 3.9%, African American unemployment rate is the lowest since 1972, and Hispanic unemployment is the lowest ever. The GDP is 2.7 and inflation is 1.9. A federal judge has blasted Mueller suggesting they lied about the scope of the investigation, are seeking “unfettered power” and are more interested in bringing down the president. He goes on to condemn Mueller's investigation in the harshest terms. More to come on that. Now Trump is preparing to meet with both the South and North Korea to achieve denuclearize the peninsular and end the war there. If he gets that done, I'm going to invest in Prozac. The demand is bound to soar for all the Trump haters.
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Employment has been growing for the last five years yet you insist on giving the credit to the guy who has been in charge for only the last year.
Trump is jumping on the Korea bandwagon because the North and South Korean government are talking without him, and if they decide to throw the United States out then his erratic behavior, "Little Rocket Man" schoolyard insults and "Fire and Fury" and "Obliterate North Korea" will be blamed.
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The market usually responds to a president's saber-rattling with a sharp dip. That didn't happen when Trump was flashing his big button at North Korea's schoolyard. The energy private sector has ignored Trump's blatant bias towards legacy sources. It's hardly as though Trump needed to goose the NYSE or that the tax cuts actually served the stated purposes. And whatever bloviating Trump does about Mueller won't stop the facts from emerging, and let's face it, that picture looks seamy. So the end zone dance is pretty premature. Kim surely sees that Trump's future is in his hands. Imagine the possibilities there: Rocket Man can make or break a president who desperately needs a win.
It's been illuminating just how easily Conservatives can be bought. Dangle a bump in the numbers in front of them and they drop every principle they ever held. Yes indeed, invest in Prozac. Put a little aside for home use.
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The economy has been growing and unemployment dropping for few last year, after it was steadied by Obama. With Hillary Clinton as a president it would be the same as it is now because Trump has done almost nothing to make it better. the tx cut has been a failure, and if anything, it could lay seeds for the next recession.
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I suppose that to some pundits, “it’s the nature of the Trump era to confound all expectations.” But to others among us NOT professional pundits, the Trump era, so far, has been not only NOT confounding but has run pretty much as anticipated: solid accomplishment amid the distractions of an ungoverned mouth and personal failures over years coming back to bite. I suppose it depends on whether or not one entered the ranks of the #NeverTrumpers BEFORE Trump ever sought to accomplish anything and now see themselves as deeply invested in his failure … or if one had wisely stood back, realizing that a president’s failure is America’s failure, and gave him his shot – the way I gave Barack Obama his shot for two YEARS before seriously lambasting his political failures.
Sorry, but I have a right to express outrage at monumental presumption, too.
Yet Ross does consider wisely that, while the Stormy mess may have “gone from a sideshow to a main attraction”, it remains that it’s mere entertainment: the House is not going to impeach Trump for a spanking and other aerobic exercise, or for the payoffs to mask them.
And as a general matter, Ross cleaves through the self-righteous haze effectively to point out how Trump is winning.
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However, an effectively re-constituted Republican Party, forced to rise reborn from its phoenix-ashes by the catalyst and accelerant of Donald Trump, would be FAR more than merely a vehicle for “anti-liberalism”. It would nurture and actively further the conservative goals of a strong and self-reliant people, labor for an America that remains first among nations and for yet ANOTHER American century, strip unnecessary regulation to its necessary constraints, seek to get government out of the business of telling people how to live their lives, and maintain an unanswerable military defense capacity – while NOT erecting barriers to a general inclusiveness and tolerance.
Sometimes, even “conservative” pundits can put an absolute crimp in my quoits game.
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Forgive him, Lord, for he knows not what he does.
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So this is RL's version of the 'Rapture.'
He's reading all the signs of trump as harbingers of the coming ascent to the Randian utopia..."the conservative goals of a strong and self-reliant people, labor for an America that remains first among nations and for yet ANOTHER American century..."
Yeah, that's where "conservatives" are going with the inspiration of trump...
7
Trump is able to continue as a farce of a presidency because American institutions are still relatively strong ( they have endured a dysfunctional Washington for a long time). They prop up Trump as an effect of their functionality (governments must operate day to day, according to established norms) despite whatever Trumpia babble on the economy, diplomacy, trade,.. (pick a topic) is emitting from the White House. It is ironic that this institutional strength is allowing Trump to have it both ways- his mocking of a system that supports his ilk so well (the wealthy), plays well to his base. Hopefully actual democracy, rule of law, and some belief in an actual meritocracy ( and actual policies) will save the country. Otherwise, hello Hungary, a "soft" Autocracy could be the future.
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Time bombs are funny that way. The ticking is so innocuous that it can almost put you to sleep, like some malignant metronome.
If the popularity of this foul, ignorant excrescence of a president is on the upswing, it may mean that his supporters are simply adjusting to a new normal. When an idiot is in charge, eventually we come to expect idiotic things to happen. Meh. What’s the big deal?
The president is a disreputable, vulgar, lying buffoon. Why would we expect anything better from him? As long as some new outrage doesn’t dig the hole deeper, some might equate that with stability. If Mike Pence can stand to look at himself in the mirror, the ordinary hypocrite on the street should have no problem adapting to this hell on earth.
But I hope Mr. Douthat doesn’t equate the slight upsurge in the president’s approval by some former supporters with the unbounded disgust that the rest of us feel. I doubt that Democrats will have adapted to the constant drumbeat of stupidity by November and forget what’s at stake.
We won’t forget to expel his enablers in Congress, or pay back the people who would have killed Obamacare, and who actively gave billionaires the keys to Fort Knox.
It’s not only about pulling the rug out from under this president. It’s about sending a message to his cronies in the House and his sycophants in the Senate. There’s a price to pay for selling out the populace for fun and profit.
Tick, tick, tick….
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His supporters have always liked his policies. If his popularity is growing, it means that some who weren't supporters are joining up.
24
There is so much we do not know.
The clock is ticking on this dumpster fire.
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Gemli, as so often happens, you lie in wait for each new column by Ross Douthat, ready to pile on the usual stuff, at the same time missing his main point. Which is: the GOP seem to do best when they run on anti-liberalism rather than on a solid raft of policy ideas. Trump’s mostly roll-back initiatives fit nicely with that. And don’t expect miracles in November, because the collective impulses that brought Trump to power are still in place. A better idea: get things in order in our own house. I’ve yet to see much sign of a Democratic platform that would persuade voters, especially independent voters, to shift power in the voting booths. Hating Trump is just too easy. That is also part of Ross Douthat’s perspective. On the other hand, figuring out a win in November that will sustain a dominant Democratic power for many election cycles to come is another matter.
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You failed to mention that he didn't veto the Democrats' budget.
3
Trump couldn't "veto the democrats' budget" unless it passed the House and Senate, both of which are controlled by republicans.
Ross is right; the best thing the R's have going for them is that they are the only force standing in the way of liberal designs on the country. Most Americans don't like Trump, but they don't trust the D's either.
12
Ed, "most Americans don't trust the D's either" ... in spite of the fact that they resuscitated the country from the LAST Republican disaster. They don't *like* Trump but will go with willful ignorance in the face of cynical manipulative lying on the part of the Chief Executive. Oh, and I forgot to add ... the manifest incompetence on the part of our Game Show leader-in-chief.
Ed, while the popular vote for President doesn't matter with the Electoral College, do remember that 3 million more people voted for the Democratic candidate.
I would say that most Americans do trust the D's.
How is Trump winning? As bigotry and wilful ignorance are irrational, there is no rational answer.
As Trump continues to find ways to protect 19th and 20th century blue collar industries, the 21st century high tech sector which offers outstanding salaries and benefits is starved for skilled employees. (See also the NYT article on how high tech industries are raiding universities' of academicians due to a lack of a trained and educated labor pool...)
The key to strengthening employment and to limiting the need for immigrant labor is to invest heavily in education and retraining so that Americans will be able to compete for jobs in the present AND future economy.
But no. Trump, and Republicans in general, have chosen to regress. Education funding is being cut. Scientific research funding is being cut. Retraining programs are being eliminated.
While the rest of the industrialized democracies invest in future tech and a high skilled work force, Trump and Republicans look to the past…
Trump and the Republican Party may "win" but America will certainly lose if their policies are continued.
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A sucessful IT career requires a much higher IQ than most people have. The high incomes of high tech workers are irrelevant to unemployed factory and mine workers.
3
True. But that is why the solution is improoving education, traning programs, meanwhile sbsudizing the unemployed factory and mine worker
"Mueller may still have revelations that could swing the story back to where it began..."
Count me as confident that plenty of revelations are already in hand but new leads and opportunities continue to emerge as the once hidden network of Trump associates caught in the net is slowly winched on board, gasping and flopping on the deck.
There are some similarities between Manafort and Pruitt. Both felt confident they could get away with virtually anything because frankly, no one was looking. But once they teamed up with Trump, all of the debris and odor of their misdoings slowly surfaced.
I had to laugh about the Reagan appointed judge in Virginia who questioned the relevance of indictments against Manafort. Manafort is in the very center of the investigation so everything he has done is relevant, especially laundering of money from the pro-Russian Party of Regions in Ukraine.
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Laugh away. Manafort's sins were all committed while Obama was President and executing his policy of appeasement with respect to Russia. They have nothing to do with Trump.
6