The "engines of his (Trump's) wealth" appear to be laundered Russian money."
5
This explains completely the reality of our reality show president. Too bad we're stuck with the result, but our stupidity as a nation, a people, not to recognise the false premise has shown the dark shadows in our democracy.
8
The majority of the blame for the wretched thing in the White House must fall on the shoulders of my fellow Americans. Mean-spirited, ignorant souls who bunker themselves in Fox News and the flag, pretending to be patriotic but really just looking for a hate vehicle to express their rage. They got one in Trump and nothing else. I truly hope they suffer.
15
The Broadway musical and film "The Producers" shows how this can happen.
The show depicts how two producers devise a scheme to embezzle their investors by producing a show designed to fail: "Springtime for Hitler". Instead, the show is a smash hit.
With Trump, his campaign was the real-world political equivalent: everything about his campaign smelled like a joke designed to fail, but to gain him more brand value.
And as in the Producers, his gambit backfired: the audience loved his show, and millions still do. We are in a real world show that is still playing every day, our own "Springtime for Hitler", playing in every venue in this country, with lines around the block to marvel and gawk.
13
Congratulations to Frank Bruni for taking two years to figure out the obvious.
4
And the media played along giving credence to the clown, who should have stayed on the sidelines.
11
I think this is why he hates Comey so much. Had Comey not interfered, no doubt in my mind that Individual #1 would have been 45. And Comey knows it.
2
Bingo! This would definitely hit the nail on the head. The unfortunate thing is, though, the proverbial nail represents all of America being pounded into submission by this incompetent grifter.
2
In any case, this has been a major disaster for not only, but most especially, the Trump family.
I remember watching Donald Trump on « the Phil Donahue show » with my mother, probably in 1981. He didn’t seem great, but he didn’t seem super awful either.
But now, a huge swath of the nation regards him as being awful.
Sure, Ivanka will have people telling her 20 years from now that her father was « a great man », but maybe even Ivanka will notice something odd about all of those people.
For intelligent, well educated people... this is a crowd that will shun the Trump family for the next 40 years. Unfortunately too, the name is rather unique. If it were « Smith » or « Jones », people wouldn’t wonder, 30 years from now, if it is the same « Trump », as the infamous one.
Quite frankly, if they were smart, they would legally change their names to something else.
I wonder ... in Germany, today, if your family name is « Hitler », how does that fly ?
And unfortunate thing, Trump becoming so well know. He should just be home alone, shouting at the television, and nobody listening to him. But instead... this.
3
Because of people like you, and Hillary Clinton, Trump knew he need to win the election.
Interesting points.
A Beverly Hillbillies kind of presidency.
5
"Two years into his presidency, the rest of us know it, too."
Correction: the majority of American voters--by some three million--knew it back in November 2016.
13
It is time to get out of Dodge Trump and go back to cheating your employees. I am tired of you cheating those of us who do not want you as president which is 2/3 of the Country. Ride into the sunset now before the sheriff arrests you.
2
I’ve never seen America so self destructive.
1
So, what’s new that hasn’t been written or said before?
1
News coverage especially from the trump stations are focusing on how Buzzfeed has no credibility because they were also the folks who disclosed the "completely discredited" dossier and that Michael Cohen's a known liar.
A. The dossier has not been discredited by anybody but trump and his news organizations. So far nothing in it has been completely ruled out.
B. Don J trump has lied to us thousands of times more often than Michael Cohen. Veracity wise Cohen wins hands down. This is a provable fact.
The lies compounded by additional lies and misleading information. If it turns out that Buzzfeed was fed bad information in another attempt by the trump mafia to discredit the media and the investigation it is still just another manipulative lie. I am so sick of crawling around in the gutter with this hideous man.
5
Just as guilty of opportunistic greed is Donald's wife Melania Trump. She has been a silent co-conspirator with him all along, fully supporting all his crooked and ego-driven endeavors. It's obvious by her lack of participation and lack of any demonstrable care or interest in the American people. The title of her 'BeBest' program is not only an insult to basic English grammar, but is obviously a scant and feeble attempt to cover her complicity in her husband's crimes, and try to make herself look 'nice'. She should be questioned by both the Mueller investigation and by our Congress, as you can be sure that she knows plenty about Trump's treasonous dealings with Russia. She is a smart and coniving individual, not a china doll on a pedestal.
4
It's an awful feeling when you know that you are unfit emotionally or intellectually for a job. I know firsthand. My stint as a middle grades teacher was fraught with doubt but worse yet, lack of preparation, a reliance on my wits to teach transescents. It doesn't work.
I got fired.
2
Shades of a remake of "The Producers" and Max Bialystock. Check out Zero Mostel's hair and tell me it doesn't remind you of someone. Change one word in the movie's hit song and you've got "Springtime for Putin."
3
In all fairness, the NY Times did keep a running poll, that up to the night of the election said that "Mrs. Clinton’s chance of losing is about the same as the probability that an N.F.L. kicker misses a 37-yard field goal."
NYT 11/08/16: Hillary Clinton has an 85% chance to win (2016 Election):
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/upshot/presidential-polls-forecast.html
Sorry Frank but the sell by date on this column is long past.
Your responsibility is to turn your considerable talents to helping root out the virus known as the Republican Party from the body politic. It is these onerous, dastardly pea-brains who are in thrall to the checkbooks of large corporations and do not care a whit for Americans who allow the Trump crime family to
remain in and sully the People's House. Trump can do nothing without the grifters of the GOP.
6
The elites,wanna be elites,liberals,democrats,heck most of the country should have resoundingly beat Trump. But there were Hilary hateters of all political persuasions and a lot of People who we’re completely unsatisfied with politicians in general. And along came Trump. He created a political organization on the fly and got elected. He had very little idea of what he created until whamo he was President. I hope they don’t get him. There was no collusion only naivety.He actually thought he could improve relations with Russia. Real Estate people talk about deals for years. David Rockerfellas World Trade Center did not become a reality for 25 years. It’s part of the game. Now that he was in the political arena he had to look at things differently but he did not think of it as a big deal. Only the gotcha people.the media,the lawyers,the opposition party,the people who look in your trash for anything to hang you with. The professional gotcha people seeking their day in the sun. And what did he do start a war with Iraq and lied about it. No he lied about the possibility of a real estate deal What a system No wonder the Chinese laugh at us.
3
I always wondered if he got the lease on the Old Post Office (on Pennsylvania Ave just a few blocks away from the White House) so he’d be ideally located to heckle Hillary after she stole the election??
1
I agree that Trump never wanted to President and I would also add that he never thought he was going to win. So
that begs the question - why would Trump enter into an arrangement of collusion with Putin to obtain a job he really didn't want and win an election he didn't think he was going to win??
Hmmmmm…….the truth hurts right Frankie?
1
@Charlie B
"...Trump and Pence resign in return for immunity from prosecution for themselves and Trump’s children.
We all should not be all right with that! Trump desecrated America. His children (and Jared) are the same as he; entitled brats with few (if any) redeeming characteristics. I would take any Mexican, Honduran, Guatemalan, Muslim of any color or stripe over these despicable creatures.
By all appearances, Trump didn't want to be President, but Putin did and Trump is too dim to see it. He figured by making nice to Vlad, he get's Trump Toilet, Moscow.
We're all paying for "Trump's Folly."
4
Nothing new here. Time to introduce the matching orange jump suit and put this disaster in our rear view mirror. Why is the obvious taking Mueller soooh long?
2
This article epitomizes the lefts delusion. The author is using an article that has been debunked. Facts do not seem to matter anymore.
3
Hm.
So he gets in and aside from being a total juvenile jerk about it, uses the position to do nothing much more than hang around autocrats and give wealthy folks like him a big tax cut? Makes some sense.
But there's still all the buddy-buddy with Putin.
How about this?
Trump was told by Putin to run in order to get some loans he desperately needed. He figures he won't win but at least got what he wanted in terms of loans.
Now he's stuck working for Putin because if he doesn't Putin rats him out and he gets executed for treason.
So far-fetched it fits right in with the rest of it.
Perhaps the real truth is even stranger than the most hallucinogenic fiction.
2
I think this is correct, that the vile rank piece of trash never intended to "win" - but I think Putin had other plans, which he moved ahead with.
And why wouldn't Putin assure that the president would win - he wants chaos and confusion and division in the West and the East and the president has delivered that in spades.
Please Mr. Mueller - it's time to take out the trash...
4
Aside from the info that Trump lied to Congress, since Trump launched a speech today for the people who are anti-abortion, which is quite funny since Trump is known for unprotected sex with porn actresses and "models" -- why not ask Cohen how much hush money he paid to cover abortions for Trump.
If he was paying off people who had sex with Trump, he most likely paid for a few abortions along the way also.
2
this type of article is just a waste of time.. Honestly I did not vote for Trump but this revisionist history is just meant to sell books(like the Dantonio guy and many others) and allow Bruni and others to cash a check for appearing on a panel on CNN or MSNBC. The funniest line of on SNL ever was in the "its a wonderful life" parody when they said "Hillary won because the spent 10 min in Wisconsin". That is all they had to do and instead had HRC and Huma at Donna Karan etc raising money
1
Dear Frank,
Nice second day lede to the "controversial" BuzzFeed story but it looks like you hooked your caboose onto a runaway engine.
BuzzFeed's controversial Cohen story, which The Times hyped for an impeachment vehicle (if true" -- was just disemboweled in its most important claim -- that the special counsel was told, and had been given corroborative evidence, that President Trump directed his lawyer Cohen to lie.
And re your column, it is not at all remarkable that Trump -- who read all the same polls that we did -- understood he had only a slim chance of winning the presidency and had better hang onto his day job.
So where do you go from here? A little self-restraint, perhaps?
1
We've heard this before, that trump's group was shocked and horrified to watch themselves win on Election Night.
What HE wanted was a new tv show.
What he got was a country that he had never given a thought to.
Do you remember that he handed all staffing over to Chris Christie and dumped everyone of them into the waste-basket as soon as he was told to put in his cabinet anyone that Pence wanted.
Sadly, Pence never knew anyone with half a brain and so we have wound up with this kacistocracy of know-nothings and don't carists.
On the other hand, Hillary Clinton was fully ready to step into office and even had every position already filled for all those thousands of jobs that trump has never bothered to fill.
We have now fallen into the bizarre and treasonous.
Mitch is AWOL, who knows where?
Pence is licking his chops ready to do the Lord's Work.
And, almost a million government workers are falling into a big black hole.
No, he never dreamed that America would be so stupid to elect him.
Pence will never fall into that trap.
Republicans.
This has proved we have no need for them.
Any of them.
4
Best. Graphic. Ever.
2
I think this is a part of the puzzle, but not the Grand Unifying Theory of Trump.
You can't leave out how Putin curried and pushed and aided this campaign. That bargain was clearly made and he is going to continue to pay the piper. Also, I believe when Trump saw it was actually possible to win, the ultimate narcissist that he is, he got absolutely drunk on the thought and started to believe that he really did want to win the election. The possibilities for Trump branding- to the stratosphere! He just didn't think through all the ramifications and possibilities- which is absolutely in line with how he has always operated- in a very unintelligent fashion in order to indulge himself.
That's part of the question of this opinion piece: "How can someone be so stupid as to do these things and expect to get elected?" But that is in keeping with the track record of Trump. He just can't get away with it to the degree that he used to in New York because, ironically, he has achieved his ultimate goal- the biggest spotlight of all.
If Harding was "just a slob", this guy is an unintelligent, narcissistic, criminal slob.
2
The only true solution to all this nightmare called Donald Trump is the day that it is announced that he is dead and gone.
Harsh? Probably so. So be it.
This country has been infected with a virulent disease called Donald J. Trump.
A very dishonest man. A liar. A hater. An ego maniac.
Likewise for his family and his administration.
The legal system and the law we’ll take years to deal with him.
The disease needs to go away now.
Our existence depends on it.
1
Anybody paying attention knew two years prior to Trumps announcing his candidacy that he was a grifter, a fraud and a serial business failure who had created the image of success by spinning abject failure. His supporters have bought a pig-in-a-poke, they should be ashamed and we as a country are going to pay a terrible price.
1
In some sense, the gangster didn't want to be a president; he couldn't care less about America and about politics. He just feels the need to boast and impose to others his hyper egomaniac idiocy and despicable moral character. But other than that, this thug cares only about the word "money" and everything that is related to it, and nothing else.
2
If this is true (and I think it is), it speaks more to the gullible stupidity of his supporters more than anything. They were the only ones in the whole world dumb enough to not see the con for what it was.
3
Mr. Bruni's comments are a timely reminder of what a lot of people were thinking right after the election, with a bit more context and thought. The joke is on all of us, including the president--and it is a bitter one.
President Trump was elected because of festering fears, anger, and discontent that would be with us no matter who won. He is the pus at the surface of a national wound, a wound that is also acutely felt throughout Europe.
Perhaps the left and the right (and the press) could get the spotlight off the crazy-maker who didn't even want to be here and work together to solve the very real problems we have. Emphasis on together.
2
This has been the big "Duh!" all along. It's been obvious the whole time. His love of attention and deep desire for power has kept him in the role as opposed to walking away (he also can't be seen as "quitting" or "losing").
The electorate is so stupid that they bought something that even the salesman didn't want to sell...
4
I love you Frank Bruni, so my comment here is not directed at you...
To sum up the assertions in this column...duh.
I am sincerely saddened - and astonished - that anyone would find your assertions here as new or surprising.
2
Nothing but a publicity stunt. Oops.
2
After reading Frank Bruni article, Trump ‘s run for the Presidency reminds me of the plot from Mel Brooks “ The Producers” where they try to come up with the worst most horrible play ever - hoping it would fail and in the process make money from the failure. The play “Springtime for Hitler” becomes a hit and thus the beginning of undoing of the plot to steal money from the investors of the play.
Trump was doing the same thing, doing every thing trying not to get elected but enhancing his brand to make money.
Saying and acting racist misogynistic things, -who would vote for that!
To most people chagrin and apparently Trump too, he won.
I ask what does it say about the people who voted for this fraud.
2
All believable , the accidental president who is taking down the Repewblicons, albeit slowly.
1
putin punked him by giving him the win.. it wasn't part of the deal.
1
Any half-wit would have seen through Trump decades ago. That he was elected points to the deficit of intelligence and education in America. Common sense is apparently not common here. Trump is a con man but it takes an idiot to be conned bya transparent con artist.
6
I'm surprised that the Buzzfeed report isn't even a proper story at the NYTs. The well-sourced report, which leaves no doubt about the level of criminal conspiracy in the Trump WH, would ruin any (normal) presidency. How is that not front-page news?
As for Bruni's main point that Trump never wanted the job, I think Key & Peele covered that pretty well long ago. See their performance of Obama's Farewell Address, esp 2:10.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3gIYgSa4qw
" ... a sad, embarrassing wreck of a man ... " (George Will)
This will be remembered as the Worst Publicity Stunt Ever if Trump and his children all end up in jail. Although it already is as the whole world now knows what New Yorkers have known forever: Trump is and has always been a buffoon.
2
couldn’t have said it better myself. You dotted all the “i”s and crossed all the “t”s and Voila!! An explanation for this nightmare we’ve all been living through for two years!
It will such sweet justice to finally see the president in an orange jumpsuit. The man is an insane criminal who needs to go -- asap!
Trump hated the presidency from the beginning. He called the White House a dump and uses every opportunity to play golf at Mar a Lago or New Jersey. But he does get free cheese burgers any time of the day or night and can now take swipes at anyone he hates day or night with the push of a few buttons and receive world wide publicity. But his next lodgings might be much worse, no room service in jail or golf. But then again he may enjoy his new round of publicity.
Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. For the sake of the nation, I look forward to Trump's political and legal slaughtering.
Sometimes the NYTimes Editorial staff seems about 3 years behind schedule. Everything written here is true and was blatantly apparent to anyone paying attention in 2016. For some reason the press took him seriously though, and look where that got us...
2
That's the terrible tragedy of the situation we
find ourselves in.
He didn't want the job!
He wanted endless adulation. He really should go off to Guyana likeJim Jones and have a camp where everyone worships him all day.
Like the way Pence drools with love over Donald.
It could be called Trumplandia:
Blond women and Sean Hannitty types
Bannon could join too and Steve Miller be the number one capo.
2
Hate to say it, but I knew this back when he was running. Trump has always been a lying, cheating, narcissistic blowhard. His ideas have always been shallow and foolish. His businesses have always been failures. He's always been a bigot. He was never fit for the presidency or any leadership role, and it was clear when he was running that he didn't expect to win.
What his election made clear is that about half of the voting public is also bigoted, short-sighted, ignorant, and not too bright. The problem with America is not Trump, the problem is uneducated, overly religious bigots who make up nearly half of all voters.
7
"What do we do now?"
From The Candidate, Robert Redford, 1972, just yesterday, folks, but maybe not tomorrow. Up to you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myEpap3TxVs
1
Trump's scheme was clear from the get go. He has always been a publicity hound. Who gave Trump dump trucks full of coverage as if he were a serious candidate? Who wouldn't call him out repeatedly on his birtherism? He marketed himself through the infotainment-industrial complex. So thanks Frank and all your colleagues for abetting this imbecile.
3
I lived in New York for a decade prior to the election. IN NYC, where people know Trump best, he has always been regarded as this buffoonish, fame seeking clown.
When he announced he was actually running, nobody took it seriously in NYC.
But you did hear Trump calling in to various radio programs to give his perspective (such as it was) on politics and international affairs. Query the wisdom of asking for the opinion of somebody who has no expertise on the matter. Apparently inheriting lots of money from your Daddy qualifies you to pontificate.
And of course Trump loved doing it. He gets attention and respect without having to actually do anything. Trump loved that.
I think the run for the Presidency was too appealing for him. While it was another publicity stunt, he also got to stand up in front of crowds and hear applause in addition to attacking people in the media (few if any have more experience than Trump in this dark art).
Bruni is right. Trump didn't want to win and he didn't think he would win. This created a huge risk. Since he didn't think anyone would ever investigate a losing campaign (reasonable) he just acted like Trump with the usual fraud, lying, bribing, conspiracy, cheating, etc.
And of course Trump, who lives eternally in the moment, never have any ideology, concrete plans, or programs. He is just making it up.
What an idiot.
1
This piece does not make me feel any better... In fact, I'm sick...
To keep our current dilemmas in perspective, I find it comforting to turn to H. L Mencken. Here are four of his observations which seem relevant even almost 100 years after he made them:
(1) On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.
(2) For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.
(3) The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.
(4) No one in this world, so far as I know - and I have searched the records for years, and employed agents to help me - has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.
The first three have met the test of time, but the fourth is currently open to question.
New Yorkers have always known donald was nothing more than a sleazy, gaudy businessman.
1
The only reason we have a fruit-cake and mob-family boss in the White House is that a candidate who doesn't win a majority is able to become president.
Another reason that this country can't get rid of a nation destroying wannabe Banana Republic crook is as well outdated, needing a 70% majority in the so-called greatest deliberative body in the world.
Oops, pardon me, Sen. McConnell, you are deliberating 24/7, aren't you?
4
We should not forget: There is much more to this than Trump. One recollection I have not been able to shake is, on the eve of Election Day 2016, or the day of - or after - I was watching C-Span and witnessed an inexplicable and, frankly, spine-chilling takeover of C-Span's channel by RT, Russian TV. For at least an hour -- two hours, longer, maybe? -- RT anchors broke into televised U.S. Congressional hearings. (Doubters: check AP archives.) It happened. It happened as high-level Russians in the Kremlin were popping corks on bottles of champagne -- before they were swiftly ordered to put a lid on their celebration of Trump's election. There's an opportunity here for serious journalists to do a tick-tock that reveals the depth of the Kremlin's game to get a "useful idiot" elected president of the United States.
2
If someone looks at this supposed "newspaper of record" today, except for Frank Bruni's column, is there any hint that the President of the United States is a Russian Asset has committed several impeachable offenses? Trump does not need to destroy our democracy. The New York Times already has.
1
Perhaps in the beginning of the campaign it was a publicity stunt or marketing venture. But lets not forget this is the man who according to an ex-wife, kept a copy of Hitler's speeches on his nightstand. Think about that. He doesn't like to read.
By the Republican Convention it's pretty clear he is pulling out all the stops to try and win. That doesn't mean he thought he would be successful. So he kept his business ventures going as a hedge in case he lost. Remember Michael Moore wrote "5 reasons Trump Will Win" in July of 2016. The people who thought Trump didn't have a chance weren't paying attention.
I think Trump had every intention of winning. However, I think even if he knew he was going to win he would have done no more preparation than he did. Remember how shocked he was that running the country was harder than running his empire. Trump is a Hitler wannabe without the steroids. God help us all if he wins a second term.
1
Mr. Bruni should just come out and concede that his hatred of Trump has caused him to abandon any sense of journalistic balance and to join the vulgar, shouting mob.
1
MANY of us knew trump to be a liar and fraud decades before his “presidency”. Anyone familiar with trump’s business dealings and his racist tax cheat father KNEW this. Too bad most of the media dwelt on Hillary’s emails, etc., and allowed the FALSE equivalency that boosted trump and tore down Clinton. Is/ was she perfect? No. But does anyone with a functioning brain believe we are better off with “President” Tweet instead of Hillary in the White House.
People who continue believing and trusting trump must either be members of his crime family, incredibly gullible/stupid, or toady Mike Pence, who can’t wait for his turn. Sad. Oh yea.
2
The whole Trump POTUS story , every chapter , is right out of Mel Brook’s THE PRODUCERS !
1
It doesn't take a stable genius to know that Trump's run for the presidency was a publicity stunt gone bad. Very bad. How could he have known people would vote out of revenge for their own miserable reality for his moronic fantasy world. Now it's becoming ever more clear that Americans are too stupid to govern themselves. Trump isn't the only con man in his putrified party.
2
THE PRODUCERS
Donald Trump as Max Bialystock and Jared Kushner as Leo Bloom present "Springtime for Putin"
Don't miss Sean Hannity as he croons:
Springtime
for Putin
and K.G.B
But 40% of America loves his losing game.
They love that he has re-stocked the swamp.
They’re thrilled that “Crooked Hillary” lost.
They’re delirious that he’s rolling back as many Obama-era laws and regulations and executive actions as he can.
They can’t get enough of the shutdown because it proves that “government is the problem,” even if government caused the problem.
They hungered for another angry Justice to the Supreme Coury so their small-minded, petty, mean-spirited agenda could move forward with long-term devastating consequences for the despised “liberals and leftists.”
They all but carried torches and pitchforks after his election to demonstrate their approval of his hatred of Muslims (Arabs, but you get the point) and dark-skinned immigrants.
They shrilled their discontent when Robert Mueller began his investigation into the awful thought that their president might be a traitor.
They donned tee shirts that read, “I would rather be a Russian than a Democrat.”
They don’t care if America comes crashing down among them.
They never loved the place, anyway.
2
If I ever get accused of income tax evasion or parking illegally in a handicapped space, please dear G-d don't send Rudy Giuliani to defend me.
1
Trump sure is comprised, by his own spectacular lack of intelligence.
2
And some people think that Nancy Pelosi should capitulate to this charlatan. No way.
1
The silver lining? Maybe the presidency he never wanted will be the undoing of this reprehensible con man! Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Godspeed Mr. Mueller!
1
And what does that say about the 60M+ bright bulbs who voted for him. That's more scary than the fraud this charlatan has perpetrated on this nation. And what does that say about the GOP lackeys who are cow towing to this poseur? Even scarier ...
3
Why did we need to go through last 2 years of lunacy to conclude that Trump is an egomaniac who didn't really want to be president? This guy was part of birther movement. Enough said. What is crazier than Trump is everyone who voted for him.
1
After reading all these posts it's depressing to think of how depressing the country is and how desperate the MSM.has become. Remember the agent for Russia (NYT), who tried to destroy Putin's notes (WAPO) and withdraw us from NATO (NYT). We're not talking about this anymore. Why?
Well there was a brief respite for a food fight between Trump and Pelosi with Nancy starting it with disinviteing President to SOTUA.
Trump reciprocated and we are not one inch closer to a deal and the government opening for business again. Someone suggested Trump deliver the SOU on the Southwest Border. It's silly time.
Now we can add Buzzfeed News to the list of sources of the "next wave." Their unsubstantiated story has been on CNN and MSNBC ALL night - now day. Same as Nixon and Clinton - suborning perjury and coaching a witness - excitedly and desperately getting experts to say, and yes it's cause for Impeachment.
I just wonder how the poor people who will today be missing there second pay check while trying to pay bills, get medications and feed their kids,feel? For them this is not exciting or even interesting. And they shudder to think of the "next" media triggered scandal and opportunity to get a new president.
What a circus their country has devolved into. When will the adults show up to help them care for their families?
All of this mess, all of this damage is going to boil down to one pathetic thing: Trump wanted to make money and see his name on a big building in Moscow.
He will have sold this country out, wrecked our international credibility, reignited racist and nationalist politics, damaged thousands of innocent migrant children, and strengthened autocrats everywhere for what? For the potential to make a few hundred million bucks.
Trump likes tough guys. That is the Putin pull - Trump thinks Putin is a tough guy. And, Trump admires Winston Churchill’s famous portrait by Yousuf Karsh, taken in 1941 because Churchill is scowling. Trump tries to immitate that look. (Melania likes to scowl too when she stands next to him.) It is all about being perceived as a tough guy. I see Trump not as a tough guy but as a bully, a thug and a gangster. Lock him and his scowl up!
2
But wouldn't an egomaniac WANT the power? The empty vessel that is Trump certainly would have felt he deserved the power and glory?
I always thought he felt all the trappings were due him, and he would be starting a royal lineage? Two-three terms of him, two-four terms for Ivanka, then a few terms for Barron and like royal families, power forever. He'd finally be what he was born to be, KING. The problem is he was trained to think he could get away with anything. He said it himself, "I could have shot someone on Fifth Ave and get away with it." Penalties, prison time are for the little folks, not this creep and his corrupt family. DISGUSTING crooks.
1
Poor Mr. Trump!
He has been manipulated by the Russians and the GOP to achieve their own purpose.
A fox misadventured into the Lions’ den.
A plausible case can be made that Trump didn't expect to win or really want to be president.
But the notion that he would have behaved differently if he wanted to or expected to be president is wrong.
He never believed he was accountable to anyone. The rules apply to others. He is also so profoundly stupid that he thinks no one will "catch" him.
Bruni claims that he didn't assemble a competent cabinet because he hadn't "readied himself for that task." Trump is incapable of "readying" himself for a task that requires judgment, broad perspective and appreciation for the roles competent women and men must play in governing.
Trump is a blundering bully who can't behave in any other way, regardless of expectations or reality.
1
I disagree with Frank Bruni that Trump never wanted to be president. The Donald has been campaigning for reelection since he first occupied the Oval Office - https://www.cnn.com/2018/12/18/politics/trump-2020-campaign-rnc/index.html
It's not that he didn't want to be president. It's that he didn't really care whether he won or lost. Either way, publicity is great. The problem is that there are still a few million of humanoids around who support this loser and all his imbecilic ideas, while he is dismantling the infrastructure around him. If it's not the voters, then the national security should render him harmless, the sooner the better.
Oh. My. Gosh.
Thanks, Mr. Bruni. I'd read this stuff before--that clammy sense of dismay that descended upon Mr. Trump and his hangers-on when they realized: yes, our boy really IS going to Washington. A latter-day Mr. Smith (like Jimmy Stewart)--only he wasn't Mr. Smith. Dear me, no. Not him.
Two things:
(1) He learned to play to the crowd. In a sense (but only in a sense) every politician learns to do that. Avail himself of that mysterious symbiosis between performer and audience. Play upon those lurking loves and desires--or fears and hatreds--and listen as the roars begin--the loud cheers--the thunderous applause.
But that's all he's EVER done. He was indeed a TV star during those happy "Apprentice" days--sakes! I remember Trump HATERS who confessed (somewhat shamefaced) that they tuned in.
Which brings us to the WALL. That fabled WALL.
His fans, Mr. Bruni--
--they ain't gonna LIKE it if he disappoints them over that WALL. And his FANS, Mr. Bruni--
--they're all he's got.
(2) You article exposes (though you didn't mention it)--
--the horrendous emptiness, the moral and intellectual VACUITY--
--of the Republican elite.
Back during the primaries of 2016.
To Mr. Trump's toxic brand of xenophobia and misogyny--
--they had nothing to oppose.
Nothing.
They went down before him like ninepins.
I shed no tears for THOSE guys. No sir! not this child.
But I sure don't like HIM.
And here we are.
1
The endless analyses of Trump are as tiresome as the man himself. We know this: Trump has purposely flipped our norms, our ideals, our democracy, and public service upside down. And he does it with the help of Congressional Republicans, right wing donors, right wing media, a Cabinet full of wealthy businessmen out to make more money, and a small percentage of really stupid, hate filled Americans. My question is this - how do we make sure that he is a one term President?
2
These relentless anti-Trump headlines, articles, opinions - hit pieces all - and the attendent shrieking, inchoate hatred spewing from the comment sections - how is this any different from Breitbart or even the more frightening right-wing sites and news outlets?
Answer: It's not. Look in the mirror, people. You are being played for an awful agenda.
1
Nice illustration, Ben. *Bullseye emoji*
The Times and its columnists engage in shoddy journalism by relying on a discredited report's allegations. As Trump has shown, if you lie enough, your view will be adopted. I am shocked the Times feels it needs to do this to support its hate campaign against Trump.
He is so incredibly incompetent it's unreal. he doesn't have what it takes to sit in that office. he's a disgrace to the human race. there is not ONE nice thing to say about him, and i try to find one, believe me; there isn't anything nice about this guy and he couldn't care less about this country or the many people who suffer because of his ineptitude and ignorance. do you want your kids to look up to someone like that? he is THE GREAT DIVIDER. i hope we can all dance in the streets one day soon. the day he's gone will be a fantastic day indeed.
1
well that kinda nails it.
Donald Trump wanted to be President, because Vladimir Putin wanted him to be President.
In spite of his glaring lack of qualifications, many Americans voted for this incompetent, self-serving, immature bigot. More sadly, many of these same people will deny they were mistaken, even when presented with evidence that Trump has proven himself spectacularly unqualified for the presidency.
1
He didn’t expect to win.
He didn’t want to win.
He won.
So what are we gonna do about it?
When are we gonna do something?
How can democracy be strong when there isn’t the strength to rid ourselves of a crook and a traitor?
Hurry up SP Mueller. Hurry up.
Correct. It was a publicity stunt. A friend of mine told me months ago and a light went off in my head. I was suddenly able to get a grip on how all this is possible. This mistake.
Once Trump got a taste of the publicity and the limelight, he was addicted, like a cocaine addict. The Republican primaries were where he found his power. Loudly debase, disparage, and demeane your opposition. We all know the story from there.
When Putin started pimping out Trump, Donald got a whiff of the big bucks, and Donald became Vladimir’s victim.
Donald is addicted to money and adulation and as with most republicans these days, power.
It was all a big mistake. It wasn’t supposed to go down like this.
The checks and balances failed. The airbags were faulty.
He led his followers like The Pied Piper.
Now we have an unsophisticated unscrupulous man basically winging it by the seat of his pants. We’re all flying on a 747 and the pilot is an imposter, a mistake. We need a superhero now.
If this president is not impeached now, under these circumstances in this time in history, then the Founding Fathers failed us, which I don’t think they did.
1
Trump's candidacy was a joke. His presidency is a joke.
The saddest part of it all is the Republican Party using the bad joke of Trump's presidency to foist its plutocratic, anti-democratic agenda on the country.
Totally without honor.
Great investment on Putin's part. I doubt that Putin imagined how pathetic the Republican Party would turn out to be.
Think of what Trump is sacrificing in this government shut-down: 16 days of golfing at Mar a Lago.
Trump never wanted to be President? Well that makes 66 million of us!
Opposition to him would be fractionated while the most elemental electorate would highly appreciate his comic nastiness. He had only to put on the wig and the dress, daub a little rouge, and slather on the lipstick. How much and what color? "And now, how do you like me?"
He may have been smart enough to know he isn't smart enough to be president!
1
If Trump holds to form, he''s now planning where he'll go into exile after he's done with the nagging distraction of being president, no matter how it ends — just has to be somewhere friendly to oligarchs, money laundering and gold-plated bathroom fixtures.
You’re giving DT way too much credence. If he didn’t want to win, why did he cheat so hard with Russian help, (and he knew it)? Second, if he really didn’t want to win, why are the dark lords at FOX making him suffer for the darn wall? Why do they care? This president is like the campers at Joshua Tree, trashing everything because of the lack of authority.
Trump was as surprised as everyone else when he became president. He should be very angry at Putin for making Melania cry so hard. But you can't be angry at the guy who lends you money, helps get you elected and has the video tape of what happened in that Moscow hotel room.
Everything Bruni has written here is true X 1,000, BUT fully ONE THIRD of the electorate totally, completely, and uncritically supports Trump. Trump is without doubt a con artist, a liar, a racist, and a criminal, BUT he was always those things and always will be. The bigger problem is now we have seen a part of American society that is beyond deplorable, and those people are not going away.
Yup. Thank you, Frank Bruni, for going over this miserable, mortifying tale, freshened by Buzzfeed, but a lot of Americans understood, from the vertigo-inducing escalator ride on down, this was the Trump deal. PR madness, then, lump-in-throat, it goes horribly awry. As Chester A. Riley might have said, "what a revoltin' development this has been". To our collective shame, Trump ascendent says a lot more about us than it does about the despicable little man himself; history will not be kind to him or the millions who continue to enable him. Like the Cardiff Giant, well endowed but dumb as a rock, he was adored by thousands at the time (oops, now it's our time) but soon thereafter was dismissed with an embarrassed snicker and averted eyes.
A callous and greed-laden narcissist who just wanted to help himself to a little more that's green, because he just couldn't help himself. And now where will it lead him? Perhaps to a prison courtyard that accommodates a putting green?
OF Course !! It was.. only have to watch his wife’s expressions. Conversation may have went like this: “ How was your day to day donald (sic)? Just ok.. I think I will run for president. Oh , that’s nice... dinner will be at 5. “
This is new news to you? In fact, Trump has said that he did not expect to win. Not only his behavior but also much of what Manafort, Cohen et. al did makes more sense when you assume none of them expected him to win and to end up under such scrutiny. Geeze! Surprised the NYT is just figuring this one out.
And the Republican Party let this happen.
1
Bloomberg is reporting that Trump's 3 PM proposition will be to protect the Dreamers for 3 years, in exchange for 5.7 B$ for his ego wall.
Remember, 5.7 B$ won't build the wall -- that's > 25 B$.
I think this will enrage the Democrats, and even the Dreamers themselves. It's a pure protection-racket stunt -- there are an estimated 3.6 M of them, so it amounts to "you give me $1,500 per Dreamer, and they can stay for 3 years -- at which point of course Trump expects to extract more rent.
1
It didn't take two years to figure this out. I suspected it while he was running. He couldn't find better and cheaper advertising anywhere. He was (and still is) in the headlines every day and it cost him nothing. He is the cheapest millionaire I have ever seen. And yes, I said MILLIONAIRE, not billionaire. He is so in hock to the foreign governments that, if they called his loans,he would be broke.
2
Except, if Trump didn’t want to win, why pay off those women he slept with? Why have Cohen bribe people to manipulate polls? Why collude with the Russians? Why campaign so hard? Bruni’s theory doesn’t hold up,
1
Dr. Roger Betsby, a character in David Brin's "Existence", diagnosed an obnoxious politician as suffering from anhedonia. That character's behaviour was much as the author of this article ascribes to TheDonald. Interesting. Would that we had anhedonium in real life and someone to slip it into TheDonald's Big Mac or Quarter Pounder.
1
Tick, tock..Tick tock.
It's Mueller time!
OR
is it Cohen time?
Wouldn't it be justice to see Twitler taken down by his former fixer?
If you wrote this script, no studio in Hollywood would buy it.
To me the biggest "tell" that supports Bruni's hypothesis, is the photograph of Trump's first meeting with Obama at the White House. At this meeting, in private, Obama to revealed to Trump what being president actually entailed. The photograph was of the public "passing of the baton" immediately following this revelation. Trump's expression is that of a stunned deer in the headlights. The thought bubble over his head clearly says "OMG what have I got myself into!"
This of course begs the question that if he never intended to actually win, why would he have colluded with the Russians and run all risks that entailed?
I suggest that for the Russians, it was simply a gamble that was too good to pass up. If he won they had an actual "Manchurian candidate"; the most powerful man in the world under their control. If he lost, Putin gets a nice condo and they add another high end hotel to the Muscovy stable.
For Trump who apparently had no real interest in winning and who thought the chance of that disaster happening was virtually nil, when balanced against the enormous payoff for being a temporary Russian asset, and as he was going to lose anyway, no one would ever find out about, it was worth the risk. Low risk, Uuge! return. What a deal! The best one he would ever make! Plus his campaigning gave his grossly needy ego the most vigorous stroking of his/its(?) life. The Russians had him six ways from Sunday.
The rest, as they say, is history.
1
“This article has been updated to reflect news developments.”
Yep. Maybe Frank should have verified before accepting BuzzFeed’s corn feed.
1
Trump may not have wanted to win, but he became a "useful tool" for Putin, the racists, and the Evangelicals.
The Evangelicals got Gorsuch and Kavanaugh (and a slew of other federal judges with lifetime appointments). The racists may not of gotten the wall, but they got a lot otherwise. Putin got the United States, at least for four years.
The rest of us got the shaft.
1
" Did Trump Want to Be President ?"
You're just now figuring this out?
Still waiting for the Times or any respectable news outlet to cover the MIA McConnell. Nary a word on the man who won't take questions, hasn't been seen in days and has not been held accountable for his inaction. C'mon guys get to work on this. He's as much responsible for this mess as Bone Spurs and you're giving him a pass. What gives?
2
I strongly disagree with your premise, Frank.
Donald Trump doesn't think one moment ahead which is why he constantly reverses himself.
He seems to have gotten away with it in the real estate industry.
The campaign may have been a game for him but he seems to believe that the presidency, now that he has it, is his personal kingdom which he rules without having to answer to anyone and many Republican's are enabling him in his scandalous reign.
He thinks he will get out from under any charges and never ever feels he will be vulnerable to the law but that his money will buy him out of any jam.
All of the ugly ad hominem attacks are part of who he is. He says whatever will please the closest bystander.
His family real estate history reveals the racism. That's been proven.
He has gotten away with his misogyny, his bawdiness, his lying, cheating, racism...all of it, for years.
Rich people are different from you and me, Frank...they get a pass, as long as the money flows...
2
"Maybe THIS will be the smoking gun"--everybody
Impeach already!
O’Brien said. “He knows deep down inside that he’s not up to the demands of the office.”
Does O'Brien's knowledge of Trump come from deep down in Tim's guts or from the top of Tim's head?
Now if someone could explain why the down to earth, see it like it is, smart cookie American people voted for him then maybe we’d have some insight to go along with this catastrophe. I’m not a genius but I knew this from the minute he declared himself a candidate. I’ve read all about red & blue and I still can’t accept that some Americans don’t see him for what he is. And worse, they do & are willing to risk it all because . . . because why??
After reading all these posts it's depressing to think of how depressing the country is and how desperate the MEN has become. Remember the agent for Russia (NYT), who tried to destroy Putin's notes (WAPO) and withdraw us from NATO (NYT). We're not talking about this anymore. Why?
There was a brief respite for a food fight between Trump and Pelosi with Nancy starting it with disinviteing President to SOTUA.
Trump reciprocated and we are not one inch closer to a deal and the government opening for business again. Someone suggested Trump deliver the SOU on the Southwest Border. It's silly time.
Now we can add Buzzfeed News to the list of sources of the "next wave." Their unsubstantiated story has been on CNN and MSNBC ALL night - now day. Same as Nixon and Clinton - suborning perjury and coaching a witness - excitedly and desperately getting experts to say, and yes it's cause for Impeachment.
I just wonder how the poor people who will today be missing there second pay check while trying to pay bills, get medications and feed their kids,feel? For them this not exciting or even interesting.
What a circus their country has devolved into. When will the adults show up to help them care for their families?
Trump's plan was to start a media company with Bannon after his loss. From that platform, he could snipe endlessly at Hillary and bemoan the "rigged" election to "his" people for $$$ without any of the responsibilities of office.
Frank, be fair. That wasn't a controversial report. It was WRONG and discredited by Mueller. So you or your headline writers need to replace a word or two. And congrats on continuing the resistance.
Even Trump overestimated the intelligence of the American voter. Following this logic of this article, one could predict that Trump is waiting for the Mueller investigation to reveal what he will be charged with and then resign the presidency in time for Pence to pardon him. He has a window before the Republicans are voted out of the presidency thus losing the opportunity for him to be pardoned. For this to work Trump has to resign the presidency so he can be charged as a private citizen and still have time for Pence as president to pardon him.
Those of us who would like to see Trump get what he deserves are going to be disappointed. But we should remember, getting the country and the world back on track are far more important than getting revenge or even justice.
The idealist in me hopes that Trump's supporters learn the lessons that Hitler’s supporters learned with much less human sacrifice.
1
Could be the best closing line of an editorial...EVAH!
Trump is the Typhoid Mary of lying.
The "man" who has lied an estimated 7,000 times since being appointed president remains unscathed while scores of those he's 'touched' have had their lives, reputations and sometimes freedom stripped from them.
Keep up the good work president trump.
You are doing more damage to the koch's party than we Americans could have dreamed of doing.
Hey don, go have dinner with newt gingrich.
Trump's version of Mel Brooks "The Producers"
Really? What do we have here. A buzzfeed article from unnamed sources about MIchael Cohen who has every reason to lie. Sound journalism. In the old days, back when journalists had some credibility, there wouldn't be guys like Bruni using a tabloid or grocery store checkout line mag as a source for an article. But now the Times is the propaganda arm of the progressive wing of he dem party.
Still the same old same old from the left. Still relitigating. If Trump didn't want to be president he did a pretty good job of winning. He knew how and where to campaign, something his adversary didn't understand apparently.
And if didn't really want to be president, why is he for all intents and purposes, campaigning to win again in 2020?
And riddle me this -- under what conditions would losing be good marketing? It's perfectly fine to say Trump didn't think he'd win. After all, the polls said he wasn't going to. And maybe the transition didn't go as well as it could have -- but that's probably due to him not having political experience or thinking he'd win.
What is the payoff for Trump running for president? It has taken time away from his business. And exposed him to intense scrutiny from people who don't wish him well.
And think it through. It's one thing if your wealth is in stocks and bonds. You put it in a blind trust. How do you do that with a business?
Maybe you should work harder Frank. This isn't very good.
1
The constant analysis of why he is the way he is or his motivations is simply continued victim behavior by Americans. Regardless of one's opinions of the man, he is not an imbecile or mentally ill. In fact by his very account, he is the smartest, most sophisticated, most articulate, best educated, "business" person to have ever inhabited the WH. As such, he is 100% responsible for every action he has taken and first be impeached then promptly put in jail with the rest of his exceptional clan
I would not be surprised if the interpreter's notes show 'The Donald' is still trying to get Trump Tower Moscow.
Two DAYS into his presidency, the rest of us knew it!
Now can you lib’s finally put to rest that Hillary Clinton lost to a guy that didn’t even want the job.
How bad of a candidate do you have to be to do that
The presidency’s determined by the electoral college not the popular vote. Clinton and her entire staff new that.
You need a platform and a solid male/female candidate who can bring this country together, Other than Tusi Gabbard who the media is already bad mouthing is the best candidate do far.
Please, Please media don’t try and pick for us this time.
After reading all these posts it's depressing to think of how depressed the country is and desperate. Remember the agent for Russia (NYT), who tried to destroy Putin's notes (WAPO) and withdraw us fro NATO (NYT). We're not talking about this anymore. Why?
There was a brief respite for a food fight between Trump and Pelosi with Nancy starting it with disinviteing President to SOTUA.
Trump reciprocated and we are not one inch closer to a deal and the government open for business. Someone suggested Trump deliver the SOU on the Southwest Border. It's silly time.
Now welcome can add Buzzfeed News to the list of sources of the "next wave." Their unsubstantiated story has been on CNN and MSNBC ALL night - now day. Same as Nixon and Clinton - suborning perjury and coaching a witness. Excitedly getting experts to say, yes it's cause for Impeachment.
I just wonder how the poor people who will today be missing there second pay check while trying to pay bills, get medications and feed their kids. For them this not exciting or even interesting.
What a circus their country has devolved into. When will the adults show up to help them care for their families?
No, he has narcissistic personality disorder and he's not well aware of his limitations. That's why he didn't pull the plug when victory was imminent and that's why we need to be concerned we could be plunged into nuclear war.
I expect we'll learn (as the Financial Times reported ~2 years ago) that Trump laundered money for Russians, who, in turn, bailed him out when US banks wouldn't lend to him. Against the odds, they managed to get their useful idiot into office and are surely enjoying the mess they've made of our country and its vaunted institutions. They can pull the plug on Trump anytime they want, I'm hoping Mueller will beat them to the punch. This whole scenario is probably Putin's wildest dream come true.
Frank, Frank, Frank. Haven't you considered that Donald Trump is so removed from reality, so arrogant that he honestly believes that he is above the law. Whether he planned to win or not, his arrogance is the Achilles Heel here.
1
The TV show "South Park" made this argument years ago
If he wants to act like a crime boss, he should be treated like one. Draw your own conclusion. Hmmm...
Just in case you want to forget that our government is run by criminal mafia, new reports, won't let you... a.k.a. a plastic Walmart blue bag full of cash that Michael Cohen delivered to IT company to rig the polling numbers in favor of another crook.
The IT Co. was promised 50k, needless to say they got much less, the rest was pocketed by Cohen in a true tradition of real grifter.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/17/us/politics/cohen-polls-trump.html
http://fortune.com/2019/01/17/trump-michael-cohen-rig-election-polls/
All these grifts didn't just happen overnight, it's clearly a product of a long protracted business of corruption that was never dealt with.
Did anything happen after 2008 crash, was anyone of indicted, NO!
Huge mistake, that let fraudulent narcissists feel like they can rule the world and they do.
After Obama, who I voted twice for let it go, I was sorely disappointed. This detrimental decision left no hope for any perceivable change.
28 days in a shutdown, people are hurting, but apparently stock market is booming, day traders are shorting their stocks, business as usual.
How many ordinary americans are playing wall street games, a record-breaking market doesn't matter to most Americans, they hardly live from pay check to pay check.
Our level of corruption and income inequality is shameful and it will collapse the economy.
We can't claim being a democracy if we act like
Banana Republic.
1
The only argument that makes me think that
maybe trump didn’t really want to be president is that he kept making really egregious insults and remarks that no one seriously running should ever have been stupid or crass enough to make. Like mocking a handicapped reporter, insulting a bonafide American hero like McCain, or being disrespectful to the family of a deceased veteran. Of course there were many other outrageous examples.
And each time I would say to myself, “well he’s finally done it! No one could forgive... (insert remark). Guess he’s out of the running now.”And each time there was an outcry that only lasted about one news cycle. As though the new insult cancelled out the last one.
Surely he couldn’t have expected that to happen. I sure didn’t.
Agreed, Mr. Bruni, furthermore, regarding Trump: I keep thinking of the limbo pole - how much lower can we go?
This gives a detailed comparison to the worst traits of prior American Presidents to the present occupant that is in great depth:
"How will History Judge President Trump?" https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-46895634
And of course, P.T. Barnum: “Nobody ever lost a dollar by underestimating the taste of the American public.”
Frank
One old concept counters almost all of the arguments in your piece. Hubris. What began as a publicity stunt by a pathological liar morphed, via hubris and the ability to fool convince himself of the truth of his own lies into what we have today.
Trump does not act as a normal president not because he doesn’t know how but simply because he can. He doesn’t continue his business self interest because of anything other than who he is and money and it’s pursuit are all he knows.
Laugh as I did when he was portrayed as sympathetic to the middle class, blacks, LGBT or those in need of health insurance I had met him, dealt with him and knew that none of this would come to pass because it did not benefit his own bottom line. Tax cuts sure, any guess as to how much he and his family benefited form it?
In the end a deeply flawed man has truly convinced himself he is the savior of our nation. The wall we need is built. It surrounds a federal penitentiary somewhere he should live.
You are probably right that he never expected to be president. Yet here we are--with our hang-ups about race, immigration, and globalism, being led over the cliff by a narcissistic buffoon. We failed collectively as a people in electing him, and we are now stuck with the leadership we deserved. The only remaining question is how do we redeem ourselves.
1
Will the Trump supporters ever admit they were suckered into his world of corruption and lying? The majority of US citizens were aware of Trump's lack of abilities, but the GOP still pretends that Trump is brilliant.
Trump is like the Anti-Forrest-Gump, bumbling cluelessly through life and somehow being rewarded. It's appalling and astonishing. But mostly profoundly damaging.
Frank awkwardly asks a new question: did the Lord God of Israel so want an actual leader to bring America out of its terrible situation in 2016 that He made sure whoever opposed Hillary-the-Buyable would win?
God does this sort of thing more often than you'd think. A person buys something he didn't want - like a gallon of milk - only to run into a poor family with no money to feel the baby on the way home. That sort of thing. An intervention?
However it happened, the 2016 Presidential Election was the luckiest thing to happen to any America-lover in years, possibly their whole life.
Getting Trump instead of one devoted Alinsky-ite following another is like stumbling upon the gold at the end of a rainbow.
And Hillary has her payoffs from Russia to soften the pain. It's a real win-win. (As long as the law doesn't come along asking pesky questions.)
" It might dilute his wealth " !! ? from what we know and suspect , that would be watering down some pretty weak tea.
I claim no great prescience nor intellectual heft when I say many, many Americans knew Donald Trump was not up to the demands of the Presidency a long, long time ago. At least from the day of that fateful escalator ride when he announced his candidacy, and well before that. Anyone who lived in NY in the eighties remembers him as a moronic blowhard. The years have not changed that impression, except perhaps to make it worse.
1
Trump has been such a bully to Cohen that it justifies a restraining order against the president. Twitter should cut Trump off if he keeps impugning Cohen’s family.
It seems to be absolutely correct that Trump's campaign was nothing more than another marketing gimmick and a vanity project.
And while the R's were not entranced with him as a candidate in the beginning, one must give them credit for seeing an opportunity to take advantage of his know-nothing ego, wanna-be mob mentality and third-rate hangers-on to lead him to create a (un)government they have longed for without their own hands getting dirty.
Trump has been a Useful Idiot to not only the Russians but American conservatives as well. It's beyond time for all parties involved to be exposed for what they have contributed to the degradation of this country.
The big joke is on the American voter who propelled this man to the White House. The even bigger joke is on the Republican establishment, the likes of Lindsay Graham and Mitch McConnell, who married the future of their party to the fortunes of a likely felon.
1
So what does that say about the electorate? A sucker born every minute and we are now well trained in hucksterism via the unending capitalistic marketing and the need to hit ever higher quarterly profits. Not sustainable. Perhaps we deserve this reckoning.
What better way to become rich than to become President? Bruni misreads the motivation.
1
The worst thing that ever could have happened to Donald Trump on a personal level was becoming president.
That put every sordid chapter of his squalid little life under a microscope, and you don't go for that office if you can't abide that kind of scrutiny.
5
Never wanted to be president.?
He lost by 3,000,000 ballots to Hillary.
A line of 3,000,000 people stretches farther than a thousand miles..
Yet, once again, we have the loser installed into our oval office.
Horrible ! We are still trying to dig ourselves out of the mess "W" got us into when the electoral college appointed THAT loser.
As long as the electoral college can shove who they want down our throats, better open wide.
Or, we could get rid of its authority to trash The Will Of The People, thus bringing Democracy to the United States of America. Next, dump "Gerrymandering" so the individual reps of the states are actually elected by The People of that state.
A Government "Of the people, By the people, For the people"
13
I have only one response to Mr. Bruni.
"No duh."
It was all just a prequel to Trump TV.
Putin knew it too, and he figured, "let's get this dummy Trump elected. That will fix the capitalist running dogs in Umerica."
So, here we are.
1
The first comment by Muller is that SOME PARTS OF BUZZ not true ,he should have said nothing about this. I cannot believe he said that ,Buzz Feed stands by it's reporting
1
None of this was anything other than totally obvious at the time. What is so appalling is that enough American voters to tip the Electoral College either didn't realize what they were voting for or were so small-minded, gullible and rash that they actually chose this man as their leader.
1
A provocative column. But so what if he didn't really want to be president, what difference does it make? We're still in big trouble. Who cares about Trump's crazy motivations?
Instead of endless Trump analysis---which many can hardly stand anymore--how about turning your attention to some important issues to inform the public, as we head ito our long election campaign? Basically how can we operate a democracy? And help the opposing party win and rid us of the Trump scourge.
So many issues. Any interest in how dozens of country's fund health care for all---the hottest issue for Dems? Why is this avoided by columnists, when they could use it as a role model?
Or how to finance election campaigns without kow towing to the richest donors, who then nullify the voice of the citizens on our lawmaking?
Or how to stop voter suppression by using federal laws to make election rules, and stop gerrymandering by using independent commissions to draw districts---as other democracies do.
These are a few topics for a media with a duty to inform the public on issues affecting our lives--don't you think? I'm sick of psychoanalysis of the psycho occupying the White House.
If the media columnists grapple with this, voters could fortify themselves against GOP propaganda that serves rich donors.
Then we could prevent a future swamp creature like Trump and his gang from swimming to the surface of our politics and taking power.
Bruni---apply your writing skills---go for it.
8
The Day Reality TV Became Reality, or how tabloid trash, Murdoch and Zuckerberg trashed America for ratings and advertising money. Someday this will be history, I hope.
3
I once sat behind Trump at the US Open. He wore a bright yellow sports jacket and dark blue pants. In between games, when the players took their one minute rest, Trump would stand up, go to the stadium next door, where he had a seat, and repeat the process, hoping the sportcasters would pick him out go the crowd. His need to be noticed was extraordinary then, it's dangerous now.
He should resign.
3
Duh, Frank Bruni. A lot of us knew he wasn't serious or up to the demands of the office before he even won the presidency.
Now the big challenge is to get him OUT of that office before his minions complete their tasks of destroying our democracy, our environmental protections, our social programs that help the poor and the elderly. And more. Would that Pelosi and Trump stop the gotcha games and DO something to end the shutdown. A tough order, though because either he or McConnell have killed earlier bills that improved immigration policy, saved DACA, and even gave Trump a decent amount of money for his stupid wall. Hard to know what could work now.l
Dear Remainder of the USA,
We tried, many of us, to warn you about this charlatan who is now president. But we did not try hard enough. Some put him on TV with his own show, feeding him lines to make him appear competent, and that only served to entice more of you into voting for him. We did not try hard enough.
Sincerely,
New York (City in particular) and (some parts of) New Jersey
3
Finally, I agree with Trump on something.
1
Trump is a Queensborough born and bred gangster without gumption or morality. His particular pathologies include his belief that he can run the world and everyone should be grateful. The depth of his pathology will include his declarations of innocence long after his incarceration.
5
On the speculation of what Trump really wanted, you could write a hundred books. Trump first started rumbling about being POTUS in the 80s. It was his usual braggadocio. People loved interviewing Trump — because he crafted and cultivated a lifestyle of the rich and famous image.
I think when Trump bought Mar-a-Lago from the government in 1985, he vaguely imagined himself President in the residence of what Margery Post envisioned when she bequeathed it to the government to be used a Presidential White House.
Trump wanted the central casting TV role of president, not the job. Running for pres was a remarkable marketing ploy to advertise his development, branding, & opening of the Post Office Trump Hotel.
There are so many reasons. The Moscow Hotel. Raising his value at banks. His whole family got a lot more visibility. I also think he wanted to be a regularly scheduled pundit. Trump Network would have rivaled FOX. Most of all he wanted a yuge twitter following. He would have had so much fun dissing everything about Clinton and what the Clinton administration did. Trump wanted to criticize others incessantly, he didn't want to be criticized much himself, he hates that.
As a brand marketing ploy, running for President was downright brilliant. But like so many other Trump enterprises it failed to accomplish its intentions.
When Did Trump Become a Celebrity?
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/01/the-decade-when-donald-trump-became-a-celebrity/422838/
2
This explains another mystery: why he is so ignorant of the Constitution. He didn't bother reading it because he didn't expect to be elected, and reading heavy matter is clearly a strain on his brain.
Several months before the election he said he would ask Congress to change the 14th Amendment, presumably to take out birthright citizenship. Congress does not have the power to change amendments. Months after the election he was throwing around charges of "treason", ignorant that the Constitution carefully spells out what crimes specify treason under the law.
1
Trump sees his whole life as training to be US president. It is the bully pulpit of his dreams.
The interesting thing is how terrified trump is of the Russians. They must have an unbelievable amount of dirt on him. And if you think about it, they stuck him in a job he didn't want to have to be burdened with in the first place. He's been doing their bidding all along.
3
"...because he wasn’t going to win, it wouldn’t matter that he’d paid off women with whom he’d had affairs, that he’d dispatched Cohen on so many unsavory errands, that he’d surrounded himself with such shady characters, that he refused to release his tax returns, that he forged ahead with the Trump International Hotel in Washington, that he vulgarly insulted the very lawmakers a president would need to collaborate with and that he surrendered any claim to moral authority by trafficking in racism and xenophobia. There would be no consequences because there would be no crown."
Despite all this...a decent swath of American voters bought-in hook, line and sinker. They swallowed the entirety of the scam, in one swift gulp. What does that say about that group? What does that mean going forward for the next election/s? Approx 30-40% (inc. those white women!) of the electorate think Trump is a political demi-god. In that mix are Evangelicals, Catholics, and assorted other alleged followers of Jesus - who see Trump as a gift from their god. A foul-mouthed, immature sinner, used as instrument of their god to put the US back in his good graces.
No matter how much of Trump is exposed as dirty, and vile, and unfit - they cling. Like children who still cling to an abusive adult in their life.
Those voters are not going away. Many were easily pulled from their dark hidey holes of racism and sexism. They are still gullible targets for the next Trump.
They are our bigger threat.
7
Trump has no respect for the rule of law nor does he have any idea of what the Constitution is. He has violated countless laws including suborning of perjury on the part of Cohen, and the emoluments clauses of the Constitution. He is a small time crook that the Russians bought with piles of laundered money.
The greatest disgrace this nation has faced since its founding is the corrupt election of Trump with the full cooperation of the Republican Party and Putin's Digital Army. Any American who still has respect for the United States will vote out the Republicans in Congress all of whom are de facto traitors, and the egomaniac and petty Crime Boss Trump.
5
Absolutely unequivocably TRUMP ... most rashly decided to run for President as revenge against being ridiculed at a dinner party, equally rashly refused to put his financial interests in a blind Trust. As SNL made clear ... "running for President was his worst mistake." There's no way out now ...
Whether he never expected to win, or whether he is just too incompetent to tie up all of his loose ends, the American people and those they elected to represent them should do the right thing and let him go back to being the run-of-the-mill conman he has always been.
Let poor Donald go back to his private life. Give him what he wants.
3
This is not some shocking new revelation. It's patently clear that Trump launched his campaign as a marketing venture to promote his hotels and golf clubs. He had done such things before, though never on quite this scale.
The real story is that there was such a gigantic vacuum of ideas and leadership in the GOP that he succeeded despite having neither plan nor platform nor interest in the job. For a decade the GOP had spent all its intellectual (*cough*) capital on resentment of Obama, denial of the realities of American pluralism, and an unhinged hatred of Hillary Clinton. This following upon two Bush administrations whose lack of vision, or ideas, or sympathy for the needs of Americans had become legendary.
Not since Reagan had the party been able to offer positive ideas or substantive policies of its own. In 2016 GOP voters knew this; they had seen it play out in the disaster of Sarah Palin and the enfeebled, incoherent John McCain. They rightly did not like any of the wretched Palin substitutes on offer Cruz? Rubio? Fiorina? Jindal? mediocre clowns all.
Today, two years after the catastrophic election, and with another potentially catastrophic election looming, it is time for an assessment of the Republican party. We know what it has become, and why. We do not know how to fix it. But one thing is clear: Trump (criminal, incompetent, and uninterested) is well and truly its leader.
2
What does this say about Trumps opponent Hillary Clinton and the DNC in general that they lost the election to an ego maniac who didn’t really want the job anyway? Can understand now why they blame Russia. Facing that reality would be brutal.
1
That's pretty much the story. The problem is the hideous racism, xenophobia and nativism he tapped in order to generate the intoxicating applause he craved legitimized the worst instincts of what remains of the GOP. They are totally captive to beast unleashed by Trump. As I said two years ago, for Republicans the only thing worse than Trump losing, was Trump winning.
2
trump never wanted be President?
that makes 2 of us.
3
Nonsense. Maybe he thought he might night win, but he wanted to be president. Why would anyone run for president and not want to win?
The man who only wanted the campaign glitz, not the responsibilities to working people, to poor people, bested the woman who wanted to be President her whole life.
Strange karma for them, for all of us.
2
Can the congress force him to resign and then put him and his clan in jail on various charges including treason. And for good measure kick out Mitch, Lindsay etc. Please. I will bring the popcorn for that show.
2
What started with Kennedy/Nixon has turned into a monster. TV has ruined politics. Especially with money equalling speech.
Then why is he running again in 2020?
The rest of is don’t know he isn’t up to the job. 40%still support him, and do so because of his outrageous racism and boorishness. I think something else he didn’t intend to do was out America as the backward country it has turned out to be
I agree with Mr. Bruni. Trump never really wanted or expected to become president.
But let us not forget who encouraged Trump to run for president back in early 2015 (none other than Bill Clinton)--oh, the irony!
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/bill-clinton-called-donald-trump-ahead-of-republicans-2016-launch/2015/08/05/e2b30bb8-3ae3-11e5-b3ac-8a79bc44e5e2_story.html?utm_term=.621e89e01000
It's "The Producers" all over again. Nobody would have cared about all the illegality, all the sleazy details, if he'd lost.
The run for the Presidency was just another Trump con and millions bought it.
And McConnell and Ryan used it. Just like Norquist wanted, a hand to sign democracy's death certificate.
The premise of this article is worthy of discussion but Mr Bruni does what all op ed journalists do these days and that is justify their opinions in hindsight.
Trump hasn’t changed one bit from July 2015, he was never going to pivot, he was never fit for the presidency.
If Mr Bruni had spent half as much time scrutinizing Mr Trump before the election perhaps this orange nightmare would not be happening.
There are too many references in this article that sound like we just discovered all of this information and maybe the press did but those of us who lived with Trump’s shenanigans in NYC over the years knew he was a con man.
I’m still trying to figure out how he conned all of you people into thinking he was actually running for President at all.
Furthermore, if a Republican friend or family member repeatedly told me the person I was supporting for President was a liar, a thief and con artist, I would have believed them, except of course if their name was Hillary.
Cause facts matter.
The Buzzfeed story raises a question: is it true?
A good thing about the Trump presidency will be the source material for hundreds of Master’s and PhD theses. Can’t wait to read some.
1
Mr Bruni acts like he's the only Monday quarterback in the elephant-in-the-room's armchair. From the get go, Trump was too busy conditioning a positive spin on losing than fathoming how he could ever survive winning. His ratings-monger style would've much preferred pulling a Hillary: a popular-vote win w/o the obligation of actually serving; spearheading a whole new career. Almost Aaron Burr-like, Trump, in defeat, would've become Mexico's new best friend and declared them "The Amazing Race" in a chart-busting reality-TV show pitting resort-destination ambition v drug lords as both are vying to build a border wall -- faster than the other -- to resist slimy carpetbaggers from a USA sinking in globalism's warming swamps.
Once Trump won, however, had he just simply admitted this, even I would've cut him some slack if his first SOTU Address had instead been a "Redemption Island" recovery in which game theory is proven to be better off when advocating alliances. And NOT "The Tribe Has Spoken" castoffs where our of/by&fors WILL sadly perish from the earth!
It is rather clear, even without formal assessment, that Mr Trump has a narcissistic personality. In fact, by the criteria set down by the American Psychiatric Association, he is sufficiently affected to warrant the the diagnosis of a disorder.
For someone like this it is inconceivable that the US Presidency was some kind of prize teddy bear at a carnival sideshow for the best hoop-tosser. No, on the contrary, the US Presidency would affirm to a Narcissist that he/she was truly special, unique, clearly superior, and obviously entitled to unlimited success, love, and power. Mr Trump would have desired a win, and expected a win, no question.
What must have really galled him post-victory was the realisation that he hadn't been elected King, but merely the CEO of one branch out of three. For a narcissist, only King, if not God, will do.
1
Assuming trump really did not want to and did not believe he would be elected, and with all the madness the past 2 years, it's time for us to stop screaming at trump and simply "we" made a huge mistake and get rid of this foul human being who in no way represents the best interests of America and our people, culture or future. It's time for leaders from all walks of life to publicly and in unison speak the truth about trump and America. Military, business, faith-based, NGO, academic, economic and other recognized leaders must stand together and declare, "it's tie for you to go, donald, and if you don't your criminal-laden and lying life will be laid bare, under the glaring spotlights for all people to see, to watch you and your family twist in the wind as traitors, liars and grifters. Say goodbye, donald.
1
Speaking of Trump in Past Tense is refreshing!
1
During the Clinton presidency Republicans adopts a scorched-earth approach to governance. They had to criminalize Clinton at all cost, after the criminality of Nixon, Reagan, and bush were fully exposed. For survival, they had to take down Clinton. Make him criminal, evil, amoral. You hear it constantly from Republicans - the moral President. Morality is a cudgel to use against Democrats and is code for white Christian Nationalist—the Republican Party-for racism and religious zealotry. Birtherism was built to destroy Obama. Fitting the Republican white Christian nationalist model. A party built solely on grievance and destruction. For Hillary Clinton Benghazi, the Clinton foundation, emails were vicious attacked. Unrelenting House investigations - countless millions of dollars spent to destroy Clinton. Years of Fox News propaganda. The goal was absolute and total destruction. They had to criminalize her. Trump walks in and takes over what the party built for him. Trump is the distilled essence of Republicanism —of the conservative movement. The Russians fit perfectly into Republican goals and methods and propaganda —they worked perfectly together. Trump was their to destroy Clinton so McCain, McConnell, and company were all very happy. They made trump possible; they fueled the Russian intervention into our election. They installed an illegitimate president and protected and used him to subvert American democracy. The Party is guilt of treason.
2
He will never quit. 2020 is the only option. If he is way behind just before convention time '20, he will look for immunity in exchange for early exit, and will fire Pence if he doesn't simultaneously resign. He will leave knowing History books will credit him for being responsible for the first woman prez.. Madame President Pelosi
I heard Joe Scarborough withMuchael Moore on Broadway say that his agent-- also Trump's-- told him Teump's entering the presidential race was a salary negotiation ploy, one he's previously used. However, after he went rogue on Mexicans at his announcement and was fired by the network, he was stuck. Then he held a rally & thousands were screaming his name; he was hooked. Adulation is intoxicating but as with all addictions, he always needs more. Winning was never the point and has been a nuisance.
1
I never thought that the charlatan-in-chief really cared about being president as much as saying that he had "won" but the question is so entirely moot that who cares? He won and he's ransacking the country and if we get through the next 2 years it will seem like an eternity. The story isn't about whether or not he wanted to win but that he was ABLE to win! What does that say about this country? I don't think the readers of this paper need me to answer THAT question for them.....
This should really embarrass democrats and help inform our decisions going forward. A man who didn't want to win the presidency was able to beat the person we put up to beat him. That is disgraceful. If we cannot beat him after he has served a term marked by nothing that cannot be described as an inconvenience, what does that say about our party and politics. A select few create the rules to nominate candidates that can never win in general electorate. Is our party so far removed from the problems of our electorate? Do we lack empathy? Seems that way. Especially if we nominate someone like Beto Orourke who will lose to Trump even if Trump doesn't want to win--because the fact is that any rational person would rather Trump get their back than Beto. Trump's soft if you push him to his limits, but if we nominate someone even softer--a la Clinton--then we will lose--and it will literally take someone who doesn't want to even be the president to beat us. Pretty low standards. Why not nominate someone who doesn't inspire apathy--why not nominate Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden (hopefully Joe can become more progressive) or Elizabeth Warren--someone with fighting spirit--someone who isn't obviously just an extension of the large sums of money that is behind him--someone who will bring wives husbands home--their sons--someone who will be your champion. Not someone who is univirsally untrustworthy. How about we not be remembered as idiots historically. Lets stand for something.
Ain't it the truth Frank Bruni. Thanks! In a future column please take up the topic of when he'll be out of office.
I agree wholehearted with you Mr. Bruni. He never wanted the presidency. It was a publicity stunt to continue to enrich himself. But the pied piper ensnared a disgruntled gullible swath of America and he has been piping them (and unfortunately the reluctant rest of the population) into the oblivion during and after his surprise win.
So it makes sense why wouldn’t he stop his business opportunities with Russia if the campaign was all a marketing ploy.
So what is still unanswered for me is why lie about it all? Why, if Buzzfeed is right, get others to cover up for him? Maybe he just didn’t want everyone to know this was all a pretend campaign. His vanity would not allow him to fess up - ‘just kidding I never thought I’d win’. Too much for a man who always wants to win (and win bigly).
What is past is prologue.
One need look no further than Trump’s pre-campaign commitments to public service - zero involvement - to understand how much he valued the principle of service to others. That should have been the tip-off to any voter who put even an ounce of thought into their election choice.
Past behavior is the best predictor of future performance. Applied to Trump, those behaviors were consistently greed, corruption, lying, incivility, misogyny, obfuscation, and racism. But mindless Americans sitting in their Barcaloungers with beer in hand watching “The Apprentice” only saw a made-for-TV tough guy executive. Their cynicism over America’s failed political process was too great to overcome the rational and thoughtful realization that this guy had never done ANYTHING that did not benefit himself personally.
Yes, Frank, Trump is president only because he felt it would enhance his brand. And like the snake oil salesman he is, he knew there were enough suckers out there to buy into it.
Now seriously, who in the world is BuzzFeed? Sounds like an online new blog. Should we really believe something called BuzzFeed would obtain this “scoop” as opposed to the traditional press? The pivotal terms in this article are “if the information is true” and “alleged”. Please verify your sources. Why does one build an article around an unverified hypothesis? I think I know...
If Mueller's charge is to investigate, bring indictments, and report to the AG, why is he commenting about the current Buzzfeed story?
I would hope someone from the media asks Trump, “Is Mueller’s denial of the BuzzFeed story 100% supportable by the evidence?”
If Trump says, “Yes,” then he cannot blame Mueller for a witch hunt or a lack of integrity.
If he says, “No,” then he is admitting that all or part of the BuzzFeed story is true.
Of course, follow up questions would be in order and the media would have to insist upon a yes or no answer to the original question and not let him slip away.If
Electing Trump was a huge middle finger from disgruntled forgotten rural uneducated whites. They knew they were tearing the nation apart. They knew at some level that Trump was lousy. They just wanted the blow the whole thing up. And they didn’t mind cutting office their nose to spite their face.
I have no sympathy for these people. They should have voted for Bernie. They should have voted for Howard Dean. They should have supported the populist wing of the Democratic Party. They should have embraced the 99 percent movement. Instead they doubled down on bigotry and ignorance and the far right evangelical wing of the GOP.
That said, when Democrats did manage to wield power, they squandered it. They ignored theses people and catered to their donors on Wall Street and Silicon Valley. They became the GOP-Lite. They did not address the gross wealth disparity that is the root cause of all our troubles.
Computers have displaced office jobs. Developing countries stole manufacturing jobs and now robots will eliminate the remaining manufacturing jobs. Self-driving cars are right around the corner. These are huge structural developments that will make Adam Smith’s capitalist economic model obsolete. We need to recognize this and embrace radical change. A living wage, shorter work weeks, more mandatory vacation, higher capital gains taxes, higher estate taxes, and a more progressive income tax rate.
3
Reopening the government is now only a BuzzFeed story away.
Trump didn't really want to be president? Seems more than likely prepping to shield his ego from a loss - he'd say he really didn't want to be president anyways. Running to lose doesn't quite square with trump's fragile ego. Trump believed the real polls who left out the Russian meddling factor indicating Hillary was going to win handily.
Besides, it does not change the fact that Putin wanted him to be president - otherwise no Moscow tower deal! When Putin says "jump, trump!" he has no choice but to jump for Putin.
I'm certain he wanted to become president with the support of the most corrupt GOP party in history - just look at his leadership role models around the world and the truly astronomical wealth to be had as top dog. Dilution? Puhleeze! Jared serves as trump's international business development manager in Saudi Arabia, Mexico ($100million bribes!) and elsewhere seeking lucrative deals - no need for meddling ambassadors looking for their cut. Imagine the huge Great Wall of Trump kickbacks to be had; plundering the wealth and natural resources of other countries; millions in emolument dollars from cellphone companies looking to merge; crisp clean C-notes by opening up our treasured national lands to rape by fossil fuel industry, ...
Sacrifice by everyone else on his behalf is his strong suit.
Anyone ever see trump "work," let alone work so hard as he did during the last few weeks of the campaign?
I am angry and dismayed that what Bruni talks about here comes as a surprise. This was all so obvious, and not only in hindsight.
You guys really need to branch out and read more broadly. The foreign press - at least some of which can be read in English - knew this all along. They commented that his campaign was basically a publicity stunt back in 2016.
Just reading the NYT and WSJ and listening to Maddow doesn't cut it because everybody here is inside this gigantic echo chamber that we all share, and it really impacts people's and pundits' judgments.
And - READ those books everybody supposedly buys (one supposes, since they all become bestsellers) that keep being written about Trump and how he accomplished this hoax, and more importantly, the enormous damage he's done already to our institutions. Michael Lewis' "The Fifth Risk" not only details this damage but also describes the night Trump won. And according to him, the only one in the room beaming with happiness was Mike Pence. His wife was crying, as was Melania, and Trump looked simply stunned, in an ill sort of way.
I hope it will become an unavoidable and ubiquitous fact that even Trumpers will have to confront and deal with: that they have been had by a con man. And THAT is a fact that stands on its own. The Democrats can't be blamed for Trump being Trump. And maybe this will finally break the spell they've been under this whole time.
Of course it will make the party look extremely...well. Enough said.
Correct! He didn't plan on winning but his id sure wanted to! "Win! Win! Win! - no matter what you have to do," it said.
And now we have this: The Donald Show, where cameras (and twitter) follow his every move and utterance, feeding us a non-stop cinema verite that affirms his base's (and enablers') base instincts, and is terrifying, amusing and confounding to the rest of humanity.
Shakespeare is somewhere up in heaven binge watching this on Netflix. "Now this is riveting drama! And comical too!"
But will it have a tragic ending for main character Trump? (Et tu, Pence?) A deus ex machina comes down from heaven to save us? Or will the bad guys win in the end, like Chinatown, and our democracy becomes a kleptocracy?
Stay tuned . . .
1
Thank you, Frank. This is perfect.
Trump certainly did not want to be President as much as the Russians wanted him to be President.
Trump's campaign started out as a way to get more money out of NBC for his role on The Apprentice. Then they dropped him for being racist and he really liked being the center of attention. Never occurred to him that he might win and would have to work for someone other than himself for once. That is what he really hates.
2
I so look forward to the end of his sordid tale. I only wish it will be equal to, no more than the pain and suffering he has caused this country and planet...if we can survive his demonic amorality.
2
It has been well documented Trump's issues and unsuitability to be the President of the United States prior to being elected.
What I find extremely disturbing is how our mass media ignored all of this and continued to represent this man as a serious candidate so they could make money.
What I find more disturbing is that a significant portion of the population have consumed the cyanide laced orange drink and still believe he will "save our country".
I have great concerns for our future.
Bruni makes a good case Trump never wanted to be president and was just using his candidacy as a worldwide marketing campaign for the Trump brand. If true, it would seem less likely Trump himself conspired with Russia to win. But by the same token, wouldn’t it be far more likely this president has been compromised to Moscow ever since he did?
Putin knows Trump’s game. He knows Trump continued to negotiate for Trump Tower Moscow long after he told the American public he abandoned the deal. Indeed, Putin may have strung out negotiations for the very purpose of having something to hang over the man he was helping elect. And if numerous reports are correct that Moscow-controlled oligarchs used the Trump real estate empire to launder ill-gotten Russian funds and still hold hundreds of millions in Trump debt, Putin has very short strings from which to make that man in Washington jump.
The more with learn, the more it looks like the possible case against Trump is far more serious than a case of election conspiracy. The president of the United States may well be a Manchurian candidate, doing Putin’s bidding by precipitously pulling out of Syria, ceding power to Russia while putting Americans and American allies at significant risk, by weakening NATO and the western democratic alliance and taking other steps to reduce democracy’s—and America’s—strength. And that would be treason—which carries penalties far greater than mere removal from office.
1
He has engaged in criminal behavior his whole business career what makes people think that he would stop just because he became president.
1
Dear Frank,
Full disclosure, I live in Queens. I’m a native New Yorker. Since before I was born, this guy has been a snake and lied to get ahead. When he pushed that nice guy from Moldova, that’s what you do to get ahead at studio 54. Cheat on your wife and girlfriends, even us thousandaires think that’s cheap. I wish to not be from a red or blue place. My hero said, the content of their character is how we should be judged.
I judged him a long time ago.
1
The prime example and continuation of the never ending hate speech concerning President Trump. The pure example of fake news.
The Fall & Rise of Reggie Perron....tried everything to fail, even opened a store selling useless junk and alas, even that was a success.
Let’s assume that your thesis is correct, Mr. Bruni. With his unrelenting, vicious attacks on the election process, calling into question its integrity( “all rigged “ )seemingly at every opportunity, Trump was recklessly preparing his rabid, right wing zealots to “burn the house down” in the eventuality of his losing. He would then go on his merry way making further millions in his cynical political “branding” project while the country’s democratic institutions would be left grievously discredited, damaged, and in turmoil. This is what this amoral, treasonous creep was prepared to do. He, most justifiably, is and will be suffering mountains of bad karma for this outrageous behavior during the election.
It is a decade since the utility of "comments" sections on the news have proven that all they do is allow the ignorant and the well educated to argue to no good end. These little boxes waste time and are read and attended to by a tiny monority of a and even smaller numer of the few who have time to actually read and understand , if not truly see the totality of repercussions of their p;ersonal and private solutions. Once, many commenters would have run for office. Now they find the juice instead, in the imagined reflection of lime light they believe attended to because they got someone at the newspaper to let a letter though.
As I say: comments are a waste of time and space . Individuals ought to be trying to change events and occurances in the real world, working among real people who breathe and have heartbeats, not just eyeballs to pretend to pay attention with. End them.
1
Your article explains a lot about trump. But what of the republicans who refuse to remove him from office? trump is so apparently unfit for office, so opposed to our democracy, how can any thinking person support anything he does. Why is McConnell allowed to sit in the Senate, he has abdicated all the responsibility of his job. And seriously, Kavanaugh should not be on the Supreme Court. The believable allegations against him should have ended his confirmation process. Shame on all the republicans in Congress.
The fact that Trump did not want to be president is well established. The marketing ploy was obvious from the start.
He must have realized that all of his crimes would eventually bubble up into noxious gases that would suffocate him and his entire family enterprise.
Hmm. So this isn't about us, the voters at all then?
It’s The Producers. It’s springtime for Trump... Trump may be making it up as he goes but so is the news media.
Of course not. It’s beyond obvious.
He's not going to run again. Things keep getting worse and he's gettting bored.
The Russians certainly wanted him to be president.
This is painting the situation as too either/or. Better to imagine that Trump was banking (literally) on losing and egomaniacally expecting to win, given the high of ‘smell of the greasepaint and roar of the crowds.’ That the Russians figured they could be the victors either way, playing him for a chump, and banking (literally) on the corrupt Republicans to do nothing about it, is the story we’re now beginning to see in even more lurid light. Pox on all their fetid houses and good luck to Pelosi in hers.
1
Trump couldn’t resist the publicity that would come from running.
Putin saw his chance in an intellectually weak, morally compromised, financially vulnerable caricature of an American businessman.
Putin won the strategic lottery when Trump announced his candidacy and putting everything they (Russia) had to place this clown of a president and his band of jokers in the White House was a move any enemy of the United States would be insane to pass up. The chaos alone would be worth the entertainment. How Congress, the Senate, and the rest of the squabbling masses can’t see this clearly as they dance to Putin’s drum beat is beyond me.
Hopefully the States (and the rest of the west) realizes the vulnerable position they place themselves in by allowing every un-vetted buffoon with a megaphone to run for office.
2
Those who were paying attention knew Trump never wanted to be president. He was as surprised as anyone when he was elected.
However, he believed the press accounts of his savantry and and the praise of his fatuous followers. Now Trump holds a belief in his own invincibility.
Peremptory and imperious, Trump thinks his judgment is above question. In addition, Trump is in hoc to the Russians.
This is a recipe for the trial of an American Quisling.
Donald Trump should have been impeached two years ago. If anything, Trump's disastrous presidency, has exposed a fatal flaw in our political system: we don't have a mechanism to efficiently remove bad actors in positions of power, so they can destroy the system, the democracy without being properly checked. Case in point: Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump. Both of these despicable, corrupt charlatans must be immediately removed, it's quite obvious, yet there they both are free to do damage with impunity.
2
I believe he saw how many billions are stolen by autocrats like Putin, and took the biggest gamble of his life. How much do you think he’s received to date from Russia, Saudi Arabia, and other countries? Remember the attempted backchannels, his first overseas trips, Erik Prince.
I wonder how complicit Mr. Pence is? Is there a chance of a twofer?
I like the sound of President Pelosi.
1
“Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.”
- ancient proverb, well-grounded in reality
I doubt Trump even got that far given his benighted perspective. He wanted the presidency the way a spoiled brat wants a new toy although his playroom is already filled to overflowing with them. Forcing his parents to buy him another is about domination.
Trump’s life is a lie and has been since childhood, for so long that he can’t tell the difference between fantasy and reality. One problem with that is denial drives truth itself away. Another is, lies beget more lies faster than rabbits. One becomes ten, then a hundred, a thousand; piled one on top of another creating a mountain of deceit. One symptom is his perpetual state of confusion. Another, his word-salads. So, those who think they understand him — that he didn’t actually want to be president — misinterpret. He didn’t trip over himself, creating a tangled, complicated mess. Nor is his a charlatan’s simple-minded ignominy. Rather, it’s the cruel, dismal anarchy of his substance.
Trump wanted to win. The point of any deal is to come out on top and he saw the election that way. Through this prism any tactic was acceptable. He didn’t think it through. The presidency has a life of its own, a crushing workload and the highest public profile of any job bar none; every word and deed intensely scrutinized. So, a man whose prior life couldn’t withstand even the slightest scrutiny is now literally melting like ice under klieg lights.
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I'm the president! Can you believe it?
Trump often speaks the truth.
Only if being president could benefit his lust for money and power. As always, he assumed that our laws were intended for the fools who follow them. But since they are not for him, he figured that he could increase his income while at the same time running our government and country. The problem is, he is indeed making lots of money by being president since no one has stopped him so far. And he is, at the same time, running our government and country into a giant hole. I don't really believe he thought about the election outcome all that much. The election, debates and rallies were what he desired and still does. Whether he won or not, running would make him money and that is all there is to Trump. I think he got more than he bargained for.
Frank, don’t forget the other side of the equation: what was in it for Putin? When you quoted Wolff, “Trump would be the most famous man in the world — a martyr to crooked Hillary Clinton.”, I think this says it all: He could use Trump as a cudgel to delegitimize Clinton any time he wanted to.
It was the perfect plan: Trump would get his hotels, his publicity, and his martyrdom, and Putin would get leverage over Clinton by weakening her presidency on a national level. But they made one mistake: they underestimated the ability of the American electorate to think for themselves. Whoops.
Probably true.
The real problem are the 35% and a GOP that knowingly and willfully went along, more than that it extorted the situation to the max.
Shame.
No, two years into his presidency, "the rest of us" have been sadly aware of 45's pathetic lack of qualification for the position of chief executive. A majority of the voters voted against 45. Moreover, 45 hates to lose. He may have been surprised to win, but his narcissistic egotism persuades him that he can juggle numerous deals here and abroad, all the while holding the USA hostage, using its goodwill as his personal credit card.
When all is said and done, I believe President Donald Trump will go down in history as the most outstanding President the USA has had since Ronald Reagan. What is really corrupt here in terms of collusion is the Democratic Party and the FAKE NEWS Media. Let's all hope America does not become impregnated with socialism and Big Brother Governance.
“It had nothing to do with public policy,” O’Brien said. “It had everything to do with short-term opportunism.”
The Trump administration in a nutshell.
DJT is a failed actor, failed business person, and a failed president. At least Reagan was a decent actor.
Long familiar with Trump's heinous history, I find this view of his underlying motivations entirely credible. Granted he is intellectually limited, as opposed to "stupid", but it's hard to believe it never occurred to him that he would be risking the exposure of his whole crooked life in his run. Nonetheless, it does appear that he was unable to resist corralling the largest group of marks he's ever encountered and the chance to exercise extraordinary power, regardless of the fact that it was and is patently obvious he is singularly unequipped to do the job he was elected to do.
As surreal as his surprise victory in the election has been, far more mystifying is the rag tag bunch of misfits he has appointed to Cabinet positions. Clearly he is doing Putin's bidding in throwing a monkey wrench into the workings of every department of government.
Now that Muller has squelched this story how about taking it down? I believe we have suffered enough from these crazy news stories from unreliable sources!
There is probably some truth to this article. Trump was not unknown for hedging his bets.
So this is the biggest joke ever about the folks that voted for him: HE DIDN'T EVEN WANT THE JOB! They mistook his snorting in the debates as caring or having passion about the country. It was really about hs wanting to not get trounced, to save his skin, his image, and that came off, to them, as "he really wants to be president." But deep under it all is a distrust and hatred of government itself, and by electing this joker, they got to realize Ronald Reagan's great dream: "Government is not the solution, it's the problem."
These voters still idolize Trump for that reason: He's the anti-candidate that proves that government is phony, wasteful, and excessive. However, don't forget that they wanted their own SCOTUS justices, to protect "babies" and big business. Don't forget that they had to excise the black Obama and the womanHillary from the American consciousness. Don't forget that they had to reverse climate science and pollution regulations - THAT WAS IMPORTANT!
The election of Donald J. Trump is one of the most callous, brazen, and cruel hoax one party ever perpetrated on the other.
It was a publicity stunt. This is a surprise to anyone?
Like Max Bialystock in the Producers he would have made more money with a flop but with success he could land in prison. Springtime for Donnie and oligarchy.
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You're catching on, Frank. Trump is the Man Who Sold the World, or more accurately, the man who sold out his country for a heap of bling. The guy is shrewd. His reptile brain is in command. He saw the chance to transform his mountain of debt into Russian gold. He lied and bullied his way to the Oval Office, with Putin's help. But he didn't reckon he'd find Nancy Pelosi and the Constitution, bloodied but unbowed, at the top. Re-read Steele's dossier, folks, it's all in there (with an intriguing note that Trump's China ties are ever more corrupt, with bribes and kickbacks). I guess businessmen don't make great presidents after all.
This piece makes more sense than any of the others I have read, which attempts to explain what is going on in the Trump Whitehouse.
Many of us knew that, right after the shocking election results. Think of how disruptive this would be, in our Republic, if the election was declared null and void! All of our options are not good, at this point. Everyone should know that, but it is amazing, how those entertainment mobs keep rooting for Mr. Trump and his policy-less, inept government leadership.
He made promises to a mob of supporters, affectionately know as, “His Base,” and now he is caught in a public web. He literally doesn’t know what to do next, and he is winging it by the seat of his pants.
The rest of us are just stymied too! This could not have been better planned, if it was a kgb operation, trying to bring us down with our own constitution.
I prefer to believe Trump saw the Presidency as a business opportunity. He needed something — anything — to climb out of debt and re-establish his bona fides as a global tycoon. The Presidency was just a vehicle for his ambition.
Keep in mind that by 2014 - 2015, his sources of capital investment (loans) had dried up except foreign sources, Especially Russian oligarchs.
Russia offered unlimited resources as long as Trump followed the Putin Party line. And why not, since Trump could care less for the United States, its people, and the cause of freedom. Easy-peasy.
And all that has since happened unfolded from that bargain with the devil. Starting with Paul Manafort descending from out of nowhere to “volunteer” to run Trump’s campaign.
Not a PR stunt, actually. An opportunity to grow the business on the backs of gullible voters and Russian “kompromat.”
Voila!
As a Never Trumper, the real story is that press reflexively jumps on anti-trump stories without verification. In this case, the source is not only Buzzfeed, hardly a credible source coupled with a reporter who has been shown to lie. The Nytimes then uses its considerable influence and power and places a piece like Frank Bruni's without waiting for verification or worse, the anti-trump bias is so deep that there is a presumption of guilt. I oppose virtually everything about Trump yet I cannot help but wonder if a biased press reinforces his authority
it was clear from the beginning that he wasn't serious even to regular people like me
This was my reaction upon reading the article as well. He wasn't going to risk his business if he thought he was going to probably lose. This combined with zero sense of ethics and his love of feeling important. I am sure Putin knows how to play him like a fiddle.
We knew the moment Trump and his wife stepped down that Trump Tower escalator back on 15 June 2016 that he didn't want to be president of the US, that he only wanted a reality TV moment publicity stunt to make himself the greatest. Nobody (except his rabid fans) could imagine that day that he'd be elected our 45th president in November. Donald Trump is being hoist today by his own petard, the American presidency.
The news of his "Russian connection" -- the family's plans for his Trump Tower in Moscow with a duplex penthouse for Vladimir Putin -- his other best-laid plans to rescue his family fortunes such as mortgaging his son-in-law's albatross 666 Fifth Avenue to the Saudis,were just marketing ventures as he campaigned for a presidency he never dreamed of winning. Why, he wondered inchoately, should he give up his business for the presidency? A bird in the hand, etc.
QED:Trump has been the most unfit and ignorant president in American history. QED: all the historians, chroniclers, writers, journalists of our time (purveyers of "Fake News!" according to Trump) have given us chapter and verse in their books, blogs,e-books, social media venues, tweets, etc.that Donald Trump couldn't believe he won our presidency and has been running like Alice and the Red Queen in 'Through the Looking Glass' -- "it takes all the running [Trump] can do to stay in the same place." Meanwhile we're dancing the Trump schadenfreud dance as fast as we can.
"BuzzFeed's Cohen Story Suggests" Trump should be impeached! Given the New York Trump Tower meeting in early June 2106, it seems that a deal for "dirt" on Hillary and other Russian assistance to win the election replaced the Moscow project (which terminated at that time) in trade for sanctions relief, and that Trump actually wanted to or, perhaps more accurately, needed to win to keep his Russian financial support. The Russians by then had lots of "kompromat" on Trump and he was wholly owned (in all senses) by them. Everything since then can be explained by the simple fact that Donald Trump is a witting Russian agent. All the dots from his denial of Russian interference during the campaign (the 400 lb. man on a bed) and again in Helsinki; his hiring of Paul Manafort, a well-known Russian asset who now fears for his life; the change in the Republican party platform to favor Russia; Mike Flynn who worked on behalf of RT, a Russian propaganda outlet; Rex Tillerson, the recipient of the Order of the Russian Federation from Vladimir Putin; Flynn's failed attempt at sanctions relief where he was kept on for 18 days until exposed by the press; the firing of James Comey who wouldn't go easy on Flynn; the phony cover story written by Trump to conceal the real purpose of the Trump Tower meeting; the sudden pullout of U.S. forces from Syria without consulting anyone; and promulgating the Russian propaganda line on Afghanistan. It's not marketing; it's treason!
The Trump campaign was a reminder of how many hateful, intolerant, racist, misogynist, and bigoted folks are out there. The veneer of political correctness was stripped off and the view is not pretty. We have a long way to go and a lot of work to do to perhaps finally create the nation that some of our finer presidents (Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Obama) hoped for us to be.
Frank Bruni comcludes Trump knew, and knows, that he’s not up to being president and now two incredibly Earth rattling years later, Americans are concluding the same thing. Really? The question Americans ought to be asking themselves is why it took them two disastrous years to see what was so obvious to most of the world well before Americans stunned everyone by electing such an incompetent? Why did America collectively lose its mind two years ago?
Maybe, just maybe Robert Mueller is the best thing Donald Trump could have hoped for. This secretive special counsel does his investigation, keeping most everything secret. Then, the DOJ keeps Mueller's final report mostly secret and issues no indictments against Trump. The infamously and admittedly disgusting Trump walks away wounded but with all his money and his freedom after trashing the US Presidency and our country.
This is right on the mark—
A colossal business scam perpetrated on the USA.
If the Senate Republicans won't remove him, he needs to be "negotiated" and "transaction-ed" and "deal-ed" back to Mar-a-Lago to await prosecution.
“Regardless of the report’s veracity“ says it all, Franky. Interesting opinion, but unfortunately the story today is about the varaacity.
If this was in fact a "goof" to bolster Trump's reputation it definitely worked however counterproductively. Or maybe Trump's election brings into focus our country's penchant for electing "charlatans posing as messiahs". In hindsight the 2016 Presidential Elections always seemed rather farcical and surreal. I mean let's be honest, the herd of Republican hopefuls that Trump eventually emaciated and demonized out of contention were all pretty much a bunch of unappetizing "limp biscuits". The Democrats were not much better with Hillary Clinton in her ugly pantsuits "tilting at the windmills" as Donna Quixote along with pseudo socialist and "crotchety old man" Bernie Sanders railing against the banks with unbridled enthusiasm and reckless abandon. No I'm afraid the 2016's election results were more a dystopian "bad joke" than anything else, because We The People are now "routinely" scraping the bottom of the barrel for our political leadership and embracing whatever slime sticks to the ladle. Let's not make the same mistake again in 2020. Know what I mean Vern?
So why not just resign?
So, if I understand the various columnists in the NYT, Mr. Trump never wanted to be president but was willing to conspire with Russia in a treasonous way to ensure that he would win the election.
Maybe your next column will help me understand this rather complicated motivation attributed to Mr. Trump.
This really speaks to the ignorance and gullibility of millions of Americans. That, my friends, is tragic and terrifying.
The folks who voted for this fraud, con man, and carnival barker were fleeced. Still, many of them firmly believe that the fake product (or service) they purchased is real. They need to wake up. It (he) wasn't made in China. It (he) was made in Russia. And should be returned to sender ... preferably in chains.
Bingo, Frank. Spot on in every detail.
Trump thought a run for POTUS would be a fun way to build his brand. Putin had a different idea.
I know someone who was talking to a Trump golfing buddy in 2015 who straight out said it was all just publicity stunt. It was never supposed to end like this.
Hmmmmm whether he thought he was going to lose in 2016 or not....he is about to lose everything! It's just a matter of time now.
The Buzzfeed story has been officially disputed in part by the always quiet Special Counsel’s Office .
There were many apparent shortcomings in the report which should have raised questions.
THe sources were “investigators”; but they were not identified as “senior” or prosecutors. The story is presented as “according to” the sources. This leaves open the possibility that the statements reflect the opinion of the sources, who may have been tangentially involved in the matter at hand. The written documentation is not described , nor does Buzzfeed indicate that they saw the documentation. There was no indication that the sources actually examined th documents. Furthermore one of the reporters indicated that the investigator/sources were not part of Mueller’s office, but they were characterizing testimony and documents present d to Special Counsel.
Assuming good faith in part of all involved, the “according to” the sources information may very well have been “according to” their opinion based upon facts not presented in the article.
It may very well be that the sources surmised certain facts based upon hearsay and without actual examination of the referred to documents,
This has been my theory of the case for well over a year and one I published to the Times. I wrote: "It is the collusion stupid!"
The first clue that there was collusion should have been Trump's robotic insistence that there wasn't.
People kept thinking that his illegal business dealings would be what would bring him down but that was always small potatoes compared with colluding with a foreign power against the government of the United States in order to advance business dealings .
What I believe about the Trumps is that they will do anything to make a splash & a buck, including promising Russia will be rewarded if it helped him to win. Since they did not think he would,it just seemed like normal amoral dealing to them. There would never be a need to pay up.
What Putin really had on them is not salacious tapes but knowledge of their betrayal of their country for personal gain.
In furtherance of this speculation I draw your attention to what the in-the-know judge said to Mike Flynn at his sentencing hearing. I don't know if Flynn knew what the Trumps had been up to when he called Kislyak. Flynn had his own underhanded dealings with them and the judge saw Flynn's dealings as a small example of the same widespread treachery within the Trump campaign. (As a side note, Flynn behaved the way he did with the FBI because he had every reason to think it was on the side of the Trump campaign, as it blindly had been until Comey's firing opened their eyes to the true threat)
No. He wanted to be President *too much.* And to have his cake and eat it too. His appetite at the slop-trough of grift, self-indulgence, and corruption is insatiable. Ignoring his own gross incompetence, moderate mental ability, minimal literacy, and blatant lack of executive ability, he is the tornado that blows through town, destroying everything in its path, who then is incensed when he isn’t obsequiously thanked by the townspeople for cooling off the temperature and remodeling their landscape in his unique image.
What or when is the tipping point for this President? I, and everyone I know, wonder why no one in the Senate, particularly, has stood up and said "Enough"! Yes, I am aware that they might be running for re-election in 2020, but is this any reason to subsume personal integrity? Call me naive but I have to believe that there is one person who is teetering on the precipice engaging a backbone. I am not suggesting impeachment as I think the ballot box will have a better outcome, but our country needs this chaos to cease. What a legacy to our country, beyond a relatively small group of constituents, to be the one who marshals the intellect, fortitude, and true love of country to take the bull by the horns - of a dilemma.
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Now if only the rest of us could walk around pretending that this didn't happen! But we can't because our country means more to us then our personal reputation and wealth and if this is true it is soooo past the time to hold Trump andhis followers accountable.
These folks are OUR elected officials- they are our surrogates, they have OUR will & are required to execute the powers of OUR laws and Constitution. This isn't fantasy land, it is time for us all to wake up and take charge- notify your elected officials to open the federal government and pay federal workers and demand that Congress & the Pres. roll up their sleeves and work on OUR behalf! "Constitutional Amnesia" (quoting ADM Allen, USCG, Ret.) applies to most, willful disregard of the Constitution by Trump & others, especially those in the Senate applies to many! Public Service, Public Trust or go serve yourself elsewhere!
Most people give up "dress up" in elementary school.
Finally, something trump and I agree on.
It's not hard to understand why Mr. Needy Ego ran, all you need to do is replay Obama's roast from the Press Club Dinner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7eJpWOY3r18
as is now so entirely apparent with this shutdown, goading Trump always seems to work.
What's still hard to understand is how Trump won; first the Republican nomination, and then the Presidency.
That story leaves nobody in a good light. But among the saddest parts of it all is that almost nobody wants to confront what made Trump different from the other Republican contenders: the groping, the incessant lying, the bling, the kayfabe, and the relentless potty-mouthed 4th-grade putdowns.
Today Trump's supporters say things like "I don't like his manners but I like his policies." This is the biggest lie of all; the other Republicans would have done just about the same on "policy."
Trump won because all the loser-wannabees fantasized being Trump.
Donny Deutsch, who's known Trump for years, said in the early days of the campaign Trump, who had no intention of ever being president, described his run as "the biggest infomercial of all time."
Been saying this for 2 years ...
From the Legal Information Institute of Cornell University: The phrase “high crimes and misdemeanors” in the context of impeachments has an ancient English history, first turning up in the impeachment of the Earl of Suffolk in 1388.861 “High crimes and misdemeanors,” however, is an undefined and indefinite phrase, which, in England, had comprehended conduct not constituting indictable offenses.864 Use of the word “other” to link “high crimes and misdemeanors” with “treason” and “bribery” is arguably indicative of the types and seriousness of conduct encompassed by “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Similarly, the word “high” apparently carried with it a restrictive meaning.865
Debate prior to adoption of the phrase866 and comments thereafter in the ratifying conventions867 were to the effect that the President (all the debate was in terms of the President) should be removable by impeachment for commissions or omissions in office which were not criminally cognizable. And in the First Congress’s “removal” debate, Madison maintained that the wanton dismissal of meritorious officers would be an act of maladministration which would render the President subject to impeachment.868 Other comments, especially in the ratifying conventions, tend toward a limitation of the term to criminal, perhaps gross criminal, behavior.869 The scope of the power has been the subject of continuing debate.870"
What are you waiting for, congress? Impeach!
Except that the story isn't true.
Finally, somebody wrote it down. Thank you. Let's make him go away now, and try to get back to something that resembles who most of us thought we were . . .
Even assuming that the quote about the frequency of born "suckers" was his in fact, P.T. Barnum, on the morning of November 9, 2016, would've been shocked by their number amongst those who voted the day before.
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I always thought, as a New Yorker, that he didn't expect to win. Just look at his face for the first week after the election. Pure freakout.
This makes so much sense.
I find it amazing that the premise of this article is about the recent Buzzfeed article that caused Mueller to say it wasn't true. And I think that's the point. It doesn't matter if it's true.
I would say this, though. Putin wanted Trump to be president even he did not himself. Trump is indebted to Putin who needs someone in the WH to ease sanctions that are crippling the Russian economy.
Putin and his troll patrol took advantage of the lax standards on social media to promote Trump and smear Hillary Clinton. And it all worked because many of Trump's follower still believe the many now de-bunked lies created by them. Putin also took advantage of the then Republican dominated Senate and Congress which would be an advantage to Trump. It was a perfect storm in his favor.
The BuzzFeed report has been called in accurate by the Mueller team. Might the truth actually be worse?
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All of this makes sense except for the payments to Ms Clifford and Ms McDougal. If Trump didn't actually want to win, and didn't expect to, having them talk would have made no difference. He still wouldn't have won. Or maybe still would have, since he won despite the Access Hollywood tape over which he had no control. Michael Cohen has now told us that the purpose of the "contribution" to Ms. Clifford was political, to pay for silence so as not to affect the campaign, not to spare his wife and young son embarrassment. Why would you care about any negative affect on the campaign if you wanted to lose? Is it not possible that by the beginning of October, 2016, Mr. Trump realized he might win, had no idea what being president would entail (much less that he would become so unpopular that he would have to deal with losing the House majority two years later), and decided to go for it to become more than just the most famous man in the world? In which case, the revelations about the Mses Clifford and McDougal might have shifted the 0.056% of the total national turnout in three states (PA, MI, WI) that Hillary Clinton needed to win. Why visit the tossup states of PA five times in the last two weeks of the campaign, MI four, NC five, and FL six, if you didn't care whether you won their electoral votes or not? If you lost all of them by small margins instead of winning them, you could get your wish of losing while claiming you had come close and the vote counting was rigged.
3
I agree and have thought this from the beginning. He did not run to win, never expected to and never wanted to be President and still doesn’t. It was all an act of self promotion for his personal brand and America is now experiencing the consequences.
1
This explains why he didn't think it necessary to release his tax returns. I think the campaign was a stop along the way for a new reality show with Hillary Clinton as the unwitting villian. Every drama needs one and she was already vilified by the media so Trump saw the opportunity to start a new show. He would probably call it "You're fired, Madam President." Trump wants to be an entertainer, not the POTUS who has to sit in boring meetings all day.
I don't understand. If tЯump didn't want to win, why did he collude with Russia to turn the election toward him? Is it possible that Volodya insisted he take the job, whether he wanted it or not?
1
Whether he intended to run or not, either way, I find it interesting that Putin/Russia not only preferred for Trump to win, but that they also at the very least pushed and continue to promote fringe right wing propaganda onto the American public.
Think about that for a minute. A hostile foreign adversary at the very least looking to sow discord and chaos in America does so by pushing right wing views. And 40% of our country doesn’t bat an eye over this; thinks it’s no problem, or is not even aware.
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No, he did not. And that is why I remain hopeful that he may not run for reelection. He and the family have already use their self-interest and corruption tendencies to max out any gains they might be able to accrue, so why do another four years? Melania certainly has no interest in it judging by the way she engages/does not engage as FLOTUS.
5
Only in the Times could a story that has been explicitly disavowed by the special prosecutor be termed merely "controversial". What bias.
5
It's thrilling. Can he break Dennis Hastert's record as the highest-ranking American politician to serve prison time?
4
IF Donald Trump is guilty of instructing Michael Cohen to lie, Trump will probably be impeached. That will leave us with Mike Pence. Certainly at the top of the list of who Mike Pence thinks he is are the words "Evangelical Christian." I often forget this as I watch Pence lovingly gaze at Donald Trump as he stands beside the President, and as he defends without reservation this amoral, corrupt President. If Pence becomes the next president, I suspect he will again emerge as a full-fledged evangelical declaring that he never really supported the things Trump stood for. And the lies roll on!
4
So now as his incompetence is closing in on him, he is trying to find a way out, but as a hero to his base. If he get's his wall he will tell the world that National Security is finally in place, that he has done his job by honoring all of his campaign promises. He then resigns and gives the reigns to an equally incompetent leader, Vice President Pence and says, I have to get back to my businesses, the business that he never left.
Trump figured out he could campaign, use Trump Organization planes, venues and products and make money off campaigning while getting to preen in front of the cameras.
His buddy Sarah Palin showed him how one could use PAC money to pay for almost anything, and that Trump could get his supporters to send in a steady stream of cash.
It made his Trump University scam pale in comparison.
Mitch McConnell, who was looking for candidate that if elected, would sign pretty much anything put in front of him without reading it. Trump was his man.
Mitch thought he'd run the country, a la Dick Cheney, and Trump would be content with the public appearances and speeches. But Trump mucked it up with his greed and chaos.
Now, we have the coward McConnell, hiding in his shell. The Senate no longer works for the citizens, they have become Trump's lackey instead.
Trump rages about unfettered. Pence waits silently for his turn - the opportunity to overturn Roe v Wade and install Evangelical Christianity as the Official United States Religion.
And now we are hearing rumbles of the coming 2929 recession. Hopefully, we will have a Democratic president to clean up the mess. Again. Republicans always leave our country a mess when they exit the White House.
I'm hoping Mueller cleans house, ridding us of Trump, Pence & McConnell, and we wind up with Pelosi for the remainder of Trump's term.
3
If Trump hadn’t really wanted to be president, that impulse had to be checked by virtue of Russia’s all-out backing of the man. Once the Russians were propping him up with dough and resources, a reluctant candidacy was not an option. Trump had to fully and completely go full bore or face unpleasant consequences—exposure by the Russians, a cut off of the Russian money pipeline to his many business alignments, or perhaps, worse.
5
This is so much worse than having an incompetent candidate win an election. I imagine there are plenty of those. For me, it’s heartbreaking that our country is allowing this man to stay in office, and that we’re talking about his re-election, however improbable that is.
5
My boyfriend, a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker, has been saying this ever since Trump announced his candidacy. Lots of New Yorkers and people on the East Coast knew that Trump is a flim-flam man. But of course, Midwesterners and Southerners, who never miss a chance to bad-mouth people on the Coasts, refused to believe their fellow Americans who were trying to warn them about this con man. He tapped in to the Alex Jones crowd, the Rush Limbaugh crowd - the guys posing as political know-it-alls who are actually cynics of the first order, who have no beliefs whatsoever, apart from their belief that they are entitled to get rich off of other people's foolishness. Am getting tired of saying, "we told you so" to people who deliberately refuse to listen.
8
From this artice..." He never really expected to be president. More than that, he never really hoped to be." Of course, he didn't. No one in the world thought he had a chance....news outlets were predicting a landslide of historic proportions. Hillary rented out the Javits center for gods sake. He was an entertainer, a TV personality, he never held any office whatsoever. What we didn't realize as much as we should have much our candidate and or her advisers really really blew it. Don't blame Comey or the Russians we should have had this with both pour hand tied behind our backs. He is a TV personality....Hillary was the most qualified candidate in history per Obama and Bill CLinton
2
This is purely hypothetical nonsense since it doesn't really matter whether Trump wanted or didn't want to be president. He never really had a say in the matter since it was simply Putin the Puppeteer's call.
3
I’ve believed this, that Trump did not intend or want to be president, from the get-go.
Our problem today is not Trump, he is but its malicious agent.
Our problem is today’s Republican Party. Until it breaks apart into its two incompatible wings of thousands of plutocrats exploiting million of “populists” along with Southern racists our country will continue its decline.
Today’s need is a responsible conservative party reconstituted to govern in the country’s interest.
It may turn out that the Democrats will become that new party since, in the world at large: Europe, Canada, England, Japan, etc., their actual policies are quite conservative.
January 19, 2019
Hey if my beloved rich country would put me at the helm - then how could ever refuse the offer - destiny is never having to say I am sorry to take on the challenge. So my beloved base got me and everyone else if panicking over more of me is too much and that in the litigation and the higher forces of if you will divine destiny to sort out the possible from the impossible - live is just a roll of the dice and for the love of my Atlantic City days - drinks and pretty dances 24//7 and that taught me all I need to know to make me great for a great country all options plans to trade or whatever is plan B......
1
No, he never wanted to be President.
All he ever wanted to do was build and run hotels, continue to cheat on his taxes, be recognized as a great star, say and do outrageous things and take advantage of people who are unable to recognize a charlatan when they see one.
And that is exactly what he's doing.
5
The same can be said about the tactics politicians use to get in and then manage to build their own fortunes and empires.
Admittedly, the majority of them move on without any recrimination while some are served up to take the fall for the greater good of appeasing a populace that still believes in doing the right thing.
Pelosi and Menendez are perfect examples of just how corrupt a politician can be, to grow rich, live large and flaunt their power and teflon positions.
When you opt to be a part of the system it’s rules and culture will eventually snare the best of them.
If there were ever a dedicated investigation into our politicians’ activities and self dealing capitol hill and many local state houses would be sitting on a ton of vacancies.
1
Yes, Trump has no interest in others. His run was all about making Trump great again after his many financial failures. He is totally dependent on a brand; nothing more. I think one reason he supports Putin so easily is not just the likelihood that Putin has something on him, but that, like Putin, he hates America. Why? Because Americans who knew anything about him saw through him and no one wanted to be involved with him financially except the TV illusionists who will use anyone to make a buck. Those who didn’t know his history were conned.
1
However distasteful the current occupancy of the White House may be to some - two years are long enough to get over the righteous moral indignation and hurt-ego tantrums of not getting one's way...and being real (and respectful) about the "base" that exercised its franchise to get a favorable and
democratically elected outcome. Exhibit-A for political masochists with short memories - George W Bush. Cheers!
I doubt Mark Twain could be as imaginative as today's "make the fake" news writers. If he had the technological where-with-all, I doubt he could be as fast.
Some guy says, there are 2 anonymous sources that know DJT directed Cohen to lie.
Has he heard the recordings? No.
Has he seen anything in writing? No.
There you have it, my fellow, ABCCBSNBCCNNMSNBCNYTPBSNPRWAPO, if these are true, DJT must be impeached.
Even Mueller thinks it's a bit much.
1
Well, Donald could end his not so excellent adventure and resign.
But now, the damage is done: his criminal enterprise, once largely unrecognized outside of the confines of the tawdry Trump tower, has now been exposed for all the world to see, as has his staggering incompetence. His three eldest children are in it up to their eyeballs, along with Jared, who appears poised to follow in his dad’s footsteps right into the slammer.
Doanlad’s trying desperately to figure out how to salvage the situation. Given that he has failed at every venture that he has ever tried from marriage to running casinos until he got an assist from Russia, this is unlikely to end well.
I feel like America is in a reality show nightmare: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.
6
That Trump didn't want to be President, really isn't "breaking news." What isn't directly said in this piece, is he still doesn't want to be President. He is stuck, with no way out. So he does what comes natural, causes havoc and deflects any blame.
His father protected him through out life. Always there to cover up his mistakes and at the same time pumping him up to the point that he actually believed he could do no wrong. Unfortunately the outcome was an egotistical so and so who can't discern reality from what ever crazy thoughts run through his head.
What we have, is a President, who is pretending to be President, hoping no one notices. In his pea brain, he is sure, we are convinced.
5
This is not new. The cruel irony is that a cynical candidate who ran a campaign never intending to be president, now has to run for re-election to save him from going to jail. Trump ran his campaign as an advertising campaign fir brand Trump and nothing more. The real travesty is that the Republicans, their wealthy donors and the religious right probably knew this and didn't care. More mendaciously they deliberately exploited this policy-devoid and feckless presidency by holding it hostage to their agenda. They knew that Trump was unsuitable in character, preparation and any notion of country ranked way down in his priorities. They were willing to corner the supplicant but unsuitable president who breaks every principle they professed to stand for to steamroll their agenda over a mostly unwilling nation. They have proved to be more nefarious to the bedrock principles of the country and its institutions, than the president himself.
3
Regardless of any answer to your lead-in question, Trump is right about one thing. The media are hemorrhaging credibility over passing along material from undisciplined sources like Buzzfeed.
You guys need to do a far better job of policing yourselves.
1
I think Trump is a better actor than Ronald Reagan ever was because for a man who allegedly did not want to be president, he sure is doing a convincing job of wanting to be one. He seems to love the limelight, the hobnobbing with world figures, and passing that immoral tax cut bill last year to helps those who need the help the least. Too bad for the country, the world and the environment that he is so lousy, destructive and detrimental on so many levels.
2
Trump continues to know in his darkest hours that nothing which he does is wholesome nor nourishing. He continues to be an entity without a country, an aborigine who was not conceived of Eve, whose artificial intelligence is a misnomer.
Still he comes back with an imperfect offer to incarcerate some of those sanctified young people known under the group DACA within the confines of this country which he has blighted so it would not sustain life of any of us of mortal birth.
Can he even conceive of original sin, this simulacrum of a human who has not even the humanity which God blessed our original first parents when He caused the Archangel to close off the Gate to the Garden? Trump's consciousness is imbued with the indigo purple of permanent poison .
1
Look at the wording of the statement from Mr. Carr, spokesman for the Special Counsel's office (emphasis in caps added):
“BuzzFeed’s description of specific statements TO THE SPECIAL COUNSEL'S OFFICE, and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office, regarding Michael Cohen’s Congressional testimony are not accurate,” Carr said.
Might Buzzfeed be correct as to the substance of the information, except that the statements by Cohen were made to the S.D.N.Y. instead of to the Special Counsel?
People want to believe that a billionaire doesn't need the headache and could get back to golf sprinkled with big deals. Trump's lack of preparation and now frustration is supposed to spell RELUCTANCE. I don't buy it.
Trump needs more deals/loans to keep his branding empire afloat. Trump ventures were less able to secure traditional resources. Trump's son exposed money was coming from Russia.
Tom Barrack talked effusively about Trump and his family to the entire 2016 Republican Convention. Barrack's company had made a huge loan to Jared on 666 5th Avenue. Miraculously, a new investment company came to rescue and blockade of Qatar soon ended.
"..nearly a quarter of the $7 billion (Barrack's) Colony NorthStar has managed to raise for its investment funds since Trump won the Republican presidential nomination has come from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to the Times."
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/forbesdigitalcovers/2018/07/09/disastrous-deal-staggers-trump-ally-thomas-barrack/amp/
It's no accident:
- Trump's Washington Hotel needs top-dollar foreigners.
- Kushner family name-drops to potential Chinese investors wanting EB-5 Immigrant Visas.
- Trump sons found success in India, after Stephen Miller announced "the golden ticket" of immigration reform.
- Kirstjen Nielson is using procedural changes TO START NOW to award the lottery visas to masters or better degree holders.
The grifters always needed the Presidency.
2
45 told America, "this is a 9-5 job, Monday through Friday; there is no reason to work yourself to death" and the country accepted his assessment. Seemingly forgetting that even Richard Nixon actually worked at being President of the United States. Then Barak Obama became President. Those who voted for, and continue to support 45 presumed the job was a big nothing. How else could a Black man handle its rigors? Their racist beliefs became a part of their assumptions about the actual importance of being President.
45 had a very low bar to step over, and he has not disappointed his supporters. The more he denigrates the office, the more sure they are their presumptions and assumptions were correct.
When the bottom falls out of their lives these supporters will never blame 45. He will have risen to level of their expectations.
The GOP, however, will find itself wandering down empty windswept highways, looking for waht used to be their supporters.
It also explains why he never 'backs down'. He wants to maintain a brand he can use post presidency for his media empire or the like. Watch for it!
1
“Losing would work out for everybody,” Especially the people who believe in having an adult as leader you know the majority of Americans.
1
Huge congrats there Frank, you finally got printed what myself, my co-workers and most everyone I have spoken with already know; Mr. Trump NEVER intended to win the '16 election.
We all knew the moment he unabashedly trotted out his steaks & wine that this was nothing more than a grab at free worldwide advertisement.
This whole fiasco was nothing more than a demonstration of Mr. Trump's inbred opportunism supported, at bottom, by his belief in people's gullibility and his greed.
What our country needed was a world leader, what we elected was unfortunately nothing more than a dangerously egotistical flimflam man.
1
That I believe. I don't even think Trump thought the American electorate was nearly as cynical as it needs to be to choose to elect him. He was likely doing what most Republican's do who throw their hat's in the ring - looking to drum up publicity then sale a book or get a reality gig on Fox.
1
Of course he didn't want to be president. He just wanted to get on TV a lot, get richer and sow chaos. You don't think he wouldn't rather be at Mar a Lago right now, golfing? And golfing without the secret service? But, now he's stuck and we're stuck with him.
3
As I remember, commentators were reporting that Trump was in discussion to start a new network. He no doubt would have ensured nonstop programming attacking Clinton. In which case, it is as likely that he devoted as much attention to his campaign as he does to public policy now that he is president - not a whit, and he either wittingly or unwittingly allowed Putin to attack our democracy.
Worst President Ever.
2
Yes Frank, it’s common knowledge,
Your opinion piece should read Hillary Clinton Lost to a guy who didn’t even want the job,
How bad of a candidate do you have to be to lose,forget the popular vote argument.
The Presidency’s is determined by the electoral college .
2
"he is the most effective president we have ever had"...You have GOT to be kidding me - unless you are referring to the breathtaking speed at which Trump is unraveling the policies, protections, agreements, and diplomatic relations which form the bedrock of this country!
Trump is the worst nightmare-of-a-
president from which it seems impossible to wake up.
2
Bob Woodward's book, Fear, notes that Trump didn't really expect to win the election, and was completely unprepared to take on the office. The entire campaign was a charade, in which he was able to bamboozle 63M Americans that he was qualified. Somehow, they all fell for it. It's mind blowing that so many of my fellow countrymen are such naive, gullible people!
4
Mueller has thrown a wrench into the Democrat Trump narrative. If Mueller doesn't watch out he will turn from being described by the media as "the most honorable man in DC" to just a "lifelong Republican", Bob Mueller. If his report does not eventually hang Trump, Mueller will be called a Republican partisan hack and all the MSM praise will disappear.
As usual, Frank, like so many of the NYT opinion writers--but also many of its reporters and editors--trust that if they create enough of a lengthy word salad and throw everything in they will have proved their point, even if it means leading with a discredited 'news' report. Ah, Frank, perhaps this once you can take Trump at his word and accept that he was interested in any potential serious business deal because he was still uncertain about getting the nomination, let alone winning the election, and intended to go back to running the Trump organization full-time if he lost. Sometimes the simple answer is the best and correct one. The entire media establishment, along with Democrats, keep going in circles trying to connect disparate dots that always leads back to square one.
1
So it’s “he said, he said” and trump will probably slither out from this just like everything else. After all, his “fellow slitherers” are the gop, fox network and the kremlin. Trump throws a tantrum and cancels Mrs. Pelosi’s trip - which is part of her job - but Melanie can spend any amount of government money being flown to where ever she wants. How much longer oh (insert deity of choice) how much longer until this infestation is eradicated!
3
You nailed it, Frank!
1
Fine explanation of why this administration is a textbook case of impostor syndrome on steroids.
2
Quoting unnamed sources is always suspect. And this was the guy who got fired from Salon for making up stuff.
Ultra-excellent column. As many have thought, nothing explains Trump's behavior so well as him not ever imagining or wanting himself President.
As others, I saw the best route for him as begging off the job with a doctor's letter. But once he started reveling in his new found authoritarianism, he was hooked. And here we are, more than one half of the Nation the most un-happy campers of all modern times.
This is lifetime laugh for Putin, the greatest adversarial operation of all time. We had better get out from under this, fast. Sack him. Pence would never command Trump's following, and chiefly Trump's following is who we need to get rid of.
2
The only things Trump has done in life that weren't publicity stunts were things he paid people large sums of money to be quiet about.
3
I too wondered if he had ever thought he would be elected President of the United States. It shows how much the establishment was despised and rejected in both partis. The republicans had a pitiful group. Kasich seemed promising but then it turned out his achievement to balance the budget was just a shell game. He just shifted the burden to the localities. The Democrats should have taken note. The DNC picked the candidate before the first vote was cast and worked to reduce the other candidates’ chances such as Sanders and Tim Kaine. Of all the possibilities, Clinton was perfect for Trump. First of all, it was all about her. She would proclaim to the crowds, "Now it is my turn." Trump told crowds, "Now it's your turn." People did not trust her. Excerpts of contradictory statements and her famous dash across the tarmac in Bosnia came out for prime time. Just as importantly, her disdain for middle America was a gift to Trump. She decided she would concentrate on the middle and the eastern costal state and west the coast states. Even after Bill and at least one other adviser told her to give time to the states in between, she stuck to her plan. She got what she wanted and Trump got almost all in between. Donna Brazil’s book's lays all of this out. Trump may not ever really wanted to win but the DNC and Clinton handed the victory to him on a silver platter, so he took it. He didn't need the Russians or anyone else.
I think sometimes we forget the obvious answers when posing what appear to be puzzling questions. Why did Trump not put his businesses on hold? Greed.
2
Regarding the point that Trump did not prepare for wining, it would not have made any significant difference. He had been focused on real estate and marketing. He spent a life time honing skills peculiar to his interests and capabilities. His marketing sense is genius as Joan Rivers once prophetically said. It was those skills that helped get him elected. And now he has a huge chip on his shoulder because he holds a position that is completely beyond his capability.
5
Persuasive re Trump, but the president-centric focus distracts from what I think is the greater issue: the post-Reagan movement right of Republicans, but also Democrats, in a postindustrial - hence, increasingly, post-union - economy.
The right wing that disavows Trump's racist 'style' (but not his tax cuts or Supreme Court appointments), cannot acknowledge that they are not true opponents, but transitional. Just as they cannot admit their irrelevance to what the Republican masses have become.
And among Democrats? The right liberals that revile left liberal challengers as radical (though the challengers are simply classical New Deal populist liberals ) cannot acknowledge that they are opposing their former political selves.
Still, from a left liberal viewpoint, the Democratic Party insurgency - the rising up of almost half the traditional Democratic-voting electorate to assert their view in 2016 - gives a small amount of hope that the rightward shift might be resisted.
1
And the point is? (even if the premise could be “proven”?)
Most of these comments don’t reflect an understanding that Trump does not think or act like you or me or any of his predecessors who have sat in the White House. Many incorrect assumptions about him were made in an attempt to fit him into our political framework and as evidenced by this piece/comments it’s still going on. Presumably at least no one will be shocked and mystified if he runs and “wins” again.
4
The Trump family's demeanor on election night made it very clear that they were not happy to have won.
Today, Robert Mueller's office publicly debunked the BuzzFeed story as false. As such, we can now dismiss this as faux hoopla. It was just BuzzFeed being BuzzFeed again.
This is the second time in a year that BuzzFeed has deliberately manufactured fake news for the sole purpose of generating clicks and boosting their profile.
4
During the last 2 weeks of the campaign, Trump was literally hitting 5 or 6 campaign stops per day. He was campaigning from 8:00 a.m. till well past midnight on many of those days. Certainly not the behavior of a man who wanted to lose.
8
Looking ahead for just a moment, can anyone fathom a trump "presidential library"? Or stomach the thought of tax dollars paying for a staff and Secret Service protection for this man for the rest of his life?
Or is Elba still available?
8
@Publius -- personally I am hoping Letitia James indicts and convicts him in New York. No prison in NY is remotely a "club fed," but there are NY-state medium-security prisons mostly filled with white-collar criminals.
But Trump's problem if he goes to jail is that the more famous you are the more trouble you have. As a result of this I suspect he'd end up in one of the higher-security places for his own security ... and no matter where he would be, he would just be another con serving time.
Do you think the Secret Service would guard him inside a New York prison?
New York state has "Corrupt Organization" statues that mirror RICO. The incentive to charge the Trump Organization under these statutes is high: it would clean up a broader criminal mess and also be much harder for the Supreme Court to halt, because the charges would be much broader than the President.
There would be the additional issue of who would be charged as part of that criminal conspiracy? Cohen for sure, Weisselberg likely, and which Trump family members?
Ivanka and Jared were trustees of Trump Foundation, and are chargeable for its felonies and as part of a CO prosecution.
5
@Lee Harrison
I always envisioned the Trump presidential library as an online virtual library featuring all of his tweets.
7
@Lee Harrison
Behind the bench in the courtroom of the Georgia Supreme Court is inscribed the Latin phrase, “Fiat justitia ruat caelum,” which translates as "Let justice be done, though the heavens may fall."
In the case of trump and his family, associates, and hangers-on, let the facts lead wherever they will, and pursue them according to law. If those facts lead to NY State RICO convictions and prisons, so be it.
And although I haven't looked it up, I would be thoroughly shocked if if the law providing for protection for former presidents would allow coverage for an imprisoned felon.
2
I like the pics.. I want Trump to associate with Loser, every where on the world.
I agree that Trump didn't want to be president, he just liked the limelight.. and GOP didn't want him either.. but the GOP greed of power made all this happen.. and whole west and the planet will pay hefty price for it.
1
DJT had been trying for years to get his brand into Russia with no luck. Now a candidate to become US President and now Russia seemed receptive... had the increase in Russian tourism been that great they
Needed his hotel expertise?
1
Mr. Bruni has nailed it. Surprised that this piece did not mention Trump's short run in the previous election cycle. He pulled out that time because he said that he needed to be on the new season of "The Apprentice." This time, his show was taken away because of his boorish behavior, so he had no face-saving way to exit.
Trump conned his voters and the Republican Party and now they are trying to figure out how to save face. His inherited wealth gave him the opportunity to buy off the law through drowning others in lawsuits, bankruptcy laws allowed him to stiff others when he made poor decisions in investments, banks fell for his egomania and lost money, and on and on and on. And now we have a President whose greed, egomania and incompetence takes precedent over effectively running the government and has put in danger our democracy and our lives. The Republican branch of the Senate has a chance to save us but instead is no different than Trump.
The people spoke in the midterms and now they need to speak louder every day in every way to make the congress know that we want Mueller to put the facts out for everyone to see. Then we will see if we still have a republic governed by our constitution.
2
This all makes perfect sense yet leaves me with burning questions. Why does Rupert Murdoch and FOX continue to hold this presidency up? Murdoch controls the Base. The only reason we are having this wild goose chase over The Wall is because Ann Coulter threatened Trump. Coulter does not say this stuff unless Murdoch allows it. The Base believes anything they hear from Murdoch's organization. Since they are so willing to believe any sort of lie, why is Murdoch telling these particular lies?
Another question: What is the role of American oligarchs, of whom Murdoch is only one in shoring up this incompetent administration?
Another question: Why does a traditional conservative organization like the Heritage Foundation also support this president? There are other conservatives, more capable, and therefore even more dangerous. Why do they settle for Trump?
So many questions. So little time.
6
"Two years into his presidency, the rest of us know it, too."
Some of us knew this well before election night.
7
As a conservative, this is a prime example of why conservatives (and really any thinking person) should be VERY skeptical of the news media. The news media, pundit class, and Democrats went aflame assuming this to be true; even now, it's reported as if BuzzFeed "stands by its story" amidst the highly unusual act of Mueller publicly issuing a statement that it is false (!). First there's the fake news, then there's the cover-up, or rather "burying the lead" on this issue. The headline should be: "News Media Caught with Blatant Bias Against Trump and Refuses To Pull Their Pants Up" but of course we spin this as if the oh-so-credible BuzzFeed is up against an "equal" the Special Counsel. How about this: wait for REAL facts and check your sources, and please don't believe everything you read on BuzzFeed! BuzzFeed? That's where cat videos live. It's not a credible source and never has been.
4
@Jason McDonald
The Cohen story has not been shown to be false, only that is not accurate in the way it was presented. That is a big difference. I think in the end, truth will out.
And hopefully so will Trump.
Liberal or conservative, there is no excuse for supporting this poor excuse of a human being.
8
Mr. Bruni raises the wrong and inappropriate question. The pertinent question should be: Why can't the media tell the truth?
4
This is what I have been saying since Day 1. How many times did he run before, only to be shot down in New Hampshire? It was always just a publicity stunt. No one was more surprised that he was as he got closer and closer to to the nomination.
@Lynne For somebody that did not want to win, he knew how to clear the field.
I don't think that Trump wanted to be President, however, what is more telling is what he has done after he was elected. What I would, or any of us for that matter, is except your circumstances and try to learn the job and do the best job you can, learning what you have to learn, and trying to meet the responsibilities of your new position. He has done none that, he is a petulant spoiled child of man, disgraceful. There will be consequences for all us but in particular the Republican party. They see the handwriting on the wall, Ryan and Gowdy retiring from Congress, because they know the possibility of them ever holding the House again is probably gone for lifetime.
1
his Presidency has proven that we NEED more Presidents who are unprepared!
2
If I remember correctly, no one in the Trump gathering looked happy, at the very time Trump won the presidency. They looked about as happy the Hillary Clinton did!
The congressional Republicans hope for a messiah to lead the Republican tribe out of the eternal political wilderness where Trump is leading them.
Alas, first they must conquer the monster of Fox News and rabid right wing radio and the 30% of Republican voters who view the message of Trump media as gospel.Elected Republicans fear this ultra-conservative propaganda machine more than they fear election defeat . Perhaps, if the “main stream” conservative media, the campaign contributions of corporate America and billionaire donors evaporate, Senator McConnell will find the courage to reassert the powers of the legislative branch and contain Trump.
Then, the 2020 election or an impeachment conviction in the senate can remove him from office. The Republican party can survive and revert to being just “the party of no”.
Unfortunately, events demonstrate that McConnell never just does the right thing. Every decision he makes is based above all on his own survival in office. For him, self-interest the only policy that counts. Whatever secures his reelection in 2020 is right.
As he knows, to stay in office the only constituents he must satisfy are those Republicans who actually vote in Kentucky. For some Kentucky voters , and for Kentucky Coal, the Trump-McConnell team are doing just fine.
Mueller stated that the report was wrong. So once again the NYTs was plaid for a fool. The whole Russian hotel story has led to more than one misreporting episode. The whole Russian oligarch myth and that they could black mail Trump and that he was a Russian agent is wrong. But I promise you the NYTs will continue to raise more mega accusations that sells lots of news papers but will once again be false.
3
It has been known for some time that Trump didn't want to win, didn't expect to win at all and that according to one of Trump's sons, that when Trump finally realized that against every poll published, that he had actually won, "The blood drained out of his face."
To run a campaign not to win, gave Trump huge advantages over crafted politicians like his Democratic contender Clinton.
Trump didn't have to please donors. He could say what was really on his mind (despite that, he never stooped as low as Clinton to call half of her supporters "deplorables). Trump never criticized Clinton's supporters, just Clinton, other Republican candidates, and other people who attacked him.
By not pleasing donors, he was not dependent on the large donors that Clinton was dependent on.
Her donors wanted lower STEM wages, wanted lower working class wages which they achieved through attempting to triple the number of H1-B Visas, and to continue the ongoing H1-B Visa abuse (to lower STEM wages of Americans) or to increase low-wage immigration or give people who came here illegally amnesty.
Clinton, who gave 3 talks for $675,000 to Goldman, the icon both Wall Street and the financial crisis, *in private without the media invited* was beholden to globalists who put American workers second to profits.
Trump put Americans first because he knew that was the right thing to do. He has cracked down on H1-B Visa abuse and combatted amnesty of people living in his country illegally.
5
No, Trump “stooped” to say much more vile things about women, minorities, the disabled, veterans, the “uneducated”, and he continues to do so, targeting anyone he assumes is not part of his base. And as time has shown, at least half of Trump supporters are deplorable.
@David MD
"despite that, he never stooped as low as Clinton to call half of her supporters "deplorables"
It was half of trump supporters, and she puled her punch. She should have said the "despicables."
Based on Trump's questionable, dubious and less than stellar actions and words since he stole, I mean took office two years ago, I am convinced that he has always been more enamored with the title and idea of being president than actually being the president and all that the job is saddled with. I mean, during his very first days in office, he stated that he had no idea just how hard the job was or would be. Good grief - it's pretty clear he had no idea what he was getting into yet lacked the wherewithal to resign. I think the notion that he beat Hillary Clinton is what mattered more to him than being elected president.
3
@Marge Keller Margie, exactly how did he steal the election? Or don’t you believe in the Constitution?
That Trump did not expect to win seems a reasonable guess. The speculation that he did not want to win, however, seems much more tenuous. He broke numerous laws, and tried to cover up those actions (rather than publicize them) in order to win. That is a sign of desperation to win, not to get publicity.
6
Every time he did something outrageous, he must have been thinking surely this will derail my candidacy. Then it made his base happier! So then, he tried again - surely no one will stand for this. But then they did! It seemed that he truly was trying everything he could to not be elected. But no matter how egregious he kept packing in crowds. I used to think he was just entertaining himself with the adulation, but now, what a mess we are in.
2
I can believe that running for office was initially a publicity stunt for Trump.
But I think the reason why he hasn’t played by the rules is simply that he never has, and so far he’s gotten away with it.
7
If The Trump presidency teaches us anything it is that constitutional changes need to be made to the electoral process.
1) It is time for the Electoral College to be relegated to the dustbin of history. It never served the purpose that the founders intended. (See Federalist Paper #68). Instead, it became a tool of southern slave holding states to equalize their votes with the more populous north. Let the popular vote be the rule.
2) Require certain prerequisites for the job. Every major corporation or institution requires prior experience or certain levels of educationt. Why can't the US do the same for the highest office in the land. A candidate must have successfully served at least one full term in an elected government position. A masters or doctorate in law or government would be nice too.
3) All candidates running for any federal office must submit ten years of tax returns, period.
4) All candidates must be prepared to fully separate from business ventures prior to the election. If they win, separation would be automatic.
5) Complete background checks on all candidates should be carried out by a non-partisan agency overseen by a bi-partisan congressional commission.
6) No nepotism!
Our suffering should not be in vain We can learn and move forward and assure the rest of the world that a Trump can never happen again. Just as our Founding Fathers intended.
(I urge everyone to read Hamilton's Federalist Paper #68.
You will laugh, you will cry. Seriously)
3
@Larry...Before y'all rush to Google to find FP #68, look up Mr. Khan and borrow a copy of the US Constitution from him. The collective intent of "our Founding Fathers" is manifested in the Constitution, not in any other documents. The Electoral College was working just fine in 1932, 1936, 1940, 1944, 1948, 1960, 1964, 1976, 1992, 1996, 2008 and 2012. It's hard to believe that it became dustbin of history overnight. But, Tuesday, November 8, 2016, was quite a night. A real tough night for losers.
If, in fact, Trump didn't actually want to be president, it only serves to underscore his abuse of and disrespect for the American electoral system and the American people for his own personal gain and advantage. If true, it reinforces the common perception that Trump is not a serious person, let alone being unworthy of the office.
2
Not really sure the point of this conjecture? What if he didn't think he would be president or was shocked he won? He's served half his term and we're a divided mess whether he wanted to be president or not. Lets focus on rebuilding and putting the united back in u.s.a. (that means not hating every single trump voter too - otherwise that means this game will just keep repeating until we all lose).
5
I agree with one thesis of this column, that Trump never expected to be president and his shortcomings as president were the outcome, but I don't believe they completely precluded him from being a different president than he has been.
As has been regularly noted, Donald Trump was more or less a moderate NY Democrat prior to his most recent run for the presidency. Had he pursued a moderate Democratic agenda not only could he have brought good people in to work for him he could have gotten enough Democratic and Republican members of Congress to support it.
Knowing his own deficiencies he could have brought people in to fill those holes. And he could have gotten enough of the country to support a moderate agenda so that there would not have been an insistence to open the doors on his skeleton filled closet, had he not brought Trump business practices into the White House.
Donald Trump had a shot at fixing this country and getting us all to go along with it, but he didn't have enough faith in us or himself to pull it off.
As long as he remains in office, this opportunity, as unlikely as it may seem, still exists. Not so much because of qualities in him, but in the qualities in us as Americans.
4
in my overlapping circles in NYC there was someone who worked for the Trump Org and he often said when Trump was running that inside the company it was well understood that Trump was doing this for the publicity and never wanted nr intended to be president.
5
@Nathan...Thank you for not revealing my name, Nathan. I would be fired in a New York second. Golf next Wednesday? Trump's course, of course.
"Two years into his presidency, the rest of us know it, too." The rest of us knew Trump wasn't fit for the job when he declared his candidacy in front of that rented audience.
12
All the more reason to bring out the best of Trump instead of the worst.
But that would have taken wisdom, not a marketable trait in this, the best democracy money can buy.
Frank is correct. Trump never planned to be Prez . He ran as a publicity stunt. And must wonder at night how he got to the White House. Meanwhile, the republic has not fallen, there will be an election in less than two years and life will go on. I do wonder what everyone will write about when he is gone
2
I'm a big fan of Frank Bruni, and I usually agree with his insightful opinions. Today's column is not inaccurate, but to focus upon the issue of whether Trump planned to be president, as the real revelation of the Buzzfeed article, while downplaying the Mueller dispute of its accuracy is disingenuous and reflects a bias (which happens to be one that I share) that weighs information that supports it more heavily than information that contradicts it. The real revelation here is what appears to be genuine fake news (a new term?) that had the power to, at least momentarily, capture the front pages of the media and the center of political controversy. As a journalist, he ought to focus on the shortcomings and dishonesty this appears to represent within his own profession, which is as important to those of us who rely upon journalistic integrity to inform our opinions, as is presidential chicanery.
4
Whether Trump did not really want to become President or even believed that he might win are questions posed in order to understand, but hopefully not defend, how and why he continued business practices, during his campaign and once installed in the White House, which disrespected the rule of law and flagrantly broke with constitutional protocols and established procedures. The answers to those questions pale in importance to what was always clear. The man's character and insatiable ego have always been defined by an ethically and morally bereft compass further compromised by willful disregard for the truth, especially when a deeper comprehension of the facts require time and effort.
3
Trump seemed to understand that winning was a long shot. But he absolutely wanted to - as evidenced by his efforts the last two weeks of the campaign. And his combativeness in office shows that he does believe he is competent to make judgements.
His lack of planning a transition I think is in more line with his assumption that being President would be easy for him; which is another way of saying, he didn't understand what he was getting into.
5
Absolutely nothing here is new. Everything in this column was patently clear on November 9, 2016 to those of us who were paying any attention. The folly of Trump's presidency lies squarely in the laps of all the voters who either didn't understand this or who brushed it aside and said, "Let's just see what happens when we throw a metaphorical bomb into the bureaucratic system." Oh, and all those who were too lazy to vote one way or the other.
11
Turns out that it, in fact, it doesn’t matter that “he’d paid off women with whom he’d had affairs, that he’d dispatched Cohen on so many unsavory errands, that he’d surrounded himself with such shady characters, that he refused to release his tax returns, that he forged ahead with the Trump International Hotel in Washington, that he vulgarly insulted the very lawmakers a president would need to collaborate with and that he surrendered any claim to moral authority by trafficking in racism and xenophobia. There would be no consequences....”. So far, no consequences, and there’s a growing consensus that the nation would be better off if he avoided impeachment, finished his term, and merely lost reelection. Looks like the joke’s on us.
11
Another confirmation of the words of H L Mencken:
No one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American Public
19
Even the Electoral College/Trump University leader knows that the public will soon see him as the "empty barrel" that he is, and learn of the countless souls he has hurt and left in his wake. And what a pitiful wake he will have.
5
Whether or not Trump instructed Cohen to lie, he certainly never corrected Cohen's initial false testimony to Congress.
7
I felt that his plan was to become the anti president with a full time spot on Fox, shouting at the nation nightly. Plenty of ghost written books to sell, as well as some snake oil.
One of my biggest letdowns is that, in admitting this to myself, I admit that I have become a conspiracy theorist.
4
I'm glad to see this profile of Trump put so comprehensively and succinctly. I've believed it since the election—and I've asserted this kind of case in many comments to NYTimes articles (i.e., that the real estate salesman never intended to win, thus is incompetent), before the cited books came out with the same.
I recall video of Trump the night of the election, in his hotel room, utterly slack-jawed that he had won. Then he came out with his family and team to mouth what one is to mouth: "I will be president of ALL Americans..." Then I imagine that smirk of his. It's like W.C. Fields, snidely advising "Never give a sucker an even break."
And in my imagination, tomorrow's "Big Announcement" by him is going to be. "Hey, folks, game is up. I was only kidding. Pence will take over. I'm joining Melania in Florida for golf—permanently."
2
He is a boon to the GOP. However much embarrassment and pain he causes to the reputation of our country and our citizens, for them, it's worth it. Both for the money and the opportunity to be openly racist. They've pined for this for years. The Steve King tsk tsk is all for show. Yesterday a GOP representative shouted out that one of his colleagues, with a Latin sounding name, born in the USA, should go back to Puerto Rico. The GOP Senators will never ever convict POTUS, after the House impeaches. They admire him.
4
Dear Mr. Bruni,
Have I missed something or were we going to try and stay away from Trump stories that are 'non-stories' this year ?
Just another day of waiting for 100 of the most powerful people in the world - our elected public servants in the US Senate - to rise up and get a spending bill that is veto-proof and override the President to re-open the shutdown branches of our government, OURS NOT HIS !!!
And waiting for Muller and his team to maybe someday finish their job. (Does anybody know how much we the people are paying Muller and staff per hour for their work ?)
While we wait see if there is any hope for our occasionally wonderful country can we please not waste our time on speculating about what one of the worst leaders of a any country in the world may or may not have been thinking, eating, tweeting or doing ?
I really do need to cancel my on-line subscription !
2
One story making the rounds during the campaign was that Trump and Bannon were going to start a right wing media network after their failed presidential bid. This, I believe, was Trump's idea of a dream job. Sitting in Individual Number One Tower in NY tweeting off about every subject. Doesn't get any better than that.
3
I completely agree, but I had another suspicion. Through the first year of his presidency, I suspected he was preparing excuses to resign. I thought he was panicked by winning and not being equipped to actually manage the responsibilities of the office, and he was looking for a way to get out while blaming others for driving him out.
I thought the best prospect was financial matters, with him and his family gorging themselves at the public trough in any way they could (at present probably over $100,000 in golf cart rental fees at his hotels for the secret service agents protecting him, for example). If he was forced to relinquish control of his Washington hotel, if Congress subpoenaed his tax records, if he was forced to truly give up financial control of his investments, I thought he would jump at the chance to quit, blame his enemies for unfairly driving him out, and then publicly moan for years about how he had been mistreated, thereby keeping himself in the headlines.
Unfortunately, none of those financial excuses arose, he became more enamored with the power and attention he received, and he will now try to milk the position for everything he can get for as long as he can.
2
Since 1992, we have been in a cycle where this country changes the party of the presidency every 8 years, a fact that was very well known to every major politician going into the 2016 election. That's why you saw 18 people run for the Republican nomination and only saw 3 people run for the Democratic nomination (including the mayor who dropped out almost immediately). The new president entering the oval office in 2017 was going to be a Republican unless something really strange happened. That strange thing was almost the nomination of Donald Trump by the Republicans. But, another strange thing allowed him to win the electoral college - the nomination by the Democrats of a person against whom a negative propaganda campaign had been waged mercilessly and masterfully for over 25 years, Hillary Clinton. Despite the incredible amount of analysis by the media as to how Donald Trump became president, you will not read or hear anything that explains it better than the fact that the current "grass is always greener" electorate of this country cannot stomach having the same party in the White House for more than 8 years. The harder question to answer is how did he win the Republican nomination in the first place.
6
@Albert Hockenberry: Bullying is the real religion of the US. All the other Republican candidates were wusses.
Michael Wolff's "Fire and Fury" describes the shock on election night when Trump was announced the winner. It seems very plausible that the candidacy was a publicity ploy that Trump would then parlay into some new venture like a Trump News Network, perhaps with Roger Ailes or David Pecker. Unfortunately for him — and especially for everyone else — the Russians and a few thousand voters in the right places called his bluff.
The controversy surrounding Trump's Russia dealings makes one wonder whether Putin put him up to running in the first place. After Russian oligarchs laundered money through Trump properties for years, and with Trump eager to build his Moscow Trump Tower, the Russian leader might have called in a favor.
163
@WTK
Now that Trump has the MSM in retreat and rightfully humbled he's going to that much harder to beat. In a perverse way the media might have helped him win in 2020. Yesterday fanatical display by CNN, MSNBC and others, including the three new Democratic Committee Chairs and several presidential candidates, showed how biased the anti-Trump media really is, and probably expanded his base.
3
it was so obvious that he was blown away the night of the election. he was the proverbial deer in headlights. he appeared deeply unhappy and shell shocked.
8
@Frank Leibold
'Now that Trump has the MSM in retreat and rightfully humbled he's going to that much harder to beat.'
Every person on reputable news outlets prefaced their remarks with the caveat that IF the Buzzfeed report was true then it might mean x, y, or z. No doubt Fox misreported that or you misunderstood their portrayal.
Mueller's statement was cryptic and not a statement that there was no truth to the matter. Only that there was some type of inaccuracy involved. All of the appropriate Democratic House committee chairmen said they will need to confirm this reporting and pledged to investigate fully.
But, of course, Trump has northing to fear from a full and fair investigation. That's why he's tried in every manner possible to interfere and compounded his guilt with obstruction of justice.
Btw, I didn't notice a Trump denial that he paid $50k to falsify online polls and didn't report it as a campaign expense. The list of known Trump crimes is getting longer.
10
"Two years into his presidency, the rest of us know it, too."
And yet, he remains in office.
Congress won't resolve the crisis. The majority of the country is suffering the tyranny of the undemocratic minority. America is broken.
It is left to the people to fix it. No other of our institutions can.
5
I remember well seeing David Brooks talking on PBS NewsHour (I watch it in France via YouTube), a few weeks before the 2016 election, talking about what had happened to the Republican Party.
Brooks said, and I agreed, the Republicans would be tarnished for years by Trump’s candidacy.
It was doubtful, a bit, even, that they could even continue.
And then Trump won.
But even so, I still think Brooks was right. Maybe there will still be a few Republican senators from states like Wyoming. North Dakota. Et cetera. And they will exist too in The House of Representatives.
But it will be 20 years before they control the House of Representatives again. Or 30.
They, the Republicans, have offended too many people.
5
The corollary would be that, other than the ego-deflating embarrassment, maybe Trump wouldn't mind being impeached and removed from office. Some of the actions he has taken are so brazen and outrageous that he seems to be testing the patience of Congress generally and Republicans in particular. The latest is denying Nancy Pelosi use of a military plane for government business while allowing his wife to use the same plane for travel to a vacation.
Donald Trump had considered running for president off and on since the late 1980's, complaining about government policies that he saw as unhelpful. Clearly, he didn't think through all of the ramifications of following through. The responsibilities of president and even presidential candidate are so much weightier than head of a private company.
3
His intentions to not win were obvious to anyone by the way Trump insulted the Mexican President and increasingly hostile and insulting tone during the campaign. I told my husband, he and the Clintons have been friends for years, he wants to hand victory to her. But the Russians had plans of their own.
P.S. It also didn't matter that Putin and the Russians control him and help him. But he won and they do.
2
No mystery here: a country obsessed with celebrity and materialism elected the epitome of its ambition.
14
So now we have 24/7 reality TV on cable news.
Such small minds! Persistence may be a virtue. But there are only so many times that a little boy can cry 'wolf!' and maintain his credibility. And haven't you looked outside lately? The anti-Trumpers have lost and can't get over it. An apology would be in order, but that would be a level or two above their class grade.
1
My opinion has always been that he ran for President because NBC was about to cancel "The Apprentice" and he didn't want to see headlines that said, "Trump, You're Fired!" So he ran for President to provide himself with a reason for leaving the show.
2
If Trump "knew" he wasn't going to win, why would he even bother "[paying] off women with whom he’d had affairs?" Nope, Trump ran to win, but he had no idea of what winning would mean. Now, much too late, he has a better idea.
4
Why does it matter?
We know Trump believes 1 + 1 = whatever he says it is off the top of his head. His idea of chess is jumping wildly about the chess board screaming "checkmate!" before the game starts because Jared told him the winner always says checkmate.
He has no capacity to see or think ahead. So I doubt if he thought he was going to lose -- or win -- because his brain is wired for instant gratification. As he said himself, when he wants something he just grabs it -- and he knows as a celebrity "they" will let him. That's as close to thinking ahead as he gets: his mouthwatering at the prospect of a Big Mac, the easy acclaim and cheers when he says "Lock her up."
He thinks on his feet, replete with bone spurs. He couldn't assemble anything from Ikea because that requires thinking ahead step by step. Owner's manual? Trump thinks it means an undocumented Mexican.
The only significance that can be attached to Trump's surprise at his own election is how bad his judgment is and how he gets everything wrong, even about his own election.
So Trump treated the presidential campaign as a nifty opportunity at brand promotion, promising anything and everything to everyone.
It prompts the moot question: why would anyone sell something just to make a sale and secure bragging rights without having an actual product or service to brag about?
He admits himself he's at his best following his gut.
At least that explains his buffet of burgers.
3
Trump only wanted "Presidential Stardom".
His evil genius recognized that there were millions of losers who wanted a scapegoat for their own failings.
I think it was Oscar Wilde who said, "There are two tragedies in life, not getting what you want, and getting what you want".
3
OK so he wanted to lose but he won and we lose and keep on losing. Our country will lie in ruin after he has sated his ego and his brain has finally dried up. How do we fix the enormous devastation left behind. It may well equal the kind of psychological damage caused by 9/11. There is a sense of frustration and anger out here that we have not seen for a long time and there is no healing so far. The bitterness will continue to grow. Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
2
Frank quotes from the Wolff book regarding the 2016 campaign “Losing would work out for everybody,”.
Unfortunately Trump winning in 2016 has not worked out for almost anybody. Very wealthy bodies and Trump family are the exceptions.
1
Trump as yet to hear the silence behind the Big bang.
He will.
1
What’s that say about a country and it’s people to elect someone who was in it for laughs? We are a mess.
2
And where does the GOP fall in all of this - the party that allowed such a huckster to represent their brightest and best ideals...to be their shining star deserving of presidential powers?!
It seems like the party's powers were either asleep at the switch - bigly - to allow themselves to be conned into giving the nomination to this style-but-no-sustance candidate, or else they were in on the take.
Fast forward to today and even though Trump has revealed his abject lack of suitability for the office of president, many GOP elected officials continue to bow to the golden calf, hoping to share in Trump's Midas Touch with voters.
Shameful, and sad, and about time for electoral reform to avoid a travesty such as this ever happening again.
3
You remember that old saying "it seemed like a good idea at the time"? and the next morning....
I think that's what happened to many people in 2016. DJT talked a good game, and we probably didn't really believe most of what he was saying. He knew that and we knew that. "but hey! we sure don't like what's going on in Washington, so what the heck. I'm voting for Trump!"
Like Trump, those folks probably didn't believe he would win. And the campaign was a great party anyway.
But it's morning and do we have a terrible hangover!
So another old saying: "just because you can doesn't mean you should!" Sure you can consume lots of intoxicants and it seems fun at the time, but the high won't last.
Elections have consequences, and now we're crashing.
3
The most terrifying thing about this article is what is says about us as a country that we chose to elect someone running a joke campaign as a publicity stunt.
6
In 2015 or so, I wrote emails in response to various columns one of which was couched in psychological language from a framework of the same. They were never published. But if I addressed the issue at hand from another framework, the email was published. Fast forward a year or so when Trump profound unsuitability for the position of the leader of the globe,became evident to everyone one else (save a few psychologically sophisticated readers), my psychological responses were accepted. Once it was evident to the most staunch republican that their chosen candidate was seriously emotionally impaired, his behavior made sense. Of course the rallies were enticing, filling the huge narcissistic hole that burdens him. However, just as an addict needs an even bigger fix, so Trump needed bigger rallies, with drama, stirred crowds and you know the rest. He wasn't going to give up his businesses, his mob way of functioning, he was never going to be more presidential just because he was the republican nominee. All the mass denial even from democrats was useless and delayed facing the truth. Columns regurgitating the obvious do not help in moving the country forward in how to deal with the "Man who would not be King". Our options are limited and it is obvious that the bullet will have to be bitten. Can the republicans pull it together to tie the bell on the cat?
1
Trump might not want to be president but he knows that, at this point in the game, it's the only thing keeping him out of the courts and perhaps an orange prison jumpsuit. Like the corrupt Soviet premiers who (usually) ruled till they died, and like the current Russian dictator who secured his position by making a mutual-protection deal with his corrupt predecessor, Boris Yeltsin, Trump believes that he cannot be touched as long as he holds the levers of power. Facing impeachment and possible conviction in the Senate, will Trump go quietly as Nixon did almost 45 years ago? I wouldn't bet on it.
3
If Trump was so uncomfortable about the scrutiny that winning would bring he could have declined the Presidency, saying "just kidding." His huge ego, however, is much too large for that to have happened regardless of his discomfort.
76
@EMiller Yep. Many points at which he could have, should have “declared victory and gone home” during the campaign. My husband and I were counting them as the campaign season moved along. He just couldn’t bear to give up that yummy drug of attention.
7
It doesn't matter what BuzzFeed says, I don't know why anyone pays the slightest attention to that publication. This idea might be correct but BuzzFeed would not make for a reliable citation.
4
No offense Mr. Bruni, but as you say at the end of your article, you’re just now figuring this out? I thought it was transparently obvious during the campaign, and it didn’t take a particularly perceptive person to see Trump’s awkwardness, even embarrassment, when meeting with Obama at the White House after the win.
2
" Rare is the person who finds a whole new skill set at his stage of the game, and rarer still is the person who finds a whole new set of principles."
At the age of 70, Donald Trump the candidate was the same Donald Trump who indicated (1998) avoiding STD's was his "personal Vietnam".
Millions saw glimpses of that persona on the fake "The Apprentice". Yet*this* was what millions wanted- to replace one of the most intelligent, articulate and thoughtful men occupying the White House.
There are so many variables that brought the nation a Donald Trump and historians (and doctoral candidates) will still be examining the reasons decades from now.
Other nations have experienced worse. Our angst is; we believed America was always "better than this." We now know- we're not.
11
@Candlewick: Trumpism is millenarianism. Doom is inevitable, so party on.
I don’t think Trump wanted to be President and that he was brand building. I think now he’s tryiing to use Presidential powers to avoid being held accountable for his actions.
3
This has always seemed plausible, but I think Russia complicates the theory. We can assume he was using his standing as a presidential candidate to convince the Russians to give him favorable terms on a hotel, but if he lost the election he lost all his leverage. He may have a better brand in the US, I guess, but he had nothing to offer the Russians except a few stale intelligence briefings. To get the kind of payout he wanted from Russia, Trump had to follow through.
Manafort and Flynn were in the same position as Trump. All three needed to keep money flowing from Russia to maintain their lifestyles. And, each brought unique skill sets to the campaign that, coupled with Russian resources to hack the Democrats and infect social media, could amplify Trump’s message and keep it one step ahead of Clinton’s. This seems like a lot of effort and expense for a team that always figured it would lose. And a lot of risk, because, again, what do these three have to offer the Russians if they lost?
So, perhaps it’s not that Trump wanted to win but that he had to win.
1
@M: The Trump brand is no good anymore. People want his name off their homes.
Well, maybe not "two years into it." I knew it the day after the election. Dramatically reinforced by the inaugural. I think my golden retriever could be a better president that this character.
7
@Dan Moerman Any golden retriever, randomly chosen, would be better than trump.
The one thing that doesn't make sense with this argument is that, if he didn't want to be president and still doesn't, why did he set up a re-election committee during his first week in office? Not only did he proceed to assume the title of President, he wants to re-up in 2020. Does this make any sense? I mean, he can't be having a good time.
5
He’s still in business but HQ’s is 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. More power than he could have ever imagined or achieved in business. That’s why donors, special interests and corporations always want to curry favor and influence from the WH, Congress and Senate.
2
Trump just sees a way to amass more money. Where did the hundred million dollars earmarked for his inauguration go? Did it just vanish?
2
@Susan
They say the best things in life are free, but you can tell it to the birds and bees!
1
When Toto pulls back the curtain and the Wizard of Oz is revealed to all as an old man yelling into a mic the look on the face of the old man is one of resignation: I have finally been revealed as a huckster and phony.
Through massive effort by the Justice Department (even though they work for Trump technically), the Special Prosecutor and his lawyer staff, the journalists and commentators the curtain has been slowly pulled back to reveal our own breed of the Wizard of Oz, Donald T Trump. He is a person of amazing faults and short comings. He is a product of our TV/Celebrity culture. He is our mess.
He has no ability to lead the nation, any nation. He has no ability to bring people together over any issue. He has no respect for our history, our institutions nor American people, or any people.
Once again Frank Bruni puts forth the case with clarity, facts and sensible reason. Each one of us must do what we can to rid our government of Donald T Trump through lawful process and the resolve Americans have shown in the past they have in times of deep trouble. We can and we will do this for us, our children and our neighbors both close and far. Now is the time to stand up and be counted on.
14
@Harry Schaffner: Trump is a compulsive publicity hound, the opposite of the reclusive Wizard.
My only question here is how we, as a nation, can skip over Pence and install Nancy Pelosi as #46 when Trump’s time in office has met its brutal, self-inflicted end. Fortunately, the more pious Pence pretends to be, the easier it will be to prove him to be just another Trump con artist.
7
@David: Gerald Ford was Speaker of the House until he was picked to replace Nixon's crooked VP before Nixon himself resigned.
1
In 2016, the great Aimee Mann told us exactly this - that Trump didn't want to win and never expected it. Her brilliant "Can't You Tell" is the song, right there on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biMXbtMp-GQ
70
@Pedro G I had never heard this song. Thank you so much for noting it in your comment.
@Pedro Great song, thanks for sharing.
@Pedro G Thanks for posting this.
Mr. Bruni is spot on here. There is a video clip claimed to be of his expression upon hearing he's winning or has won; the clip shows a man utterly dismayed, albeit briefly. I wish I could find the reference to it because if it is really a clip showing such a moment it should be shown again and again.
There is another clip I remember which showed Trump the night before the election, isolated on a platform declaring that he was all alone begging for votes. Again this implies he thought he wouldn't win. If only...!!!
4
I've been checking the NYT web page since this morning to see what they have to say about this story from BuzzFeed. Now it appears in this opinion piece. And only here.
Strange. I guess the NYT is not entirely buying it.
1
@reader: perhaps you overlooked the article at the top of the Web feed? It still takes time to gather facts, digest information, and write articles—especially when they directly dispute another publication’s assertions. This era of “instant news” has skewed our expectations. If the Friday night statement went unreported for 24 hours, that might be negligent or worse. But it takes time to make contacts and interview sources so that truth (remember “truth”?) has a decent chance of being published.
1
@reader:"Inaccuracy" happens here too.
Trump did not think he could ever will the elections and all the polls backed up his position. It does make sense that Trump started the candidate adventure as a branding campaign. But I do not think for a minute that Trump did not want to be President. Trump would want to be the Emperor of the World if he could.
4
A little story told by the Rabbi from Nazareth who charlatans like Jerry Falwell, Jr., falsely claim as their Savior:
"The ground of a certain rich man brought forth abundantly. He reasoned within himself, saying, 'What will I do, because I don't have room to store my crops?' He said, 'This is what I will do. I will pull down my barns, and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. I will tell my soul, "Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years. Take your ease, eat, drink, be merry."' "But God said to him, 'You foolish one, tonight your soul is required of you. The things which you have prepared—whose will they be?' So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
A fitting epitaph for the fleeting notoriety of one Donald J. Trump.
6
40% support is rigged. Either they are brainwashed, or, that 40% poll, is rigged.
4
How I yearn for the day when I can wake up, turn on the news/open the paper and not be disgusted and/or embarrassed by the debasement that Trump and his bottom-feeders have brought upon this country. I'd prefer to see the sleaze be voted out of office in 2020, but I would gladly settle for impeachment and removal for subordnation of perjury.
9
@Nostaw
Half the country cast votes for him.
He won an election.
Did you ever consider that perhaps the bottom feeders are those who didn’t vote for him?
Which side has all the welfare queens- Republicans or Democrats?
Life imitates art. “The Candidate” with Robert Redford and Peter Boyle explored this very topic. Who really knows if trump’s run was for real or not. It doesn’t matter. We’ve handed the power of the American presidency over to one of the last people in the world who should be anywhere near it. How to get him out of of the White House without destroying what’s left of our democracy is our greatest challenge.
10
So many of the responses do not acknowledge the power of Cambridge Analytica, Russia, Facebook, Sinclair Broadcast, Fox, and the other elements that contributed to a 'fixed' election. It is urgent that we not follow the Republican party and shrug off this destruction of our voting privilege. Where is the investigation? This election was more destructive to our country than 911. Look at Rudy Giuliani now. I wasn't a fan of his then but I am not happy to see his clown act laid bare. Please, newspeople, don't give him air. He is not news. "News" is letting us know the steps not being taken to repair the damage done to the voting system. The glee taken over the destruction of our good faith is frightening.
10
Nobody was more surprised that Donald Trump was elected than Donald Trump -- in fact - he was probably astounded by the results --
The real lesson here - which many leftist progressives and the still-bitter Bernie Sanders camp are still in denial over - is the fact that to a majority of Americans - the idea of Hillary Clinton becoming their next President was so distasteful, they preferred casting their vote for the equivalent of a carnival barker and Flim-Flam Man --
This should be seen as very, very important information - and an extremely valuable lesson - as liberal-progressive Democrats - along with the media - decide to select the next "Great Progressive Hope" as their Heir-Apparent darling -- lest they - once again - marginalize those people who reside somewhere in the middle - without a "Social Agenda" -
Frankly - I think - given the choice - the voters would have elected Homer Simpson, rather than see Hillary Clinton get the job --
Although - you can't argue the point that Homer Simpson would probably be preferable to the guy we have now...
6
@Howard G
Hillary Clinton won the majority by about 3 million votes in 2016.
The only reason any voter would find Hillary Clinton unacceptable as a presidential candidate is Trump’s relentless “Crooked Hillary” suite of lies. Say it often enough and stupid people will start to believe it. Still, Hillary Clinton did win three million more votes than Trump. The Electoral College owes this nation an apology, at the very least.
The GOP did not demand he be vetted and now they are paying for it. I hope they all come crashing down.
8
Makes sense except for one little thing: why did he go for the win? Is it possible her did not even make this call, and Putin made it for him?
3
Then why is he running again?
Shame of not running tarnishes his brand?
Someone should tell him that showing enough insight not to run again would save his brand. I can’t stand him, but I think admitting a mistake like this would actually save his brand.
It’s the only way I would ever step foot in one of his properties.
2
When reality TV show "Survivor" first aired 18 years ago , I said to friends this looks like trouble. "What's wrong with it?", they replied, "It's just a show".
A show that divides people into tribes; encourages them to rely on their worst traits and instincts to use, abuse, deceive, manipulate, etc., both friend and foe -- all so one exhausted soul can emerge the winner. Viewers, many of them adolescents and young adults (and eventually, voters) are amused by the cunning and treachery; enjoy alternating between sympathizing and despising the "characters"; and become vicarious contestants in a dog-eat-dog world.
Four years later comes "The Apprentice", another show about division and elimination. Two business teams compete. A top executive fires employees until only one remains. The victor is rewarded with cash and dispatched out to the corporate jungle to reap ever more.
From Wikipedia: "Producer Mark Burnett approached Trump about a new television show. Although Trump was skeptical, stating that reality television 'was for the bottom-feeders of society', Burnett proposed that Trump appear as himself, a successful businessman with a luxurious lifestyle." (Burnett also produces "Survivor". He's a British immigrant. Look him up).
Stir in Fox News and voila!: Proof-of-Concept. So the GOP stages a freak-show candidacy, preying on fear, mistrust and shock (and those in VIP seats are more entertained than cheap-seaters).
Trump wanted to lose; Bannon, others knew how to win.
10
@E You and I thought the same thing about "Survivor." I thought at the time that it was a gross concept, reinforcing the worst characteristics of the human personality. I still think that about all of them. They are superficial, vain, and exploitative. I'm concerned that big parts of our national life reflect the ethos of these shows.
It all reminds me of "The Running Man," a Richard Bachman (i.e. Stephen King) short story made into a movie in the late 80s starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Richard Dawson. I always thought of that story/movie as a metaphor for what we don't want to become. I hope we haven't.
1
The super sad thing is - how intense the dislike of Hillary Clinton was that created an environment where this was even remotely possible. Many people disliked her, not because she was a woman, but rather because it was more of the same. Every single poll said it was a "change election." People wanted change and the DNC forced Mrs. Clinton on the electorate. Yes she is smart, and experienced and strong - but the public wanted change, someone who hadn't been part of the political machine for a lifetime. So by defying that, and assuming that people would vote for the Democrat because they were the Democrat .... well, look what happened. And seriously - what was her platform? It's like what happened when they served up John Kerry because it was his turn. Even with the Russian cheating and trolling - it should have been a landslide for whomever ran against DT. Anyway, it's all pretty sad and embarrassing.
2
If even for a moment you were in doubt about choosing between the establishment and DJT, you should not be allowed to vote due to lack of intelectual ability.
1
So the joke's on Trump, who didn't want to win; and on us, who have to suffer through his sabotage?
3
Or rather, he wanted to become president but not be president. Other billionaires have more money, Bloomberg became mayor, Gates wants to eradicate malaria, but he could become president! It’s all about ego. And he clearly has run the campaign and his administration like his business, where he can. Incompetent vetting — if the investigation into ties with Russia was so critical why not ask Sessions before nominating him? He didn’t/hasn’t released his tax returns because his base doesn’t care. It’s the same incompetence and arrogance and deceit as in his career. Except that now, he must share power, answer to others, and he can’t compel secrecy.
His ego, not money, drove him to vie to become president. He doesn’t think about being president not because he didn’t think he’d win but because he’s lazy. He pays as much attention to detail in governing as he did his businesses. And he has not a strategic hair on his head. He only knows how to react and cannot think two steps ahead
4
The most frightening thing about the whole mess, is that once he is out of office, and I don't think anyone actually believes he will EVER go to jail (and even if he did, it wouldn't be for life, mores the pity)and instead it will be our punishment for electing him, that the media will never stop giving him air time and column inches. He was made by the media and they will never let him go now. Sinking into obscurity will never happen for DJT.
3
Too bad for Trump that he apparently had never seen "The Producers".
The entire show - from campaign inception to Putin's selection - is nothing more than "Producers" redux.
2
Not having the experience to successfully complete a task never stopped him. He’s crashed and burned multiple times. But he hasn’t had to hear “NO” his whole life. So why wouldn’t he try to run his business and be President? So far, so good! He’s doing just that.
2
This is smart and well written. And, I believe it’s the closest to the truth than most other theories out there.
Trump is a carnival worker. Marketeer. Snake-oil salesman.
I remember, post-election, reporting about his shock when he found out he had won the election. You could see it on his face after his 1:1 with Obama, before he took office—he looked as though he had been hit over the head with a brick. Stunned.
3
This column seems out of focus, since Trump accepted the job, along with the remarkable crew of bloodsuckers that he appointed to numerous responsible posts. The issue is how to dethrone him, but Pence first, just as Agnew was first.
4
I have no doubt that Trump did not expect to become President. However there are many more possible scenarios involving the November 2015 Trump Moscow Tower Letter of Intent than the simple "If I didn't get elected why not . . ." Trump theme. One would be the Trump’s hope in November 2015 that he would be elected and could end the sanctions that would have made the construction of the Tower difficult. Another would be that he thought he could use his candidacy for leverage with Putin to get the deal done. Then there are the possibilities that he was duped. It is possible that the real player on the Russian side was Oleg Derapaska and Derapaska’s goal was to get a $500 million loan using the Letter of Intent. Or perhaps Cohen and/or Sater were content with a $4 million payday and their scheme was essentially an advance fee scheme which the Russians were happy to go along with because they got $500 million out of the deal.
My guess is that Trump would rather be seen as a criminal than as a dupe.
1
In general, I agree with Bruni's perspective on Trump's motives for running.
But he left out one important reason: In Trump's view it was his traumatic humiliation in front of the Washington glitterati at the 2011 WH correspondents dinner. Obama and Seth Myers (the MC) mercilessly satirized his fantasy about running for President, and his apparent penchant for conspiracy theories and his reality TV show.
Trump couldn't slam his hand on the table and walk out. He had to sit there and take it. You have to believe Trump was livid, and I'm convinced it motivated him to "get even". He entered the race with a vengance intent on terrorizing his opponents, and visualized some day Obama handing him the keys to the WH.
1
It is clear to me that Mr. Bruni suffers from Trump Derangement Syndrome. I recognize that the more outrageous the allegations are, the more support those like Mr. Bruni receive.
Mr. Bruni has apparently not engaged in business activities. While Mr. Trump won the Republican nomination for President in 2016, he WAS UNDER NO ILLUSIONS THAT HE MIGHT WIN.
A review of polling indicates that the probability of Mr. Trump winning was less than 10%. Therefore, it was prudent for Mr. Trump, as the head of the Trump Organization, to pursue business opportunities during the campaign, since (in spite of what Mr. Bruni thinks) realistically Mr. Trump DID NOT EXPECT TO WIN. In many respects, he is AN ACCIDENTAL PRESIDENT.
This thought is further substantiated that Mr. Trump and his Transition Team did not identify ANYWHERE NEAR the number of people for high appointed federal office for ultimate US Senate confirmation that they should have.
The bottom line is despite Mr. Bruni's (and many other people in the know) reservations, the US Electoral System does not allow Do Overs. As difficult as it sounds, surviving the next two (2) years is more important than re-litigating the 2016 Presidential Election.
2
So, are voters going to blame the Republican Party apparatus for choosing Trump? What would that look like? Strange times ahead!
1
An entirely plausible perspective: Trump neither wanted to win nor thought he could. What does that tell you about how miserable a campaign Hillary Clinton and the Democrats ran? She lost to a candidate who had every intention of losing. How do you do that???Truly a sequel to The Producers.
2
Yep.
Thank you Mr Bruni, for the first column that has presented my theory of the disasterous Trump presidency. If our theory is correct, it should be easy to begin to look at the very earliest acts of the transition and see the immediate hand of Putin, guiding Trump thru policy pronouncements like the Muslim ban,the hyped up racist rhetoric, attacking the media and the FBI, and picking cabinet members. You can see the frantic efforts of Kushner to find a way to securely communicate with Putin without the CIA or FBI listening. Could it have been anyone BUT Putin who decided that Tillerson should be SOS? I doubt Trump even knew who the guy was before the election.
3
As a person who was paying attention to DT when he ran, and after, all I can say is, yup, knew it all along. He never wanted this, it was a gamble to boost his brand, nothing more. That a sizable number of people somehow thought that he was presidential material, I can only shake my head and wonder. Maybe Trump is America's karma. After years of cheap, violent, contentless culture (see, The Apprentice), lousy public education (see, dwindling civic knowledge on the part of the citizenry), poor diet, opioid addiction, and a general lack of curiosity about the world around them, this is what we get: President Chauncy Gardener, er, I mean Donald Trump.
3
Remember the Republican primary debates how Trump thoroughly enjoyed insulting his way to his nomination, sowing chaos, being the center of attention, and generally acting childish. His greatest supporters thoroughly enjoyed acting the same exact way, all those red states that take in far more federal welfare tax dollars, than they pay out. His supporters resent the elites of the east and west coasts. The biggest irony was that Trump is a member of those very coastal elites, they hate so much.
1
The Japanese have a saying: The nail that sticks up gets hammered.
Donald Trump wanted the ego boost and attention of a presidential candidate without the examination. This "accidental president" is about to get hammered.
3
Over the last several centuries, the Chinese have been haunted by the possibility of a "Bad Emperor." What was to be done?
Now, the Chinese are watching quietly while the USA deals with it's Bad Emperor.
2
Trump didn't want the presidency. Cameron didn't want Brexit and the earth wobbles on its axis. Is the Joker still at it?
1
I have to respectfully disagree. Losing would have made Trump look and feel like a loser, which is his biggest fear. I think he fully intended to win, so he coordinated with the Russians to achieve that goal. He does not act and speak with any decency because he was never raised that way. He was born with incredible privilege and watched his father and friends get away with fraud. What does anything really matter when you've had billions your whole life? When you can declare bankruptcy and just stiff everyone else and move on?
He probably saw a weak Democratic field and an opportunity to entrench his name and businesses. He saw that no president since Nixon had to pay any price whatsoever for misdeeds. He saw an ineffectual Congress that just rubber stamps what the president wants. And yes, Republicans more or less allowed Obama to wage war, invade, etc. with little oversight. Benghazi, Garland, and Obamacare grabbed the headlines, but nearly everything else quietly went through. The worse thing that could happen is Congress whines. Bush's war crimes? "Let's move on," said Obama and Pelosi.
I'm sure he finds this whole governing thing tedious and difficult since he is unqualified and ill-suited. That doesn't matter. His goal is not to be a good president. His goal is to increase his fortune and his name and offend those who wouldn't give him memberships to their country clubs, and to ruin whatever anyone else loves - because he can.
4
@Chad
Nah. As a long time local observer of Trump and his clan. Winning was not the real goal. Money and exposure after the election was their goal. If the vote had been close, and Trump scored some nice numbers, he'd have those "ratings." He'd also have the, "it was rigged" to cry and rant on about. In fact, he'd still be saying that today had he lost. He'd be on FOX, on Hannity - or better yet, his own Fox show - beating the rigged-horse to death.
He prefers being the pundit. The heavily made-up guy on the well-lit, gold encrusted, decorated sidelines, getting the attention and screaming (bad) opinions at the players on the court.
He's really not a doer, he's a bloviator. He's been selling a Brand and making easier money at that then being in the hotel/casino/golf course biz. BUT - had he lost, those business interests would have likely blossomed. (Unlike how they're failing now)
Trump would be bloviating all over various troublesome issues - and scoring points with a hungry fan-base, who would be yelling for him to repeat his run. He'd likely always be threatening to run again, scare the Repub candidates like he did the last time. They'd be seeking his support on his TV show. He'd put the Dems on constant defense, as he peppered them with insults and nic-names.
But at least he wouldn't have access to the "football." Couldnt impose tariffs.
Simply wasn't the leader of the free-world. Which would be a bigly blessing.
1
"He never really expected to be president."
This is an important insight, but not really new. Few people expected him to become president on the eve of election night, let alone back in the midst of the Republican primary.
Here is a parallel insight: The Russians probably did not expect him to be president either. They meddled of course, but they probably did not have better capacity to predict the surprise than people in the US did. The objectives of their meddling may well have been ones that would have been well served even if Hilary had won. E.g., to undermine credibility in the democratic process, not to rig the outcome.
4
He’s outsourced the vetting of federal judges to Leonardo Leo and the Federalist Society, and one consequence of that is that the Trump presidency will cast a shadow over our court system for years to come. His judges will challenge precedent and eliminate or curtail fundamental rights, like the right of privacy. Trump is also reshaping administrative law, by using his veto power to shape the Board of Veterans Appeals and the Social Security hearing process, something no president has done before. Whether this presidency was wanted or not, we are going to be paying for it for a very long time.
3
Scott Adams has been proposing on Periscope for sometime that Trump simply didn't expect to win and was covering his bases by continuing with real estate business plans accordingly.
2
"Sacrifice isn’t his strong suit.....He had neither the requisite knowledge nor experience to serve as president. Now we know he wasn’t prepared psychologically, either. His campaign wasn’t a rehearsal for civic leadership. It was a brand-burnishing interregnum, a time-limited adventure in egomania."
Best summation of the mess we're in that I've ever read. As usual, Bruni's crystalline prose gets to the essence.
But one thing I want to add is this: Trump may not have wanted to be president, but man, now there, how he loves it. Not the governing, mind you, as he's incapable.
But the pomp, the planes and helicopters, the salutes, the show. He's a cartoon president, complete with jutting jaw.
So how he's reacting as an entire lifetime of skating on the edge of the law, and often crossing it, goes under the microscope is making him absolutely crazy.
And scared--not an emotion he's ever had to feel much in his life as a two-bit developer with a big mouth in Manhattan.
Everything he disdained and pooh-poohed about the duties of the office is coming back to haunt him, action by action. It's driving him crazy, and making America frightened, as we should be, because with this man, there is no bottom for what he can and will do.
17
Thank you, Christine. You hit the nail right on the head.
If the debunked BuzzFeed story is, as the author asserts, "arguably the clearest evidence yet that Trump obstructed justice," then Trump has nothing to worry about.
1
If accurate, this piece reveals far more about tragic flaws in our electoral process than about Trump’s fitness for office, which most Americans doubted and rejected by their votes.
Postal employees undergo more intensive vetting, including a written examination and background checks.
5
@Misterbianco Perhaps Trump’s main contribution to our democracy is demonstrating that any fool with a pile of money and a loud megaphone can buy his way into the Oval Office.
Trump didn't expect to win, but he did, and now he loves the perks of the office, and sees no reason why he should actually do the job.
Everybody who didn't vote for Hillary on Election Day is complicit in this disaster.
10
Trump wanted or not after two years there is no Republican Party, it is trump Party now.
The rest are his puppets in the cabinet, with no values, no ethics, what they are so afraid of to stand up to him ?
Mitt Romney was one hope and now he is silent.
All the Senators won their seat in 2018 donald trump can not touch them, even the con man wins in 2020, which I hope not.
Can`t wait for Bobby Mueller to get donald trump.
4
Maybe he only RAN for President because Putin told him that was the price of a Moscow tower (or of not disclosing his decades of money-laundering Russian money).
Also, someone needs to investigate WHY Cyrus Vance overruled his career prosecutors' decision to prosecute Don, Jr. and Ivanka for fraud in about 2014. Pundits yesterday were saying the Trumps were widely known as cheats but had somehow managed to fly below the radar amd avoid prosecution before. Someone either paid off or called off Cyrus Vance.
We deserve to know the truth of how we got here.
10
This is an interesting argument and seems likely. Not even someone as out-of-touch from reality as Donald Trump could imagine that the Republicans would choose such an obviously unstable and unprepared person to lead their party. He would also never imagine that 46% of voters would be so careless and narrowminded as to fall for such an obviously uninformed demagogue as their President.
My guess is at some point the adoring crowds of red-hats, and the media's obligation to treat him like a credible candidate convinced him that if by some miracle he actually won, he could somehow continue to pull off the con job for four years. His visit to Barack Obama shortly after the election revealed a greatly shaken Trump - once he started to realize once he'd gotten into, he knew he was completely unprepared and unqualified. But Donald can never admit a fault so he decided to keep the carnival show going.
So now the Great Pretender Donald Trumpov, the greatest unforced error in American history, is now President. The only good news is that he and the Republican Party have been so egregious in their mismanagement, duplicity and indecency that the overwhelming majority will soundly defeat them in 2020.
9
Mr. Trump's presidency also says something about celebrity culture in our country. We're saturated with hundreds of television stations, thousands of movies, and now hundreds of more options on Amazon Prime, Netflix, and HBO. I'm not sure many of us are able to separate reality from fiction anymore. TV's so-called "reality shows" are proof of that. They're billed as reality yet are the furthest thing from it.
Mr. Trump reinvented his failing business career with "The Apprentice," and that's how he's best known to wide segments of the electorate. Many have forgotten or perhaps never knew (or learned) about his casino failures in Atlantic City, his bankruptcies, and other failed business dealings. These should have been huge red flags to voters, no matter how desperate to "drain the swamp." Which itself was a totally unrealistic quote because Mr. Trump has been part of "the swamp" his entire adult life. These on-going revelations just add context to what many of us have always known.
9
This is a reminder of Robert Redford's 1972 movie, The Candidate. His campaign manager, Peter Boyle, wrote "you lose" on a matchbook in the approach to Redford to run for governor. Redford didn't want to win, but criticize the establishment in the process. But he won.
5
It makes sense to me that Trump ran for president as a marketing scheme, but one thing doesn’t quite add up: If Trump didn’t want to be President, why would he collude with the Russians to win the election? Wouldn’t a deep desire to win be required to engage in such a high-risk partnership?
Another thing that puzzles me about the collusion premise is Moscow Trump Tower. I get the quid pro quo aspect of it if Trump wins (sanctions, NATO withdrawal, maybe). But what if he lost? Would Putin have just been satisfied with sowing discord and granted Trump his hotel? Seems like an odd deal.
Of course, Trump’s total and complete lack of rationality makes speculating a fools’ errand...
3
If trump had any courage at all, he'd leave office and pursue work where he can excel. Being POTUS is no more than trumping holding himself hostage until the term is over.
There's nothing shameful about admitting to oneself that a wrong choice was taken. It's very shameful to linger in that office only to demonstrate one's incompetence.
4
When you give something to someone who doesn't want it and can't give it back, don't expect anything in return.
63 million voters gifted the presidency to someone who didn't want it. They've gotten far less than they'd hoped for in return. Some, like farmers in the Dakotas and Iowa, received Trump's disdain, yet many still support him. Pride is a poor self-defense when you can't accept the consequences of your own behavior.
Your vote is a gift, given with thought, clarity and bit of faith. It was clear to the majority of us that Trump wasn't even remotely deserving of it. That others couldn't see that is sad indeed.
6
I vividly remember asking myself, does this guy really want the job? This became obvious to me during the debates with Hillary Clinton. He didn't act like he wanted the job, and you're right, why prepare for something you don't care about? And it seemed odd that neither he nor his wife made any attempt to alter the White House decor as Jackie Kennedy did so brilliantly years before. They didn't change anything because they had no intention of staying, either because they would be tossed out, or because they would walk out. This shows the most breathtaking kind of arrogance. And doesn't this also describe a man who doesn't care about his country? He really is president and in a position to change the country and the world, and perhaps the course of history, but Trump is nothing but a flimflam man, a salesman pushing deceptive nonsense on the world's stage. If we survive this presidency I hope it forces us to look more carefully at the qualities a presidential candidate may or may not have.
7
Even though he didn't believe he could win, and even though he knew or should have known that winning would be destructive to his gilded self and his family, he wanted to win because winning is everything. That is the blind stupidity/ blind spot that I have noticed in a lot of powerful men. The self-sabotaging ego- Trump has it in spades.
9
Trump may be ill-equipped for statesmanship but our country is ill-equipped to produce one. Our public sphere depends financially on people and stories that vacuum up attention. Trump shows heart and soul and considerable intellect in striving for that goal.
If that goal remains in place, we will have more Trumps, which suggests a question for the historically minded among us. If the first instance of a phenomenon is a farce, what should we expect the second instance to be?
1
I heard a parable while on a track team. I think the parable is about freedom, and about getting what one wishes for. Some runners would run past a dog, chained to the center of a lawn on their regular route. As they ran past the dog, the dog would bark and snarl viciously and charge at the runners, tugging at the chain over and over.
Of course, one day, the chain broke as the runners were passing by. And once the dog had realized he was free to attack the runners, he also realized he didn't want to, and skulked off.
As long as Trump had lost in 2016, he would not be accountable for the things he said, not have been responsible for governing, and not worth investigating for his obvious corruption. Of course, he miscalculated how easily duped the American public was when they are unused to being promised the moon, which he repeatedly did. And now, he's accountable for his behavior. At least he should be.
I guess the difference with Trump is that, unlike the dog, he isn't capable of behaving properly, whether the chain is on or off. And since he can't keep his yap shut, he keeps incriminating himself.
3
This is not new except for the newly exposed extent of the deviousness. The cruel irony is that a cynical candidate who ran a campaign never intending to be president, now has to run for re-election to save him from going to jail. Trump ran his campaign as an advertising campaign for brand Trump and nothing more. The real travesty is that the Republicans, their wealthy donors and the religious right probably knew this and didn't care. More mendaciously they deliberately exploited this policy-devoid and feckless presidency by holding it hostage to their agenda. They knew that Trump was unsuitable in character, preparation and any notion of country ranked way down in his priorities. They were willing to corner the supplicant but unsuitable president who breaks every principle they professed to stand for to steamroll their agenda over a mostly unwilling nation. They have proved to be more nefarious to the bedrock principles of the country and its institutions than the president himself.
2
There is nothing wrong and nothing right about Donald Trump being President. He is a reflection of everything America has become:
Home to millions of garish, tacky, uneducated people who, despite living in the richest and freest country in the world, have somehow managed to morph in to a bunch of angry, disgruntled xenophobes, too simple to realize the true enemy staring them square in the eye.
And we may never recover.
3
Recent developments make it even more obvious that the 2016 Clinton campaign people--and Clinton herself--were as incompetent in running the campaign as Trump is in running the government. They share the opprobrium (and my disgust) for our all being in the mess we are. No one in a decision-making position in that campaign should ever be hired by any future candidate who wants to win against an absurd and corrupt rival.
Yes, but people behind Trump wanted him to be president. And let's not forget the "weird" election, gerrymandering, last minute FBI foibles, etc...and The Republican party supported him. Yes, let's not forget that! All those Senators and Congresspeople, who supported him running for president of our fine country. Let's not forget a single one of them, and vote them all out!
8
Donald Trump, like most everyone, overestimated the American people in thinking he wouldn't win. But once in office, he saw no need to learn how to be president. Public service for Donald Trump is a game for suckers. Once in office, he devoted his attention to learning how to exploit the opportunity. Nothing else will hold his interest.
4
It fits a nice neat narrative...The Accidental President.
However, Trump also seems to believe that he is "greater," than the Presidency. (or the nation) It is this sense -- and the actual behavior it engenders -- that is Trump's worst transgression. His sense that we -- America's citizens -- are servants to his enterprise rather than he (as President) being a servant to the nation and the people that will do the most, and the most lasting, damage. It will be the principle reason that future generations will rank his time in office so poorly...he 'belittled' the office.
5
He's a megalomaniacal narcissist. Of course he enjoys being the center of attention and it makes total sense that he didn't have the intellect or the inclination to plan for a win. But, perhaps he didn't truly account for the difference between attention and scrutiny. We should hold our leaders to a higher standard than that which is applied to sleazy Manhattan real estate developers and reality TV stars.
Adam Davidson said in the New Yorker, "I am unaware of anybody who has taken a serious look at Trump’s business who doesn’t believe that there is a high likelihood of rampant criminality."
We are all looking, and looking seriously now.
4
This is the same plot line as the Producers. Trump would have made a great fortune and ample publicity had he lost the election. There would have been no scrutiny of his illicit deals, lies, or campaign law violations. Winning was like a hit show but instead of investors coming for their money law enforcement is coming for the truth.
Unfortunately this show is not funny or without serious negative consequences for the American people.
3
Trump never thought he'd be elected, which is why he so brazenly made promises that he never thought he'd have to deliver on. He was looking to increase his brand for himself and his family, and was trying to build a Trump Tower in Russia at the same time he was running. Of course Putin realized having Trump as President of the United States was worth far more to him than Trump the businessman. Once Russia got involved, the nature and course of the campaign turned and Trump was elected. The country is now paying for another one of Trump's bad deals.
5
He's never been the sharpest knife in the drawer. Trump has been saying and doing stupid things since the 1980s. When he looks back on this episode, even he will say that running for President was the stupidest thing he's ever done, because it's going to cost him big. Speaking of cost, I see in some of the comments that people say he has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this effort. On the contrary. There are millions of dollars unaccounted for since his run and after. Even now, he's asking his gullible followers for money. Wealth is what matters to him, and fame. In the end, he will likely lose his wealth and gain infamy, rather than fame. It won't happen too soon, if you ask me. The Republic will endure, and he will be an everlasting blight on our collective history.
4
And the media played right along. In the future, how about not treating the Donald Trumps, Ben Carsons, and Carly Fiorinas as serious candidates when they are not? As ridiculous as Sarah Palin was, at least she had held public office. If someone's first interest in public service is the presidency, they're on an ego trip and nothing more.
3
If this is true, then it is the most shocking revelation of all. That someone should run for president without any plan or desire to serve the country is beyond cynical. Such a person would be a disgrace to the office, as indeed, this man has been.
2
I've never pretended to be any kind of political analyst -- I'm so not. Before Trump came along, I never paid a whole lot of attention.
But this piece makes me feel like a visionary or something. I've said it all along, left a couple of comments here in the NYTimes going way back, that from the start this man NEVER wanted to be president. I described his candidacy thus: It's like a bar bet that got out of hand.
There was every reason to think "he can't be serious" because he comported himself all through the campaign like it was all just a lark. The cartoonishness of the man that endears him to his base was something I too found novel and amusing and uncomplicated.
But by election night it was no longer funny in the slightest, and Trump must have watched the results come in with horror and astonishment too.
Now we're seeing the self-sabotaging behavior, panicked lashing out, the desperation for just one more numbing fix of Trump rally adoration. Nothing remotely resembling actual government. He couldn't be less interested.
And consider this. We observe in even our most capable leaders how the stress of being president takes its toll. Just think of what it's doing to someone as unmoored as Trump.
Take a really close look into his eyes. You'll see a man who's losing his grip.
5
He did not have to take the oath. He could have abdicated, walking away with a "So long, suckers!" But the power being held out to him was too intoxicating. Let's not fool ourselves here, however. This is such overanalysis. To think that he would have done anything differently even if he desperately wanted the job is preposterous.
1
A campaign like no other. Rallies more akin to revival tent meetings designed to bolster the ego and mask his intellectual liabilities. A fluke victory and ruinous administration. Books on the Trump unraveling will be selling for years into the future.
A special thanks to the GOP for producing the most inept person available as a candidate. Kudos to Jerry Falwell dancing on the head of pin to wash away his sins. Astonishing the best way to describe how Trumpism took over both the GOP and Evangelical movement.
1
If this is true, then perhaps the greatest evidence of Trump’s immaturity and utter disregard for everyone but himself has been his willingness to assume the office foisted upon him by a degenerate minority.
What does it say about the gullibility of the people who voted for Trump? Yes, I know Clinton was a poor choice, but Bernie Sanders was the only real populist, and people who supposedly wanted a populist wouldn't vote for him. Guess Bernie wasn't divisive (read racist and sexist) enough for those voters. I'm ashamed for my fellow citizens. We truly do get the government we deserve.
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Sorry, Frank, but this time I disagree. Subtlety eludes Donald Trump, and while "running" offers its own rewards, "winning" offers even more. Whether he EXPECTED to win is certainly in question, but whether he WANTED to win, I don't doubt. And why would this thoughtless, ignorant man think he couldn't do the job? After all, he was rich and famous. Why not?
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HE knows that he's incompetent. WE know he's incompetent. It's not like there's many who are actually paying attention that don't know that we're in the middle of a complete (unmitigated? comprehensive?) disaster. It's only going to get worse, and you can count on that. (Is Vegas giving odds on that? I wonder...)
"Let's just all sit around a watch it happen to us", seems to be the plan.
This is rich Mr. Bruni. Of course Trump never wanted to be President and never expected to win. But to infer that his passivity disentangling himself from the Moscow tower deal was mere procrastination gives him far too much credit. He was maximizing his leverage from the perch of his candidacy. And while he never wanted victory, he left open his legal exposure because he didn't think he had any - he has always openly flouted the rules. He's operated as a barely concealed launderer of Russian mob money for years. Laws, regulations and taxes are what losers do - not Trumps. I'm sure he still fails to fully realize his legal jeopardy.
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