Elvis was touted early on in his career “the king of gyration,” and Donald Trump is indisputably the King of Projection. This is what he had to say about Nancy Pelosi Thursday, in response to a question about when the new NAFTA bill would be passed.
“She’s a mess. They feel she doesn’t understand it. They sort of feel she’s disintegrating before their eyes. She doesn’t understand it. They want to have her understand it before we — it’s finished, signed, as you know. Mexico’s approved the deal. Canada’s approved the deal. They’re waiting to get a signal for [sic] her … the Democrat [sic] House does not, Pelosi does not understand the bill. … It’s a replacement for the worst trade deal ever made.”
“So she’s gotta get up to snuff, learn the bill, by the way I think she wants to approve it…we’re at a point where we’re going to have to send it in. She wants two weeks to ‘get to know’ the bill.”
That’s the usual incomprehensible hype and tripe from Trump, here’s the reality from the Washington Post:
Meanwhile, deep sticking points remain over NAFTA 2.0. Many congressional Democrats won’t support it without changes strengthening its labor protections, and view its intellectual property protections as a giveaway to Big Pharma. So both of these are hanging in the balance.
Trump needs big wins to restore populist aura
It’s hard to overstate how helpful getting these things could prove to Trump’s reelection prospects. Trump’s strategy turns on going full steam ahead with the reactionary, nativist demagoguery on immigration, while executing a phony pivot back to the “economic populism” he jettisoned upon taking office.
Infrastructure was central to that original populist aura. Just after Trump’s 2016 win, Stephen K. Bannon vowed a “trillion-dollar infrastructure plan” that would usher in a trans-racial working-class populist realignment. The plan went “poof,” and Trump’s biggest accomplishment since has been a massive tax cut largely for the wealthy and corporations.
Trump doesn’t have any real leverage against the Democrats, so he has to fall back to disparagement and name calling, “Cryin’ Chuck” “Crazy Nancy” and his usual lexicon, “Liddle” and “Loser” and “Low IQ.”
Trump is like a rat in a maze, he doesn’t know which direction to run. He wants infrastructure, and God knows he could use some good optics from a bipartisanship infrastructure plan, but he’s shooting himself in the foot by telling Democratic leaders that he won’t give them an infrastructure plan until they approve his trade deal — and stop all congressional investigations, to boot. And they should do all this, why?
So, he rampages on the one hand, while demanding impossible concessions on the other and this is why things stall — not because Nancy Pelosi doesn’t understand a piece of legislation. She understands it at the molecular level. She’s the professional in this arena, Trump is the neophyte, and she’s mopping the floor with him.
Incredibly, Trump seems to believe that he’s going to get what he wants by bullying and ranting, and politics doesn’t work that way. But Trump doesn’t know that, so get used to escalating political insults from Bizarro World. Trump and Pelosi are at war now and it’s going to get a whole lot uglier, I fear. Trump can’t stop himself from making things worse with his insistence on saying things to make Pelosi look bad, and Pelosi will continue to play Jedi Knight to Trump’s Jabba the Nutt and make him out for the fool that he is, for all the world to see.
And bear in mind, while all this is going on, there are twenty open investigations of Trump and his criminal family, Junior has been subpoenaed to testify before congress and so has Hope Hicks — and that last one, which happened yesterday, is possibly what set Trump off screaming at Pelosi and Schumer about investigations, and then storming into the Rose Garden. The time frame matches, in any event.
Somebody in this scenario is indeed “losing it” big time, and it’s not Nancy Pelosi.
Self awareness is not the strong suit of the Yellow Tufted Shit-Gibbon.
Trump’s playing right into Pelosi’s hands and he’s too stupid to know it. Politics is the last business he should be in. He has zero instincts for it. Interesting he got instantly to where he is, using television, though, isn’t it?
VERY interesting, Ursula, and television remains where others can prick his ego with impunity.
He’s depending on his alternative reality narrative always carrying the day. It worked in 2016, because there was populist fever in the land and a lot of people thought/hoped Trump would be different. I don’t know if he can fool all those people again. Guess we’re gonna find out, right?
I really don’t think it will work again. He has his original people, that’s it. At least I hope so.
That’s my theory, is that a lot of people who were stupid enough to vote for him once, won’t be that stupid twice.
If he does get re-elected, it’s going to make a horribly negative comment about America. I think that would sink us permanently in the eyes of the world and I pray to God that doesn’t happen.
It worked when people were pissed that we had a black president. And heck no! We can’t vote for a woman with an unattractive voice! Hillary was too smart, a lot of idiots were put off by that.
I wouldn’t say zero instincts. Yes, I’m aware he “won” the Presidency through a combination of a Constitutional fluke/mistake and help from a hostile foreign power to which he’s surely financially dependent upon but he still garnered 62 million votes. He did it by adopting a commonly used (mostly by conservatives) strategy that was powerfully outlined in that seminal speech in the movie The American President. There was a point where the fictional President (finally answering the attacks on him) pointed out his opponents problem wasn’t that he didn’t get it but that he couldn’t sell it. He’d go on a bit later to say whatever your particular problem was that the demagogue attacking him was interested in two things only – Making you afraid of it and telling you who to blame for it. He then said THAT is how you win elections. I don’t know if Trump saw that movie or just listened to assholes like Bannon and Conway but he plays that particular “instrument” like a virtuoso. Fortunately while his suppport in the GOP itself is strong the GOP itself continues to shrink, and the technique is becoming increasingly less likely to sway so called swing voters – who “get” that unlike the fictional Senator Rumson Trump DOESN”T EVEN GET IT in the first place! But I have no doubt he will continue his “Johnny One Note” song right up until the election assuming he makes it to November 2020.
I said zero instincts for politics. He has great instincts for television and demagoguery — no question there. But for actual day to day politics, how legislation works, how compromises are hammered out — he doesn’t get that at all.
He got his start with his daddy’s money, and then the media (in this case, TeeVee) took over and made him what he is today. Pretty shameful indictment of the media (both entertainment and press), isn’t it?
Having that reality TV show was the undoing of this country. I’m even wondering if in the future, if other actors/celebrities run for office, if it shouldn’t be necessary for them to claim openly that they are not the characters they portray. You wouldn’t think that would be necessary, but obviously it is.
John Wayne even did that. He said that he absolutely was not the characters he portrayed and nobody could be in real life. I appreciated that he did that.
Of course, in Trump’s case, the lies came way before the TV show, with “Art Of The Deal.” With all of the things we’ve had to worry about in politics before, who thought we were going to have to worry about a conman, whose only qualifications for office are the fantasy attributes he made up for books and TV?
Interestingly, he appears to have been on the wrong show.
‘Biggest Loser’ would have been a much better fit.
I think he WILL be on another show in the not too distant future, American Greed.
It’s fair to say that Trump and Pelosi have been at war since (at least) whenever he was stupid enough to let cameras into what should have been a private negotiation a few months…or was it centuries?…back. He’s just now waking up to the fact that she’s outplaying him is all.
I guess that’s why he’s amplified the attacks on Pelosi, because on some level he senses he’s losing. I don’t know what effect he thinks he’ll have on her, but she’s not exactly collapsing from his attacks, she’s laughing at him for playing into her hands and uniting her caucus.
I look at Pelosi as being akin to the Doge of Venice during the Fourth Crusade. He was roughly in Pelosi’s age bracket (which already made him exceptional in 12th Century Europe), crippled and nearly blind. Yet during the push to capture Constantinople, he and his troops made the first major gains of the day. Then he had to give those up because his younger and dumber allies got themselves in serious trouble he had to bail them out of.
Moral of the story: you don’t get to be that old AND that powerful by being dumb.
Speaker Pelosi is on fire lately. You should see it, Ursula, at the other place, the Pelosi haters are tearing their hair out. The Democrats suck, every which way to Sunday, commenters are so SAD! Boo hoo!
I’d have loved to have been a fly on the wall when he saw Pelosi late this morning, or if he didn’t when whomever was unlucky enough to draw the short straw had to tell him about what she said. I’ll bet it was epic. I can just imagine he running (or trying to) around his desk trying to tweet out something as aides tried to take his phone away. I actually think some of them have those localized cell phone jammers for just such an occasion. Trump swears and curses about his phone not working right and they tell him not to worry, they will fetch him another one – which will give him a few minutes to cool down as someone talks him down (or tries to) from the edge of the cliff.
Trump doesn’t know politics, and entering the game at this level is a bit like me trying to be a professional poker player in Vegas when I barely know how the various hands are scored. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing and zero knowledge is catastrophic, and that’s what we’re seeing here.
Haven’t been to the other place lately 😉 but Twitter’s like that, too. Even some folks who should know better. I just told off Joy Reid that she should stick to reporting on what Dems are really doing (you know, like the 100 or so bills they’ve gotten passed this term) and leave her worthless opinions at the door.
‘Cause one thing I can’t stand is fair-weather friends!
I wonder how much longer Trump will last before completely losing it.
Look at it this way: He never understood the job he was getting into anyway, he’s under pressure from all the investigations (not just Mueller’s) and the issues with his taxes, the trade war, NAFTA, now infrastructure — plus, he’s apparently becoming senile. His father had Alzheimers. He may lose it completely sooner rather than later.
If prices go up at WalMart, simple as that sounds, and his base gets riled up over that, that’s going to rock his boat, too. And prices are predicted to go up there sometime in June because of the pissing contest with China. He’s really botching that one up and I don’t know if we’ll ever get back to any normal diplomatic relations with them.
So, between real world pressures, his own stupidity, and his genetic predisposition, I’d say he’ll lose it soon. Can’t be soon enough for me. I want him gone.
Alzheimer’s, IS passed down in the family, my Niece’s Grandma had it, and now her mother has it, my brother’s wife, and the niece is really worried for her own future health. (The rest of the family are as well)
It COULD explain a lot of Trump’s handling all his businesses so badly, the remnants of his failed history, show’s his blur of ill-advised investments and NO real thought train evident … I think a LOT of us have seen the decline lately, memory problems made up names, many bungled words …
Are you implying, Cmae, that there existed a moment since his inauguration that he HAD it?
He seems worse to me.
Is the issue that Pelosi should be doing impeachment proceedings? I think that Pelosi’s slow but sure way should be encouraging to a lot of people. I see Trump playing perfectly into her hands.
The timing of this issue is what is important. Nothing matters but getting Trump voted out in 2020. He may be accomplishing that. If, God forbid, he gets re-elected, but Democrats control both the House and Senate, then is the great time to be talking about impeachment. That’s when to bring it on.
Anybody who is advising impeachment too soon is not thinking straight — although I understand Maxine Waters saying that at the rate Trump is doing damage, maybe we don’t have the luxury of waiting. Trump is a disaster taking place on a daily basis, and nobody wants him out more than I do, but we have to keep our heads on straight and do it right. I think Pelosi is handling things just fine. Let Trump impeach himself. So far he’s doing a great job and I have every confidence he’ll continue to shoot himself in the foot.
Yes, she is a coward, she should step down, she needs to grow a spine. She is enabling Trump, she will get him elected, she Isn’t moving quickly enough, ad nauseum, because she Isn’t saying, impeach RIGHT NOW! It is driving me up the wall.
Who’s a coward? Pelosi? Waters? We’ll have to agree to disagree, just calm down and take a deep breath, I get into the “NOW NOW NOW” mode too but…you’re talking about seasoned politicians in those two, and…a complete political idiot, backed by the GOP using him for their own personal gain, while using the WH for his own personal gain. He will get his.
People on another site are saying these things ABOUT speaker Pelosi, I am not. I trust and respect Speaker Pelosi.
Then my apologies to you ,ma’am.
No problem, it could have been construed that way.
And do NOT get me started on the impatient Cassandras on Dailykos, Jan, none of whom seem to have a serious plan.
I assume you did not intend to insult the original Cassandra with that comparison to the pearl-clutchers at DK 😉
Pelosi is under attack at DK? How the hell does that make sense? You can openly mention “the other place” here, I don’t care. Everybody here knows our common history. And I bear no ill will towards DK. I only harbor great sadness that I was kicked to the curb when I loved it so much over there. Whatever. One of the mysteries of life.
I’d say not so much “under attack”, as that the lurkers who are less solidly Dems (and possibly sleeper trolls: I saw one with like 100 comments since 2006) have been coming out of the woodwork – or the back storage module – and trying to trash everything left of center. That’s in addition to the usual gang of Eeyores.
Exactly.
So now Pelosi is considered left of center? And I don’t know what an Eeyore is. I’m very dense when it comes to cultural references from movies and TV, if that’s what that is.
Eeyore in Winnie the pooh. Always sad and sighing.?
I prefer “Cassandra” myself, Cmae, though that’s a bit of an insult to the original. She at least told the truth AND knew what she was talking about.
Even so, Ursula, I maintain that you deserved better than what you got.
Me too.
Jabba the Nutt, lol and we all know how he ended!
Literally strangled by his own greed (RIP Carrie Fisher, who IDed him as a coke sniffer).
When tRump gets into insult mode, which is always projection on his part, it’s like he’s talking to himself in the mirror: cheatin’, lyin’, dumb as a rock, losing it, a mess, etc. It really is all about him all the time. He’s a mess, he’s dumb as a rock (sorry, rocks), he’s a liar and a cheat, and all the other dumbass things he’s come out with, all him. What asinine, juvenile behavior. What a bringdown to our country. And all the evil things he’s doing besides, undermining the DOJ with his lackey, now selling arms to the Saudi’s by going around Congress, all of it is criminal. Lock him up while there’s still time to save the country!