Maverick's World

The Daily Donald 4/27/2017

We are fast approaching the 100 day mark and given the complete lack of delivery on any front whatsoever - the Trump Admin is in panic mode. The 100 day mark is usually a simple media check in - you go up in front of the media, everyone takes a look at your spokesman says a few nice words and then the media goes after cookies and coffee.

But that's not where this is headed now. Having unrealistically boosted expectations among Trumpers of what would be achieved in the first 100 days - Trump now finds himself at risk of being classified as a major loser. This is a psychological blow to him as he can only think of himself as a "winner" who is always "winning". With his 100 day "Contract With America" increasingly becoming a slap in his own face - its starting to hurt the man's ego "bigly".

So we are seeing serious counter measures put into play. Kellyanne has got out the markers and the whiteboards and the post its. "Baghdad Bob" Spicer is contriving more stupid crap to pull at the briefings and his crew is busy demoting Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin to Secretary of Commerce. As we get closer to the 100 day mark the intensity and frequency of the casual fuckups will rise significantly.

Trump has organized a rally in PA on Saturday. I am sure everyone will be watching to see how the crowd responds to his pleas for faith in his leadership. The best gauge of this will be how much Trump's people have to massage the public into cheering for him.

In the Stupid Bullshit Department -

1) Trump Admin claimed this week that it had a major thing about North Korea it had to convey to all the Senators. It bused them all to the WH from Capitol Hill and it turned out to be some kind of "kiss the ring" ceremony but Trump didn't have anything to say. Most Senators were left scratching their heads.

2)  Trump Admin officials claimed that Trump was considering conveying to Pres. Pena and PM Trudeau that the US wants to withdraw from NAFTA. However at some point of time Trump was informed that Mexico has put into place measures to ban imports of corn from the US if Trump attempts to put tariffs on Mexican imports and Canada has agreements in place with Europe that will compensate for loss of access to US markets. That led to a 180 degree turn and Trump claimed that he had spoken to Pres Pena and PM Trudeau and that after talking to them he had changed his mind. He also claimed that Pres Pena and PM Trudeau had agreed to expedite trade talks. I am calling BS on this claim. I think Trump basically realized he had no leverage with either and he didn't have the political capital to starve the bulk of the Midwest and crash the US economy as a whole.

3) Trump Admin falsely claimed that in the first 100 days Donald Trump had signed more Executive Orders than any other president in US history. That's not true, FDR did more than Trump and somehow Trump Admin folks can't even use Google properly. It is interesting to note that while Trump personally derided Pres Obama for issuing "too many EOs because he can't work with his Congress", Trump Admin now seeks to project his own failed EOs as stupendous achievements that no one else has ever attempted.

4) Trump Admin appears to have hastily put together a tax plan which includes all manner of fantastical ideas like a 19% reduction in the business tax rate, changes in the tax brackets etc.. etc... etc... There is no way he is going to actually get that tax plan through his own party and if he does he won't be able to balance his budget. The only good thing here is that by putting the impracticality of his ideas in full view like this - he will force investors to reconsider the bullish ideas they are entertaining. This may help  cull the OWM mentality.

5) And last but not least, a more toxic form of TrumpCare is in the works. Novel ways of depriving millions of people access to affordable healthcare and life saving drugs have been proposed. It is very difficult to watch a nation deliberately pull itself into third world status.

Jokes apart - what we are seeing is how Trump's runaway narcissism is inducing him to flirt with things that would kill millions of hard working Americans. This fetish he has with NAFTA will eventually spark a depression. If the market collapses, he will most likely be forced to depart NAFTA and burn the economy to the ground just to look like he is doing something.

posted by maverick @ 6:06 AM