Will Trump Make It 4 Years as President?

This past week was a particularly bad one for Donald Trump and his administration.  While the establishment media has been hammering on him almost daily since mid-2015, it seems that a few things are really starting to stick.

Trump is not without blame on this.  He, and others around him, have handled several things poorly.  He has been stumbling a lot.

Trump never should have surrounded himself by a bunch of Republican hacks and war hawks (I repeat myself).  He hired some war generals for his cabinet and, surprise, they promote the idea of war and intervention.

And maybe having Mike Pence as a running mate was a political tactic to get elected, but it makes it that much easier for the establishment (including Republicans) to try to take down Trump.  If they can get Trump out of there, then they will have Pence in there who will not make any significant waves.

The establishment media is mostly lying.  All of these stories about Russia are lies.  Just because some anonymous source at the CIA says something, it doesn’t make it true.  You could have a non-anonymous source with the CIA say something, and it still probably isn’t true.  These are lies comparable to weapons of mass destruction.  They are for slightly different purposes in that the Russia lies are to knock down Trump.  A secondary reason is to keep tensions with Russia high.

As far as Trump’s firing of Comey, it was probably handled clumsily by Trump and his administration.  It is a joke that the media and the left are going after Trump on this when Comey was a hated man just prior to the election, and also after the election.  No matter who you were rooting for, it was obvious that Comey was playing political games.  As for any notes that Comey took after meeting with Trump, they should not be trusted at all.  We can be certain that Comey is a liar and a criminal.  It would be difficult for someone to head up the FBI who doesn’t fit these descriptions.

Trump is getting a brutal lesson in politics.  It is hard to believe, but I really think he was rather naive entering this whole thing.  Did he really think he could question the U.S. empire overseas and bring an “America First” message and not be treated this way?

At this point, whenever the establishment media discusses politics (and Trump in particular), you can assume that just about the opposite is true.  They will cheer Trump when he bombs Syria or threatens war with Iran or North Korea.  But for anything else that would dismantle power in Washington DC, he will be raked over the coals.

The media has gone crazy over Steve Bannon, calling him a white supremacist and everything else in the past.  From this, you can assume that Bannon is probably one of the few good guys.  I don’t agree with some of what Bannon stands for, but I think he was one of the few people Trump could have trusted.  Meanwhile, he is one of the people who has been pushed down in power and influence.  The war hawks didn’t like his message of “America First” because it means the U.S. government would have to mind its own business and stop intervening all over the world.

I am not sure that Trump is going to survive the next 4 years.  In the past, I have made comparisons between Trump and Kennedy.  We know what happened to Kennedy.  I think the establishment would prefer to get rid of Trump in a different way.  Kennedy didn’t have the media against him like Trump does.  If they can impeach Trump or force him to resign, they will do it in a heartbeat.  They would prefer that method.

And many of his Republican “friends” will stab him in the back too.  You can bet that Paul Ryan, Reince Priebus, and many other establishment Republicans who are currently “working with” Trump will turn on him in an instant.

Trump’s agenda is out the window.  Obamacare is not getting repealed.  There will be no wall with Mexico (which is positive from my libertarian point of view).  There will be no extensive tariffs (again, this is good).  We may see some tax “cuts”, but they will be smaller than expected and probably revenue neutral, meaning they will just rearrange who is paying the taxes.

For Trump to survive the presidency, he has only one option.  He has to do what got him there in the first place.  He can’t just place nice with the establishment, which includes all of the spy agencies.  He has to stand firm, and he has to take his message to the American people directly.

This doesn’t just mean sending out messages on Twitter.  He should start giving a televised address in primetime once a week if he has to.  He needs to be direct and say that the media is telling lies about Russia.  He needs to stand up for himself without coming across as needy.  He needs to be firm and direct.  He should call on his supporters to write their so-called representatives to enact his agenda of tax cuts, spending cuts, regulation cuts, and less military intervention.  Of course, we don’t know if he actually believes in these things because he flip-flops so much.

In his first debate with Hillary Clinton, Trump came out in a passive way.  He got low marks.  At that point, it looked as if he was defeated.  In the second debate, he came out swinging.  He said he would prosecute Hillary (which didn’t happen), but he came out strong.  If he has any hope of surviving the next almost 4 years in Washington DC, he is going to have to be strong.  He has to take his message directly to the people and ask for their support.

Trump’s presidency has been useful for many great lessons for liberty advocates.

First, it doesn’t make much difference who gets elected president.  Second, if you do not have a very firm set of principles (which most people don’t), then Washington DC will quickly eat you up.  Third, the establishment media lies about almost everything political (although that should have already been obvious).  Fourth, a good portion of the American people are fed up with the status quo.  Five, being direct and unscripted can actually get you elected.

I do not really feel sorry for Trump.  His overconfidence got him in over his head.  The next few years, if not the next few months, will be entertaining to watch.  Trump may go down in flames.  But that will not stop the disaffection of the American middle class.

 

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