Category: Tsar-A-Largo

The War For Trumplandia: Can This Administration Be Saved?

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

The Washington Post is reporting that the Trump White House is going to set up a war room like the Clinton White House did 20 years ago during all of its troubles.

In a sprawling article, the publication goes through the wide-range of things that the Trump Administration is considering doing. Besides the War Room, Trumplandia is also considering bringing back some old names like Corey Lewandowski.

But the problem for Trumplandia is a fish rots from the head and not much is going to change the totally batshit insane nature of Trump himself. They can change everything they like, but Trump is still going to be Trump. Really, the question is: how dire are things for Trump?

There is always a lag time between when Something Bad happens to an administration and when the consquences are full realized. The fact that Jared Kushner allegedly did something as bonkers as try to set up a backchannel with the Russians using their own equipment is so bad and potentially politically devastating to the Trump Administration that one has to wonder if they fully comprehend what they’re up against. It seems to me that they’re playing with fire.

They are going to need to do more than just setup a War Room. They need to talk to Trump himself about changing his behavior, but even then that’s a lossed cause. The man is 70 years old, he’s not going to change. Trump is a national embarrassment of the highest order and you simply can’t put ice cream on shit and not have shit at the bottom of the cone.

Probably what is going to happen is things are going to grind along for weeks, and months — if not years — and really won’t change until Congress is flipped. The Republicans simply are too Vichy. They simply can’t find the wherewithal to stand up against Trump. They don’t want to alienate the base and so they’re willing to take their brand — and the nation’s international standing — down as far as it will go.

One interesting thing I noted in the Post article is they are considering using Facebook Live instead of formal press conferences. That would be interesting to say the least. Say what you will about Trump, he’s actually an amazing politician in some respects. He taps into some dark part of the American psyche and maybe if he leans into online video it will resonate with people even more than tweeting. He’s sure to get a lot more of an earful, though.

I idly wonder if maybe he might look into using Instagram video instead of Facebook Live. That might be one way for him to connect with people even more so than he usually does. I don’t. Like I keep saying, the head of the Trump Administration is the problem. That problem isn’t going anywhere.

Donald Trump isn’t Ronald Reagan, remember that.

I just don’t see any way this isn’t just a long-term disaster for everyone involved. As I said so many times during the campaign — you break it you buy it. The Republicans broke it by nominating Trump and then having him win, now everyone else has to pick up the pieces.

Tsar-A-Largo: Trumplandia, The Russians & Ukraine

By Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

One thing that Donald Trump made clear from the beginning of his campaign is he loves the Russians. Now, there have been various explanations for this, from his general love of strongmen to a “pee tape.” But I suspect the actual reason is much more prosaic.

It’s money.

My guess is Trump has so many dirty deals involving the Russians that he has many fiduciary reasons to be nice to the Russians. You hear reports about this or that oil deal that will go through should sanctions be lifted by the American government, but that, at least not yet, has not happened.

But let’s talk about that for a moment.

Trump is supposed to meet Russian President Putin in July as part of a broader summit and the question that lingers is, will the Trump Administration lift the sanctions imposed on Russia by the Obama Administration as some sort of nefarious quid-pro-quo. Though I have my doubts, I still am not ready to say this won’t happen. It’s still possible. It might happen. Maybe.

Given that Trump had no problem firing FBI Director James Comey and then admitting he had Russia on the brain when he did so, it is not too much of a stretch to believe Trump might lift sanctions on Russia after a personal meeting with Putin.

The reaction on the party of Trumplandia probably would be muted. There would be the usual rationalizations on the part of the center-Right and the usual insane outrage on the part of the center-Left. But in the end, things would settle down.

I am much more concerned about what might happen with Ukraine. The Ukraine front has been really quiet the last few years and it is difficult to believe that President Putin would give up a historic opportunity to invade Ukraine in a general way given that it’s likely Trump wouldn’t say anything about it.

That’s something that we really haven’t seen yet — an outside crisis not of Trump’s making. Most of the damage to Trump’s administration since Jan. 20th has been self-inflicted. If the Russians would to invade Ukraine abruptly as part of a huge land-grab that might be a crisis that Trump simply would not be prepared for. His Russian sympathies would be put to the test in an epic manner and I think ultimately he would show he has zero backbone when it comes to the Russians.

But, as I noted, I doubt that would really matter much to the stalwarts of Trumplandia. They won’t care. All they care about is abortion and tax cuts. The bullshit of FOX News has hardened to a smell diamond and there is little we can do it about for the time being.

It is kind of sad that we are going to have to wait until for months, if not years, before the Special Counsel’s investigation into Trump comes to any kind of conclusion. Trump can do a huge amount of damage between now and then and it’s sad that we have to wait that long.

Our only real hope is the 2018 mid-terms. But even then, my expectations are muted. We’re no longer a Republic, so it’s possible we’r screwed for good.

It’s A Wild, Wild, Wild, Wild World: Jared Kushner & The Russians

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

It’s beginning to look, well, a little suspicious for the Donald Trump Administration when it comes to its ties with the Russians. Though it has to be noted, it’s not like Trump did not go out of his way to tell everyone what we were getting into.

But the latest revelation, that Trump’s son-in-law Jared “Bedroom Eyes” Kushner wanted to setup a secret channel — using the Sovet’s Russians own equipment! — it kind of zany even for Trump’s band of folks who can’t shoot straight. It’s all very weird and yet in Trumplandia it still hasn’t yet begun to get any traction. The citizens of Trumplandia still love the Dear Leader with all their hearts and they seem determined to bring down the nation along with themselves.

I guess what shocks me the most about all of this is how in the open all of this is. Trump has never hidden his love of all things Russian and for me, a child of the Cold War, it is rather disturbing that Republicans still given Trump full-throated support despite their history of being strong on national defense. It’s almost as if the Cult of Ronald Reagan has finally be excised from the GOP spirit. It’s all very strange and there is no easy answer to it all. I just don’t get it. I just don’t understand.

You can’t have a cover-up if you don’t cover it up. Photo from New York Magazine.

The crux of the issue is, why the Russian fascination on the part of the Trump campaign and administration? What is the fire to all this smoke. Many different people have come up with many different possibilities. While a lot of people suspect it is the “pee tape” that is the source of all this odd behavior, I lean more on the side of it being fiduciary in nature.

Trump is a shady businessman and over 30 years he probably has gotten involved in a lot of shading dealings in Russia and now all that is coming home to roost. He did not expect to win and now that the FBI is getting involved, all kinds of criminality and malfeasance is being dug up.

Will that be enough to bring own Trump? I doubt it. I suspect we’re stuck with Trump for at least a solid two years, if not more. A lot depends on flipping the House and Senate in 2018. Given how stupid the American electorate has proven itself by electing Trump to begin with, it’s very possible that we’re just doomed. It’s very possible we’re all very doomed and we could be stuck with Trump for four, even eight years.

Then we really will have to make America great again.