President Trump Optimism thread

Hey, at least he’s almost as popular as:

Insightful op-ed at WaPo:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-is-sarah-palin-but-better-at-it/2017/08/17/2b4d1de4-8206-11e7-902a-2a9f2d808496_story.html?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.420be3fc347f

Trump campaigned on the Palin model. In fact, he improved upon it. His identity was his trademark, rendering the constant shifts in policy goals and promises almost meaningless. His base saw in Trump what they wanted to see. Some saw a fighter who would stand up for them, others saw a vaunted truth-teller, and a few, truth be told, likely saw a potential white-nationalist hero. And he gave it to them: the image, the veneer, the blank slate upon which their deeply held dreams — for themselves as much as their country — could be written. His fans weren’t dissuaded by his past support for Democrats (including his 2016 opponent), or his lies, or his personal liberalism, or his crudeness, or his long history of mistreating small-business owners of the kind he claimed to champion, because his fans weren’t voting for Trump. They were voting for what Trump meant to them personally.

In turn, his base will not leave him, because to abandon Trump would not be to abandon the current president but to leave behind deeply held beliefs of their own. His popularity is cultural, not political, resilient to the notions of truth and fiction and to Trump’s own failures. Even after his presidency, regardless of whether it ends in impeachment or in two consecutive terms in office, the image will remain undaunted.

The thing is, Trump’s true, super-dedicated base is worthless to Republicans if he costs them billions in big-money corporate and individual donations. Right now Trump is scaring away the big money in droves. No corporation and no individual looking to gain political influence wants to be associated with racism in America, especially not in the social media age where even the slightest hint that you or your business might be tone-deaf on racism can result in broad public outcry and loss of stock value.

That is what will cause this issue to have more impact than the Russia issue has had to date. Russia doesn’t impact the donors. The big political money wants nothing to do with racism, and as long as Trump is tied directly to racism as he has been this week, they’ll want nothing to do with Trump. Republicans love money more than anything (to be fair, so do Democrats), so they are going to choose money over Trump and his base when push comes to shove. The media just needs to continue shoving, and the situation will take care of itself.

Is this optimism?

Steve Bannon removed from White House role

OK let’s game this out.

Let’s pretend that a whole bunch of Republican congresscritters are anxious to dump Trump, but have been afraid to alienate his base.

But Breitbart has apparently just declared war on the White House. Does this alienate Trump’s base from Trump?

And if so, does this free up said Republicans to get rid of Trump?

Donnie is gonna find himself all alone, and is going to have a sad. Because, unlike Bannon (according to Mooch), he can’t suck his own cock. He needs an army of sycophants for that.

Some, yes. That seems to be the underlying “threat” at least. We’ll probably recycle the “Is Pence worse than Trump?” conversations soon, as well.

Winner!

Pence- Lawful Evil
Trump- Chaotic Evil

I choose neither.

Bannon is what, Lawful Evil?

Asshole Evil

Someone on another board pointed out the most likely scenario is that Breitbart attacks Trump’s advisers, but not Trump himself. “Our king is good and noble - he has been led astray by the evil vizier who councils him!”

From the Twitter comments:

“Mr. Bannon has decided to pursue exciting ethnonationalist opportunities in the private sector.”

The Mercers are pretty frightening. Imagine what Bannon could do with unlimited money.

I’ll believe it when I see it. I seriously doubt this happens.

Elemental Evil, duh.

Yeah, there’s virtually no chance.

My guess is the Trump braintrust figured out that Bannon can be more effective outside the WH than inside.

LOL, this doesn’t exist.

Personally he’s more Tomb of Horrors.