The more things change, the more they stay the same. Some of us were hoping that once Donald Trump became the presumed GOP nominee, that the media would stop talking about him incessantly. But apparently, the media is as addicted to talking about Trump as ever. After being criticized for basically bankrolling Trump’s campaign by giving him massive amounts of free publicity, they are “making amends” by still giving him publicity, but now they are trying to balance things by giving him negative publicity.
The problem is, they are talking about things that don’t matter. For example, Saturday the New York Times published “Crossing the Line: How Donald Trump Behaved With Women in Private” where they interviewed more than 50 people who had either worked for Trump or observed his crude behavior. But this is not news. Does anyone not know that Donald Trump is a sexist pig? Hasn’t he made that abundantly clear over and over again?
The people who support Trump know it. In fact, I’d guess that some of them are happy that he doesn’t feel any need to be “politically correct” and says what he feels. And if you already dislike Trump, this article will not make any difference.
Another example are the shocking reports that Donald Trump called the media and pretended to be someone else so he could brag about himself. Again, does anyone not know that Trump is a narcissist and has an ego that is bigger than his bank account? And that he would say or do almost anything to get attention?
What I want to know is why they aren’t concentrating on stories that are actually germane to the election. For example, the fact that despite promising that he would never be beholden to rich donors because he would self-fund his election (which was pretty much the entire appeal of his candidacy) Trump has now completely reversed course, and is busy courting those rich donors. So all those people who voted for an “outsider” who couldn’t be bought, you were played like a cheap violin. Where’s the outrage?
On Friday morning, casino magnate Sheldon Adelson endorsed Trump, and even urged other GOP donors to join him in supporting Trump. Reportedly Trump and his team have been courting Adelson for months. Doesn’t anyone want to know what Trump promised Adelson in return for his backing? It must have been a whopper.
Trump also claims he doesn’t need money from super-PACs, but another Vegas casino owner, Phil Ruffin, just wrote a $1 million check to “Make America Great Again”, a super-PAC that was supposedly shut down after the media exposed that it was illegally coordinating with the Trump campaign a little too much.
Another example is Stanley Hubbard, a billionaire media mogul. It wasn’t that long ago that Hubbard wrote a check to “Our Principles PAC”, whose sole purpose was destroying Trump’s candidacy. But apparently Hubbard has seen the light and is now supporting Trump. Did Trump have to promise him something really big to make him flip-flop like a dying fish?
And there is T. Boone Pickens, the oil tycoon who desperately wants the US to stay addicted to fossil fuels, who is hosting a fundraiser for a super-PAC that supports Trump.
So people who are supporting Trump because they are tired of the special interests controlling Washington are now going to turn Washington over entirely to those special interests. Heck, they want to elect a special interest as president.
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I’d be interested in seeing the reactions of die hard trump supporters as he keeps adjusting his stances. One thing to look at is if they stay as ardent. This is hillary’s election to lose. If she improves her likability factor, people who upto now have said they would vote for trump because they hate hillary, at the very least won’t vote at all.
I think Clinton has had over 25 years of negative publicity from mainly the far right and has little chance of improving her likeability until, and unless she becomes president. Then perhaps she can change some minds.
And recently, from the far left.
True IK, but hopefully they will come back to the fold when Sanders loses. If he loses. đŸ˜‰
T. Boone Pickens’ rationale for his recent endorsement of Trump is perhaps the most cynical and shallow I’ve heard yet from anyone in any election. As recently described in an article in Mother Jones, the 87-year old tycoon put it like this, “I’m tired of having politicians as president of the U.S. Let’s try something different.” And, “I’m ready to take a chance on it. And just in case it’s a mistake, [I’ll] be gone.” Spoken like a true billionaire patriot (with one foot in the grave)!
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/05/t-boone-pickens-donald-trump-endorsement
But perhaps it’s emblematic of where our hyper-partisan politics is now. Facts on the ground don’t really matter that much in this political universe. Trump has shown it’s less about what you say than how you say it and project it. And if it falls flat one day and he’s taken to task, he’s free to walk it back just enough the next day and move on. His strategy is to overwhelm with half-truths, innuendos and outright BS. Shower your supporters with lavish praise and your opponents with acid. And his supporters’ frustration in general with our dysfunctional system in DC has led many to just throw up there hands and basically say, “Fug it, let’s roll the dice! How much worse can it get?”. And there’s the rub. Because, of course…much worse, I’m afraid.
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