The Resignation of Donald Trump
Donald Trump was not prepared to be president.
This comes as no surprise. Trump, like everyone else, expected himself to lose Election Night. He had made no study of the office or its responsibilities. He had no previous government or governing experience, not even vaguely relevant experience running a large bureaucracy like a corporation. He was a complete political novice.
He had no idea what shit he was stepping into.
Trump was a huckster and provocateur, his own hype man. Living in New York, and having money to throw around, he could easily draw attention to himself. Later, he could leverage that attention into phone calls on compliant cable morning shows. Surrounded by toadies, he encountered no opposition.
He did, of course, encounter his share of gadflies, but nobody read Spy, nobody read the Village Voice. They were easily drowned out by the Post.
When Trump ran into trouble, he bailed. He bailed on his marriages, he bailed on his businesses, he bailed on his creditors. He gave up, turned his attention elsewhere.
Donald Trump is not a fighter. Never has been. He is a bully. He has spent his life bullying. You can do that when you have money, when you had it handed to you, when you never had to work a job, when you never had to suffer inescapable frustration. You can just shout, and your toadies will applaud. You can puff yourself up, confident that nobody has the balls to stick a pin in you.
This is why Donald Trump will resign the presidency.
We’re guessing this fall, but that’s only a guess, and we’re only giving it half a chance. But if he resigns, it will be because it wasn’t what he expected — had no fucking clue what to expect — and it’s just not fun, not like bullying.
The problem with the presidency is that people hit back. Hard. It’s the most powerful position in the world, but that’s only if you want to drop bombs or screw refugees. You can decide in the Oval Office, but you cannot dictate. You can’t tell the government what to do, because you don’t own it. There are laws to be followed, judges to rule on them, other politicians to accommodate. You can cow them while you have the public’s support, but you cannot take that support for granted. Mobs turn.
Donald Trump needs to be loved. Desperately. He needs his love declared, measured, proven superior to the love accruing to others. If that love is not forthcoming, he will lie about it to others while brooding on it himself.
America does not love Donald Trump. You can measure it, in the number of his votes, in the size of his crowds, in the decline of his polls. He won the election, legally, but bankruptcy is also legal. He won, but he failed, because he is not loved.
Donald Trump demands respect. He needs his accomplishments acknowledged, his wealth awed, his lifestyle envied. If that respect is not offered, he will lash out at the perpetrator, denigrating the insolence in the harshest words possible.
America does not respect Donald Trump. Never has. He is alone among celebrity billionaires for having no actual accomplishments to admire. His casinos failed, his airline failed, his steaks failed, his scam university failed. He inherited a successful real-estate business from his father, built it into a larger real-estate business.
Trump used to brag how he started out with a mere million-dollar loan from his father. At the time, Steve Martin was joking about how easy it was to become a millionaire: “First, get a million dollars.”
This is not a man who has known struggle or endurance. He proclaims stamina, but his toadies explain away his bizarre phone call with the Australian prime minister because it came at the end of a “long day”, that he was “feeling some fatigue”.
It was five o’clock. On a Saturday.
Being president is a bitch. That’s why they all turn gray. You enter on a high, you get to score some easy points. And then, as the months pass, the reality sets in. By September or October the glory is long past, and people are blaming you for everything that goes wrong.
Donald Trump will resign the presidency because by winning it, he has created his own living hell.
[Post-Thanksgiving update: Leftover Crow.]
I’m hoping when he goes to Mar-A-Lago this weekend he just stays there, but I’m an optimist.
RE-PLACE FUCK-FACE!
RE-PLACE FUCK-FACE!
RE-PLACE FUCK-FACE!
TELL THE CLOWN TO GO!
@RomeGirl: I’d be happy to see:
Shark attack!
Lightning strike at golf course
Myocardial infarction – fatal
Stroke – total
Fall down stairs break neck
Hurricane attracted to the waterspout sprouting from his head (no collateral damage, of course)
Accidental discharge of secret service service weapon
Check out the new cover of Der Spiegel.
Holy shit.
And Bannon looks like 40 miles of bad road, just seriously ill. Several people have speculated that he has advanced organ failure due to alcoholism. Anyone know the gossip on that?
@¡Andrew!: Yep. That’s about right.
@¡Andrew!: Just look at his nose. He’s got Tip O’Neill beat.
@JNOV: I’m personally hoping the Queen takes a sword to him, as is her right.
I don’t think President Bannon will let him quit. If anything, he’ll hide out in the residence, working on using his title to make himself rich while Jabba Jr. pulls an Edith Wilson.
Or try to anyway. It looks like Mike Kelly at least isn’t taking any shit from that corpulent Nazi.
@RomeGirl: Indeed, one could even say it is One’s duty. And HRH is famous for taking her duties seriously.
“Bannon looks like he spends more time puking than showering.”
LMFAO
@RomeGirl: and TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: “Wee-ee would like to confer upon yoooooo an hounararee knighthood.”
@¡Andrew!: I think #PresidentBannon is Trump’s coke dealer. He looks like the stoner uncle who still lives at grandma’s house at the age of 47.
@TJ/ Jamie Sommers /TJ: Trump demands loyalty, but Bannon is a very recent addition to the coterie. I find myself wondering under what conditions Trump would throw Bannon overboard. Nothing conventional — “political liability” doesn’t play here — but Bannon serves at Trump’s pleasure, and Trump is easily displeased.
@SanFranLefty: Trump already has Dr. Feelgood for his recreational medicinal needs.
@nojo: I think the more #PresidentBannon trends on twitter, SNL, and in the actual, you know, press, the more the SFV will take against him. Nothing Donald hates more than being upstaged.
Just a question of whether heart disease or cirrhosis gets Stevie before he falls like Thomas Cromwell (to whom he has modestly compared himself).
@Mistress Cynica: Bannon’s the Time cover boy this week — “The Great Manipulator” — WaPo notes Trump “inquired” about it, but doesn’t say the nature of the inquiry. We can only hope Trump was bitching about how Bannon upstaged him.
@nojo: Can’t wait to see the centerfold.
(My eyes! My eyes!!!)
@¡Andrew!: I think we’ve found our Jabba.
@nojo: I hope it’s okay that I park this here:
Today I started a Progressive Meetup group for my Congressional district based on Indivisible ideas.
We will be contacting our Senators and House Rep to be heard on various topics, and we will take direct action. Topics, ideas, and actions will be discussed and decided by the group. We will take all efforts to protect your privacy that we can, but know that nothing is ever private.
Auburn and 8th Distr. Progressives Against Hate
It’s a private group, but this information will be visible:
Basic group information
group name, main photo, description, number of members, group reviews, date founded
Basic organizer details
organizer name and profile photo
Basic event details
titles, date, time, and number of RSVPs
Titles of events will be vague, and all members require admin approval.
#stophate #indivisible #washingtonstate #washingtonstate8thdistrict #opposetrump
Maybe it’s just me, but I think Trump just declared that the U.S. harbors war criminals.
@JNOV: We’re having a neighborhood resistance meeting on Wednesday sponsored by the ACLU, the 34th District Democrats, and our local Indivisable cell. Me encanta Seattle. Viva la resistencia! Viva!
@nojo: It’s more that he firmly placed the US on the same moral level as the kleptocratic Russian dictatorship that has people clutching their pearls.
@¡Andrew!: Bueno! We have three people (w00t) and our first meetup will probably be on the 18th.
@¡Andrew!: Oh – check this out about public comment on legislation. Some people aren’t answering their phones anymore, but they must pay attention to public comments https://thinkprogress.org/a-simple-guide-to-how-you-can-throw-sand-in-the-trump-administrations-gears-64843da93664#.tdz6h368g
woo-hoo! Four members, library meeting room reserved, I’m going to create some sort of shared docs repository on da clowd.
And then there were six… (Okay – no more updates until we reach 10).
This is today’s action item:
Procedural votes on nominees are expected on Monday. Continue to ask your Senators to withhold consent on everything until the Muslim ban is lifted.
I’ve have the most luck calling Spokane – I usually reach the voice mailbox, but at least it’s not full.
Also:
The week of February 20–24 is the first district work period of the new Congress—meaning your MoCs will be back home holding public events and meeting with constituents. Or, at least they’re supposed to be. If your representatives don’t have a town hall or other public event scheduled yet, call and tell them that you expect them to. This is a great opportunity for your group to remind your MoCs that they need to stand up for you—and that means standing up against the Trump agenda.
Some MoCs will try to avoid having public meetings. But the purpose of these breaks is for MoCs to hear directly from the people they represent. If they aren’t willing to meet constituents, they’re not doing their jobs. If your MoC is refusing to hold a public event, stay tuned: we’ll be rolling out additional tips on how to shame these missing members into interacting with their constituents.
And we have a few inches of snow!
@JNOV: As someone whose job involves, among other things, analyzing public comments for federal agencies, I’ll just add that quality matters a lot more than quantity. Copy and paste comments (which text analysis software can easily sniff out) are tallied up and then largely ignored. So yes, submit your own comments on the proposed rules that you really have something to say about. But don’t submit a comment that is identical/similar to a boilerplate comment that an advocacy group has drafted. It’ll be counted as part of a “mass comment campaign” and only get lip service from the agency. When members of the public submit unique, substantive comments, that’s what gets the agency’s attention.
@¡Andrew!: Someone else saw the Time cover — Trump’s insisting this morning that he makes his own calls. Bannon really should read up on Cromwell’s fate.
@mellbell: Excellent. Thanks, mellbell :-) Yah – we’re not fans of the cut and paste and scripts for calls business. We’re discussing approaches for public comment on legislation, and one of us is following the bill tracker.
So far we have a friggin retired rocket scientist, a history professor and some highly motivated “tell me what to do” people. We’ll rely on each other’s strengths regarding specific legislation, and we’ll research the things we don’t understand.
We need to prioritize our priorities.
MANCHUCANDIDATE • Quentin Tarantino presents Action Joe and Mister Z @SanFranLefty: Wiped out
SANFRANLEFTY • Quentin Tarantino presents Action Joe and Mister Z @ManchuCandidate: Bitch, March Madness is ON! xoxo
MELLBELL • Quentin Tarantino presents Action Joe and Mister Z @nojo: I mooch Disney+ from my sister and HBO Max from my ex. Still need a Hulu hookup though!
MELLBELL • Quentin Tarantino presents Action Joe and Mister Z @ManchuCandidate: As a veteran of last year's tournament, you were re-invited with one click, so…
MELLBELL • Quentin Tarantino presents Action Joe and Mister Z @nojo: I'm just late, as ever. The play-in games started Tuesday, but we've got until tomorrow.…
NOJO • Software Update of the Year @bruce.desertrat: I have failed to get any work done since that dropped.
BRUCE.DESERTRAT • Software Update of the Year Disturbing my cow-orkers laughing at this....
NOJO • Quentin Tarantino presents Action Joe and Mister Z @¡Andrew!: I tried RRR a few times at Benedick’s insistence, just couldn’t last. And now…
¡ANDREW! • Quentin Tarantino presents Action Joe and Mister Z @nojo: I watched the clips on YouTube. Lady Gaga’s performance was extraordinarily honest and…
NOJO • Quentin Tarantino presents Action Joe and Mister Z @ManchuCandidate: Oh gee, that starts tomorrow? Haven’t heard from Mellbell, so guess not.