Pay No Attention

Trump’s performance in the weeks since the election should put to rest any doubts about how he will perform as President.  He knows almost nothing about the job of being President and ignores intelligence briefings and other opportunities to learn.  Thus, he blunders into embarrassing situations.  And if anyone calls him on them, he shoots off his mouth with no thought for facts, appearances, or consequences. .

     Sometimes, the consequences are simply to make the US look like a nation of fools because we have elected a fool to lead us.  Other times, there is risk of something more serious—a trade war (or even a shooting war) with China, or complicity with dictators, or simply corruption and conflicts of interest.  And there is no reason to think that Trump’s antics are evidence of some plan to take a new approach to foreign or domestic policy.  It’s just Trump being Trump.  The campaign has become the transition, and is about to become the administration.

     But there is a difference.  During the campaign, Trump’s antics were the strategy.  Trump and his handlers believed, apparently correctly, that overt racism and sexism, vulgarity, and constant belligerent narcissism were a path to the White House.  But I think that Trump’s antics will serve a very different function when his administration takes power.  

     Trump himself will be entirely too busy monetizing the Presidency—using his influence to cut foreign deals, tweaking regulations and appointments to further his business interests, stiffing the taxpayers for the costs of his private life—to bother with governing.   The conflicts of interest created by his failure to separate his political duties and private business activities have already reached epic proportions, and he hasn’t even taken office yet.  The Presidency may prove to be the most financially successful con in Trump’s long career of crap artistry. 

     The task of governing will almost certainly fall to Mike Pence and the rest of the folks that Trump is putting into positions of power.  And what a sorry bunch they are—a gang of racists, homohysterics, war mongers, and corporate stooges to warm the heart of any Republican.  Trump’s antics will serve as a very entertaining distraction from the real business of governing.  

     Trump’s demagoguery invites comparisons to dictators of the past, particularly (in my mind at any rate) to Mussolini.  And they do look a bit alike, especially, appropriately, around the mouth.  But I expect that Trump will be a sort of third-rate Mussolini, occupying the position of leader but wielding little power.  He is simply too disordered and preoccupied with his own affairs to exercise power effectively.  The real action will be behind the curtain.  Pay no attention.