Is Trump Selling Out America?

During the 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump was a whirlwind of vagaries and contradictions when it came to foreign policy, making it difficult to predict how his new administration will approach dozens of international issues.  On Russia, however, he was clear and consistent.  He praised President Vladimir Putin often, defended many of Putin’s policies, and he declared with enthusiasm, “Wouldn’t it be nice if we actually got along with Russia?” 

Since his election, Trump has persisted in defending Putin, questioning in multiple tweets and comments the intelligence community’s assessment regarding Russia’s interference in our electoral process last year.  

In nominating Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state, Trump believes that he has the perfect emissary for improving relations with the Kremlin.  Along with Henry Kissinger and Steven Seagal, Tillerson is one of the very few Americans to have enjoyed direct and sustained access to Putin in recent years.  The conditions seem set for another reset with Russia.

Washington, having told falsehood after falsehood about everything from inaugural crowds to FBI Director James Comey's firing, why would anyone believe a single word coming from this White House?

That’s the fundamental problem a beleaguered communications team faces as it tries to respond to claims that Donald Trump's campaign colluded with Russia to help win the presidency last year.  The public appears to have settled into the view that White House statements simply cannot always be taken as factual.

“Credibility may be repairable around the margins if, for example, someone misspeaks,” said Ned Price, a former CIA analyst and spokesman for former President Barack Obama's National Security Council.  “But there’s a point of no return after which credibility will always be tarnished.  The White House passed that point long ago.”

An email released showing that Donald Trump Jr. not only knew the Russian government was helping his father but also that Trump’s eldest son actively encouraged it came after a full year of candidate Trump and his campaign team initially denying any contact with Russians, let alone collusion.

“If it’s what you say I love it,” Trump’s eldest son wrote just minutes after receiving the June 2016 email from a business associate offering, very high level and sensitive information but is part of Russia and its government’s support for President Trump, as he has for days, again tried to defend himself and his son on the issue with a statement on Twitter.   “Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don jr attended in order to get info on an opponent.  That’s politics!”

The most cursory evaluation of Donald J. Trump as a candidate revealed to us that he felt no need for small-minded consistency between his words and his actions.  If it later proved convenient to back out of his promises, he’d do it in New Jersey mill, Trump seems to have decided now might be a good time to break faith with the immigration hard-liners who formed the passionate core of his base.  He had dinner with congressional Democratic leaders to discuss a path to legal status for some people who arrived in the U.S. as children and are now here illegally.  These seem to have been preliminary talks, so it’s not exactly fair to say that he is selling out his base.  But he has put his base on the market, with a  priced to sell, they shouldn’t be surprised.

The first year of a presidency is the year for bold action, but the man whose core credo is “I make deals, therefore I am a deal maker” has achieved, one Supreme Court confirmation, a handful of executive orders, and has now a reputation as perhaps known as the most incompetent manager ever to have taken office.  Not to mention, his spectacular failure to pass health-care reform, it’s worth noting that Trump didn’t really care about health-care policy, certainly not enough to acquire advisers who did.  But things don’t look much more promising for his signature issues, tax reform, immigration, and infrastructure.

One can only imagine that he is, by now, rather desperate for a deal, any deal, to show that he actually is the man he sold to voters.  An outsider who can "Make Things Happen in Washington" where others have failed.  And since his prior adventure have rather frosted his relationship with congressional Republicans, why not see if there’s a deal to be made on the other side of the aisle?

Turns out there is a deal to be made on the other side of the aisle.  He hinted at an offer of an amnesty immigrants, in return for promises of tougher enforcement later.  Democrats are well aware that the amnesty will be permanent, while the tougher enforcement can always be stalled in any number of creative ways or, in the event of a Democratic presidency, undone entirely with the stroke of a pen. 

To secure an irreversible amnesty, Democrats may even be willing to agree to build “the wall,” knowing as they do that a 2,000-mile wall isn’t much of a barrier unless you have a whole lot of Border Patrol agents to keep people from climbing over, tunnelling under or cutting through it.

Which is to say, Democrats will offer a “heads I win, tails you lose” deal.  A substantive easing of immigration restrictions, covered by some tough-sounding fig leaf provisions that Republicans can point to when angry voters quiz them about any deal made with the other democratic tribe.  Exactly the sort of deal, Trump voters solemnly believe, that President Rubio, Kasich or Cruz were sure to press for.  The sort of deal that made it imperative to vote for Donald Trump.

Politicians are generally constrained in their actions by a number of things, including their ideology, their desire to appear consistent, their fear of the voters, remembering the "Gang of Eight's" failure, and their loyalties to their political party, which makes them reluctant to do things that will hurt their allies in the next round of elections.

Trump may be afraid of voters, but as for the rest, he has neither any ideology nor principles, neither a desire to appear consistent nor shame about failing to, neither allies nor any sense of personal loyalty.   If he thinks he can get away with selling out his base, he will.  Perhaps most disconcertingly, no one can even trust him to accurately gauge whether he can safely sell out his base and still maintain their loyalty.

Naturally, he took to Twitter to defend his thinking, and what he said did not exactly project the air of a leader with his fingers firmly on the pulse of his voters.  His empathetic defence of people who were brought here as children and now have no legal status could have been lifted from a Clinton/Sanders debate.  And he seemed to think that this would be enough to offset any voter outrage.  “The Wall, which is already under construction in the form of new renovation of old and existing fences and walls, will continue to be built.”

One almost admires a salesman who’s too brazen to craft a believable lie, the kind who simply utters obvious falsehoods and hopes you’re too polite to call him out on them.  Trump has a sort of roguish grandeur to his modus operandi.  On the other hand, most people would normally never purchase anything from such a salesman as Trump, apart from his voter base.

Those who appreciate the brazenness of the lies will lose their appreciation when he stops lying to you and starts making a deal with your enemies.  As Ryan Lizza noted, “Maga twitter is absolutely on fire right now.  His hardcore supporters seem shocked, but apparently not too concerned that Trump is a lousy dealmaker who breaks all his promises.”

That groundswell of outrage may be the death of any incipient deal he has with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.  But it may not be a single-issue that immigration voters are in an unenviable position with their man Trump.   Even if he betrays them, some will have no one else to vote for.  The Republican party have denigrated into a band of out-of-touch elites, or behave as Democrats.

But even if he does back down this time, his base may still feel deeply worried.  The fact that even Trump considered making a deal on immigration, and that he did does so openly, indicates just how little leverage his base has over the man they propelled into office.  Not quite 14 months into his administration, he’s already looking to sell them out.  And if Democrats retake Congress in the midterms, they may well name his price.

Trump sells out his own supporters on border wall

http://www.jsonline.com/story/opinion/columnists/christian-schneider/2017/08/25/schneider-trump-sells-out-his-own-supporters-border-wall/601785001/

Trump is Ready to Sell Out his Base
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-09-15/trump-is-ready-to-sell-out-his-base