The Reports of Terrible Trump Polls Obviously True
Last week, someone leaked internal White House polling that showed Trump in trouble against the Democrats in many contested states, including some that he won in 2016. Trump first claimed there were no such polls — in other words, he lied — and then the GOP circled the wagons and declared that they had some “new” internal polling that showed him doing very well.
What to believe?
If there is one truism everyone should have thoroughly digested by now, it is this: Never listen to anything a politician says; just watch what he does.
Within the past two days, Trump has displayed a complete collapse of his alpha male showmanship properties, without which fakery he quickly exposes himself as Bill Clinton without the craftiness.
First, it was his last-minute cancelation of a military operation against Iran, in the most obvious case of presidential cold feet since…since pretty much every other major decision Trump has had to make, and the reason for which he has dubiously claimed was a concern for disproportionate casualties, in order to make himself look humane, rather than like a man afraid to take responsibility for anything.
Now, just a day later, comes Trump’s cancelation of his promised mass deportation effort aimed at removing a couple of thousand illegal immigrants who have already been ordered to leave the country. Trump claims his purpose in this “delay” is to give the Democrats two weeks to negotiate a bipartisan solution on the border, as if that could ever happen in a way that would satisfy his supporters, not to mention believers in the rule of law (those two groups being mutually exclusive). Clearly, his real purpose in this last-minute bailout is to avoid being portrayed as a meanie.
On foreign and domestic policy, then, Trump is suddenly looking weak and conciliatory. (Imagine looking even weaker than he looked after spending a year kissing the feet of communist punk Kim Jong Un!) These are not the preferred optics of a man who feels confident that he has the voters behind him. It is the jittery reaction or deer-in-the-headlights second-guessing of a man who feels he is in jeopardy.
Oh, did I say “man”? I apologize. I meant “Alpha Male Artist of the Deal.” A mere man would not change his positions on the basis of petty fears for his reputation. Only a huge Alpha Male Chess Master would do that.
