The increasingly ridiculous saga of Donald Trump’s presidency continues. He had a chance to let go of the self-inflicted wiretapping scandal, but he didn't, electing instead to drag German Chancellor Angela Merkel into the mess via an awkward joke about the NSA. This, and a petulant refusal to shake her hand for a photo-op, contributed to a trend of worsening relationships with otherwise friendly nations for no real reason but one man’s eternally bruised ego.
What’s more, Donald Trump's budget cuts, while expected, included pointed cuts to services that many of his supporters use, especially the elderly that turned out for him in 2016, despite his promising not to screw them over during the campaign. Said cuts include the program that funds Meals on Wheels, which brings food to the elderly, as part of a $3 billion block grant for such purposes. Medicaid, on top of TrumpCare is promising an estimated $10k-ish hike in health insurance premiums for older customers who need this stuff more, in order to make way for tax cuts and tax shelters for the wealthy.
Of course, Trump is just going to pretend that he didn't do what he did, alternative facts blah blah blah, insert blaming the media here, but materially screwing over one’s staunchest supporters is not something one can alternate away. Trump himself wrote in his signature book The Art of The Deal that a con can only run for so long before people notice.
It pays to understand exactly how thin his electoral victory really was, with a deciding total margin of 120 thousand votes in the battleground states he won, in an election with well over 120 million voters. Assuming Clinton’s voter base remains as pissed in 2020 as they are now and assuming Trump himself lasts until 2020, if he loses the elderly, his reelection bid is hosed.
Heck, at this rate he's hosed in the midterms.
“But wait!” I hear you say, “Nothing he did in the election ruined his chances. What makes you think this will be any different?” Well, I think that the considerable majority of Trump voters didn't think that this behavior would impact his president, or that he’d cut it all out after he won. My mother, who deeply disappointed me in voting for him, thought he'd pick competent subordinates to help him after his knowledge proved inadequate to win a debate.
Neither of those things happened.
On the latter point, Trump has failed to put forth many of the nominees he needs to confirm in the Senate, leaving his administration woefully understaffed, with the false assertion that these employees are unnecessary. And one of his aides, former Breitbart editor Sebastian Gorka, is in hot water for his ties to a Hungarian far-right organization called the
So, if Trump can't act like an adult for more than two hours at a time, his more sensible voters might not be able to hold their noses for very much longer. That gives me hope.
And now with Comey confirming he was making up the wiretapping claims, and similarly confirming the existence of the Russian meddling and Trump's possible collaboration in that, there's at least the possibility that he'll be punted out and we can set about repairing what he already damaged.
