Trump, A Retrospective

Evaluating most things in real time is a difficult process, because you do not have the benefit of seeing how things end. It is why hot-takes in the middle of a news event always sound stupid in retrospect. Those evaluations are more about the mood of the moment and the desire for attention than sensible analysis. It is only after the thing ends and the dust has settled that you can get a grip on what happened. This is the case with the Trump phenomenon, which ended months ago.

Now, we do not know if Trump will run again. He says he will start doing rallies this fall, but so far, no news on that front. For now, he has been commenting about old enemies and endorsing candidates who have said nice things about him. Elise Stefanik, for example, has gotten the Trump endorsement to replace Liz Cheney. The fact that Stefanik is one of the most liberal Republicans in the House and is nothing but a sock puppet for the establishment makes no difference.

That is a good jumping off point to think about why the Trump years never amounted to more than lots of noise. The Stefanik example is part of a pattern with Trump with regards to how he does politics. He tended to endorse candidates on whether they would win, rather than if they were on his side politically. He endorsed Mitt Romney, for example, who has been a life-long fink. He also endorsed the two Georgia senators, who were everything he allegedly opposed.

Trump’s politics were always an extension of Trump’s business approach, which was just an advanced form of personal brand management. He wanted the Trump brand to carry weight in politics in the same way it worked in real estate. For most of his life, the game was to promote the brand, while others found deals where the brand could be the difference between success and failure. The Trump brand would push the deal over the top and thus earn Trump a lion’s share of the profits.

This started way back in the 1980’s when Trump figured out that the way for him into the world of big-time real estate was to create a media image for himself as the big time deal maker. He was the real life Gordon Gecko, the character from the 1980’s hit movie Wall Street. This got him on television chat shows where he perfected the style that has become synonymous with Trump. The pop culture icon became the brand that would make Trump the real estate mogul.

From the late-80’s forward, the Trump business model was simple. He would swap some of his brand prestige for shares in a deal, like a casino. The people on the other end needed the brand to promote the project to investors and politicians, so they were willing to cut Trump in on the deal. Genuinely smart real estate people from the Trump organization would then swoop in a maximize the profit for Trump Inc. They got their money first and often at the expense of the resulting project.

The genius of this approach is every new casino or resort property with his name on it enhanced the brand, thus opening up new deals. Trump Inc. became a frog in a pond full of lily pads. They just hopped from one to the next. Unlike other real estate developers, they did not have to find new deals and cultivate the political relationships required to make the deal a possibility. Others did that and brought these opportunities to the Trump people, hoping to get the Trump endorsement.

This worked amazingly well in real estate, but not in politics. The Trump brand never counted for much in Washington, where the voters are looked upon as ants at the picnic, rather than a source of strength. Trump’s miracle win in 2016 meant nothing in a world where 95% of incumbents win reelection. Compounding it, the only deals that happen in Washington are the deals that benefit the insiders. The only thing Trump could swap his brand value for were deals his voters hated.

That was the story of his four years. One side of the uniparty was focused only on destroying the Trump brand. Trump never experienced that sort of conflict in the business world, so he was ill-equipped to counter it. The other side of the uniparty was willing to bring him deals so he could attach his name to them, but those deals did nothing for his brand or his voters. Throwing open the jails and giving the store away to rich people was the equivalent of a Trump casino in Tehran.

Where the Trump style failed the most was in the organization. In the 1980’s, Trump attracted a group of very savvy people into his organization. They were the ones who did the deal making and profit extraction from those deals. This allowed Trump to be the head of brand management. Trump’s people knew their job was to make sure the final deal boosted the Trump brand, because that meant more deals. Trump’s role was to use his brand to endorse the deal and take the credit.

It was a good system that was never replicated in Washington. His team was ignorant of how things were done in Washington. His son-in-law was actually working for interests outside the Trump administration. Official Washington was happy to send a stream of their people to fill posts and undermine Team Trump. His organization never had a chance to turn the Trump brand into anything, because they did not know how to do it, even if the brand had real value to official Washington.

That is why the Trump years were lots of promises, but no delivery. Team Trump would bring out the brand hoping someone would come forward with a deal. Either the deal on offer was garbage or there was no deal to be had. Trump’s DACA moves are a great example of the no deal. He was sure he could trade that for his wall. Instead, they ignored him entirely. Trump was begging them to do a deal on DACA and they just ignored him harder. The art of the deal had no market in DC.

The Trump phenomenon is a good example of why democratic reform is impossible in a liberal democratic system. The only way to reform the system is to understand its internal workings and have people willing to make the changes inside the system to create the desired reforms. The reformer has no choice but to engage the system through the rules of the system. There is no way to reform the system from the outside, as the outsider has no access to the system.

For generations now, the political system has been selecting for people who defend the interests of he system and the people in it. You cannot get a job at any level of politics unless you are useful to the people in the system. The entry points of the system, primaries, elections, staffing jobs, are all designed to filter out people who could be unhealthy for the system and select for those who will defend the system. Even if a reformer sneaks in, they are surrounded by antibodies of the system.

This is something the paleoconservative thinker Sam Francis recognized with the conservative movement a million years ago. As soon as they decided to engage in democratic politics, they would be forced to trade their conservative principles for access to the system. Otherwise, they would be shut off from the system. Over the years conservatism has traded everything away. They are now a shuffling husk that staggers long behind the Left living on scraps.

This is the inevitable crisis of liberal democracy. Those “liberal principles” that are supposed to constrain the excesses of democracy end up becoming obstacles to democratic reform. On the other hand, a genuine effort to reform the system from outside is framed as a threat to liberal principles. Trump immediately became Hitler, the great bogeyman of liberalism, solely on the grounds that he was a creature that existed outside the liberal democratic system.

That is the real lesson of the Trump years. There is no way to reform liberal democracy from the inside, as it has evolved to prevent reform. It is impossible to reform from the outside as liberal democracy is defined by opposition to outside pressure. That means the only reform possible is replacement, which requires a rejection of both liberalism and democracy as anything more than expedients. Real reform begins with the rejection of the system and its moral framework.


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Colin Gilbert
Colin Gilbert
3 years ago

You failed to mention in your blog that from the moment he announced his candidacy the entire swamp declared war on him. His 4 years were nothing short of amazing and he’s likely the last chance we have to take back our once free nation.

el_sicario
el_sicario
Reply to  Colin Gilbert
3 years ago

Good post, now get ready for all the down votes and attacks by all the armchair politicians who are either shut-ins or living in another country.

George D Andrews
George D Andrews
Member
3 years ago

I think the Z Man’s analysis is correct regarding the Trump phenomenon versus the empire. I might add that Trump unwittingly did provide one invaluable service not mentioned in the piece. Before Trump, millions of people walked around thinking that true reform is just one election away, even though decades of evidence point to the contrary. Now the blinders are ripped off, millions have taken the red pill if you will, there is no going back. In destroying Trump, we have seen the use of extreme illegal measures, the institutional corruption, and finally, the stolen election, the criminal conspiracy we… Read more »

Dennis Roe
Dennis Roe
3 years ago

He fucked over a lot of dirt people when he bankrupted in AC. His whole grift is Wrestlemania, big gut full of shit hairpiece strutting up on stage to bloviate. He played a good game getting there. Once he’s in, what’s he do? Suck jew cock, like the guy before him and the guy before him. It’s sad and predictable.

el_sicario
el_sicario
Reply to  Dennis Roe
3 years ago

Two minute hate anyone? Dang!

Celt Darnell
Member
3 years ago

Well, I’ll always be grateful to Trump for awakening so many normies to the fact the system they’d believed in actually hates them.

Did he need to wake up more of them? Sure. But he woke up 10X the number Jen or some other loser would have.

Vizzini
Member
3 years ago

OT: Columbus — the home of Mak’ the Knife as you might remember — is interviewing for a new police chief. They just announced that they have narrowed it down to nine candidates. In a nation that is still about 2/3 White and 13% black, in a city that’s 60% White and about 30% black, the demographics of the finalists are exactly what you would expect:

6 black men
1 black woman
1 White woman
1 White man

I joked to the wife and daughter “Guess what guy is definitely not getting that job.”

Gedeon
Gedeon
Reply to  Vizzini
3 years ago

This attitude sucks and is not the way. Start expecting what should be and being pissed if and every time it does not go the right way.

Make noise. Being a snarky b is for losers.

Vizzini
Member
Reply to  Gedeon
3 years ago

Did I ask for your lecture? No. Piss off.

David
3 years ago

“That is why the Trump years were lots of promises,” for a dissident who oppposes democracy, sure. To the evangelicals who elected him, he accomplished almost everything he promised. He’s a new age evangelical like joel osteen. They love israel, tax cuts, and minorities with guns.

Al from da Nort
Al from da Nort
Reply to  David
3 years ago

David;
Re evangelicals: Trump promised to take the odious Obama regime’s boot off their throat. This he did.

Now Obama’s working to put it back using his cat’s paw, Sleepy Joe of the spiteful executive orders..

Re Joel Osteen: Grifting revival preachers have been part of the American scene for at least 250 years. He is neither indicative or unique in any way.

Post Constitutional Conservative
Post Constitutional Conservative
3 years ago

One thing that real hardcore Trump supporters, the ones who joined the bandwagon before he won the Republican primary, would like everyone on our side to forget is how hard they tried to sell his dealmaking reputation as an asset, while Trump skeptics recongized it as what would be his downfall. They also seemed to lack any self-awareness when talking about how Trump was going to be the great dealmaker making deals for the ordinary people in Washingon, while in the same breath talking about how he was going to take a wrecking ball to the whole establishment system. It… Read more »

Frip
Member
Reply to  Post Constitutional Conservative
3 years ago

“They also seemed to lack any self-awareness when talking about how Trump was going to be the great dealmaker making deals for the ordinary people in Washingon, while in the same breath talking about how he was going to take a wrecking ball to the whole establishment system. It could only be one or the other.” @ Post Con. 1st. The “lack of self-awareness” crap has to go. People using it like they’re leading a therapy session. Grabbing unearned authority. i.e. Since I said “self-awareness” it means I have it and you all don’t. Just say “they were wrong”. Speak… Read more »

Post Constitutional Conservative
Post Constitutional Conservative
Reply to  Frip
3 years ago

1. Meh

2. Yes it would be. If there’s anything Trump’s Presidency taught us it’s that.

el_sicario
el_sicario
3 years ago

Your disdain of Trump is par for the course and has become so tiresome it is almost like reading The Intercept. Hopefully in the future a candidate will come forward that will meet your standards as we seem not to have a clue with this politic thingy. Nosireebob!

El Presidente
El Presidente
Reply to  el_sicario
3 years ago

Well, I agree with the last part.

el_sicario
el_sicario
Reply to  El Presidente
3 years ago

Nosireebob!, right?

David
Reply to  el_sicario
3 years ago

The dissidents here dont care about trade deal restructuring, military upgrades, tax cuts, or europe paying their share of nato. They believe all that just fillls the pockets of israelites. They were hoping he’d deport abraham’s descendants give reparations to whites.

Finnster
Finnster
3 years ago

Long shot, but the 2d Anon French military letter from those serving has 145,000 signatures. Be simply awesome if Macron steps on his crank. Firing dangerous people a bad idea. Reeks of orders from DC.

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20210427-french-generals-cause-backlash-with-civil-war-warning

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
Reply to  Finnster
3 years ago

To be honest, I don’t have any faith in the French. Sometimes they just do something outrageous just to do something outrageous, but they have no idea what to do after that. They gave us the French Revolution, guilty until proven innocent, they admired Jerry Lewis, pretentious and boring cinema, plus, they still believe in liberty, equality, fraternity even with Muslims in their country. Something wrong with those frogs.

Pat
Pat
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
3 years ago

Yeah, wasn’t there some kind of “yellow vest” rebellion going on there several months ago? Haven’t heard a thing about it lately.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
3 years ago

Are you British?

Joking aside, the French also gave us the French foreign legion, most of the crusades and the Napoleonic empire. Prior to WWI, they were one of the two major powers of Europe, the other being England. The essential of balance of power was that France had the best army and England had the best navy. The failings of the political class in WWII aside, France has a very long history of being a great military power, competently administered.

Dr. Dre
Dr. Dre
Reply to  Drew
3 years ago

The French came to our aid in the War of Independence. It was very important to our success that they did this.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
3 years ago

LibDem, instead of IngSoc?

But, the past century of global liberal democracy is dead, everywhere, killed in one fell swoop by Covid.

By design, as if it were ‘prophecy’?
That is, was the whole movement just a setup, the promise of a False Peace?

TomA
TomA
3 years ago

The most damaging aspect of the Trump phenomenon is that it continues to provide a venue of false hope for the Normie masses who remain convinced that voting harder will eventually prevail and win the day. No matter how many times the Deep State wins in destroying their opponents (see the new Rudy Giuliani persecution), they desperately cling to a belief that the sun will come out tomorrow, tomorrow, bet your bottom dollar on voting harder, harder. And as long as Trump can keep the marks showing up to his rallies and creating an illusion that voting works, nothing will… Read more »

Pickle Rick
Pickle Rick
Reply to  TomA
3 years ago

Trump’s only real usefulness is if (and it is by no means certain) his failures from the day he was inaugurated to now destroys the Republican Party.

The Uniparty, and even Trump, CivNat that he is, makes the great mistake of believing that the current party system and alignments which have endured since 1876 are permanent. Right now, the Republican Party is about as relevant as the Whig Party, and we all know what happened to them, and what happened after they imploded.

TomA
TomA
Reply to  Pickle Rick
3 years ago

Wyoming is 93% white and has only one major city (Cheyenne), so most of its population is small town/rural with a strong pioneer heritage. And yet, they voted for Liz Cheney 3 times for Congress. She is the epitome of a Carpetbagger politician who shares absolutely nothing in common with the inhabitants of the state she represents and is also an in-your-face backstabbing RINO to boot. If we can’t elect a responsible & sane normal citizen to Congress in Wyoming, what hope is there for future voting success anywhere else? The voting canard is a fools errand that only serves… Read more »

Pickle Rick
Pickle Rick
Reply to  TomA
3 years ago

“If we can’t elect a responsible & sane normal citizen to Congress in Wyoming, what hope is there for future voting success anywhere else?”

There isn’t, and that’s exactly what Trump’s failure should drive into Normie’s thick skulls. I gave it one last shot, probably like a lot of voters in 1860, but I knew it would, at best, slow the inevitable. After, I made sure that I told my Republican collaborator in Congress that he, and his party, can take their clown show and stick it up their ass.

The Wild Geese Howard
The Wild Geese Howard
Reply to  TomA
3 years ago

Right?

A few months ago a Wyoming sheriff arrested a guy at an anti-mask/lockdown protest for disturbing the peace for telling the local mayor to, “Eff off.”

Real bunch of badass cowboys out there.

David
Reply to  TomA
3 years ago

This is because it requires millions of dollars to win elections, and conservatives by nature are not interested in power anyway.

We would be better off spending the next couple decades trying to become billlliinaire donors.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  TomA
3 years ago

Giuliani must be off his game. I would have figured that, following the FBI raid of late, a lot of, er, “interesting” documents would have been released via WikiLeaks or a similar venue.

La-Z-Man
La-Z-Man
3 years ago

Trump’s main contribution of exposing our enemies can only be weighed against the level of intensity he inspired them to reveal. The former will only exceed the importance of the latter if, despite the additional beatings we’re taking now, they burn themselves out prematurely. It remains to be seen.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
3 years ago

Excellent analysis of the Trump MO. The sort of thing one had a sense of, but reading it makes it clear.

Paintersforms
Paintersforms
3 years ago

I read a headline about the coming rise in gas prices this morning, and it made me wonder if we aren’t in a movie sequel.

Trump playing Nixon with his appeal to the silent majority, a rust belt strategy instead of a southern one, his concessions to a resurgent leftist tide, the impeachment defeated this time, and the landslide re-election being undone by shenanigans this time. Biden as ineffectual Carter with Iran and inflation, interest rates not being allowed to rise. Makes me wonder who will play Reagan.

History doesn’t repeat, but the rhyming sticks out.

Thud Muffle
Member
3 years ago

And at the end of the day Mookie from the alphabet agency gets to put the arm on the rest of us for “a little discount”.

finnister
finnister
3 years ago

Evil’s Signal ratio was greatly boosted by Trump’s noise. We were better off without Trump. As far as rejection of the system…lol. It wants you dead.
The system is rejecting YOUR EXISTENCE and wins by default.

Reject away. Live not by lies as you vanish from history LOLZ. 3 cups of Tea, or Chagra… hearts and minds..
Jesus saves…

Finnster
Finnster
3 years ago

WRD to Duke University Gab Diversity snippet; what is power “Hording”?

That word, I do not think it means..
anything.

Peabody
Peabody
3 years ago

“Real reform begins with the rejection of the system and its moral framework.” A couple weeks ago Oregon’s shitbag governor, Kate Brown, decided it was time once again to jerk around small business owners and set lockdown levels back to DefCon5 in 20 counties because “new cases”. Having just gotten used to operating in the idiotic way proscribed by these demons, the business owners finally, FINALLY, had enough. All the details of the ensuing pushback will probably never be known, but I did find an article (that has since disappeared) which suggested the restaurant owners accused her of intentionally and… Read more »

SidVic
SidVic
Reply to  Peabody
3 years ago

In my mind Trump played his role. He exposed our system for the fraud it has become. This stalwart has become a practical nazzi. What comes next? That is the important question. I would be happy if a significant portion of whites and sane citizens would simple begin to advocate unabashedly for their own interests. Currently the GOP pimping for caitlan jenner; a demonstrably insane man. A little push back against the J-left and teh blacks would be enormously salubrious. What about the NJP, Z? Perhaps one should shift to practical matters.

3g4me
3g4me
Reply to  Peabody
3 years ago

Peabody: How many of those restaurants employ nothing but Mestizos in their kitchens?

Peabody
Peabody
Reply to  3g4me
3 years ago

Probably all of them. And they’re mostly shitlibs. And mostly White. Although I can only speak for the Portland area. I get your point, but it was still deeply satisfying that even these people finally found some balls.

Captain Willard
Captain Willard
3 years ago

Trump is finished politically. It will take all of his energy to save his flagging real estate business. His future, if he has one, is in media/entertainment. The Progs are going to go all out to destroy him, “pour encourager les autres”. If anything, third-world style government imposed by Prog oligarchs in the US will be the lasting impact of the Trump era. Obviously it’s not his fault. But like Peru’ or Brazil, we now see US political conflicts played out in the judiciary system, not just with grifter asshats like Manafort and Stone, but with serious, mostly legit guys… Read more »

c matt
c matt
Reply to  Captain Willard
3 years ago

At least Galtieri looked manly rather than an animated corpse.

Ben the Layabout
Ben the Layabout
Reply to  c matt
3 years ago

“Brezhnev took Afghanistan,
Begin took Beirut,
Galtieri took the Union Jack,
And Maggie, over lunch one day,
Took a cruiser with all hands,
Apparently to make him give it back.”
— Pink Floyd, in reference to the 1982 Falklands “war.”

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
Reply to  Captain Willard
3 years ago

“…we now have an actual unknown junta in charge of the US Government…” As in previous administrations, most of the key players on the “Biden team” are members of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) including the secretaries of State, Treasury, Defense, Commerce, Homeland Security and CIA — plus dozens more. The CFR and its interlocking network of corporations, foundations, think tanks, etc. is only “unknown” because the media is an integral part of the network. See chart: https://swprs.org/the-american-empire-and-its-media/ Top-tier CFR members include billionaires Larry Fink (BlackRock), David Rubenstein (Carlyle), Marc Benioff (Salesforce), Eric Schmidt (Google), Michael Bloomberg, George Soros,… Read more »

Severian
3 years ago

I’ll always be thankful to Trump for showing us just how fast the USA turned into the USSR. “Communism” and “liberal democracy” are flipsides of the same coin — useful fictions for societal organization in multi-ethnic empires, nothing more. They eliminate the fundamental problem of e.g. the Austro-Hungarian Empire — though “loyalty to the House of Hapsburg” works great for building consensus so long as the ruler is decent, it’s too easy to blame the Empire’s obvious structural flaws on the person of the emperor. But blaming them on “forces of history” or “market forces,” while providing the illusion that… Read more »

Sackerson
Sackerson
3 years ago

I think Trump might have made more headway if he’d learned to preach to the unconverted – explain the macro picture re globalisation and foreign relations in a persuasive way. He seems to like the emotional charge of confrontation plus backing from his partisans.

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
Reply to  Sackerson
3 years ago

Exactly right. Trump was just the guy who could have done this, instead of just lashing out at the “fake news” frontmen. He teased at it during the 2016 campaign, but never went all the way. One of his CFR “advisors” probably told him just how far he could push it and still enjoy a nice retirement.

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Sackerson
3 years ago

Yep, Trump seemed to think he could run the Fed government like his Trump organization. I knew that would be problematic at best. There had been a couple of well-known governors before him, who ran as alternatives to the uniparty and after election were simply ignored by the entrenched swamp. The one strategy never tried was to go straight to the people and ignore the swamp. Of the outsiders, Reagan did this best.

Howard Beale
Howard Beale
Reply to  Compsci
3 years ago

At first, I thought Trump was using Twitter to go straight to the people. It quickly become clear that was just a tool to troll his opposition, and act as a vent for his ego. At least it was good for a few laughs.

Rwc1963
Rwc1963
Reply to  Sackerson
3 years ago

Trump never used his greatest asset which were his supporters. He could have easily have leveraged them into pressuring globalist douche bags like McConnell and Ryan to get his way. Instead he tweeted and whined. One thing about D.C. they do respond to leverage. Hence giving the Muslims free reign and rolling over for the Blacks every time they throw a fit and threaten to burn down Democratic strongholds(cities) The thing IMO that really hurt Trump is that he had no idea how much the GOP hated him and actively tried to sabotage him. Then he let them select his… Read more »

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Rwc1963
3 years ago

Seeing as how Kentucky reelected McConnell, I’m curious as to how you think Trump’s supporters could have pressured McConnell.

El Presidente
El Presidente
Reply to  Drew
3 years ago

McConnell is massively unpopular in that state. He was re-elected, like Liz Cheney in Wyoming, because 1) there wasn’t a viable alternative 2) the locals were consumed with national politics at the time. Trump could have endorsed the idea of a primary challenge. Eric Cantor was removed the same way. Probably the best way to purge the Republican Party’s national leadership is to work through state parties — primary challenges and censure resolutions to bring attention to them. That tactic has proved successful so far. Liz Cheney is history. Even Mittens has been silenced, despite his previous — absurd —… Read more »

Drew
Drew
Reply to  El Presidente
3 years ago

Outside of Louisville, McConnell is liked or tolerated. Most of my (non-Amish) neighbors had McConnell signs under their Trump flags. He fights for coal and brings home pork, and that matters more to his constituency than principles.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Sackerson
3 years ago

Trump is a bullsh1tter, not a teacher. His appeal was that he was rude to the ruling class while on campaign and paid lip service to the things that mattered to undecided voters in swing states. If you read the art of the deal, it becomes obvious that his main interest is in making deals. Once a deal is made, he moves on to the next one instead of assuming a professorship. Trump is not and never was president material, so there’s no sense in conjecturing theories of what he could have done better because all the theories can basically… Read more »

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
Reply to  Drew
3 years ago

“Trump is not and never was president material”

So, the $64,000 question is: What is presidential material in this day and age? Getting along with the opposition or nuking the entire structure to the ground? A well-spoken, well-dressed negro homo? Let’s be honest: what determines what is presidential material is what the media and historians say it is. And whatever presidential material is now, we need the opposite of it. I’d rather have Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho as president than any we’ve had since Andrew Jackson.

Lunkhead
Lunkhead
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
3 years ago

You nailed the Obama description.

Bill
Bill
3 years ago

I wonder if it’s accurate to say that what drove Trump was simply a desire for fame, for celebrity, to be known? That he wanted to be known and remembered as a great President, and would have said and done anything he thought would accomplish that. He embraced a set of beliefs and principles in order to get himself elected the first time. But seeing how quickly he abandoned them— what little effort he put into trying to achieve them— makes it seem as if those principles he pretended to espouse were simply a means to an end; the end… Read more »

Wkathman
Wkathman
Reply to  Bill
3 years ago

My own suspicion is that Trump originally began running for president back in 2015 in an effort to enhance his personal brand. Even he didn’t believe that he could win, so he was free to speak off-the-cuff and violate political correctness. Voters found that extremely refreshing. The GOP hacks competing against Trump in the primaries had no clue how to handle such a wild card. Establishment stiffs such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio were caught totally off guard by the exuberant outsider. Trump ran away with the Republican nomination and then benefited greatly from drawing a gift of an… Read more »

Owlman
Owlman
Reply to  Wkathman
3 years ago

“He had that odd quirk of always agreeing with whoever in the room had spoken last.”

FDR historians say that ‘appearing to agree’ with the last person in the room was Roosevelt’s main strength. They left the room, apparently, thinking FDR agreed with them.

Jack Boniface
Jack Boniface
Member
3 years ago

Despite a couple of fumbles, Trump protected our gun rights, which is something. That allowed gun ownership to grow sharply.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/more-guns-than-people-why-tighter-us-firearms-laws-are-unlikely-2021-04-14/

Bill
Bill
Reply to  Jack Boniface
3 years ago

Not really. Recall what he said during the discussions on red flag laws (paraphrased): “We’ll take their guns first, let the Courts sort it out later.” Those are hardly the words of a gun rights advocate, or a lover of liberty. What allowed gun ownership to grow sharply in recent months was nothing Trump did. Barack Obama held the distinction of being the greatest gun salesman in history: voicing his intentions to make private gun ownership illegal spurred the largest gun sales ever seen. And it was Biden’s election, and announced intention to appoint Beto (“Yes, we’re coming for your… Read more »

Ben B
Ben B
Reply to  Jack Boniface
3 years ago

Factually untrue. In addition to open support of red flag laws already mentioned by another commenter (which violates the 2nd and 4th amendments) Trump empowered the BAFTE to regulate “bump stocks” into illegal status on par with fully automatic machine guns.

By contrast, despite his constant anti-gun rhetoric Barack Obama actually opened up federal parks and transportation to concealed carriers. He was by action a more pro-gun president than Trump.

Gespenst
Gespenst
3 years ago

Say what you will of Trump, he inadvertently showed tens of millions of people exactly how the country is run, who’s in the ruling class and how corrupt they are. He made more people aware of the immigration threat than five hundred Derbyshires and Taylors could have done.

He blundered into getting 70,000,000 people pissed off at the system and that’s 70,000,000 possible converts to dissident politics. The DR should get busy exploiting that potential.

WJ0216
WJ0216
Reply to  Gespenst
3 years ago

2 days after Obama won re-election, the GOP and cons were talking amnesty. Hannity was literally talking about the need for amnesty the Thursday after the election. These days, very few, if any of these types are talking amnesty. You can give Trump credit for that. He was a blowhard and didn’t follow through with much but he did “remain in Mexico” and other minor things.

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
Reply to  Gespenst
3 years ago

Trump barely scratched the surface of showing “how the country is run” but he pulled back the curtain. The real eye-opener was the 2020 virus scare, the Antifa/BLM riots, and the election fraud. Now the question is how to turn awareness into effective action.

American Citizen 2.0
American Citizen 2.0
Reply to  Gespenst
3 years ago

There is no “DR”. There are some dissident content creators who, for the most part, once they get to a certain level of success in terms of building an audience, immediately lose access to banking and payment processing and hence end up completely emasculated every time. Sure, I like listening to podcasts, reading blogs, and watching videos as much as anyone but the collective influence/power of all of these combined efforts isn’t even enough to spring a single Jan 6 insurrectionist from jail. By comparison, if a high level drug lord from Mexico is arrested or one of his lackeys… Read more »

La-Z-Man
La-Z-Man
Reply to  Gespenst
3 years ago

Not convinced anywhere near all 70 million are anything but ‘vote harder’ peeps.

Gespenst
Gespenst
Reply to  La-Z-Man
3 years ago

There are 70,000,000 people who saw that voting doesn’t matter.. It is stupid to write them all off so casually.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Gespenst
3 years ago

The 70 million were already pissed. Trump was simply the only political candidate to tap into it.

Gespenst
Gespenst
Reply to  Drew
3 years ago

Smart leaders will try to keep that pissedoffitude alive.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  Gespenst
3 years ago

And wise leaders will implement the policies that pacify them.

Anonymous White Male
Anonymous White Male
3 years ago

Trump was merely part of the dialectic. He took part in the professional wrestling world and came to understand the white hat and the heel. In his time in office, he was both. White hat for his fans, the heel for the left. There have been so many people that have predicted he would be killed or financially ruined once he left office. But, the lawsuits have been dropped, he is still highly visible, and his preparing his offspring for continuing the Trump political dynasty. Having rallies will bring in political donations, which, the law being what it is, he… Read more »

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
Reply to  Anonymous White Male
3 years ago

Trump still did a good job of smashing some of the furniture before he left the stage. It’s up to us to take advantage of the opening he created to finish exposing the farce, and the scriptwriters.

He’s a bit like the character in the movie “Network” who talks straight to the audience, telling them to get up and yell “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

https://www.tcm.com/video/294074/network-1976-im-mad-as-hell

CNS
CNS
3 years ago

This post today I believe opens an issue that needs to be addressed. I, for my part, had slowly become disillusioned with Trump. I am an octogenarian, and I had never seen a president behave like this man. I was initially entranced with his victory, as well as his demeanor in the primaries. Jeb Bush, for instance, looked like a bird that had flown into a plate glass window. I actually felt sorry for him. The professional politicians on the stage with Trump were unable to handle someone who didn’t play by the rules of political discourse. Only a neophyte… Read more »

American Citizen 2.0
American Citizen 2.0
Reply to  CNS
3 years ago

In the beginning it seemed like Steve Bannon would use the Trump Presidency to unite Nationalist movements worldwide and finally crush globalism. That’s one of the big reasons I liked him. The media saw this clearly and smothered it in the crib by accusing them of being White Nationalists and White Supremacists. I think Brexit really shocked the globalists too. The problems with all that are twofold. 1) In destroying Trump they basically had to destroy America since the majority of people very clearly expressed their agreement with what he was saying overall about America’s role in global politics in… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  American Citizen 2.0
3 years ago

“If only we had 1/10th of the nationalistic tools the Israelis deploy against the Palestinians.” Except, we’re the Palestinians… hold on you, not so fast! I’m not talking about the current crop of former migrant farm workers and foreign Arab UNWRA puppets. I mean the “real” Palestinians, the hellenic Syrian Christians, the First Christians, the ones Paul talked to. In 1924, France, as part of Sykes-Picot, split Syria Palestina into 2 nations. Southern Syria became “Palestine”, a name formerly used in place of the yet unformed Israel. Simply, ‘Palestinian’ meant ‘Jewish’, ‘Palestine’ was the former Biblical region of lost Israel.… Read more »

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
3 years ago

My apologies, ridiculously off topic.

I should have Trump on the brain too, because Trump’s secret army was all CNN and the Progress channel could talk about last night. Surprised me, because I’d completely forgotten him already.

Alzaebo
Alzaebo
Reply to  Alzaebo
3 years ago

ps- Viva la Insurreccion, culos

Owlman
Owlman
Reply to  American Citizen 2.0
3 years ago

” In destroying Trump they basically had to destroy America…”

As the globalists yawned…and got about their business of ‘creative destruction.’

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
Reply to  CNS
3 years ago

“…his lack of ability to choose individuals to proceed with his announced agenda. The only place he did choose with care was in the case of the economic agenda…” Not so! Trump’s Trade Representative, corporate lawyer Robert Lighthizer, is a long-time member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). Trump’s Commerce secretary, financier Wilbur Ross, is a long-time Democrat operative, who “converted” to the Republican party in 2016. He is former chairman of the Rockefeller’s Japan Society, a CFR affiliate. Trump’s Treasury secretary, financier Steve Mnuchin, was a Goldman Sachs officer and a business partner with George Soros. Goldman and… Read more »

Dinothedoxie
Dinothedoxie
3 years ago

Trump’s political super power was getting his enemies to expose their own incompetence, duplicity and corruption. Very few people realized just how corrupt and self destructive the federal governing elite were before he came along. And just how thoroughly incompetent the entire edifice had become. Every governing elite adopts hostility to outsiders. A functional one would have either co opted Trump (which could have been easily achieved) or eliminated him. Ours couldn’t do either. I large part because they are so thoroughly feminized. The real trick for the next iteration of outsider will be figuring out how to use Trump’s… Read more »

Pete
Pete
Reply to  Dinothedoxie
3 years ago

They aren’t incompetent. They are getting everything they want.

Gespenst
Gespenst
Reply to  Pete
3 years ago

They were competent up to the point they went nuts and gave their game away a little too early.

SamlAdams
SamlAdams
3 years ago

You hit on the exact point on the Trump/deal team interplay. He had no deal team at the outset and was playing defense the entire time. Years ago at a board dinner was seated next to one of the members who hailed from one of NY money centers, where he was the “big fuck up” workout guy. Dealt with a bunch of Trump’s casino debt when it went bad. The other side of his negotiating style was to let his deal team do page turn markup work, then if they reported things weren’t going their way, Trump would fly in,… Read more »

Frip
Member
3 years ago

Z: 5.10.21: “This happens with other things like pithy phrases. Back in the Obama years, someone used the term “crony-capitalism” to describe the tightening bonds between global corporations and the government. The phrase caught on and was in the mouth of every right-wing pundit. In time it sounded like some of them had a form of Tourette’s, in which they burped out that phrase uncontrollably. Today we have “deep state” and “globalist” getting the same treatment from the same crowd.” Not sure what the point of this paragraph was except maybe to swipe at Right pundits for getting woke and… Read more »

G Lordon Giddy
G Lordon Giddy
3 years ago

Trump could have been the Reagan he himself wanted to be and the system could have prospered under him but we are too far gone now. The harpy feminists, sexual perverts and butt hurt blacks all guided by the neurotic usual suspects has given us a “ democracy “ that will no longer tolerate white males with any self respect and testosterone. Men like Desantis of Florida could get the system back on track for another short period of looting but I just don’t see Desantis or Hawley types saving the day. Another election cycle or two of open borders… Read more »

Bill
Bill
Reply to  G Lordon Giddy
3 years ago

I don’t see any evidence that Trump wanted to follow in Reagan’s footsteps; or that Trump shared any of the conservative principles that Reagan espoused. If Trump had tried and failed to keep his campaign promises— to build the wall, bring our troops home, drain the DC swamp, protect our 2nd Amendment rights, send back the illegals and the ‘dreamers’, end the great replacement of legacy Americans by ‘minorities of color’— then we could blame his failures on his opposition. But how much did he really try? I see no evidence that Trump really holds the beliefs and principles he… Read more »

G Lordon Giddy
G Lordon Giddy
Reply to  Bill
3 years ago

I think Trump did look at Reagan as an example of a popular President that he himself admired in his youth. As for policy No Trump was not Reaganesque. Trump just wanted to succeed using whatever policy or deal he could get done.

Finnster
Finnster
Reply to  Bill
3 years ago

Trump doesn’t hate us.

That’s why he had to go.

David
Reply to  Bill
3 years ago

Remember The first two years the gop had supermajority and blocked everything regarding the wall, and the supreme court blocked his DACA order.

Im glad we got 400 miles of wall and we saw multiple impeachments, a russia investigation, the media tarnish their reputation, a stolen election and blacks expose their low IQs in real time. It woke me up to leave california and start working on european citizenship. Id rather live in high tax white country than a free market black country

Bill
Bill
Reply to  thezman
3 years ago

Yep: the Republican party’s response to Trump made it clear that real reform is NOT on their agenda: another good result of the Trump presidency.

They like it where they are, and their one goal is to do whatever’s it takes to stay there.

Severian
Reply to  thezman
3 years ago

That’s when I, personally, had my road-to-Damascus moment. I never could figure out why The Media and the Democrats (they are, of course, the same thing) didn’t do the obvious with Trump: Smear him when he jukes right, and praise him for “growing in office” when he jukes left. The guy is nothing BUT ego; they could get him to do whatever the hell they wanted, if they just treated him like any other freshman Congressman or Supreme Court justice (quick, what’s the fastest way to get a flaming liberal into Congress? Elect a Republican and wait six months). But… Read more »

Finnster
Finnster
Reply to  Severian
3 years ago

Or they crushed our world, no?

COVID is Crackdown on the Commons.

Bill
Bill
3 years ago

Yes: despite Trump’s many flaws and failures, his overall effect on the political system turned out to be a good one. Seeing him as an outsider made it easier for American voters to see themselves that way, and to imagine an alternative to the current corrupt and inbred system; even if Trump ultimately failed to provide that alternative. I suspect that prior to Trump’s declaring his candidacy, many of us had only a vague idea of the Trump brand; I know that was the case with me. If you’re not familiar with the NYC real estate market, and don’t watch… Read more »

Reynard
Reynard
Member
Reply to  Bill
3 years ago

I criticize Trump harshly for all the usual reasons and then some. But there is something to be said about his confidence, charisma etc. All the insults in the world simply bounced off him, he hardly ever even had to swat at them. If you could bottle that up and sell it, I’m sure Trump would have slapped the Trump logo on it and done it years ago (and no, what he had was much more than just sniffing a few lines of coke). I think the DR shared that brashness and braggadocio for about a yearlong window. It was… Read more »

Bill
Bill
Reply to  Reynard
3 years ago

I agree: his confidence and unapologetic self-assurance was infectious. I suspect we’d all like to be a little more like that.

Also refreshing: his speaking without the usual filters politicians use to parse their words and make sure nothing they said offended anyone. By contrast, Trump speaking out what was on his mind without filtering it was refreshing.

Even when what he said didn’t make a lot of sense, or contradicted what he’d said the week before, or was outright false; it was nice to see a politician saying what was on his mind without censoring himself.

Al from da Nort
Al from da Nort
Reply to  Bill
3 years ago

Bill: Re Trump and the media: While there can be no doubt that he truly enjoyed the spotlight, I also think that he was constantly at work to keep them off balance. They’d no sooner get their new talking points issued to them and start hooting those new points back and forth to each other, trying to build the usually effective howler monkey chorus of noise, than he’d put out something else ‘outrageous’, throwing them off their game. Previous GOPe, (GWB = best example) would respond as though the media’s script actually deserved an answer. Usually they ended up caving… Read more »

Bill
Bill
Reply to  Al from da Nort
3 years ago

Agreed! He was a master at manipulating the media. And it was fun to watch their heads explode at his latest statement.

I also found it interesting how right after he was elected, so many commentators just couldn’t for the life of them figure out why so many people had voted for him. Their puzzlement proved more than anything else how out of touch they were/are with the American people.

Hi - Ya!
Hi - Ya!
3 years ago

I concur. And the March to degeneracy is accelerating, which necessitates the immediate destruction LD.

Moe Noname
Moe Noname
3 years ago

“the only reform possible is replacement, which requires a rejection of both liberalism and democracy as anything more than expedients. Real reform begins with the rejection of the system and its moral framework.” The expedient nature of democracy is that it allowed the plebians a say (real or pretend) in the system. Between the Wuahn Flu tyranny and the elimination of free and open elections, this formerly mild mannered plebian has no choice but to reject the system. My sons are slaves, forced to wear submission sacks in order to a attend their private school. If they do not, men… Read more »

American Citizen 2.0
American Citizen 2.0
Reply to  Moe Noname
3 years ago

Well you can kiss that dream goodbye. If you aren’t already superwealthy, your kids are going to be competing with illegals for gig work delivering food or giving people rides for tips with Lyft and Uber. The educational system has all but decided that if black people can’t or won’t do math and science then nobody’s children will learn math and science. Kids growing up now have no future other than to fight the war with Iran, Russia, and China that is being created for them. All they need to know is how to have fun together and who the… Read more »

B125
B125
Reply to  American Citizen 2.0
3 years ago

Already happened in Toronto. There are hordes of non-white (mostly Punjabi) Uber drivers and community college “students”. Despite being in an economic crisis the government just announced its giving away 90,000 “green cards” to foreign students and nonwhite immigrants. Canadian grads can’t find jobs. They’re living 20 to a house and insurance is skyrocketing. No end in sight. I also hate the shit libs who can’t even be bothered to walk to McDonald’s for a coffee. At my local McD there’s always 5 indian or African Uber eats people picking up burgers or coffee. Think how much this helps the… Read more »

American Citizen 2.0
American Citizen 2.0
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

In the vibrant megacity where I live you can get an Uber to deliver a person to person package. You just order the uber and put whatever you want in the trunk and the driver takes to the destination you indicate. They don’t look in the trunk. You can literally deliver anything that way. The cops wouldn’t stop an uber in a million years. I know all kinds of people getting drugs delivered that way here. But luckily, almost everything has been decriminalized so it’s not like the cops are going to lose their minds if you put an ounce… Read more »

KGB
KGB
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

I’m personally shocked at how many people I know are doing gig work delivering food — and believe me, where I live is nothing like the GTA. What surprises me is that there are that many people ordering food for delivery, especially when in my neck of the woods it would only take you 10-20 minutes round trip to pick it up yourself. Why would you cough up the fees and tips to have someone bring it to you? This is not an affluent area, I would think every dollar counts for most of these people, but I also understand… Read more »

Diversity Heretic
Member
3 years ago

My only addition to the excellent column is the role of Trump’s family in the administration. Trump faced the inevitable dilemmas of any outsider achieving office: who do you trust and who can you rely on to implement your agenda, assuming you have one? (Jessie Ventura had similar problems when he became governor of Minnesota.) Trump clearly relied heavily on his family for advice, which I think backfired badly in the case of Jared and Ivanka Kushner. I was less than heartbroken when Trump “lost” because I feared that he would spend his second administration promoting the political ambitions of… Read more »

Compsci
Compsci
Reply to  Diversity Heretic
3 years ago

Yep, one can use Trump’s reliance on family as a “good example of a bad example”. On one hand, I’m all for a strong family united in support of one another. On the other hand, loyalty does not overcome incompetence—or in the case of Kushner, Jewish heritage.

KGB
KGB
Reply to  Diversity Heretic
3 years ago

Agree on the need to end dynastic politics in America, but looking at Europe, where a ridiculous number of leaders are childless, doesn’t offer much hope that barrenness is a better alternative. With no genetic ties to the next generation, rulers like Macron and Markel simply find different ways to say “FU” to their subjects.

3 Pipe problem
3 Pipe problem
3 years ago

Prolly a good reason to hope DJT runs again and somehow get back as POTUS. If nothing else, he is an agent of change and four more years of his mulish regime will hasten along the dissolution of the Uniparty.

By touting his ‘disruptive’ influence, perhaps Trump should curry favor with the legion of Fembots in the gender bender studies and boost his chances in 2024, lol.

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
Reply to  3 Pipe problem
3 years ago

The Trump Show was a one-season special, and a sequel would only be a disappointment. He should rally his “base” to promote younger, more effective fighters to go up against the progressives and the globalists.

B125
B125
3 years ago

There is no political solution. Trump showed us that. Not sure there is any solution, tbh, most dissidents are over 60 years old. But we’ll see.

Jim Smith
Jim Smith
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

“There is no political solution. Trump showed us that.” Maybe. Maybe not. Trump and Pence could have precipitated a political solution by refusing to count or validate the fraudulent electoral votes from the compromised swing states. Pence failed, and Trump refused to cross the Rubicon (perhaps wisely, for lack of troops). But that would have been a political solution. Perhaps the chance will present itself again.

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
Reply to  Jim Smith
3 years ago

Pence didn’t “fail”. Did you see one of the legislators palm a “challenge coin” to Pence immediately after he rubber stamped the electoral vote? Then his chummy elbow bump with queen Pelosi?

https://ugetube.com/watch/mike-pence-receives-his-039-judas-039-coin_EMnSESHxD4RdAWg.html

My Comment
Member
3 years ago

“The other side of the uniparty was willing to bring him deals so he could attach his name to them, but those deals did nothing for his brand or his voters.” McConnell reportedly bragged that Trump would sign any deal they put in front of him. I wondered if it was because he got to keep the pen but Z’s observation is probably more likely the reason. Taking all the pitfalls and required changes to his habits the presidency represented, I wonder if a lot of his failure to adapt to the political world stems from age. Trump is an… Read more »

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
Reply to  My Comment
3 years ago

McConnell is married to long-time CFR member Elaine Chao, who served in Trump’s cabinet. Liz Cheney is the daughter of former CFR director Dick Cheney. It’s hard to score when your own team is playing for the other side.

My Comment
Member
Reply to  JohnSmith
3 years ago

In some ways there is no other side, just one side. Trump was an outsider who crashed the party then wanted to be the guest of honor

Reynard
Reynard
Member
Reply to  My Comment
3 years ago

That’s actually a perfect analogy.

Epaminondas
Epaminondas
3 years ago

Fascism, anyone? It seems to be the only game in town. Though we may need to call it something else.

Jim Smith
Jim Smith
Reply to  Epaminondas
3 years ago

No deal: What we have now is merely a variant of fascism. Old style fascism allied the state with corporate power, with the state being the senior partner. “Liberal democracy” is the same alliance, but with the corporations being the senior partner and wielding the real power. So dump the idea of “fascism” being any kind of an answer.

LineInTheSand
LineInTheSand
Reply to  Jim Smith
3 years ago

If not fascism, then what? My guess is that many Z readers favor limited government. I like limited government a lot, but it is easily subverted, as USA history shows.

Limited government can work in a white country but how do you get to that without a period of fascism to expel the non-whites and instate the limited government?

I’m all ears.

Jim Smith
Jim Smith
Reply to  LineInTheSand
3 years ago

Zman has saod it before, Line: The answer is the solution to “the large society problem,” i.e. “a passive ethno-nationalism organized around group identity and rights.” Doesn’t matter if it’s fast or gradual; its implementation solves the problems you note.

Tykebomb
Tykebomb
Reply to  Epaminondas
3 years ago

Facism was the logical next step in Western development. Its no coincidence that China has just stumbled into something eerily like Nazi domestic policy despite starting from Mao and Lenin. Fascism drank deep from our civilization where it gets the fasces bundle, the Roman salute, or the eagle (things that were/are used in American symbolism). Or that attempts to fight fascism just end up destroying Western civilization (the colonial empires, the statues, the architectural styles, Western demographics, the philosophy and religion). America, a product of the old Enlightenment, just happened to still command the resources of the old world. Thus,… Read more »

Major Hoople
Major Hoople
Member
Reply to  Epaminondas
3 years ago

The classic answer to oligarchy was tyranny. It will be called something that has a little resonance with democracy, but it will be tyranny.

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
Reply to  Epaminondas
3 years ago

Corporatism is more descriptive, and doesn’t have the negative stigma of “Fascism”. Hard to convince the masses that the left/right circus is just a distraction, and harder still to get them to re-focus on the Corporatist overlords.

Strike Three
Strike Three
Reply to  Epaminondas
3 years ago

“Though we may need to call it something else.” We certainly will.

I really like the term “Social Nationalism”, but for some reason I just don’t think it will fly.

Al from da Nort
Al from da Nort
Reply to  Strike Three
3 years ago

Strike;
Saw what you did there 😉

Maus
Maus
Reply to  Strike Three
3 years ago

The Snazzy Party. Just in time for the Instagram and TikTok generations. Instead of Hugo Boss uniforms and Leni Riefenstahl films, we’ll have cool tattoos and rock concerts to promote the next vax jab.
It’s TEOTWAWKI.

David Wright
Member
3 years ago

Who was it, memory is a bit foggy, but someone back when said that all Trump is a NY bullshitter who got lucky. Hmmm. Seems about right. Now there is a bit of groundswell for Florida governor DeSantis. Admittedly a far improvement from the normal pozzed leadership we have but you see the future disappointment coming. By the way he is having some type of Florida government conference in Israel in the future, so there is that for ya. My hope is some type of invading redeemer from the outside. Scatter the roaches here and let us rebuild. That’s all… Read more »

Epaminondas
Epaminondas
Reply to  thezman
3 years ago

He will be immediately dependant on wealthy donors.

I.M.
I.M.
Reply to  Epaminondas
3 years ago

And the wealthy donors are attached like barnacles to the establishment (or vice versa), which is how the wealthy maintain control of the system against pesky things like the will of the people. If Trump were to personally bankroll DeSantis, then potentially DeSantis could forge his own path, since he wouldn’t be dependent on said donors; how likely that is won’t be known for some time. One thing I always said about Trump was that he was mostly immune from the influence of the corrupt donor class since he didn’t need their money. Anyone else without the personal fortune of… Read more »

Tars Tarkas
Tars Tarkas
Reply to  I.M.
3 years ago

If we had someone truly good, donors be damned. Money is influence, but the state is power. A man at the head of the state can just start arresting and executing donors or even just taking their money. The left has always recognized this in a way the American so-called “right” never could. Our side governs and their side rules. On the day of Trump’s inauguration, hundreds or even thousands of leftists were arrested in DC. Yeah, not donors, but still illustrative of the point. Over the next 18 months every single person had the charges dropped. Even people who… Read more »

c matt
c matt
Reply to  I.M.
3 years ago

Trump was never in control of the DOJ or any other government department. Short of a Stalinesque purge (and I don’t mean just firing) it is simply not possible for a POTUS to have that control.

You think Biden is calling any shots? Not even for his own medication.

Dinothedoxie
Dinothedoxie
Reply to  Epaminondas
3 years ago

So what.
Every government throughout history, with few Rey exceptions, has been been dependent on or heavily influenced by their wealthy components.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  David Wright
3 years ago

The only question a dissident should ask himself regarding a right-wing politician is “Can he become a Caesar?”. If not, he’s irrelevant.
He’s better than most, but I don’t see DeSantis being that person.

usNthem
usNthem
3 years ago

I guess this just shows we’re getting closer to the time where we’ll be having to spit on our hands, raise the black flag and start slitting throats. When the time comes, that chicken s*** fence around the capital area won’t do the trick.

Chet Rollins
Chet Rollins
Reply to  usNthem
3 years ago

““And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to… Read more »

Hoagie
Hoagie
Reply to  Chet Rollins
3 years ago

It won’t be “soft”. It’s never soft.

Strike Three
Strike Three
Reply to  Hoagie
3 years ago

I would argue that the scenario described in Brave New World is that “soft” totalitarianism. And depending on which day of the week I ponder this, I can’t decide if we’re trending “hard” (1984) or “soft” (BNW). Perhaps it will start off “hard”, with dissidents “disappeared” or having their faces chewed off by rats, and then gradually devolve into “soft” where we’re all being drugged by “soma” in our water and avocado dip. Or maybe we just drift off into the Age of Aquarius, and everything degenerates into a gray colored mush. No more nasty distinctions, and no more painful… Read more »

Bill Mullins
Member
Reply to  Chet Rollins
3 years ago

Outside a massive outside catalyst, such as an embarrassing military defeat or economic collapse, a ‘soft’ totalitarian version of this will be our world in 30 years. I don’t see it taking that long. I’m almost 70 so I do not expect to see it but my son is 52 and I expect him to do so. The rabid zeal I see daily in the Left’s attacks on any/all dissent/departure from the orthodoxy of the moment – even within their own ranks – coupled with (what I perceive to be) increasing calls for “reeducation” of heterodoxy tells me they will… Read more »

Hun
Hun
Reply to  Chet Rollins
3 years ago

In 30 years? Is it the 1990’s again?

Finnster
Finnster
Reply to  Chet Rollins
3 years ago

Does this quote never get old?

Its like people want the camps to be authentic.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
3 years ago

Trump was useful as a way of lifting the curtain and letting us see things.

B125
B125
Reply to  thezman
3 years ago

He showed that the rulers of the country hate white men. And they are willing to do whatever it takes to get rid of us. For Trump, they had to expose the deep state and fake FBI warrants. They would go much further if necessary.

People say “Trump made the left hate us” – but they already hated you this much, they just didn’t need to ramp it up.

c matt
c matt
Reply to  B125
3 years ago

Trump didn’t make the Left hate us – Trump made the Left fess up that they hate us.

Drew
Drew
Reply to  thezman
3 years ago

He also put Hilary Clinton’s office-holding career to an end, for which he can’t be thanked enough. She probably isn’t the bogeyman a lot normies cons make her out to be, but the gratuitous media fawning during her campaigns was revolting, and now we don’t have to work about it anymore.

La-Z-Man
La-Z-Man
Reply to  Drew
3 years ago

Ah but the prog left is a multi headed hydra. When the Hillary head was cut off, AOC and Talib sprouted up. It’s worse than whack a mole. I once thought Trump deserved two Nobel prizes for keeping the Clinton and Bush families out of the white house. Now, I subscribe more to Zman’s lucky bullshitter thinking.

Wolf Barney
Wolf Barney
Reply to  thezman
3 years ago

Anti-war, anti-globalization, and anti-immigration, and America First is the message that resonates with the MAGA crowd. Pat Buchanan tried with that years ago, but perhaps it took a guy with a bigger name and brand to successfully sell that message. I don’t know how sincere Trump is about it, but it’s here and not going away.

JohnSmith
JohnSmith
Reply to  thezman
3 years ago

Trump also did a lot of helpful damage to the corporate media hacks at CNN etc. Too bad he never focused attention on the New York CFR that coordinates the media on behalf of the oligarchy.

Bill Mullins
Member
Reply to  thezman
3 years ago

Yup. Trump was bad in a lot of ways but I ask you this. What was the PRACTICAL alternative? Bad as Trump was, would not Hildabeast been worse – far, Far, FAR WORSE!?!? I’ve been around the block a time or two and in my experience the universe seldom – damned near NEVER! – offers us a simple choice between “good” and “bad”. Hell! The choice is almost never even between ” bad” and “awful”. Usually the choice is between “terrible” and “OMFG!”!!! I hoped that Trump would do at least some of what he promised but I did not… Read more »

Mockingbird
Mockingbird
Reply to  thezman
3 years ago

That’s more like it. Your comment that “Trump’s miracle win in 2016 meant nothing in a world where 95% of incumbents win reelection” doesn’t make sense. The reality (as I see it) is that Trump was the preparer of the ground.

American Citizen 2.0
American Citizen 2.0
3 years ago

Trump was the first and last “white” president, which means he is the first person to have been explicitly, unapologetically “white” while presidenting. What neither he nor most of the rest of America realized at the time was that the combined forces of the Media, the political establishment, academia, the military and intelligence agencies and practically every NGO on the planet are intentionally goading white men into responding to the most racially provocative attacks I have ever seen in my life. Pure insults beamed over the airwaves toward any and all white men. Trump was a magnet for it because… Read more »

B125
B125
Reply to  American Citizen 2.0
3 years ago

The left’s “double standards” are just anti white. That’s really what it comes down to.

Barnard
Barnard
Reply to  American Citizen 2.0
3 years ago

Not exactly. Trump made a special emphasis to let thousands of violent black criminals out of prison. His pardons were pathetic, especially Kwame Kilpatrick and Lil’ Wayne. Trump wasn’t a white President he just doesn’t hate us and thinks it is acceptable for us to group interests, which is an improvement over 99% of the politicians in Washington.

American Citizen 2.0
American Citizen 2.0
Reply to  Barnard
3 years ago

He got played by the media and the establishment with that whole Lil Wayne thing. So embarrassing. I think he did genuinely want to do outreach to “the blacks” as he called them. He just didn’t realize that he was getting punk’d every single time.

RoBG
RoBG
Reply to  Barnard
3 years ago

I missed that one. I do remember “A$AP Rocky” (who made a video of Trump being murdered) which just demonstrates that his closest advisors were hoodwinking him.

Bill
Bill
Reply to  American Citizen 2.0
3 years ago

While I get what you’re saying, I’m not sure I’d call Trump a ‘White President’. He’s certainly not an unapologetic advocate for Whites on the same level as Jared Taylor or John Derbyshire or Gregory Hood. He never mentioned the fact that pretty much all the discoveries and advances that together make up civilized life as we know it— in science, exploration, technology, government, philosophy, the arts— were accomplished by Whites. He only briefly and occasionally alluded to the wave of virulent anti-Whiteness that animates the Media, Academia, Hollywood, and even the Military. He never pointed out how Whites are… Read more »