Today’s Trump isn’t the original Trump. Watch ancient videos, on Oprah (1988) or testifying before Congress (1991). (Believe it or not, Democrats were then thoughtful legislators, not Marxist juveniles or foreign-born terrorists.)
Trump was originally a public intellectual. What happened? Pro wrestling. And secondarily, the Apprentice series (2004–2014). The World Wrestling Hall of Fame (2013) was an Oval Office stepping stone. Adopting an intellectual public persona would have been political poison. Today’s Trump is an assumed persona feeding the mob’s appetites. By 2007, he was grounding and pounding Vince McMahon in the Battle of Billionaires. Along his path to the presidency, Trump was a beauty pageant impresario (1996–2015) and founding chairman of the Rosie O’Donnell Fan Club.
By 2015, discussions of depreciation schedules, passive losses, and housing policies were abandoned:
When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. ... They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people.
(Trump’s tricolon of “They’re bringing A, B, C” represents a 21st-century rhetorical flourish, bookending Lincoln’s “we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow.”)
The public Trump belongs to a separate genus from familiar political species. Congressman James Traficant was one of the few political actors who also went full populist. Congress eventually expelled him for bribery, but for political theater he was Academy Award material. No court could convict Traficant of not being entertaining. “Beam me up, Mr. Speaker.” Traficant was so popular that when running for re-election from prison, he received 15% of the vote. Whether he was buried with his toupée remains unknown. Traficant’s estate could sue Trump for appropriating his act. The Three Stooges’ Moe Howard never realized he was electable.
We all identify with various mobs. Read comments on conservative or liberal online forums. Social media are saturated with mob affiliations. The View, representing a specific mob, dominates daytime TV ratings. MAGA’s mob was wowed by Tulsi Gabbard’s Russian hoax revelations. She hit a grand slam, then deposited the evidence into Pam Bondi’s inbox. Bondi immediately appointed a “strike force.” Task forces are where Washington scandals go to die. Strike forces take a little longer.
Why would Trump want to bury the Russian hoax? Or the Epstein cottage industry? Because he has more pressing matters. Why release seven-year-old news now? Trump needs to sate the mob’s bloodlust. Certain aspects of the MAGA mob (dominated by influencers, some possessing ulterior motives — referred to by Trump as “just plain troublemakers”) are too tired of winning to care about existential matters. We’ll call this faction the blob.
There’s reasons we’ve witnessed the most effective debut of any administration. Trump is focused, racing against time. Interest on the debt is about to collapse the system. Control of Congress is fragile, awaiting the 2026 election. If the House is lost, it’s game over. There’s plenty of global chaos keeping him busy. Trump looks ahead. The blob looks behind, braying for red-meat clickbait. Gabbard’s confirmation of what everyone already knew provided the coda to a chapter, not a new one.
Everything is clarified upon recognizing that the magnitude of Trump’s rhetoric relates inversely to future actions. He’s busy enriching the Washington criminal defense bar. Democrat operatives are panicked and lawyering up. Trump happily circulates videos of feds cuffing Obama or of himself and Vance in cop cars chasing Hillary. The conclusion must be that Obama and Hillary are probably safe. Maybe Brennan or several others might face prosecution. Don’t hold your breath awaiting mass trials on the scale of J6 persecutions. Trump confirmed Hillary isn’t targeted, regardless of social media posts teased to his base. Potential private civil actions are another matter.
Many think civil war is imminent. The civil war ended on January 20. MAGA won. Trump freed the J6 hostages. He’s magnanimous in victory. Wholesale retribution would tear the country apart, Biden style. Trump is the uniter Biden promised. The blob would snatch Defeat from Victory’s jaws, forgetting that Clinton’s impeachment increased his popularity. Trump’s mugshot hangs in the White House, proof that retribution backfires. Trump’s incredible accomplishments don’t matter to the blob. Nor does institutionalized Washington corruption. Unless pacified, the blob would pout and sit out the 2026 election, losing the House. Trump feeds the blob enough to be sated, but not enough to produce national division.
Congress was originally intended as a part-time affair. And it was, initially. It becomes obstructionist when faced with an activist president seeking accomplishments. Democracies are inefficient. Trump wastes time dealing with fractious Republicans picking apart his initiatives. The best thing this Congress accomplished was codifying 50 Trump executive orders. Nobody noticed. The blob focuses on past-tense issues: JFK’s assassination, Epstein, Russian collusion, Hillary’s emails. Congress postures with investigations and public theater while Daddy imposes global peace and America First trade. Half the House GOP caucus, and most Senate Republicans, are RINOs. Congressional investigations are red meat buffets pandering to the blob yet accomplishing nothing.
Consider Trump’s statecraft displayed with Iran. Tulsi Gabbard was dispatched to Hiroshima, releasing a polished documentary of nuclear genocide, sending Your Favorite Ayatollahs a message. Amplifying the psy-op, Trump encouraged neo-isolationists to hyperventilate, conjuring nightmare forever wars. Netanyahu was tasked with decapitating Tehran’s political, military, and scientific leadership. But Trump convinced Netanyahu to spare Khamenei. What a guy. Bombs away for a few hours, followed by a pretend Iranian missile attack on our Qatar base, allowing surviving mullahs to save face with their restive populace. Khamenei now requires heavier sedation than Hillary. Israel threatens him directly. Iran has until August 31 to abandon nuclear development. They huff and puff, but they’ll sign. Daddy Trump uttered the F-word when Netanyahu breached the peace deal, then flew to NATO for a hero’s welcome. Members suddenly decided to cough up their full 5% of GDP. The neo-isolationist blob crawled away after the 12-day war, pretending they’re still relevant.
News cycles are effervescent, surviving several days. The Russian hoax narrative was obsolete years ago. By 2019, it had passed its expiration date. Only a political fool would continue beating that dead horse. Trump wields the Russian hoax to distract enemies, forcing them to expend political capital playing defense. He’ll go down as responsible for imploding Democrats’ blighted house. Whether their party survives to its 200th birthday in 2028 is questionable. Jesse Watters has assembled eight minutes of receipts.
Whether on domestic or foreign stages, Trump dramatically swings a big stick, but he ends up passing out carrots like pens at a bill signing. Everything is part of the same act, whether he body slams Vince McMahon, fires Apprentice contestants, threatens massive tariffs, gloats that Obama and Hillary face prosecution, or rescues Khamenei from certain death.
Many take Trump literally, not seriously, failing to comprehend “an extremely stable genius.” They mistake a deadly serious operator for a clown. Everything is an act for public consumption. Trump always plans an endgame. National animosity isn’t in the plan. His audience is the broad center, not woke right malcontents.
Douglas Schwartz blogs at The Great Class War, applying pattern recognition of historical cycles to place current events into context.
Image: Gage Skidmore via Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.