35 thoughts on Trump ‘winging it’ with Democrats

1. President Trump’s sudden and unexpected moves over the past two weeks to side with congressional Democrats — Charles Schumer (N.Y.) and the much-reviled-on-the-right Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) — on raising the debt-limit ceiling and the general thrust of immigration reform was yet another example of a fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants decision-making process that has so far resulted after more than seven months with virtually no legislative accomplishments;

2. The real reason for this sudden move was personal pique against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) after a New York Times story in which he questioned whether Trump can “salvage his administration;”

3. This was typical Trump: Counterpunching — or payback;

4. But as a governing philosophy it will fail;

5. Schumer and Pelosi are wily pols who also have a “base” to satisfy;

6. And that Democratic/leftist base loathes Trump. Richard Nixon is a saint to these people, compared to Trump;

7. In order to survive, Schumer and Pelosi have to justify working with Trump; thus the Pelosi request — and subsequent Trump tweet — that the DACA kids are “safe”;

8. Legislatively, Schumer and Pelosi will extract from Trump things that a few days ago were seemingly unthinkable:

9. More federal money injected into the ObamaCare exchanges to keep them alive, and …

10. No wall. Period. The Dems will not sign onto any bill or budget or Continuing Resolution that includes funding for the wall;

11. It is no secret that the wall was already in deep political trouble — even within the GOP;

12. But if Trump plans on getting cooperation from the Democrats, the price for this will be a 180-degree reversal on his two main signature campaign promises: the wall and the repeal/replace of ObamaCare;

13. His third — and more general — promise was to “drain the swamp” that is Washington;

14. Are there two career politicians more associated with all the negative connotations of “the swamp” than Charles Schumer — a congressional veteran of about 37 years — and Nancy Pelosi, the former speaker of the House, who ushered ObamaCare through the House and famously said, “But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what’s in it?”;

15. Yet these are now Donald Trump’s preferred dance partners?

16. Donald Trump was never a real Republican; he has switched parties more than five times; in 2000 he flirted with a POTUS run as the nominee of the Reform Party;

17. But he has never had good chemistry with GOP leaders;

18. They’re usually personally conservative in their conduct, language and values;

19. Trump has always been a randy New York playboy who boasted of his lifestyle;

20. Simply stated, he is a libertine — and is more comfortable with the libertarian leanings of the Democrats;

21. But, make no mistake, this alliance with Schumer and Pelosi is similar to all his other dealings;

22. It will not last;

23. And they will be tremendously unhappy with what they ended up doing with Trump;

24. They will feel “betrayed” or “ripped off” — just like almost anyone who has ever done business with Trump;

25. But that is Trump’s style — winging it — fueled by anger and a sense of bitter payback;

26. Now to the big picture: Trump, although he has never totally understood it, was elected in the midst of an ongoing and unprecedented revolution in America and in the West;

27. This is not a revolution against an omnipotent, malicious king; it is a revolution against the perception that all elites — government, media, business, educational, religious — are rigging the system for themselves at the expense of everyone else;

28. In the United States, many voters saw Trump as incorruptible because of his wealth and swagger. And they thus figured he could be their “Lone Ranger” who could take on this “corrupt system” on their behalf;

29. Trump, self-centered and self-absorbed, thought his revolution was about him but he’s wrong;

30. He is the current vehicle of the revolutionaries, and there are now only 34 percent of them, as he has systematically driven away more than a third of his original supporters since his inauguration;

31. As a friend emailed me last night, “Trump has ruined the chance of another outsider getting into the White House;”

32. My answer: What this revolution needs is someone with the change mentality of the “outsider” but who is also armed with the “insider’s” knowledge of how to harness the system to bring about change. A rare individual;

33. By the way, the last outsider who succeeded at this and was thus a transformative president was, indeed, Ronald Reagan;

34. So what we have today is a POTUS unaware of why he was elected, incapable of setting an agenda and sticking to it, and whose daily governing philosophy is just to “wing it;”

35. This will not end well.

John LeBoutillier is a former Republican congressman from New York and is co-host of “Revolution — The Podcast,” available on Soundcloud and iTunes.