Thursday, January 17, 2019

Donald J. Trump: My Analysis

Paul Manafort, George Papadopoulos, Anthony Scaramucci,  Carter Page, Steve Bannon, Michael Flynn, Roger Stone, Harold Bornstein MD (for 37 years!), Rudi Giuliani, Gary Cohn, David Pecker, Omarosa Manigault.  These were among Donald J. Trump’s friends of his lifetime.                                       

Really,  his choice of Bannon says it all. But in retrospect Bannon seems  kind of mature. Especially when compared with  Papadopoulos or Scaramucci.  But then, there is Trump’s doctor, Bornstein, who was his doctor for nearly (1980-2016) 37 years!  Wow!  Of course Trump doesn’t drink, has never smoked, and has always had access to a LOT of money.                                                  

Putin would have recognized Trump for what he really was right at the beginning.  Bannon probably did too and thought that he could manipulate him.  Mitch McConnell might have recognized that Trump was his (McConnell’s) last opportunity to give the Republican Party an enduring legacy by appointing judges throughout the nation’s courts, so whatever Trump would venture into, McConnell would go along with - as long as Trump stayed away from anything to do with the judges.

I don’t think Donald Trump is a Russian Agent, by any means.  But Trump is interested in creating  his own pathway.   He feels that he is much smarter than anyone else, and Putin recognized this right away, perhaps even before their first meeting.  Putin also recognized the discontinuity of Trump’s background in geo-politics, his lack of experience in that area, and his disregard of most briefings from his specialists.  This feeling seems to me to be enhanced by the way the other Russian leaders (besides Putin) act when they are in Trump’s presence.  They appear to be overly friendly, and seem to even be faintly amused by him.

So what I see is a matter of intended control.  Trump sees Putin is regarded as smart by many people and Trump knows that he (Trump) is head and shoulders above Putin and he (Trump) may even think that he (Trump) is maneuvering Putin when in fact, it might be the other way around.

Now to deal with the Collusion issue, it may just come down to the belief that Trump thought Putin might think that he (Putin) had put a clever one over Trump, where as in fact, Trump had nailed down Putin by letting Putin think he (Putin) had beaten Trump, whereas it was really just the opposite, 

What is legal and what is illegal?   What is the difference?  It appears to me that Trump sees the law as a restriction that applies to other people.  People who have Power, by virture of money or politics though, only have to "appear" to be abiding by the law, particularly if they have access to a group of attorneys who can "shape" the law to Trump's liking.

I began with a list of Trump’s friends, now to conclude with a list of People who have failed him :  David Shulkin, H.R. McMaster, Rex Tillerson, Gary Cohn, Hope Hicks, Tom Price, Sebastian Gorka, Reince Priebus, Sean Spicer, Sally Yates, Preet Bharara, Nikki Haley, John Kelly, Ryan Zinke, James Mattis, Jeff Sessions, Don McGhan, Scott Pruitt, Ty Cobb, H.R. McMaster, James Comey and quite a few others.