Trump: President or Professional Wrestling Provocateur

Trump cannot resist being Trump

Trump is a showman and entertainer, and he is playing a role.  But the role he is playing is "Donald Trump," so he is good at it and he comes across as authentic.

More common in politics is for politicians to play a fake, improved version of themselves--Jeb pretending he is Jeb!, for example.   Part of Trump's appeal is that he seems unguarded and natural and genuine.   Part of his problem is that the genuine Trump looks like a bull in a china shop.

In the podcast Thad Guyer and I just recorded, in anticipation of the debate, I said that Hillary Clinton's best hope was that Donald Trump will help her prove the centerpiece point of her campaign, that Trump is unsuitable to be president by reason of temperament.  He is not careful.  Not circumspect.  He lacks self control.  He would be dangerously risky as president.

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Trump has the opportunity to prove Hillary wrong and to demonstrate maturity and presidential temperament.   Trump's "reset" under new campaign leadership has turned things around and we are seeing a kinder, gentler, more empathetic Trump, which is helping Trump--but it could all end if Trump shows up at the debate looking like a professional wrestling promoter rather than a president.   But he could look presidential--if he behaves himself and demonstrates he has self control when he needs it.

Rising to the bait--maybe

Could Hillary provoke Trump into being the "real" and authentic Trump, the one who settles scores and itches for payback and revenge and humiliating opponents???   The early answer appears to be "yes."

Hillary invited Mark Cuban to sit in the front row.  Cuban is richer than Trump, and has mocked Trump for having less money than he does, and has criticized Trump's political judgement.    Trump rose to the bait and has tweeted that he will invite Gennifer Flowers to sit in the front row as his guest.

Gennifer Flowers, I will remind young readers, is a woman Bill Clinton was accused of having a long affair with while married to Hillary.  Bill denied the affair, then later admitted to it and paid her a cash settlement.  Testimony about her was the basis for the House Republicans pursuing impeachment of Bill Clinton, the upshot of which was that Bill Clinton stayed in office, but weaker and distracted, but that the Republicans who pushed impeachment were exposed as being hypocrites and adulterers themselves (Newt Gingrich, and Bob Livingstone) or , later, criminal pedophiles (Dennis Hastert).  They lost seats in the House. There were no winners, just varieties of losers. 

The purpose for Trump to bring Gennifer Flowers would be to humiliate Hillary, to rattle her, to show Hillary and the world that he doesn't take hits (Cuban up front) without hitting back, to make the point that hints of misbehavior and scandal surround Hillary, and perhaps, if he addresses it directly, to say that Hillary Clinton defended her husband and stayed married to him and helped enable Bill Clinton to prey on Gennifer.

Will the introduction of Gennifer Flowers work to remind scandal-weary Hillary supporters of a bit of tawdry past--a past that points primarily to Bill, not Hillary?    Can Trump--or his surrogates or the media--make it appear that Hillary enabled Bill-the-predator?   That would be Trump's hope.  It may work.  

I think it is more likely that Gennifer Flowers will look unsympathetic rather than sympathetic.  Flowers was no innocent victim, no more than was Bill.  She knew she was messing around with the married governor of Arkansas.  Hillary, not Gennifer, is more likely seen as the victim.  Trump sees victims as "losers", and therefore weak, but I think the public will be more generous, seeing Hillary as the wronged wife, who held a marriage together, who maintained some dignity.  Some people (Carly Fiorina, e.g.) criticized Hillary publicly for not leaving Bill immediately, and some women will agree with that.  Others will sympathize.  People's attitudes will be complex and contradictory.  

Trump humiliates the loser

I believe there would be one big message: I believe Trump, not Hillary, will look like the sleazy one, promoting tawdry sexual history.   And Trump, by making a showboat spectacle, will looks cheap and vulgar, not quite presidential material,  and prove Hillary's point that Trump lacks judgement and temperament to be elected.   Hillary will lose a little in the exchange, but Trump will lose bigger.

Trump is authentic.  In his heart, he is a entertainer who wants to give audiences cheap thrills.   He is who he is, which is Hillary's point, and why she quotes Maya Angelou saying that when someone shows you who they really are, believe them the first time.  If Gennifer is there then Trump has not "reset."  Trump is Trump, a man who jumps into the ring to hit a rival and shave his head while the loser pretends to squirm with humiliation and anguish.

Chickening out?   Or wising up?

But as I write this it is possible that cooler heads will prevail and Trump will back down.   Is he dis-inviting Gennifer?    This is a decision point for Trump--old Trump or reset Trump?

This ploy could be part of Trump's brilliance as an event promoter.  Put something out there for people to discuss.  Will she be there?  Won't she?   Tune in to find out.

But it may be a clever head fake on Hillary.  Get her to think he will show up as crazy-Trump, then fool her by being respectful, as the podcast suggests would be best for him.

Or maybe this is a sign that Trump is trying out a variety of ways to show his fearlessness and dominance.  He will be original classic Trump, but not doing it the way Hillary thinks.  Maybe Gennifer Flowers shows up, and if not her, then something else.   But expect something dramatic.  In this version, Trump will be flamboyant and crazy, but not predictable--a tool Trump says is ideal to use on opponents, both foreign and political.

Or maybe at the last minute, Gennifer shows up.

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Click Here for the podcast. Will Trump fall into the trap Hillary set?

The podcast is a spirited conversation between me and Thad Guyer, an attorney who represents whistleblowing employees, with an international practice.   He watches the election from home base in Saigon.   This week we discuss Trump's rise in the polls, Hillary's having messed up her message on crime.   We conclude by talking about the debate and what would be the best strategy for Hillary and for Trump.   What would Trump do to blow it, and the election?  My own view is for him to look like a bull in a china shop, and that is what--to my mind--it would mean if he brings Gennifer to the debate or does anything like that.