"You don't tug on Superman's capeYou don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim"Jim Croce, 1972
American businesses, including the news media, are preparing for a Trump presidency. They are making nice.
There have been some curious incidents. JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon made some conspicuous comments praising Trump. CNN, CNN, and NBC made some strange hires. Tech firm founders made giant contributions to Trump.
Trump is a deal-maker. I believe Trump in fact thought that his telephone call to Ukraine's President Zelenskyy was "perfect." Ukraine wanted the military aid delivered and Trump wanted Ukraine to give him a campaign issue. It's the most natural thing in the world for Trump: You help me; I help you.
Democrats worry that in a Trump second term the power of the government will be brought brutally and unjustly against people, businesses, and institutions. It may not be necessary. Listen to Trump. He says he wants to be dictator for a day. He says he wants a very rough hour with shoplifters. He wants conspicuous victims, and then thinks everyone will fall into line out of fear. They are already doing it.
The dialog between Trump and Bloomberg editor-in-chief John Micklethwait shows how Trump thinks and how he will use his power. Micklethwait's question was about whether Google unfairly uses its dominance in search. Notice what interests and motivates Trump. It isn't the merits of the issue. It's about whether Google was "friendly" to Trump.
MICKLETHWAIT: The U.S. Justice Department is thinking about breaking up Alphabet, as Google likes to be known now. Should Google be broken up?”
TRUMP: I just haven’t gotten over something that the Justice Department did yesterday where Virginia cleaned up its voter rolls and got rid of thousands and thousands of bad votes. And the Justice Department sued them, that they should be allowed to put those bad votes and illegal votes back in and let the people vote. So, I haven’t gotten– I haven’t gotten over that. A lot of people have seen that and I can’t believe it.
MICKLETHWAIT: But the question is about Google, President Trump.
TRUMP: Yeah, look. Google’s got a lot of power, very bad to me, they are very bad to me. I can speak from that standpoint. They only have bad stories. In other words, if I have 20 good stories and 20 bad stories, and everyone’s entitled to that, you’ll only see the 20 bad stories. And I called the head of Google the other day, and I said, “I’m getting a lot of good stories lately, but you don’t find them in Google.” I think it’s a whole rigged deal. I think Google is rigged just like our government is rigged all over the place.
MICKLETHWAIT: So, you would break them up, in other words?
TRUMP: I’d do something. You have to have– look, I give them a lot of credit. They’ve become such a power, such a power.
Even out of office, Donald Trump enforces obedience and personal loyalty. If you cross Trump, you are out. There are loyalists and enemies.
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| Brooks said he wanted to help Trump void the 2020 election, but there was no legal way to do it. That wasn't good enough. |
In a Trump presidency there will be well-publicized lawsuits and the checks and balances of a federal system will continue. The real damage will take place out of sight, in the choices businesses make, in the way news stories are framed, and in the way that federal agencies administer the law. I expect a big shift to anticipate what Trump wants. There will be fear inside minds, offices, and board rooms, a fear well understood in places controlled by a strong leader or party. Avoid displeasing the leader. Avoid a purge. Keep your head down. Don't poke the bear.
Better yet, flatter the bear. Slather it on.
4 comments:
The degeneration of the GOP began about the time of Newt Gingrich and his Contract On America. Trump’s incendiary rhetoric about his opponents is taken straight from the Gingrich playbook. Such extremism had been considered lunatic fringe, but gradually it became normalized. It’s called, desensitization. The lunatics became a major influence and now, with Trump, it’s suddenly become obvious they’ve taken over the Republican Party. Now the Republican Party is doing the same to the entire nation.
Trump’s message of fear and hate is not normal; don’t get used to it.
As a Mafia Don once said, "I don't want to be respected. I want to be feared." Fear works.
Folks with massive fortunes need not fear. There's very little a Trump administration can do to harm the wealth of the mega-wealthy. However, Millionaires and below need to fear the economic policies Trump is proposing. Without a doubt, tariffs stimulate inflation, and tax forgiveness of the mega-wealthy will blow up the debt by several trillion dollars. Even our currency is under threat, as is the independence of the Federal Reserve. We have tried these policies before, bringing economic pain to the middle class and down the economic ladder. Destroying the economic engine of the United States will wreck the world economy. Believe Project 2025 will be implemented should Trump be elected President. By contrast, Harris's policies will shore up our economy and be a tide that floats all boats.
I just went to the grocery store, and spent $100 for just a few bags of groceries. Hope and Joy. Hope and Joy. I'm so full of Hope and Joy.
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