Donald Trump strikes out
When the dockworkers went on strike earlier this week, there were endless doomsday prognostications on TV and Twitter about how the strike would tank the U.S. economy and hand the 2024 election to Donald Trump. There was even social media speculation, never confirmed or verified, that Trump had somehow coordinated timing of the strike in order to help himself politically.
But as these kinds of things tend to play out, the strike ended today after a deal was reached. The dockworkers got what they were looking for out of the deal, and more power to them. The political impact of the brief strike will end up being zero. It’s a timely reminder that this election will not be decided by some kind of magic wand event for either side. It’ll be decided by people like you deciding to phone bank or knock on doors or make small dollar targeted donations.
If Trump was somehow involved in the timing of this strike, or even if he was simply pinning his hopes on a strike that he had nothing to do with, it sure didn’t help him any. Having a silly plan that’s not going to benefit you is the same thing as not having a plan. Either way, Donald Trump has no plan. These days he never does.
