Donald Trump knows he’s lost and he’s just mailing it in
In addition to everything else that’s fundamentally and horrifically wrong with Donald Trump’s illegitimate presidency, he’s never taken the job particularly seriously. By all accounts he spends most of his time watching Fox News or hanging out at one of his golf resorts. Thus far he’s managed to get away with it because he’s had a complicit Republican Congress shielding him. Now that he’s lost the House and things are about to get particularly ugly for him, Trump’s response is interesting.
A lot of people in Donald Trump’s position would try to step up their game, now that a Democratic House is going to be scrutinizing his every move and exposing his every scandal. But instead of deciding to keep his nose clean, or mount a serious strategy against the Democrats, Trump is taking a different approach. We’ve all seen that he’s become more petty and just plain dickish than ever. But there’s also something else at play.
Up to now, Trump has seemingly had the sense to do just enough on the “president” front to keep up the slightest veneer of appearances. He’ll give the occasional scripted speech aimed at showing that he’s reasonable. He’ll let his staffers post an appropriate tweet on his account after a tragedy, even if he does insist on posting a horrible tweet of his own as well. But now that seems to have changed.
This week Donald Trump traveled to Paris, partly to honor the end of World War I. He had a scheduled visit to an American military cemetery in France. In terms of making him look good, particularly in such close proximity to Veterans Day, it was a gimme – but he blew it off because it was raining. This is the kind of thing that even Trump used to have the sense to try to get right. Now that he’s lost the House, and he knows everything is about to come raining down on his head, it looks like he’s begun mailing it in.
