No wonder Donald Trump is losing
There was once a television show called “Leverage.” It was about a group of do-gooders who figured out how to gain leverage over powerful and evil people, and then used it against them in order to carry out vigilante justice. The show was pretty straightforward, and I doubt anyone ever watched it and was confused by the outcome of each episode. But after what we just learned about Donald Trump, I suspect this show would have been over his head.
Donald Trump doesn’t understand what leverage is. Five months ago he and his lawyers sent a memo to Robert Mueller, making specific threats that would be carried out under specific circumstances. Based on Mueller’s actions since, it’s safe to assume that he took one look at the memo, laughed out loud in an overly dignified manner, and then used the memo to line his bird cage. Mueller called Trump’s bluff and kept pushing.
Here’s the thing. When someone calls your bluff, and you want to retain leverage over that person, you have to act on the bluff. Otherwise, the other person figures out you’re bluffing, realizes you’re not willing or able to take action, and becomes more emboldened. It’s why you don’t make a threat that you might have to carry out, if you’re not willing to carry it out. When your bluff gets called like that, you more or less permanently hand all the leverage to the other person.
Donald Trump doesn’t appear to understand any of this. He threatened to fire Robert Mueller and pardon everyone, and obviously none of that was going to happen, because five months later, it still hasn’t happened. How did Trump ever manage to pull off his various scams in the business world? His lone skill in life is identifying the kinds of suckers who make the perfect victims for his scams. Whenever he’s had to make empty threats against these types, it must have always worked. Trump has clearly never faced a situation where he’s made a threat and had his bluff called – until now.
