Donald Trump is “exasperated” and he’s afraid of what comes next
Donald Trump isn’t even trying to be Donald Trump anymore. He’s unable to make decisions. He’s become “exasperated.” He’s been reduced to looking for “a way out” when it comes to tough decisions. Trump has become little more than a deer in the headlights as it all slips away from him – and he’s afraid of what comes next.
That’s the only possible conclusion to draw from not only his failed attempt at straddling the fence on his DACA decision, but the details leaking out about just how cowardly of an approach he took in arriving at that lack of a decision. According to The Hill, Donald Trump became so exasperated by the no-win scenario he was facing over DACA, he called his aides together and asked them to get him out of having to make the decision (link). It’s not difficult to understand why he’s become so flustered and indecisive as his presidency unravels in real time.
Trump’s underlying problem is that he got elected by pandering to extremists while conspiring with a hostile foreign government to suppress turnout for his more qualified opponent by systematically spreading a year and a half’s worth of false information about her. That got him into office, but it’s left him without the ability to govern. His base is too small to keep him viable on its own. In order to expand his support, he would need to make the kind of mainstream moves that would alienate his base.
So Donald Trump has spent the past seven months mostly pandering to his base, in the desperate hope of hanging onto what he began with. Even that hasn’t worked. His approval rating has dropped from the mid forties to the mid thirties since taking office, meaning he’s already lost more than one-fifth of the people who supported him in January. His six month delay on DACA will further enrage the mainstream while failing to satisfy his base either. He’s learning the hard way that tough decisions cost you support one way or the other – and he has too little remaining support as it is.
