At WaPo: Mass confusion over Trump’s endgame as Washington barrels toward shutdown, economic crisis.
A large spending bill that Congress passed last week must be signed into law by midnight on Monday in order to prevent many federal agencies from dramatically scaling back their operations. After Congress passed the bill, Trump posted a video on Twitter announcing his objections to it, claiming stimulus benefits were too small and that foreign aid was too excessive.
Since he posted the video on Dec. 22, White House aides have not offered any public briefings on Trump’s strategy or plans. Instead, Trump has issued a series of tweets reiterating his demand for changes but not saying much more. Vice president Mike Pence is in Vail, Colo. and has also been out of sight in recent days.
The consequences of inaction are immense.
Well, yeah. Immense and ruinous for everybody. See Countdown to shutdown: Here’s what happens if Trump doesn’t enact the stimulus law by midnight Monday. It’s bad. Back to the earlier WaPo article:
The White House has provided virtually no information about what its plans are to head off the potential economic calamity of a shutdown and the failure of the relief effort. A White House spokesman declined to comment when asked about the president’s intentions. Negotiations between congressional leaders and the White House appear to be at a complete standstill, and a back-up plan had not yet materialized as of Sunday afternoon.
All kinds of people, especially Republicans, in Washington are baffled over Trump’s inaction. Nobody does this.
“Everybody in the White House is trying to figure out what’s in Trump’s head, if this is a bluff or if he’s going to carry this out. He’s been confronted with all the facts and evidence,” said one person briefed by several White House officials over the weekend, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reveal internal discussions. “Nobody knows what Trump is going to do. It’s a bizarre situation.”
By all accounts, Trump is still primarily obsessed with overturning the election he’s lost several times already. And I would say there’s no point expecting Trump to be rational. He’s like an abusive man. Abusers have to be in control, and when control is taken away from them — when the victim tries to leave — they become more dangerous.
“The statistics are that women in abusive relationships are about 500 many times more at risk when they leave,” said Wendy Mahoney, executive director for the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence. “Domestic violence is all about power and control, and when a woman leaves, a man has lost his power and control.”
Trump hit the jackpot of all big, shiny toys — he got to be president! — and now it’s being taken away from him, and he can’t deal. He can’t deal with losing the election. He can’t face the loss of status and power. He doesn’t understand why other people with power — senators, governors, Supreme Court justices — aren’t helping him keep what he wants. And if he can’t have what he wants, he’s going to hurt as many people as he can hurt while he can, before power is taken away from him. Nobody burns bridges more effectively than an abusive man who loses control.
So I don’t expect him to sign anything. I hope I’m wrong.
Nancy Pelosi says she’s going to make another attempt to pass a stand-alone $2,000 direct benefit tomorrow. As with the last attempt, this isn’t expected to pass. It’s about forcing Republicans to go on record opposing it. IMO if Republicans had half a brain they’d pass it and send it to Trump asap. He still might not sign the bill, of course.
Bill Barr is now gone. This analysis by David Graham on Barr’s departure is from December 14, but it’s still worth reading. Barr has been such a perfect toady. Before election day, he was making noises about voter fraud, and after the election he authorized federal prosecutors to investigate fraud claims. But at some point, there was a line Barr wouldn’t cross. We may never know what that line was. He stopped supporting the fraud claims. He’s out. Whatever Barr expected to accomplish with his lies and deceit and degradation of his office, all that is gone.
See also On His Way Out the Door, Barr Drops a Bombshell About the Durham Investigation by Nancy LeTourneau. In his last interview as Attorney General, Barr more or less exonerated the CIA and other intelligence agencies that investigated potential connections between the Trump campaign and Russia before the 2016 elections. The investigation was initiated for justifiable reasons, Barr said; the CIA was not out of line. For some reason, Barr decided he was done lying for Trump.
Another big loser here is Steve Mnuchin. Jeff Stein, WaPo:
The president’s denunciation of the agreement represented a stunning public broadside against his own treasury secretary, who for four years loyally shielded the president’s tax returns, endured repeated presidential tirades in private, and defended even Trump’s most incendiary and contradictory remarks. Through it all, Mnuchin had emerged with the unique ability to walk a tightrope between Trump and congressional leaders, serving as an emissary in difficult negotiations. That all ended on Tuesday, when Trump posted a video on Twitter ridiculing the agreement. …
…Mnuchin had described the bipartisan deal as “fabulous” one day before Trump called it a “disgrace.”
“Loyalty and assistance to President Trump generally gets rewarded with humiliation. This is how it ends for a lot of people who work for the guy,” said Brian Riedl, a conservative policy expert at the Manhattan Institute, a right-leaning think tank. “Secretary Mnuchin has been completely embarrassed.”
Like Bill Barr, Mnuchin spent his time in office being a fool for Trump, and Trump didn’t hesitate to betray him. Because Trump isn’t getting what he wants.
Senate Republicans are in the dark about what Trump might do. Normally a Republican president would be discussing his end game with Senate Republicans, but not now. He’s leaving them dangling. He’s angry because they should have helped him win. He isn’t getting what he wants.
And if he hurts, everybody has to hurt.
Update: The Mahablog magic works again. I am seeing reports that Trump signed the bill, although he still says the bill is a disgrace.
I will not dispute Maha's analysis that tRump is an abuser. I will just point out that being an abuser and being bat-shit crazy are not mutually exclusive.
"The cruelty is the point."
Adam Serwer, about tRUMP and his maladministration.
He's miserable, and he wants to make as many people as possible miserable too.
And if it hurts some of the.. The you know "who's," worse than others, well, all the better, right?
Shorter: I'll return the toy, ok? But it's going to take a lotta work, and a long time to fix that toy.
tRUMP's a thug.
He shook the tree, nothing fell. He threw a tantrum and got ignored. The proud boys got drunk again. Limbo was the word of the day. But the stock market was going to open tomorrow morning, and he had to cave, because China is beating our ass. That is on his watch and he damn well has enough reality contact to know it. So he signed the bill.
I went with the L words, but Maha did the F word flaccid. I credit her word, as I think she understands the sick mind of Trump like no other. She understands how flaccid upstages all of those L words to certain people.
No one picked up on flaccid. Limbo made it onto the AM talk shows and late and lame made it on business channels, but impotent was so not mentioned, and Trump tried to make the potent play. As the rich people do, they try to solve every problem with the money gun. Point the money gun, fire the money gun, like a teen ager with a cell phone or the guy who only owns a hammer. One can make do with the wrong tool in a pinch, but a flaccid tool is the illusion of a tool. Not even a con man can fake it with a tool like that.
So he signed the bill. I could have lost money on that bet. I will bet limbo will go back into hiding after this convulsion.
Trump is the king of Chaos. He's creating an emergency in the hope he can delay the count of EC votes on the 6th, call out the troops, suspend the Constitution and the transfer of power. The Twentieth Amendment of the Constitution – Section 1. The terms of the President and Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January, and the terms of Senators and Representatives…
There is no gray area in the Constitution. If Trump prevents the counting of ballots (pretty much impossible) at noon on January 6 (and thereafter), we have President Pelosi on January 20. I read a theory that the Secret Service could restrict access into the White House on January 20 – anybody in the Trump Administration could leave but they would not be allowed to re-enter the building. The Supreme Court would confirm the legality of the Chief Justice swearing in Pelosi.
If Congress can not meet to count the Electoral College votes, they can't meet to select a president as provided for in the Constitution if no candidates has 270 EC votes. President Pelosi would remove any obstacles to Congress meeting and Biden would be confirmed. Trump would go into Big Mac withdrawal and surrender the Oval Office to get his fix.
That reads like third-rate fiction but the only part that's farcical is the burger barter. There may be elements of ICE who would barricade the entrances to the US Capitol Building at Trump's direction. The DC police would not eagerly get in a shootout with federal forces "following lawful orders." Trump is sure he's able to pardon himself and anyone else, so why not?
If Trump stays in Florida after Jan 4, he's given up. If he returns to DC before the count of votes on Jan 6, he's going to try to stage a coup. It's been six, almost seven weeks since the election and I see nothing in Trump's actions that suggest he's preparing to leave. Here's a second clue to watch for. If Trump returns to DC and Melania stays in Florida, she's avoiding the confrontation until the outcome is decided. That would be the counterpoint to Barr getting out of town on Dec 23 – IMO, Barr doesn't want to participate in a coup that can't succeed.
He’s like an abusive man.
He is an abusive man/baby. Even Melania has publicly confirmed that fact when she made the statement…."When Donald gets hit he hits back 10 times harder". I suppose she was trying to endear herself with Trump by highlighting what she thought would be understood as a characteristic of strength, but in the reality of her words she was telling the world that he's an abuser.
I've got a theory about Trump's endgame.
I've known several women who were in marital relationships with psychopaths where the relationship became so toxic that they had to bail out at any cost in order to save themselves. They just wanted to take their children and make a clean break for survival. They weren't interested in trying to get child support or any financial assets they were entitled to as a result of their union with the psychopath.
It was a pretty clear case of saying, just get out of my life and I don't want any connection to you whatsoever. I curse the day I ever met you. So release me and let me live again.
That is similar to what I think Trump's endgame is. Create enough toxicity and political agita that it will make the political powers that be extremely reluctant to pursue him for his crimes. It'll be a case of please just get out of our lives, we don't want to see you, hear from you, or deal with you in any capacity.. Just go and leave us in peace.