Trump: On His Own

Posted on by

By now I’ve gone through most of my thoughts about why this election was lost, and it’s time to segue into being an anti-Trump activist. I just hope I live long enough to see the day when progressives win elections. First we’ll have to see the day when progressives are allowed to run in elections without being sandbagged by centrists. But let’s go on …

It’s pretty clear the Trump crew still doesn’t know what it’s gotten into, but for now he’s happily putting together the Cabinet From Hell. The Democrats sure as hell had better fight these appointments. But Chuck Schumer will be Senate minority leader, and there’s no way to know what Chuck might do. Let’s just say he has a rare talent for taking wrong turns.

But if there’s any indicator how clueless Trump is about what he’s in for, here it is —

With Vice President-elect Mike Pence attending the show, the cast [of the Broadway hit Hamilton] used the opportunity to make a statement emphasizing the need for the new administration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, a Republican, to work on behalf of all Americans.

It was a deeply felt and altogether rare appeal from the stage of a Broadway show — and it drew a surprisingly sharp rebuke from Mr. Trump on Saturday morning. The president-elect tweeted that the “Hamilton” cast had “harassed” Mr. Pence by making the statement and had been “very rude.”

Oh, my goodness, someone was rude to Mike Pence! Well, here is the statement that was read —

As the play ended, the actor who played Aaron Burr, Brandon Victor Dixon, acknowledged that Mr. Pence was in the audience, thanked him for attending and added, “We hope you will hear us out.”

“We, sir — we — are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents, or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights,” he said. “We truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and to work on behalf of all of us.”

The audience broke out in enthusiastic applause and cheers.

If there was ever a purer example of American citizens using their First Amendment rights to address their elected officials, that was it. It’s what the founding of the nation was about, right?

Of course, Mr. Trump has free speech, too, which he exercises through Twitter:

Bleepity bleepity bleep.

Pence had been booed by audience members, not by the cast, when he showed up at the theater. I say Pence is a guy who should be booed whenever he shows his face in public. I would have booed him, too.  But I also understand the cast of Hamilton discouraged booing and simply read the statement above.

I’ve since heard that there’s a right-wing call to boycott Hamilton. If only that would make tickets easier to get; I suspect it will not work, though. In New York City,  Hamilton is a lot more popular than Donald Trump.

But aren’t the right-wingers the same people eternally going on about how they value their freedoms? Seriously, I don’t think they know what the word freedom means.

It’s going to be a long four years, folks.

In Hamilton, after the surrender at Yorktown, King George sings:

Do you know how hard it is to lead?
You’re on your own
Awesome…wow
Do you have a clue what happens now?
Oceans rise
Empires fall
It’s much harder when it’s all your call
All alone
Across the sea
When your people say they hate you
Don’t come crawling back to me

I understand the audience gave that a standing ovation last night. Heh.

25 thoughts on “Trump: On His Own”

  1. Breaking: Pence goes to Black Lives Matter rally; gets booed.

    Seriously, the Hamilton cast looks like America, the Trump cabal does not. Pence’s Indiana that he actually sees may look Wonder Bread white and homogeneous; America does not. While there are many places nary a Syrian or a Jew is to be found, TV is everywhere. Late night TV, sitcoms, pro sports, college sports, music, and, yes, theater: black, white, Asian, Muslim, gay, straight people talking together, sometimes working together. According to unshaven Darth Bannon, that isn’t supposed to happen. I am not convinced that overwhelming proportions of “rurals” or “rust belters” have been waiting for Tangerine Mussolini to be their messiah. I think most of them got hoodwinked by a con artist promising economic gains he cannot deliver. Add in the actual bigots, it was enough to tilt the scale. Right now, I expect a lot of “hold your nose and vote red” evangelicals are getting their Klan recruitment cards and feeling a little sick about what they just did. Maybe. The next few weeks will tell us a lot. Hope I’m right.

    • “I am not convinced that overwhelming proportions of “rurals” or “rust belters” have been waiting for Tangerine Mussolini to be their messiah. I think most of them got hoodwinked by a con artist promising economic gains he cannot deliver. Add in the actual bigots, it was enough to tilt the scale.” Yep, that’s how I see it, too.

  2. With the very cool reception Trump is getting from most world leaders, I’d say that he is on his own on the international stage. He better listen to every word President Obama tells him about the job and his responsibilities, but I’m pretty sure Trump is the face, and Pence will be running the administration.

    Problem is, that while the GOP will do stuff immediately, the reaction won’t hit for a while. Some are saying that actual ‘repeal and replace’ of the ACA may take longer than four years. It took 45 months to spin up the ACA – and only now are problems created with some of the sabotage to the program showing up. The GOP had six years to create and refine their alternative. Yeah, lets see just how that goes…

  3. When he meets with world leaders, and doesn’t get the response he wants, is he gonna crybaby tweet about that too?

  4. I love Harry Reid. He was a fighter.

    I have no idea what (Vichy?) Chuck will do. Hopefully, he’ll be the tought Jewish kid from NYC! But I can also see him going along to get along.

    As for Pence:
    Uhm… How can I put this politely?
    Look, I’m from NYC, and straight. But I was an actor in the city and Upstate NY, and there are plenty of LGBTQ people in all of the ranks, from cast members to stage hands to costume people to… Well, you get the idea.
    If you walk into the LGBTQ lion’s den, don’t expect to walk out unscathed!
    I thought what they did was very professional and patriotic.
    Now, if they try the same thing when Hair Furor is President, they may find themselves under arrest for… For… Well, for some damn thing or another.

    We are looking at a Cat 7 Shitt-icane coming down on us.
    We are well and truly fucked.

  5. Unlike the signers of the Declaration of Independence I won’t pledge my life or my fortunes( not that I have one). But I will pledge my sacred honor to oppose in all respects that big odious bag of shit, the Swindler- in – Chief, and pathological liar extraordinaire who preyed on the fears and insecurities of the American public to secure an honor for which he is totally unbefitting.
    He’s not my President.
    Call me a crybaby*.. no problem!.. I’ll console myself with my adherence to my values and principles.
    * Huckabee is a big bag of shit also. He had a “calling” on his life to preach the word of God as an evangelist but ended up flopping on his face. Either he didn’t get the call right or God pulled he plug on him because he was such a waste of space.
    The eleventh commandment for Huckabee..Thou shall not covet thy neighbor’s donut

  6. I think most of them got hoodwinked by a con artist

    I think all of them got hoodwinked by a con artist. In the novel Paper Moon, Moses Pray was instructing young Addie Loggins on how to perfect a con job. He told her that to meet with success.. “you gotta ramify ’em.” That’s exactly what Trump did. He had the cure for every ill. It didn’t matter whether if what he said synced with reality.. it was a balm for their fears and insecurities.
    January 21st, day one, law and order will be restored. Think about that statement. How do you square a statement like that with any kind of reality. But as a racist dog whistle it’s a salve that makes perfect sense. Maybe expressed in a different vernacular it might take on a different meaning..He leadeth me beside still waters?
    Well, anyway it doesn’t matter what I think or say. The reality is that Trump can’t deliver on his projected strongman image.. And I suspect he never was a cat owner because if he was he’d understand a little about the limits of power.

  7. maha,

    The bond markets are already responding to the GOP rule of the Federal Government. Deficits don’t mater if you’re a Republican, and there is going to be red ink for as far as the eye can see. Their plans will give some short term stimulus (along with a boost in interest rates), but with the zero boundary limit in dropping interest rates to boost the economy, any financial downturn will be disastrous. The Fed has been delaying raising interest rates to curb inflation for a while now, so with the signal in the market that bond rates are going up, the Fed will feel compelled to put on the brakes to keep the market from getting overheated. Real tricky to time when and how much pressure to apply, and if they guess wrong, Grand Recession II or Great Depression II will be on tap. No, I’m not a financial guy, just one that reads financial blogs and remembers enough of his Macro and Micro 101 to be scared.

  8. Somebody should tell the unshaven Darth Bannon that the stubble chic look might work on a buff 20 year old, but on a bloated 62 year old it looks like he just crawled out of a soup kitchen. Will work for food? Brother can you spare a dime?

  9. I think that to a lot of people living in a world of hurt the past few decades – some in reality, some in their imaginations – t-RUMP served as a two-middle-finger FUCK YOU!!!!!!!!! salute to the rest of Americans.

    A lot of them knew he was con man bs-ing them, and giving them empty promises, but hey, he was paying attention to them! His enemies (never mind he’s clearly one of the top 1%) were their enemies, so, the enemy of my enemy is my BFF!!!!

    We’ll see how they feel when Paul “Privatizin'” Ryan starts chipping-away at Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, etc…
    And Ryan won’t be chipping away with a fine sculptor’s tool, he’ll be using a wwood-chipper!

  10. I sorta thought the whole point of the Pence theater trip was to keep the rubes stirred up, and provoke a battle. It sure did work on donald.
    Way to be presidential, sir – demand an apology!

    Ah well, that’s showbiz – as long as it sells newspapers.

  11. “And I suspect he never was a cat owner because if he was he’d understand a little about the limits of power.”

    I should say so!

  12. A thin-skinned prez with an active twitter account, a recipe for total disaster on the global stage.

  13. One image that sticks with me from the campaign is this crazed Trump supporter, screeching wild-eyed on election night about how Trump is going to Washington to “drain the swamp.” But now we see the “pivot” the prognosticators had been talking about, and they were wrong about this too, as it was always obvious to any sentient being that it would be wrong. Trump is refilling that swamp:

    “Donald Trump Meets With His Indian Business Partners Despite Blind Trust Promises”
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-conflict-of-interest_us_58309ad8e4b058ce7aab78fe

    And maybe now these “rural voters” understand what Trump really meant when he said “I love the poorly educated!!” Too late for buyer’s remorse; they voted for this:

    “In Depressed Rural Kentucky, Worries Mount Over Medicaid Cutbacks”
    http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/11/19/502580120/in-depressed-rural-kentucky-worries-mount-over-medicaid-cutbacks

    Here’s how it’s going down folks. Trump will use the white house as a platform for personal enrichment. That will be his first priority. His only other priority will be late night tweets of hatred and stupidity from the White House. And the GOP will look askance at the steady stream of impeachable offenses to come, as well as the assortment of unqualified clowns and disasters he’s appointing to cabinet posts, as long as he signs off on whatever evil, dumb scheme they’ve been salivating over for years. War with Iran? Check. Privatize Medicare and Social Security? Check. Destroy the EPA and undercut any effort to even acknowledge climate change, let alone do anything about it? Check. Bankrupt – a Trumpian specialty — the Treasury to enrich his 1% of the 1% friends? Check. No wonder Willard Romney came out of the woodwork and back into the Trumpian fold.

    And speaking of coming out of the woodwork, Romney is a perfect example of how all these republicans who Clinton reveled in counting their professed #NeverTrump membership as translating into substantial GOP support for her in the ultimate example of lesser evilism, was fool’s gold. History has taught us: they always come home, and it was pure hubris to assume otherwise.

    As for the risk of riling up his more rabid supporters responsible for electing him when he doesn’t drain the swamp, build that big beautiful wall with the door in it, open the Muslim concentration camps, round up 11 million undocumented on day one of his presidency, bring jobs back, etc. How will Trump deal with that? Easy. They’ll be misdirected and sated with his continued support of their public, ugly and violent sore winner outbursts of hatred.

    A simple plan.

  14. The question is – How long can Trump maintain the con? The trick to selling snake oil is to be gone before the buyer notices that the ‘cure’ is causing a painful rash. The Tea Party has been a pain in the A$$ for the GOP, because they keep demanding action on the promises. We have to be issues-oriented – fact-oriented and make sure Trump voters get really irritated by the rash. Mocking Trump elevates him. Calling all Trump voters bigots and misogynists will extend Trump’s popularity. It’s the disconnect between what he says and what he does that will bring him down.

  16. Grabbalottapus Rex is in for a rude awakening. I suppose it’s only natural for a real estate mogul to want to drain a swamp, but swamps are full of beautiful and interesting flora and fauna. I harvest wild lotus in a swamp near my home every summer.
    Grabbalottapus has removed the alligators and is replacing them with crocodiles.
    Reality has a way of biting one in the ass, he won the bid, now he has to dance.

  18. I am compiling a list of acceptable names for the donald
    I am loathe to call him president and never will

    Trumpanzee

    Orange Foolious

    Orange Shitgibbon

    trumpaloompa

    Tangerine Mussolini

    Hair Furor

    Grabalottapus Rex

    Orange shit stain

    well you get the picture

    Thank you guys for

    Hair Furor and
    Grabalottapus Rex

  19. a Macy’s Day Parade float filled with insecurities, greed and gas
    doesn’t have the IQ of meat
    broad suite of sociopathic tendencies
    protofascist orangutan
    Rubespierre
    Dick à l’Orange
    Cantaloupe Caligula
    D.T. Barnum
    Der Failüre

    “In Depressed Rural Kentucky, Worries Mount Over Medicaid Cutbacks”

    The Rs are not worried — people gullible enough to fall for Trump’s con will be gullible enough to blame any cutbacks on Obama. And when global warming starts to bite it, will, somehow, be Al Gore’s fault.
    When it comes to admitting they were wrong, Republicans are more arrogant than American cops.

  20. There’s something interesting in the ‘Hamilton’ thing. Trump has an incredible ‘feel’ for the rubes. Trump plays them like a Stradivarius. He went back to Twitter this morning to demand an apology from the cast of ‘Hamilton’.

    Mike Pence is a sleazy character, but he’s a political pro. He passed it off and claimed not to have been offended. That was the right response but after Pence made it, Trump ignored it. Trump isn’t doing this by accident.

    Some interpret Trump’s reaction as a warning to dissent – to quell criticism. Not likely. Trump thrives on controversy. He doesn’t think that the cast of ‘Hamilton’ will be discouraged any more than the hundred-thousand who have signed up to protest on the day after the Inauguration. Trump is starting to dog-whistle his base who to resist.

    If I’m right, it won’t be random resistance. There will be an event that shuts down the show – fire maybe. It’s important that there be no direct link but a clear INDIRECT link. Whoever Trump identifies as a target, takes a hit. If it doesn’t happen, then maybe Trump and Bannon will play by civilized rules – I hope so. If the theater gets torched, then the NY times needs to up their insurance policy.

    If Trump wants the Inauguration to be a Trump love-fest, then he’s got to discourage mass protests in January. That means major and scary events in the near future.

    • Doug — If anything happens to “Hamilton,” New York will secede. I’m not entirely joking. New York loves Hamilton. It’s still sold out for months. The backlash to an anti-Hamilton act would be yuge.

  22. If Dem’s had either house of Congress, and tried ways to slow Hair Furor down, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a Reichstag fire in our Congress one dark and stormy night…

    But, thankfully (*SARCASM ALERT*), the Republicans control both houses of Congress.

    Oy…

Comments are closed.