Donald Trump doesn’t believe in policy, except as a transactional ploy to accrue and hang on to power and fortune.
So why does the press consistently treat his half-baked self-serving cynical pronouncements as if they are akin to the Monroe Doctrine?
The latest outrage comes with Trump’s media spectacle on abortion. Apparently, he does not support a nationwide ban? You could have fooled me from the judges and justices he appointed. When it comes to this issue, trying to figure out where he stands is like completing a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing. It doesn’t add up to anything coherent.
So why the credulity from reporters? The deep dive articles parsing the issue from multiple angles? The elevation of his craven expedience with normalizing headlines?
Do you really think if Republicans in Congress passed a nationwide ban and Trump was president he would veto it? If you do, I’ve got a gaudy gold skyscraper to sell you on Fifth Avenue.
How can we tell that Trump doesn’t care about policy? Because when he was president and both houses of Congress had Republican majorities, they didn’t pass anything of substance other than tax cuts. Because, you know, Republicans.
And let’s not forget that the party didn’t even have a platform for the 2020 election.
Trump will say anything one day and change it completely the next. His only North Star is his own self-interest. His instincts now tell him abortion is a losing issue so he’s playing this game as part of his stay-out-of-jail campaign.
Abortion wasn’t the only recent case where the press is treating Trump like a normal candidate with views to weigh with seriousness. Take this headline in the Washington Post: “Inside Donald Trump’s secret, long-shot plan to end the war in Ukraine.” Wow. What could that be? It turns out like almost everything on the world stage with Trump, it starts with appeasing Putin. That’s not policy. That’s such a betrayal of our national interest that even some Republicans are speaking out about it.
Now look at how Biden is covered. Like this recent headline: “Biden Announces Student Debt Relief for Millions in Swing-State Pitch.” So his policy is contextualized as politics? What about the merits of relieving crushing student debt?
Making, designing, and passing policy is hard. It’s a complicated process. And it can be messy. It often requires compromise and trial and error. It can end up costing you elections. Even, and sometimes especially, when the right thing to do in the long run isn’t appreciated at the time. But ultimately the purpose of government is to solve problems and promote the common good. In other words — policy.
One of the things about good policy is it sometimes gets more popular over time. Just look at the Affordable Care Act. Once derided as “Obamacare,” the right-wing backlash to it helped fuel the Tea Party Movement and Republican election gains. Now the policy is widely popular and what was once a drag on Democratic candidates has become an asset in 2024. Health insurance, it turns out, is important, and Republicans can rail against Obamacare all they want but they don’t have an answer for what should replace it.
Politicians always say things just to get elected. They temper their views. And attempt to pivot. But most do that because they want to get into office to do things.
Trump wants to be president to prevent things from being done to him. As in prosecutions. Oh, and also to indulge his power trips and money-making schemes.
That’s not a political campaign. It’s a sales pitch for suckers. And the press had better wise up.
Well said! I could not agree more with your assessment. What seems so obvious seems to elude many!
The press equals oxygen….if they would stop talking so much about him, he would hang himself, just for the attention.