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Only the ‘Best’
In 2016, Donald Trump promised to “only hire the best people.” By 2018, he was openly trashing most of them. What Trump demands is absolute personal loyalty. Not to the office, not to the country, but to him.
When Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds endorsed fellow governor Ron DeSantis, Trump issued a statement that said, “Two extremely disloyal people getting together is, however, a very beautiful thing to watch.” Kneel before Zod, peasants.
In the past two weeks, three high-profile individuals associated with the Trump campaign have engaged in various levels of bad behavior that has been met with absolute silence.
First, Laura Loomer, the self-styled “investigative journalist” whom Don Jr. has been promoting as his father’s next press secretary, doxxed Riley Gaines for endorsing DeSantis. Gaines appeared at a DeSantis event and was compensated for her travel and expenses and that was reported to the FEC. Loomer, who sticks her head up Trump’s rear for free, tried to paint this as a scandal and published Gaines’ home address on X (formerly Twitter), exposing her to Antifa and the rest of the transgender crazies.
Then last week, convicted felon and still Trump advisor, Roger Stone called Casey DeSantis the “C” word. Not illegal, of course, but crude and an indication of the contempt Trump & Co. have for women. That she is a loyal wife, a mother of young children, and a cancer survivor is just icing on that crap cake.
Last night, it was reported that Ryan Fournier, a co-founder of Students for Trump, was arrested for pistol-whipping his girlfriend. I guess we should be grateful that he didn’t use the business end of that gun on her.
We could hope that the other co-founder of Students for Trump will take up the slack. Oh, wait. That guy was John Lambert, and back in 2021, he was sentenced to 13 months in prison for fraud, pretending to be a New York City attorney and bilking people out of thousands of dollars. He’s still working out his supervised release and may not be available.
Only the best people. And as long as you bend the knee you’re A-Okay.
Published in Politics
So you’re still ranting then. Fair enough.
My point is right there in the quote: some of us never considered it to be a promise.
If it wasn’t a promise then, it isn’t a promise now. So, again. Why Trump? Are you capable of making an intellectual argument for his re-election or is it just “feelz” and some misplaced sense of revenge?
You say I’m ranting. Drew says there’s no “conversation.” So make the case.
I didn’t say “it makes no difference”. I said that “considering the Resistance, soft coup, and GOPe passivity (at best) there was no chance of seriously investigating or prosecuting Hillary anyway, let alone cleaning up the institutions.” I’m not certain it can be different this time, but it’s possible. Trump, having been the victim of this, is in a unique position to combat it, maybe. At the very least, people who aren’t in that position AND who aren’t even talking about it very much are probably not even going try or try very hard. There’s a lot of get-back-to-normal going around, but the normal we thought we had hasn’t actually existed for a very long time if it ever actually did.
You may wake up tomorrow and the sky will be plaid. Not saying it will. But it’s possible.
No.
EJ, my thoughts (and those of others who think like me) are out there if you’re really interested in either persuasion or understanding. That you can seriously characterize it the way you do here, despite efforts to answer, is unfortunate. It means that not only is it more unlikely that important things will be addressed, it also means that divorce is more certain. Irreconcilable differences.
That was not his point. Please don’t pretend that all of a politician’s promises are equal or that the political promises of one candidate compared to another are rendered equal if one or more is not fulfilled.
Who says that is ‘THE biggest and most pressing issue and the absolute priority of the American right’?
One of us is “arguing” based on feelz and it isn’t me. It’s your post and you can rant if you want to, but there’s nothing to be salvaged here, not agreement and not clarity. Have a nice rest of the weekend everybody.
They are, both Federally and State, prosecuting with the flimsiest of charges, the Republican’s obvious candidate to replace the Democrat President in 2025. This is election interference to the nth degree. Yet, here you are waving your hand in the air, calling this action “a few rogue prosecutors eager to make a name”. Your nonchalance is shocking. What about that guy named Jack Smith? He is a Federal Special Prosecutor in case you didn’t know. Are you waving that assassination attempt off as well?
You call Trump’s Presidency “four years of inaction and incompetency”. Let’s see:
1) Illegal immigration was one-tenth what it is now because a wall had been partially built (even though his Republican Congress under Paul Ryan refused to give him the money and authority) and because he had negotiated with Mexico to put their army on its northern border and with our courts to establish a remain in Mexico policy.
2)The world was at peace, relatively. There were no major conflicts and we were about to leave Afghanistan in an orderly fashion. The Abraham Accords were on the cusp of realization.
3) Our economy was humming, inflation low, and employment high. Real wages were up over 5%.
4)We were energy independent and becoming a net exporter. We were winning, or at least breaking even in our trade conflict with China.
I even seem to remember some kind of hoax investigation and two impeachments.
You, sir, Mr. Hill, are a tough customer. You have a right to any complaint you wish to make. I just think your judgment of Trump’s Presidency is overwhelmed by your dislike of his personality. And I have a right to that opinion as well.
I don’t see revenge in EJ’s rants. I see . . . rants.
The key might be that you call it “being mean.”
Pish posh. They had that opportunity in 2017, but their hatred never allowed them to come anywhere close to flattery. They definitely could have swayed him. But they went crazy instead.
I was talking about you and your anger issues.
How is any of this Trump’s fault? Inflation and wars certainly aren’t. And how was he supposed to build the wall when both parties prevented it? You mock others for believing him to be superman, but you’re pissed at him for not being superman.
That’s harsh. Are you telling us that Trump is really that disloyal and unreliable?
We’re on page 10. Pretty sure it’s been made. You just aren’t interested.
Addressed above.
No kidding.
Inflation is partly Trump’s fault because he had no interest in cutting spending (and was forthright about it) though I’d place more blame on Biden than on Trump.
If he wants to build coalitions to get things like the border wall done, he’s going to have to control himself and work with people who don’t very much care for him. Other presidents have realized that you can work with people on some issues while working against each other on others.
Good. Does it help on the revenge issue, too?
Again, for years we heard that Republicans couldn’t do as they promised because they didn’t have the House, the Senate and the White House. So in 2016 we gave them all three.
And they still wouldn’t do as they promised. This is not Trump’s fault, but it sure revealed how useless the GOP is.
Please leave.
I heard that, too. By 2016 I didn’t put any more stock in it than you did. Well before 2016, actually.
How many of those Republicans campaigned on the border wall? You speak in terms of “they,” which I tend to do, too, but sometimes it’s necessary to get more specific in order to deal with the problem.
Also, sometimes people do better under good leadership in spite of themselves.
I would be glad to leave the issue. Maybe it was not good of me to follow your lead on anger accusations.