How did the much anticipated meeting between Donald Trump and Paul Ryan go this morning? Well, Andy Borowitz isn’t too far off the mark, although he runs a parody site at The New Yorker:
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—In what is being hailed as a productive closed-door meeting between two leaders of the Republican Party, Donald J. Trump promised House Speaker Paul Ryan on Thursday that he would try to sound slightly less like the former German Chancellor Adolf Hitler.
Speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol after the meeting, the presumptive G.O.P. nominee said that Ryan had expressed concern that so many of the billionaire’s public utterances were reminiscent of the Third Reich.
“Paul basically said, ‘Can you help me out here? Can you not sound like Hitler all the time?’” Trump said. “And I was like, ‘Paul, I can absolutely do that for you.’”
As an example, Trump said, “Instead of saying I am going to round up people based on their religion, I’ll say that’s just a suggestion. Just like that, I’m fifty per cent less Hitlerish.”
Laughing aside, Paul Ryan didn’t change his mind about not endorsing Trump despite having taken prior abuse from more than a handful of his own caucus members. Indeed, the most they could muster was a joint statement that said they “remain confident there’s a great opportunity to unify our party and win this fall, and we are totally committed to working together to achieve that goal.”
It’s a bit ambiguous isn’t it?
Are they “totally committed” to winning in the fall, or are they only “totally committed” to continuing to work on an “opportunity to unify the party”?
I’m betting on the latter:
Mr. Ryan and other senior House Republicans said Thursday’s meetings were the start of a process of getting to know Mr. Trump. Lawmakers said they were unlikely to generate an immediate rapprochement with the controversial Mr. Trump.
“It’s like a first date,” Rep. Tom Cole (R., Okla.) said outside the meetings, which were swarmed by anti-Trump protesters.
Most first dates are, as Trump likes to say, “total disasters.”
Perhaps this one wasn’t quite that bad.
I dunno man, I almost hate Borowitz’s smug, simplistic boomer-humor as much as I hate anything spewed by Trump or Ryan.
A few months back I found a Twitterbot that filters all the Borowitz columns out of the New Yorker feed. It was a big help.
Not usually a huge fan myself. Pretty sure this is the first time I’ve ever linked to him.
But he kind of nailed the heart of the problem here.
Even a blind pig is right twice a day!
And yet compared to Anthony Lane, he’s Voltaire.
Man, the standards have slipped over there.
Borowitz’ daily piece is the first thing I read in the New Yorker highlights. I think the guy is brilliant at satire. YMMV.
My theory is that the reason they’re hedging everything and saying “the nominee” and issuing these incredibly measured, guarded statements (having conspicuously, suddenly, unilaterally calmed down after publicly screaming in panic) is because they all got together in some grim meeting and they’ve got a plan to keep Trump off the ticket.
I’m not saying it’s feasible or realistic or that it will work. I’m just saying, something’s up…something’s brewing.
Such a plan would require organization and courage.
I don’t see it happening.
All it requires is hubris and self-deception.
Along those lines, I could see the party demanding he release his tax returns and using it as a pretext to yank the nomination away if he refuses. If something really damaging is on the returns, that could suffice as the pretext.
I’ve seen this discussed elsewhere (there’s a thing on Gawker right now, for what it’s worth).
I mean, there’s so much at stake! An entire political party, and the future of the country — both in the long term, which gets the Broder types to wring their hands in deep pseudo-Allan-Bloom concern, and in the short term which has everyone from bankers to the Joint Chiefs panicking. There is no way they’re all just going to go along with this — the sudden silence from when Cruz dropped out, followed by all these carefully measured statements, in lockstep everywhere, has me convinced they’ve got a plan.
And (as I said to the esteemed Mr. Krupin below) nobody’s saying it’s a good plan or that it will work! It’s probably based on their fantasy of widespread “conservative values” like everything else they do politically. But there has to be a plan. A behemoth that big and powerful doesn’t just roll over.
Watching Ryan try to be positive while absolutely refusing to endorse Trump was pretty funny. With friends like these…
What would any of us have given to be a fly on the wall?
He’ll cave by the time of the convention. They’re all going to talk themselves into a Trump candidacy by the end of things, unless the Kochs tell them otherwise.
I agree. By the time Trump nails it at the convention, there’ll be a YUUUGE line of various politicians, pundits, lobbyists, etc, ready to drop to their knees and kiss Trump’s heiney. Count on it.
I think you mean
“Like dat.
Bet on it.”
I’d be careful about generalizing to this election based on past cycles. Trump’s such a wildcard and loose cannon, the party’s truly afraid of him. They don’t want to be co-opted. If he can learn the script and stick with it, they’ll probably get on board. It’s to Trump’s advantage to do so because it’s his only real shot. But we’re talking about Donald Trump. I’m not sure the guy is congenitally capable of learning a script and sticking to it.
Of course you’re right. I’m just continuing to relentlessly pick on Arthur Gilroy because of the childish braggadocio and sneering condescension by which he’s not just expressing opinions couched in predictions (as we all sometimes do) but insisting that we “bet on it” — even though he’s wrong so frequently that anyone actually betting on anything he says would lose their shirt.
I know; he’s “amusing” etc. and he keeps telling me that if I don’t like his posts I should just skip them. Well, if he doesn’t like my critiques, then he’s free to skip these comments, too.
Let Arthur write his own copy….
I suspect that, inspired by his pal Vince McMahon, Trump is going to form the “Kiss My Ass Club”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YVUSrNylZI
uh huh
uh huh
……………..
The persistence of the reality gap matters
05/12/16 12:45 PM–UPDATED 05/12/16 12:56 PM
By Steve Benen
The latest national survey from Public Policy Polling included quite a few interesting tidbits, but there was one area in particular that stood out for me.
There continues to be a lot of misinformation about what has happened during Obama’s time in office. 43% of voters think the unemployment rate has increased while Obama has been President, to only 49% who correctly recognize that it has decreased. And 32% of voters think the stock market has gone down during the Obama administration, to only 52% who correctly recognize that it has gone up.
In both cases Democrats and independents are correct in their understanding of how things have changed since Obama became President, but Republicans claim by a 64/27 spread that unemployment has increased and by a 57/27 spread that the stock market has gone down.
“It’s a fact that unemployment has gone down and the stock market has gone up during the Obama administration,” said Dean Debnam, President of Public Policy Polling. “But GOP voters treat these things more as issues of opinion than issues of fact.”
“But GOP voters treat these things more as issues of opinion than issues of fact.”
That’s because most GOP voters, of whatever socio-economic strata, immerse themselves in 24/7/265 world of Fox, Rush, Family/Fellowship “churches,” etc, all of which lie continuously. These are the exact lies spewed out by rightwing think tanks, who gin up these “talking points.”
So yeah, that’s what GOP voters believe to the bottom of their hearts, and no facts will ever change their minds. Color me utterly unsurprised.
That said, given the disgraceful decline of our nation, how wages have stagnating for decades, the inability of the younger generation to actually secure decent paying jobs in their fields, it’s no wonder that GOP voters don’t think things have improved very much under Obama… because on some levels, they have not. Just saying…
And for those GOP who own securities and have investment portfolios and actually do follow the market? Well they know things have improved since 2008, but Mr. Market hasn’t been doing so well for the small fry voter lately. And that’s what people focus on: what’s happening now.
The daily edition of “The Great GOP Unraveling (tee-hee)?”
Suppose it’s easier than attempting to come to terms with the huge (humongous, really) amount of data that has gone into Pew’s The American Middle Class Is Losing Ground and America’s Shrinking Middle Class: A Close Look at Changes Within Metropolitan Areas. These are trends and numbers that describe the primary election results are far better than all the wise guts here.
There’s a lot to digest in there. But it is no surprise the middle class is disappearing and will likely continue the trend.
Thank you for those links.
Ya know, I imagine that most of Trump’s first dates were total disasters.
But that’s not about them being first dates …
So much drama. Such pearl clutching and rending of garments going on among the pundit class, bloggers and the corporate media.
In the end these guys like Ryan are all going to fall in line. There will be varying levels of enthusiasm/non-enthusiasm, but virtually everyone will have their asses firmly planted in their seats aboard the Trump Train by the time the convention rolls around.
What other choice do they have? They are not going to risk their political futures on this by going against him. If he wins, they want to have their lips pressed firmly against his buttocks on election night. And if he loses, well, they will find a way to work through the political fallout of being a passenger in Trump’s clown car. That is what will be going through their mind when they finally put their cards on the table. They are too scared to publicly refute and disavow their raging base. It is a Hobson’s Choice, and they know it. Almost to a person, they will cave.
Quite agree, because: what else is there? A few of the pearl clutchers are dancing around the edges of “EEEEK! We might have to vote for Hillary!!11!! Oh Noes!!!1111!!” Although some might actually pull the lever for Clinton, it’s unlikely that they’ll admit it publically. Their bread and butter comes from punching hippies and toeing the Purer than Thou ConservaPurist line. They won’t get a paycheck otherwise.
If Trump wins? They’re in like Flynn.
If Trump loses? They clutch their pearls and spend the next 4 to 8 years dissing Clinton, the D Party and endlessly punching hippies… just like they’ve been doing for the past 7+ years. It’ll be easy-peasy. Just recycle old “I HATE Obama Because….” columns and use the edit function to replace Obama with Clinton. Done and done, where’s the cocktail party tonight??
I don’t think this piece captures the subtext at all. I imagine Ryan sees Trump’s racism as I do – a cynical ploy that will now be dialed way down as counter-productive. Ryan’s reason for existence is to destroy the welfare state, especially entitlements, and Trump has removed that from the Republican agenda pretty loudly. If the platform this year does not include entitlement reform, it will be hard to ever stick it in again. So that’s what Ryan is holding out for: entitlement reform stays on the platform, Trump’s promises be damned.
The other issue he cares comparably about is free trade, but here he can let Trump rail against it and know that the next Republican President, Trump or otherwise, will be free to betray their base on this issue, because Democrats do it too: both Clinton and Obama did.
The smart compromise would be to insert some very vague and mild-sounding entitlement reform into the platform, essentially as a placeholder, so the Party can say they never abandoned it. Since Obama also proposed modest entitlement reform, it will be hard to the Democrats to hit hard on it. However, Trump isn’t running for an ideological purpose. He’s running as a vanity project, his version of karaoke. He may decide kneecapping Ryan is more gratifying than compromising with him.
I’m with Brother Pierce:
Ryan’s whinging about unity would be the lamentations part, I’m guessing.
and
How much space was wasted here since last June with “what does Trump really want?” If anyone said, “he wants to win it all,” the response was always, “no, that can’t be it; he doesn’t want to be president.”
Pretty sure he won’t like the job no matter what he might think he wants.
Why would he be any different than every President since Harding (or perhaps Coolidge)? How many were pleased when their time in office was up? Most seemed to want to stay and some had to be pried out.
George W. Bush couldn’t wait to leave.
I think Eisenhower was happy to be out of there.
LBJ quit.
Reagan was spent.
But it’s not that Trump wouldn’t in some sense enjoy being the president. What he would loath is the actual job.
Now you’re just getting picky. It stopped being fun for GWB when he took a thumping in ’06, but who would want to stick around around a mega-financial meltdown?
Ike — serious heart attack in ’55 (six more came later), mild stroke in ’57 — was 70 years old in 1961, had done his eight years, and wanted more time for golf in his remaining years.
As with Truman,re-election didn’t look good for LBJ, but
Reagan was gaga, but seemed to enjoy his time in office.
The Presidential standard of living has been upgraded substantially since Truman’s time and earnings afterwards are great (GWB got a $7 million book advance).
Agree 100%.
Also:
Whereas, Herr Trump:
And tweets a picture of his security detail.
I think the senators are going to hop on board after their meeting.