The broadest picture is needed to understand why, as in all games, time plays a greater or smaller role. Just scratching the surface Trump is making largely un-attended moves that assume a long and brutal struggle. Consider all that he has done. Consider that he plans a 2020 run. Consider some in Congress are his friends. Like one who says let's end the Mueller investigation. In six months.
As with much that is Trumpian, this proposal is smoke at present, but it will offer a time-sensitive element. Here is the relevant supporting info.
Republican floats measure to kill Mueller probe after 6 months https://t.co/rTAUZW4Dcc via @politico
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) August 30, 2017
This is what they call breaking news.
In terms of this Endgame series, my thesis is that the game is ending as we speak and that it will be won or lost by the end of October. Winning is the president gone. Losing is resignation to the fact that we live not under a president but a dictator.
A Trump axiom
It is not a simplification to suggest that virtually everything president does is buying time. Dictatorship increases as time grows.
The most telling and important moves, like his immigrant machinations with local police forces and pardoning Arpaio are clearly in the realm of closing the door to the capacity to control him.
The Trump axiom is -- If the president acts, it is a considered move toward total control.
The other side
Mike Allen today seems to want to see Trump as shooting himself in the foot with every step.
That is a naive view, I'm afraid. When we wake up as November dawns, if it does, we will see no Trump. Or else a president riding ever higher on the wings of popular acceptance. We will be living in a police state with a fortress America way of spending money.
If Trump wins, the Mike Allen's of the world will wonder if a few degrees in the direction of perceiving truth might have helped.
Hint. It always does. And it is not yet too late.
1 shrinking thing: The president https://t.co/k1ITsfHvUv #axiosam
— Stephen C. Rose (@stephencrose) August 30, 2017
Mike's wish list
Mike presents a catalog of Trump powerlessness. But look at it from the standpoint of the Trump axiom: Fighting McConnell and Ryan is good for Trump.
Mattis to Trump is expendable. The Muslim ban is doing fine as base-food. Mexico is Trump's pinata. Trump will kill health care with no help from Congress. It all depends on how you look at it.
Trump's game
Cohn and Tillerson are minor to Trump and they know it. The world is adjusting to Trump's outsized Korea talk, (It's our military that will give him the option to create havoc.)
Trump's China policy is mostly talk. CEOs only have one vote and live in blue states. Negotiating NAFTA is one of the few bipartisan winners.
Trump is playing for his own power alone, None of Allen's "defeats" compare with putting up Trump candidates in states like Pennsylvania and actually trying to remake the GOP congress in Donald's image.
Who is playing the long game?
The game is at 50-50
To hear Mike, the game is against Trump, It is actually even. And it still depends on the GOP in the Congress.
Reality is all. Neither Trump nor his enemies seem to see that.
The odds are not against Trump based on the list of liabilities Allen presents. The flood will actually be an excuse for no progress on an agenda. The market may play a role and could tank. But in a dictatorship who wins? Racial tensions may boil but that helps Trump beef up the cops and enhance impunity. A government shutdown is neither here nor there to Trump.
We are halfway to defeat
The truth is in the above sub-head. If our goal is a Trump-free world, or at least a Trump-vacated White House, consider the game as it is.
