Trump does not handle criticism well

Tim Carney:
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan may be learning this week that his deal with the Donald is not what he thought it was.

Joining Donald Trump in the New York billionaire's march to the White House probably doesn't make Ryan Trump's legislator-in-chief, as many have hoped. No relationship with Trump can be that clean. Trump this week reminded Ryan of that.

Many conservatives have pegged their tattered hopes for the next four years on the theory that a President Trump would be aloof from policymaking, and that he'd just let conservatives around him craft the details.

Conservative Republican staffers in Washington have justified boarding the Trump Train with such wishful thinking. Trump doesn't care about policy, they argue. If pro-lifers, entitlement reformers and tax-cutters join Trump's team and help him win, they will drive the ship.
...
But a Trump-Ryan partnership of that sort was never possible, because that's not the sort of man Donald Trump is.

Trump showed it again this week. After Ryan had the temerity to criticize Trump's jihad against Khzir Khan — the father of a Muslim Army officer who gave his life in Iraq — Trump taunted Ryan with a tweet of appreciation for the speaker's Republican primary challenger.

At best, this was petty payback by Trump, the self-described "counterpuncher." What would that portend for a Trump-Ryan partnership in Washington? Sure, I may let you write up your little entitlement reform as long as you never criticize a single one of my authoritarian proclamations, bigoted utterances and putrid rhetorical turds. Of course, it would also fit the pattern if Trump were just arbitrarily and capriciously smacking Ryan around — you know, just to let him know who's boss.

Endorsing Trump, it turns out, was only the first indignity.

You can understand Trump better if you read up on Lyndon Johnson or if you visit any local dog park. A primary aim of his social interactions is to establish dominance over other men. Look at how he has demeaned Chris Christie (even making fat jokes) and taunted his former opponents after they endorsed him.
...
Trump is just being the jerk he has shown himself to be throughout the campaign.  It is who he is, and he will frustrate anyone who tries to tame him into being a responsible adult.  He has a core group of followers who like being jerks too and delight in the indignities he heaps on others, but that is no way to build consensus to accomplish anything in this country.

It also explains why Trump is so frustrated by someone like Ted Cruz who will not bow and scrape to his whims.  So far he has attacked more Republicans than Democrats in his quest for power.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Should Republicans go ahead and add Supreme Court Justices to head off Democrats

Washington Post: Some Democrats eye adding more justices to the Supreme Court to change its ideological bent The once-remote idea has gained the attention of liberals angered by the GOP push to remake the federal courts. Probably the easy way to defeat this court-packing scheme is for Trump to propose doing the same thing now.  It would lead to Democrat denunciations and claims that it would be wrong, thereby blowing up any attempt by them in the unfortunate event of Democrats winning a presidential election.
Read more

29 % of companies say they are unlikely to keep insurance after Obamacare

Conn Carroll: A new survey of 368 midsize to large companies found that 29% of them are considering terminating their active employee health care plans when Obamacare is full implemented in 2014. Only 71% of employers surveyed said they did not expect to drop their health coverage, while 20% said they did not know and 9% said they were planning to exit. The latest survey, conducted by Towers Watson, echoes an ealier survey by McKinsey & Co. finding that 30% of private-sector employers were planning to drop their employee health insurance coverage by 2014. When the Congressional Budget Office crunched Obamacare's spending numbers, they estimated that only 7% of employees currently covered by employer-sponsored plans would lose their plans. ... This means the cost of the health care fiasco will be hundreds of billions more than estimated by the CBO and Congressional Democrat. It is also clear that Obama's pledge that you could keep your health care plan if you wanted t
Read more

Bin Laden's concern about Zarqawi's remains

James Robbins: ... Bin Laden suggests that President Bush should allow Zarqawi’s body to be returned to his family in Jordan, but this is a matter that is up to the Jordanian government, which so far has not shown much interest in facilitating a homecoming. Bin Laden mocks King Abdullah II, calling him a Coalition minion, and asking “w hat scares you about Abu Musab after he’s dead? You know that his funeral, if allowed to happen, would be a huge funeral showing the extent of sympathy with the mujahedin.” A large crowd would definitely turn out, though most people would be on hand to demonstrate their anger and disgust. Last November’s hotel bombings in Amman , masterminded by Zarqawi, are still fresh in people’s memory, and mentioning them to Jordanians has the same visceral impact as memory of the 9/11 attacks does here. Jordan has adopted a zero-tolerance policy towards those who choose to mourn the country’s least favorite son, and four opposition members of parliament who paid con
Read more