Trump 3.0

Donald2

The deep simmering theory on the left (and maybe even in some pockets of the right) today is that Trump originally entered the campaign last year with absolutely no intention of winning the Presidency or even the nomination, that his original play was simply, in the guise of a Perot-esque protest candidate, to bathe in the national spotlight, wallow in front page headlines, and take it all as far as he could as he stoked his ego and enhanced the Trump brand. The end game of this loser strategy, these theorists say, is the eventual creation and launch of a Trump media combine of online (think breitbart.com, think Stephen Bannon), print (son-in-law’s New York Observer), and broadcast (think Trump News, think alt Fox News, think Roger Ailes). He loses, yeah, but he wins HUGE, and that that was the plan all along.

With Trump I think it is a dangerous waste of time to read between the lines or look for any ulterior motives. We would all be best advised to take him and his campaign at face value, to take them as seriously as cancer and battle them accordingly. Simple as that.

My take: Trump and his ego entered the race because he saw an opportunity to win the ultimate prize/crown in this country. He was right and through the primaries he kept succeeding, all the way to the Republican nomination. Now that he finds himself one-on-one with Clinton and within striking distance of beating her (or, maybe better said, within striking distance of being within striking distance of beating her) he’s finally pivoting because he was losing and because he wants to win. He wants to win.

I think Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to this country and to our democracy, and I know that he and his campaign must be buried in a landslide of epic proportion. I don’t buy that he wants to lose. I don’t buy that his campaign is doomed. To believe otherwise, to at all entertain this hidden agenda twaddle is to, quite literally, court an unimaginable national catastrophe.