At first blush, this seems to be an inane question. After all, the guy ran for president. But when you see the large number of longshot candidates who run for president (about 2 dozen for the Democratic nomination), it's hard to believe that most of these people had any realistic hope of winning.
So why do they run? Sometimes it's a vanity campaign run by a billionaire who thinks he can buy his way into an election. Sometimes it's a promotion of their own brand to sell products or perhaps do a book tour. Some use the campaign as a dry run for a future election when they are older and more seasoned. And then there is that opportunity to pad their resumes. Somebody who can be introduced as a 'Former Presidential Candidate' will command a lot more respect in addition to higher speaking fees if that person is not presently in office.
So why did Donald Trump run? If Trump is known for anything, it is the relentless promotion of the Trump brand to make as much money as possible. He had talked many times about running for president, but it seemed like little more than attracting attention to himself.
Then there was the White House Correspondents' Dinner of 2011. President Obama was one of the speakers and Donald Trump was one of the guests in the audience. There was certainly friction between the two since Trump made his transition from reality TV star to political figure by circulating his 'birther' conspiracy theories, claiming among other things that Obama was born in Kenya instead of Hawaii which as the narrative goes would make him an illegitimate president.
But at this dinner, President Obama along with MC Seth Meyers got to take aim at Trump. And did they let him have it as preserved in this video! It should be pointed out that making fun of people is what these dinners are all about. Almost always, the target of the humor is laughing just as hard as anyone else.
But not Trump. All through the routine, there were face shots of Trump looking really pissed. When you consider that he is such a vain man so totally lacking in humor, it's not hard to conclude he was not enjoying the moment (although he claimed later that he did). If one could read Trump's mind at the time, maybe he was thinking of revenge. "OK you son of a bitch. If I ever become the president I'll blow up everything you accomplish during your term!"
While the thought is speculation, Trump throughout his term has had an obsession with burying Obama's legacy as president whether it came to the environment, or immigration, or more that anything else, the Affordable Care Act also known as Obamacare. To show this extreme level of obsession, while countless millions have lost their jobs along with their health insurance during this pandemic, Trump is still pursuing a case pending before the Supreme Court to invalidate Obamacare destroying it once and for all. Even other Republicans who are in favor of getting rid of Obamacare think the timing of this is political suicide since Joe Biden will undoubtedly use this issue to hammer Trump throughout the campaign.
So Trump did finally decide to run for president. But nobody took him seriously especially after all of the inflammatory remarks about Mexican rapists and the like that would normally put most campaigns out of commission. But something unexpected happened. The more crazy stuff he said during the campaign, the more he attracted an adoring crowd to attend his rallies. It was these rallies that more than anything else spurred him on towards the presidency.
Nobody expected Trump to win. Indeed it had been asserted that he didn't even have a victory speech ready. Many feel that he was satisfied that he could promote his brand and maybe even establish another conservative cable outlet once the election was over. But on election night, he pulled what some had called an inside straight - winning Florida by about 1%, and then proceeding to win Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin by a total of 70,000 votes. Whether he wanted it or was ready for it, Donald Trump was now the President Elect!
So the reader may ask why this question of whether Trump wanted to be president is relevant. If it is true that Trump didn't really want to be president, a belief that I share, it would explain a lot of his behavior over these last 4 years. Instead of embracing a job where he could serve America and make life better for its people, he treated the job with indifference - as just something that interfered with what seemed to be the most important things in his life which is playing golf and making money through his businesses and properties.
Soon after being elected, he went back to doing his rallies. In a way this could be constructive if he agreed to meet with voters who didn't vote for him in a show of unity. But the sites were carefully chosen in areas that already solidly supported him. It was all about trying to satisfy his never ending craving for adulation from his supporters. Meanwhile, the job of assembling a new team and inheriting guidance from the outgoing Obama administration went largely neglected.
Trump is certainly not known for his work ethic. Workday schedules that were leaked to the media show about 60% of his day devoted to 'Executive Time' which is said to include a lot of his mornings watching TV. He has been notorious for paying little attention to the Presidential Daily Brief otherwise known as the PDB. This was a summary of the most vital issues that should have demanded the president's attention. It first informed him of what could be a looming pandemic emanating from China. He treated this news as just a possible nuisance that might affect the booming economy and stock market that he planned to use as his ticket to reelection. So he denied its importance for at least two months until the pandemic attained a choke hold on America. To this day, he has never assumed a national role of leadership on limiting the number of people affected or even developing adequate testing. This was all delegated to the individual states.
In addition, he ignored intelligence briefings that Putin and Russia interfered with the 2016 presidential election. Later, he ignored (and is still ignoring) a PDB on his Russian friend Putin paying bounties to the Taliban to kill US troops.
Eventually, the stock market along with the economy tanked when affected areas of the country first had to be shut down. Incredibly, there was the cynical observation (apparently true) that since New York and New Jersey voted against him and were not his people, he cared even less about it all.
But then his campaign advisers told Trump that with the economy in the sorry state it was in, his reelection chances would be shot. So in an act of self-preservation (the only ones he knows apparently), it was a dramatic reversal of course in opening the economy up as quickly as possible in the hope of reviving it in time for the November elections.
Most of us knew then and still know now that getting control of the pandemic OR opening the economy as quickly as possible was a false choice. Without getting control of the pandemic, there was no way to permanently sustain the economy. The result today was predictable in that we have the worst of both worlds - an economy that is in free fall along with a pandemic which is still out of control in much of the country. At this posting, America has suffered through over 150,000 deaths with no end in sight.
So to get the economy opened as fast as he could, Trump and his supporters engaged in a campaign of denial. We would all gather together for Easter church services, he predicted. Then his chief lackey, VP Mike Pence promised that the pandemic would be behind us by Memorial Day. Then his son-in-law Jared Kushner, perhaps the most astounding combination of incompetence and nepotism, expressed hopes that the US would be "really rocking again" by July.
Of course, none of this happened. But it hasn't stopped Trump from his latest misguided attempt to quickly reopen the economy - one that will again surely fail. To enable Mom and Dad to go back to work and rescue his economy, Trump wants all schools to fully reopen. After all, it's just children who he says are immune to the virus. But he conveniently doesn't mention the adult teachers and administrators who must share the same spaces with the schoolchildren.
This leads us to the final question here. If Trump didn't really want the job of being the president, why is he running for reelection? That's an easy one. There are a number of indictments he could be facing that he has been protected from as a sitting president. Most notably, New York prosecutor Cyrus Vance will finally be able to obtain Trump's long-hidden tax returns which will most likely yield a sizable amount for a Grand Jury to chew on.
The polls are unequivocal. Here is one example. Trump will most likely lose in November and take a number of Republican Senators up for reelection with him. As much as he wants to deny reality, surely he must realize this. As we get closer to November, Trump will get more desperate. There was the forceable removal of peaceful protesters outside the White House to get a photo-op holding a Bible in front of a church. And there was the unwanted dispatching of uniformed troops to Portland and perhaps other cities to stir up trouble and provide video for his campaign ads.
He has long railed against voting by mail knowing that this will increase voter turnout and further doom his reelection chances. If the pandemic comes back in another wave this November, voting by mail may be the only safe choice for many. Because he says the Postal Service along with election officials won't be able to handle the extra load, he actually made the unprecedented suggestion that the election might need to be delayed. This was universally renounced even by his most partisan Republican supporters. But instead of providing help to the Postal Service, there is a fear that the appointing of a major Trump donor as Postmaster General may be a way to sabotage the Postal Service's ability to properly function. Talk about self-fulfilling prophecies!
But no matter - the 20th Amendment requires the president to leave the White House by January 20 if he loses the election - whether he wants to or not! While we may worry about what shenanigans he will try between now and the election, more worrisome is what he might do if he loses the election and becomes a lame duck between then and January when he is no longer accountable to the voters. We were worried about a more totalitarian Donald Trump if he was to win a second term. A vindictive Trump after losing may be scarier yet!
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