By stepping on rakes, Trump ruins his own 'honeymoon' phase
The president-elect had one demand for the bill to prevent a government shutdown. He didn't get it. The result made him look weak at an inopportune time.
https://bsky.app/profile/gottalaff.bsky.social/post/3ldy5w3b6mk2n
By stepping on rakes, Trump ruins his own honeymoon phase
..as MSNBCs Chris Hayes summarized..This does not seem like an unbeatable colossus at all. This seems like a pretty weak leader who is hemorrhaging political capital.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/stepping-rakes-trump-ruins-honeymoon-phase-rcna185194
Its not uncommon for a president-elect to enjoy a honeymoon phase in the aftermath of a successful national election. Its a period of time in which an incoming American leader is able to bask in his or her victory, welcome congratulatory wishes, and imagine a world of exciting possibilities before the real work begins on Inauguration Day.
In theory, Donald Trump could be enjoying his honeymoon phase. In practice, the Republican keeps stepping on rakes.
Take last week, for example. My MSNBC colleague Hayes Brown summarized:
Leave it to President-elect Donald Trump to take one Washington crisis and add another one on top. As a plan to keep the federal government over the holidays began to waver this week, Trump injected a new demand: pausing or altogether abolishing the debt ceiling before he takes office in January.
Throughout his first term,
Trump had a habit of screwing up policy agreements with 11th-hour demands that didnt make a lot of sense, and last weeks developments suggested that the president-elect learned very little from those experiences.....
The one thing Trump wanted was the one thing he didnt get.
He didnt have to suffer this embarrassment. In fact, he didnt have to do anything. He chose to intervene, in the 11th hour, with an odd and unnecessary demand, which Republicans rejected and left Democrats wondering aloud about his mental health.
If this were a rare setback in an otherwise flawless transition phase, itd be easier to overlook. But the opposite is true: I
n the seven weeks since Election Day, Trump and his team have careened from one failure to another, as part of a pre-inaugural process that can only be described as shambolic. Whats more, by some measures, its getting worse, not better.
The apparent point of the president-elects fixation on his illusory mandate is to present himself as a powerful political titan, poised to arrive at the White House with a head of steam and the backing of the electorate. But as MSNBCs Chris Hayes summarized on Friday night,
This does not seem like an unbeatable colossus at all. This seems like a pretty weak leader who is hemorrhaging political capital.