Trump Reneging on His Campaign Promises to Voters

His Supporters Have Been Snookered!

By John Lawrence

In a 60 Minutes interview with Leslie Stahl, Trump back pedaled on his major campaign promises and a lot else. When asked what his sit-down with President Obama was like he replied,

“I found him [President Obama] to be terrific. I found him to be– very smart and very nice.Great sense of humor, as much as you can have a sense of humor talking about tough subjects, but we were talking about some pretty tough subjects.”

So no more questions about his legitimacy to be President? No more wondering whether he was born in Kenya? I guess not now that he, Trump, is a member of the club.

The interview went on:

Donald Trump: We never discussed what was said about each other. I said terrible things about him, he said terrible things about me. We never ever discussed what we said about each other—

Lesley Stahl: There was no awkwardness?

Donald Trump: I’ll be honest, from my standpoint zero, zero. And that’s strange. I’m actually surprised to tell you that. It’s– you know, a little bit strange.

OK. Well whether or not the country has come together it seems like President #45 has come together with President #44. Trump went on to say he respected President Obama.

“No, I think I’m a sober person. I think the press tries to make you into something a little bit different. In my case, a little bit of a wild man. I’m not. I’m actually not. I’m a very sober person. But it was respect for the office, it was respect for the president. Again, I never met him before, but we had– we had a very good chemistry going. And– and I really found—it might not be that I agree with him, but I really found the conversation unbelievably interesting.”

Somewhat different tone than was expected perhaps by his red meat Republican base. Also red meat Republican basers will probably not be getting a heapin’ helpin’ of red meat any more.

Lesley Stahl: Are you going to sometimes have that same rhetoric that you had on the stump? Or are you going to reign it in?

You Need a Certain Rhetoric to Get People Motivated

Donald Trump: Well, sometimes you need a certain rhetoric to get people motivated. I don’t want to be just a little nice monotone character and in many cases I will be.

Lesley Stahl: Can you be?

Donald Trump: Sure I can. I can be easily, that’s easier. Honestly to do that, it’s easier.

So Trump is now going to become a little monotone mouse. He might even start talking like a – God forbid – wishy washy Democrat! What are you red meaters going to do?

But now Leslie Stahl gets to the heart of the interview.

Lesley Stahl: So let’s go through very quickly some of the promises you made and tell us if you’re going to do what you said or you’re going to change it in any way. Are you really going to build a wall?

Donald Trump: Yes.

U.S.-Mexican border fence. (Steve Hillebrand, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Wikimedia Commons)

Lesley Stahl: They’re talking about a fence in the Republican Congress, would you accept a fence?

Donald Trump: For certain areas I would, but certain areas, a wall is more appropriate. I’m very good at this, it’s called construction.

Borderfence

Lesley Stahl: So part wall, part fence?

Donald Trump: Yeah, it could be – it could be some fencing.

Oh no…. From a mighty wall, Trump is now considering just a flimsy fence? There’s a fence already there in many places, certainly in San Diego County along the border. You mean this would be acceptable to Trump? But the larger point is that most illegals don’t come over a fence or a wall. They simply come here legally and overstay their visas so all the chanting red meaters (“Build a Wall. Build a Wall”) are going to have to settle for just a fence. What a let-down!

But it gets worse … for the red meaters, that is. Better for the Hillary supporters though.

Trump: “Undocumented Immigrants Are Terrific People”

Lesley Stahl: What about the pledge to deport millions and millions of undocumented immigrants?

Donald Trump: What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, we have a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate. But we’re getting them out of our country, they’re here illegally. After the border is secured and after everything gets normalized, we’re going to make a determination on the people that you’re talking about who are terrific people, they’re terrific people but we are gonna make a determination at that– But before we make that determination– Lesley, it’s very important, we want to secure our border.

So it’s just a continuation of the Obama policy: deport criminals. Obama has been doing this for years!

From the LA Times: “The Obama administration set a priority in his second term of deporting migrants with criminal convictions, and it has expelled 530,000 convicted criminals since 2013. Since taking office in 2009, Obama has expelled 2.5 million people, more than any other president.”

And then there’s the “people that you’re talking about who are terrific people, they’re terrific people”. They’re not murderers or rapists like the Donald referred to them as before? The people you’re talking about – you mean all those dreamers, all the DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals) people, all the people Obama was trying to protect? Is Trump totally backing down on deporting all illegals? If so, bad news for the red meaters. Another campaign promise broken. All of a sudden the 30 million (according to Trump) illegals are “terrific people.” The red meaters’ collective heads must be spinning.

It’s the Republican Same Ol, Same Ol: Lower Taxes on the Wealthy

By Thomas L Hungerford (find the full report here: https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42729.pdf)

But according to the interview one of the things Trump wants to do right away is lowering taxes especially on the wealthy but he won’t say that.

Donald Trump, welcome to the Republican club! It’s the thing you and House Speaker Paul Ryan have most in common. It’s the old Republican mantra: lower taxes (on the wealthy). The Trump brand will never be more valuable. By the way how about drilling a few more loopholes in the tax code so all those smart people can take advantage of them and not pay anything at all like Trump evidently did for many years. But we don’t know that for sure because he still hasn’t released his tax returns like all those aspiring Presidential chumps before him. Four years from now the audit will probably still not be finished.

It’s the bottom line for Republicans: lower taxes (on the wealthy) while giving a few pennies to the red meaters. This will drive up the national debt even more to the point where government can be drowned in a bathtub which is their final goal, a goal shared by most Republicans including Grover Norquist. (Grover Norquist Quotes. My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years, to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.)

So Donald Trump is not so radical after all. Probably he won’t represent the “forgotten people” so much as he will become a traditional Republican and grow his fortune while residing in the White House if Melania can stand the lack of amenities there compared to Trump Tower. She’s already not joining him there at least initially. Probably the servants aren’t as good there as they are at Trump Tower. Like Nancy Reagan before her she’ll probably have to order a whole new set of dishware. Probably couldn’t stand to eat off the same plates as that Kenyan ate off of.

Finally, all the campaign brou ha ha about Hillary – “Lock her up. Lock her up” – and appointing a special prosecutor to look into her alleged crimes, Trump has had nothing but nice things to say about Hillary and even about Bill since his putative election. After all he is now a member of the club that Bill’s in, the club of ex-Presidents, which hopefully he will be in about four years.

Lock Her Up! Lock Her Up!

Oh, how the red meaters are going to be disappointed that Donald Trump is not going to pursue a criminal investigation against “Crooked Hillary.” On Tuesday, November 22, the New York Times reported that Trump so much as said “Nyah, never mind.” How can he let all the nefarious activities of the Clinton Foundation and Hillary’s numerous crimes go unpunished? His rabid supporters are going to be very upset. Trump had said that Hillary’s lies and deception rivaled Watergate.

The New York Times reported:

In an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program, Kellyanne Conway, the former Trump campaign manager and a senior adviser to his transition, said the president-elect wanted to “move beyond the issues of the campaign” and confirmed that Mr. Trump did not want his promised Clinton investigations to take place.

“If Donald Trump can help her heal, then perhaps that’s a good thing,” Ms. Conway said. …

But it could deeply disappoint many of the voters whose anger against Mrs. Clinton he helped stoke throughout a bitter and divisive campaign. During the second debate between the two candidates, Mr. Trump turned to Mrs. Clinton and vowed that “if I win I am going to instruct my attorney general to get a special prosecutor to look into your situation, because there’s never been so many lies, so much deception.”

Now even the FBI is disappointed. Trump was only using this to fire everybody up and now he wants to “help her heal”? What kind of BS is this? All the red meaters want Hillary to rot in jail for her many lies, crimes and deceptions. They want the Clinton Foundation investigated. The FBI still has an ongoing investigation against that. Now Trump is telling them all to just cool it. It was only so much campaign rhetoric. Red meaters – I say again – you’ve been snookered!

Newsflash: Maybe there’s hope for the “lock her up” red meaters after all. Since Hillary’s team has joined Jill Stein’s efforts to do a recount in three battleground states, Trump has changed his tune about helping Hillary heal. He may just have to lock her up after all.

My prediction is that Trump will end up being co-opted by Paul Ryan. He will become a traditional Republican and will end up destroying the Federal government with his tax cuts. Medicare will be privatized with resultant higher costs for Medicare recipients. Public schools will be privatized according to the new Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos’s, wishes. The military-industrial complex will get everything they want, and this will suck all the air out of any other government programs to help the needy including social security. No good paying jobs will come back from overseas, but a privatized infrastructure program may provide some half way decent, slightly over minimum wage, jobs while contractors and investors will make a fortune. Red meaters will have to be satisfied with that.