I’m becoming more convinced than ever that the country may have either elected Mike Pence, Reince Priebus or the Trump kids as President by proxy — and I don’t know if that is better or worse than Trump actually doing the job.
Many would not argue with the notion that Trump’s candidacy had little to do with actually wanting to be president or expecting to win it. Why would this cycle be any different than 2012? Instead, it once again looked like a chance for a person who will do anything for attention and relevance to grab the spotlight and headlines and advance his brand recognition. Trump knows marketing and that is at the core of his success. So much of his success had more to with self-promotion than being a genius at business dealing. It is a misconception that Trump has built or runs blue chip corporations. Most of his business ventures are nothing but licensing arrangements to use his name. His brand is everything to him and his ego is what draws him to his quest for fame.
In recent history people have pointed out that Trump is more interested in the promotional aspects of his enterprises than the actual operations. It seems that the high pressure and stress of day to day business is not enticing for a man who seeks the limelight like a moth to a flame. Instead, many stories point to the Trump kids who were more hands on with the dealings. This why it seemed a little far fetched that his kids would not actually be involved in his presidency even though he claimed they would just run his companies to create a (not really) “blind trust” to avoid conflicts of interest. (Oh yea, how is that whole conflict of interest thing going to work now the kids are involved in hiring the cabinet members?)
As ridiculous as it seemed that a president would offer his VP full control over domestic and foreign policy (you know, the main job of president), this fit perfectly with someone who didn’t want any of the work and responsibility of president and just wanted the perks that came along with the title.
Like anyone who didn’t really want or expect to win, he made no preparations at all and it showed. Like any campaign without leadership or direction it was a mess with people being fired and hired at key positions and now we have seen it continue even after being elected.
Yesterday we learned Chris Christie was demoted from leading the transition and Pence is taking over. To some it was not a surprise his son-in-law had an axe to grind with Christie for sending his dad to prison. But if you believed the narrative of how much Trump values loyalty you are finding out that it isn’t a two-way street. His loyalty clearly only goes as far as you are useful to him. But this paved the way for Pence to seize control of what is going to be an important process — unless of course Pence is just cover for Kushner and Kids to really call the shots.
Today we learned that there is serious infighting within Team Trump and things may be going off the rails.
The bitter infighting that plagued Donald Trump’s campaign during the Republican presidential primary is starting to spill over into his team’s efforts to establish an administration and political operation, according to more than half a dozen sources familiar with the planning efforts.
The tensions played a role in a Friday shakeup in which the president-elect replaced his transition team chief Chris Christie with his running mate Mike Pence. Sources familiar with the move say it was precipitated partly by clashes between Christie’s allies and rival factions on the transition team, as well as Trump’s influential son-in-law Jared Kushner.
I’m not sure Trump has the attention span and patience needed to handle the job even if he did want it, but I am almost certain at some point, if he hasn’t already, he will be ceding his job someone else. He doesn’t want to be President, he wanted to be King, but the symbolic British type, not an actual person with day to day responsibilities.
The only question left is my mind is who will actually have the role of president behind the scenes. Will it be Pence, Priebus, the Trump children or someone else?