I'm sure that leadership had a feeling that this is exactly what was going to happen here and was all "smh, you fucking idots, wait a few weeks."
I mean wtf, first week is about setting the tone and stating your aspirations for governance, how could they have tried this now?
If there were a sector on the Gygax Alignment Chart for "chaotic stupid", that's where I'd put Trump. From a governance perspective, he's not Cheney-bad or Reagan-bad. He's this guy: Yeah, grab'em by the pussy, doesn't pay his debts, slumlord from hell, callow and shiftless competitor. He has the moral backbone of a planarian worm. But Trump's philosophical interests are "Trump" followed distantly by "people who suck up to Trump." On a holiday, in the dark, a bunch of nameless Republicans thought they'd take advantage of having a Republican House, Senate and impending Presidency by doing shady Republican shit under cover of night. There's zero downside for Trump firing off a tweet illustrating his alignment with popular opinion. I predicted Trump had a snowball's chance of winning. I was waaay wrong about that (I was hardly alone, but still). I also predicted that even if he did, he's about as likely to toe the Republican Party line as Donkey Kong is. I'm feelin' a lot better about that prediction. Chances are good, Trump will do horrible shit that the Democrats will point out as horrible shit. It will be Sad. Trump will also do horrible shit that the Republicans will have to grin and bear because he's their standard bearer. But whereas congress has always expected a little quid pro quo in their CYAs, Trump will shove it up their ass. K-street is a broad, two-way boulevard. Trump Tower, on the other hand, is the source of a one-way river of shit that will drown those who don't drink it fast enough. You'd think after watching Christie, Giuliani, Cruz and countless others being fucked and forgotten they'd learn that there's zero cover for them from a Trump presidency but apparently we get to watch the training.
What are the chances of this being a Republican softball to Trump to make him look better? Just my first tinfoil thought I had listening to news on the way home...
I hadn't thought of that. I'll freely admit - I have no idea what's going on at this point. But the wheels within wheels necessary to make burning Paul Ryan at the expense of making Trump look good kinda get flayed by Occam. I'ma be pissed if the secret to diplomacy is to be as undiplomatic as possible.
At this point you can't help but believe the unbelievable.
For me, it just supports what I've said in the past. It struck him as unpopular, he wants people to like him, so he criticized it.