Okay... Pssst that's called "backing down." The tactic is well-known to Kremlinologists; for decades, the Russian method of negotiation is - Demand the sun, moon and stars - Settle for the sun - Claim your right to the sun and moon - Attempt to steal the stars The Trump administration isn't half as good at it, though. What they actually got in the first administration was... nothing. A Republican congress got massive tax cuts (and Paul Ryan noped out immediately after); a Republican congress got three Supreme Court justices. The Trump administration caved like a mutherfucker to the American Rescue Plan and before you scoff, when fuckin' Matt Stoller is left speechless by all the liberal and anti-trust giveaways in any congressional proposal you know it's massive. "For now" means anything because the basic method of negotiation is "steal everything, keep what you can" and "keep what you can" is something the first Trump administration sucked balls at. Outside of personal enrichment, of course. The big move of the first Trump administration was all about making Team Trump rich and the second Trump administration is the same only brasher. Think back on it - outside of constant liberal outrage, what permanent, lasting effects did the Trump administration have? - They recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel which should have outraged Hamas and Hizbollah, but neither did a goddamn thing. - They killed Soleimani, which I figured would unleash a massive wave of terrorist reprisals and instead we got fuckall. - They got Israel and Saudi Arabia to sit down, which got flights from Riyadh to Tel Aviv for the first time. - They gave up on Afghanistan and still managed to blame the Biden administration for it. But if you think that was Jared Kushner rather than MBS and Netanyahu you aren't paying attention. The lasting global impact of Trump 1 was to let the biggest elbows in the Middle East sort themselves out. And how'd that work last time? (1) Trump runs on "deport everybody" (2) talking heads point to polls pointing out that Americans luuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuv deportation (3) Trump has to come up with a methodology for "deporting everybody" (4) talking heads point to polls pointing out that less than 20% of Americans favor using the military (4) Trump moves on to annexing Greenland because it looks big on a mercator projection Liberals love to bitch about the kids in cages without pausing to reflect on all the Obama-era policies that enabled it. That's the reason we got stuck with it - our elected officials voted for it because we wanted them to. The laws around deportation and immigration are bipartisanly shitty, no matter how hard Stephen Miller wants to put his dick-lookin' face in front of it. And that's why "for now" means something: American politics, in the words of Ross Douthat, are governed more by custom than by law... and the Trump Administration is all about shattering customs. As such, every move they make is some form of testing the strength of customs. Most ordinary people disapprove of congress. Thus, most congressmen get elected on "I'm fighting that guy you hate more." Thus does politics get ever more polarized, thus does Congress change hands every two years. Trump was elected because of inflation, which is very difficult for disinterested Americans to ignore. Trump will do nothing about inflation, which will be pointed out in every economic report from now until 2028. Find me a political ethos stronger than "throw the bums out" in these United States, I dare you. And I think anyone who believes he’d back down is an idiot.
then do some slightly less terrible version of what he wants to do.
And he has 2 years before the next election to wear down the opposition.
It works because most ordinary people simply don’t have the wherewithal to continually fight on multiple fronts at all times.