NO-PIVOT TRUMP AND THE CAMPAIGN THAT NEVER ENDS

Remember all that talk about Donald Trump pivoting? Once he secured the Republican nomination, he was supposed to pivot from the right to the center. After the election, we waited for him to pivot from candidate to president. When he gave his first speech to Congress without embarrassing himself, there was talk of his having pivoted into a genuine leader. Pundits greeted John Kelly’s appointment as White House chief of staff as the Donald’s major pivot toward becoming presidential. It never happened, none of it. Turns out that waiting for Trump’s pivot was as laborious and fruitless as Vladimir and Estragon Waiting for Godot. Like Godot, the pivot, never came.

Instead, for the first time in our history, we have in the Oval Office a one-dimensional, perpetual candidate, a blowhard with neither core beliefs nor the slightest interest in public policy, a president in name only whose singular vision is his own self-aggrandizement. And this is why our charlatan-in-chief can put children in cages, buy a porn star’s silence, lie 6.5 times a day, and still have a 42 percent approval rating.

All he does is campaign. There is no real governing going on here. Governance to Trump is the art of making stagecraft pass as statecraft. He has created a governing façade that casts himself as the omnipotent, winning superhero, righting imaginary wrongs and taking America back to a joyous, magical place and time that never existed.

We should have seen this coming when Trump filed his reelection documents on the day he was inaugurated, as opposed to waiting until the third year of his term, as all of his modern predecessors did. Or, when he obsessed over the size of his inauguration crowd. Or, when he ordered an investigation of voter fraud, insisting he had been robbed of votes, even though he won. Or when he kept right on holding campaign rallies and leading the faithful in chants about the wall and Crooked Hilary. These are not the actions of a man pivoting from campaign to governance. Alas, the Donald doesn’t pivot. He has only one gear and it’s all about creating adoration for himself.

At this very moment, Trump is preparing the pageantry for a prime-time Monday night announcement of a Supreme Court nominee who will supposedly sound the death knell for abortion rights. He’s been downright giddy about it for days, telling one audience this week, “other than war and peace,” packing the court with the right judges is the most important thing a president can do. Lest you think Trump’s judicial fixation reflects a deeply held reverential respect for the unborn, check out this 1999 clip of him boasting that “I am very pro-choice.” This nomination, like everything in Trump’s life, is purely transactional. He delivers a solid 5-4 conservative majority on the court, and sops up more love and approval from the right. As a bonus, attention is diverted from the thousands of migrant children he pulled away from their parents.

Reach deep into the soul of Donald Trump and you will find absolutely nothing. He is the first president with a totally empty ideological slate, unless winning or self-interest count as ideologies. He has changed party affiliation five times. His position on any issue turns on a dime, based on his instant calculation of what will make him look best in any given moment. Aside from this perpetual self-promotion, he makes no pretense of governing or leading. He doesn’t read briefing memos prepared by his staff. He doesn’t understand many of his own positions or policies. He signs executive orders without reading them or knowing what they do.

By not governing, Trump is able to focus exclusively on the only aspect of his job that appeals to him: campaigning. He pours all his energy into promoting himself and his brand, and demonizing those who decline to worship at his altar. Everyday his 40 million Twitter followers are bombarded with mini campaign messages. Yes, most are in prose that could pass for a middle school message board, but based on polling, they are having an impact.

Here’s a quick sample from the past few days:

Democrats. . .weak on the Border and weak on Crime.
• We are doing a far better job than Bush and Obama.
• TAX CUTS are already providing historic gains for minorities, women, and small businesses.
• Democrats want anarchy, amnesty and chaos – Republicans want LAW, ORDER and JUSTICE!
Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!
• The Russian Witch Hunt is Rigged!
• Crazy Maxine Waters, said by some to be one of the most corrupt people in politics.

This is what happens when a candidate for president is incapable of grasping the fact that he won, and must now actually lead. Like a character in an absurdist play, he just keeps on campaigning while his kingdom crumbles. Yet, it does explain why a guy who has accomplished so little, and destroyed so much, manages to hold a 42 percent approval rating. As former Trump University students can tell you, aggressive marketing, laced with a modicum of fraud, can sell a horrible product.

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