Donald Trump is NOT running for President. Trump, a master of taking his companies into bankruptcy and walking away richer for it, has a new boss and a new bankrupt endeavor to bail out: The Republican party and its chances for 2012.
The GOP has a problem: The American Taliban tea party nutcases. The biggest fear that every old-school party republican has these days is getting “tea partied”: getting primaried or booted out of office by one of the new crazies. 2011 is about building candidacy buzz and momentum up to the convention and for the general beyond. That time is now. But if any tea party nuts (e.g. Palin or Bachman) build traction and actually win or, more likely, push the ultimate republican nominee too far right, the GOP will lose. They need a (seemingly) moderate candidate to take down President Obama. And they also need someone the public would find appealing as a steward to a crappy economy. A business person, a success story. But they can’t have the latter and also alienate the strident but finicky tea baggers.
Enter Trump. It’s a complete waste of time to talk about whether he believes any of the birther nonsense. Of course he doesn’t. But it’s also a complete waste of time to talk about whether he’s actually going to run for President. He won’t. It takes about a nano-second of thought to figure out that the sleazy “Don” is not going to open up his life and all his business deals to the world of presidential campaign politics. It’ll never happen. So, as Spock said in Star Trek V (yes I’m a Star Trek geek), “if you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.” What remains? That Trump’s nonsense is serving a specific purpose that benefits the Republican party (and of course, him). If it were only about publicity, he wouldn’t need to throw in the presidential politics aspect of all this. He's a stalking horse for hire. The birther nonsense-spouting-media-darling that can take the wind from the sails ("sales" is actually more appropriate for these snake-oil vendors) from the other tea party would-be’s. And with his so-called business acumen he primes the pump for the GOP strategy of appealing to Americans wanting a businessman to fix what they'll claim are Obama's disastrous failings on the economy. He’s making it incredibly difficult for the other real nutcase right wingers to gain that traction. We’ve already seen Palin scramble to come to Trump’s defense. And, I might add, clip after clip of both Romney and Pawlenty (and Rove and Cantor) saying that the question of President Obama’s birthplace and citizenship is beyond the pale. See how moderate they are?
Trump will, at the right moment, fade back into his ridiculous TV show (with freshly boosted ratings) and bankruptcy deals making the eventual nominee look that much more moderate and sane. My guess is that he's been promised a cabinet position in one of these so-called moderate GOP candidate's administration. Of course we’ll never know because they will eventually lose. Unless the plan is just so crazy it might work. For starters because the media is going to keep giving him air. But remember, Trump is chillingly good at taking a bankrupt idea and somehow walking away with a boatload of money and biz-media laurels. He's been "hired" to do just that for the GOP, and the presidency is the prize. If they win, he’ll get an appointment to something. If they lose, he’s garnered months of publicity and ratings for his NBC circus. And as usual, it’s a win-win for Trump. How could he say no?
Jim Morrison
