The Art of the Deal – Spewing Vitriol, Flip-Flopping, Obsessive-Compulsive Strategy

The Art of the Deal – Spewing Vitriol, Flip-Flopping, Obsessive-Compulsive Strategy

Is Donald Trump Destined to Go Down in History as the Great Destroyer, the Worst US President?

PETER ON THE WRITERS’ HANGOUT PODCAST!

“Almost every week, 60 Minutes, which is being sued for Billions of Dollars for the fraud they committed in the 2024 Presidential Election with their Interview of Failed Presidential Candidate Kamala Harris, mentions the name “TRUMP” in a derogatory and defamatory way, but this Weekend’s “BROADCAST” tops them all. They did not one, but TWO, major stories on “TRUMP,” one having to do with Ukraine, which I say is a War that would never have happened if the 2020 Election had not been RIGGED, in other words, if I were President and, the other story was having to do with Greenland, casting our Country, as led by me, falsely, inaccurately, and fraudulently. I am so honored to be suing 60 Minutes, CBS Fake News, and Paramount, over their fraudulent, beyond recognition, reporting. They did everything possible to illegally elect Kamala, including completely and corruptly changing major answers to Interview questions, but it just didn’t work for them. They are not a “News Show,” but a dishonest Political Operative simply disguised as “News,” and must be responsible for what they have done, and are doing. They should lose their license! Hopefully, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as headed by its Highly Respected Chairman, Brendan Carr, will impose the maximum fines and punishment, which is substantial, for their unlawful and illegal behavior. CBS is out of control, at levels never seen before, and they should pay a big price for this. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” 

 Donald Trump on his Truth Social, April 13th

I have to ask the obvious question, particularly aggravated by the radical difference between Trump 1.0 and Trump 2.0, accelerated by Trump’s self-described anointment by Jesus Christ, following his assassination attempt on the campaign trail, to rule America… sometimes even lapsing into statements that he himself has been elevated to deity level. Is the President mentally competent to be America’s chief of state? Is he living in the real world or some fanciful imagined planet where his word is always correct, his aspirations are always blessed, and his decisions always right? This goes well beyond narcissism, even beyond obsessive-compulsive behavior.

There is arrogance in his assumption, evidenced through a badly presented “formula” to combine trade imbalance with tariff rates, to set a new tariff structure that, according to all of the most credible accounts in the nation, has absolutely no chance accomplishing any of Trump vacillating objectives: generating enough net positive tariff revenue (as if retaliatory tariffs from major players could be washed away) to seriously reduce our deficit, to reshore blue-collar-job-creating manufacturing in a massive way, and to regain the economic high road where the United States fixes its trade imbalance and restores its dominance over the global economy.

Among Trump’s most self-defeating assumptions is that he can stare down both the European Union and China, forcing them to accept his view of global economy. Core to his assertions is that these global powers (along with that proverbial diabolical nemesis, Canada) have been ripping us off by selling Americans high-quality goods at bargain prices. Huh? Americans actually got those goods. They had more money in their pockets as a result.

While the United States still has a substantial presence in manufacturing (we are second only to China), less than 10% of our workforce is engaged in the manufacturing sector; most of our non-governmental workforce (70%+) is centered in services, from technology design, software development, banking and other financial services. Since the major currency and trade exchanges are dominated by American financial institutions, so many in the world perceive that these US-controlled structures are actually ripping them off.

That Donald Trump truly believes he can force China to cave to his wishes by tariffing them to death completely misunderstands Xi Jinping’s total control of that nation, his ability to force his population to accept near-term economic hardship as their patriotic duty and the fact that with much substantive evidence, Xi believes leaving Trump to pursue his stare-down plan will only accelerate America’s downfall. Xi is on a global tour, beginning in Asia, to cement new trade agreements with nations furious at Trump global effort to extort trade concessions based on false assumptions. Europe is next on his itinerary. Oh, and it was the United States that blinked first by exempting electronics desperately needed by American companies from his 145% tariff on Chinese goods. In a stare-down with China, Trump has picked a solid rock of resistance.

To illustrate how Trump’s growing obsessive-compulsive behavior determines his policies, as his tariff plan tanked the US stock markets, as demand for US treasuries (which support our deficit) slumped in the global marketplace, seriously threatening our economic in much bigger ways, Trump focused his communications on showerheads and water pressure guidelines meant to conserve this precious resource.

Grace Snelling, writing for the April 11th FastCompany.com, reports that after Trump announced his staggering high tariffs on China on April 9th, “Trump was busy signing an executive order about showerheads. The order, called ‘Maintaining Acceptable Water Pressure in Showerheads,’ details Trump’s plan to ‘make showers great again’ (a point emphasized by Trump’s right-hand man, Elon Musk, on X) and ‘restore shower freedom’… ‘I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair,” Trump told reporters … in the Oval Office. ‘I stand under the shower for 15 minutes until it gets wet. It comes out drip, drip, drip. It’s ridiculous.’” Huh? Why does this matter now?

But Trump seems to have no bounds in supporting his tariff/trade plan. Further, relying on ill-defined statutes from centuries ago which gave the president powers solely if the nation faced serious dangers that threatened its existence, “national security” allowed Trump’s personal law firm, the Department of Justice, to ignore a Supreme Court order requiring the US to facilitate the release and repatriation of a legal US immigrant, whom ICE admitted mistakenly deported to be incarcerated in the horrible Salvadoran gang prison. Instead, as the El Salvadoran President stood at Trump’s side at the White House, wink-wink, “President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador said his country would not order the return a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported. Mr. Bukele’s visit came as the Trump administration has stepped up its use of a notorious Salvadoran prison to hold migrants deported by the United States.” New York Times, April 14th. So there, Supreme Court!

As Trump nemesis, CBS and in particular its two stories on the April 13th 60 Minutes telecast – one interviewing several Greenlanders who absolutely opposed any US takeover of their country, and the other, interviewing Ukraine President Zelenskyy on the ground amidst massive destruction – Trump’s seemed unable to restrain himself from spewing vitriol and demanding that CBS bow to his control… as illustrated by the above quote from Trump immediately after the relevant telecast. Was this the raving of a mad-man, one who has lost his grip on reality, or the rantings of a rising dictator unable to tolerate any opposing viewpoint, even if factually correct, being presented to the general public? Or both?

I’m Peter Dekom, and Donald Trump seems to have surrounded himself with a cabinet filled with individuals quite willing to live in his dramatically fabricated alternative universe, as he continues to expand that universe with increasingly bizarre imaginings from his, I believe, quite deranged mind.