Allying yourself with Donald Trump is like going out to dinner with a two year old. I explain below! 👇
I was searching the Internet for news about the public defenestration of Republican National Committee Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel at the hands of Donald Trump when I came across this New York Times headline from 2018:
That piece included these lines about McDaniel, who is the niece of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney:
Ms. McDaniel has tried to leave little doubt about where her loyalty lies. She even stopped using her full name — Ronna Romney McDaniel — professionally after the president joked with her and her husband about dropping her given surname.
“You know the job you’re signing up for,” she said in an interview one recent morning at a diner near her home, referring obliquely to the fact that committee leaders typically have to toe the president’s line when their party holds the White House.
She stopped using her full name! Because Trump hates her uncle!
McDaniel did that — and lots of other things Trump wanted — under the belief that she would be rewarded for her loyalty. Which, she was, for a time. She was elected four times as chair of the RNC — including, with Trump’s backing, in January 2023.
But, loyalty to Trump won’t save you — as McDaniel learned this week when Trump said to a NewsMax reporter that she “understands” it’s time for her to step down.
Loyalty is, for Trump, a) entirely transactional (what have you done for me lately?) and b) a one-way street. McDaniel’s RNC has fallen behind its Democratic counterpart in fundraising — which means she has outlived her usefulness to Trump. All of her past loyalty means nothing to him. She needs to go. Period.
Allying yourself with Trump reminds me of going out to dinner with a two year old. You know that from the second you step into the restaurant, the clock is ticking. There will come a time when the kid will cry, throw a fit, start wandering around the restaurant, banging on the table or doing something else that means you have to leave. You don’t know EXACTLY when that will happen. Could be 5 minutes. Might be 45 minutes. But you KNOW that moment is coming.
Don’t believe me? Here’s a (non-comprehensive list) I came up with off the top of my head of one-time close allies Trump has turned on:
Vice President Mike Pence
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis
Attorney General Jeff Sessions
White House Chief of Staff John Kelly
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster
White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci
Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao
White House lawyer Ty Cobb
Political fixer Michael Cohen
National Security Adviser John Bolton
Political svengali Steve Bannon
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie
And, again, that is just OFF THE TOP OF MY HEAD! There are WAY more!
Fox News’ Bret Baier, to his great credit, confronted Trump about the contradiction between a) his claims to hire only the best people and b) the number of those people he has turned against.
Here’s the exchange:
BAIER: This time, your Vice President Mike Pence is running against you. Your ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, she's running against you. Your former Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said he's not supporting you.
You mentioned National Security Adviser John Bolton. He's not supporting you, either. You mentioned Attorney General Bill Barr. Says you shouldn't be president again. Calls you 'the consummate narcissist' and 'troubled man.' You recently called Barr a 'gutless pig.'"Your second defense secretary is not supporting you. Called you irresponsible. This week, you called your White House Chief of Staff John Kelly 'weak and ineffective' and 'born with a very small brain.' You called your acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney a 'born loser.' You called your first Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, 'dumb as a rock,' and your first Defense Secretary, James Mattis, 'the world's most overrated general.' You called your White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany 'milquetoast.'
And multiple times, you've referred to your Transportation secretary, Elaine Chao, as 'Mitch McConnell's China-loving wife.'So, why did you hire all of them in the first place?
TRUMP: Because I hired ten to one that were fantastic. We had a great economy. We had phenomenal people in charge of the economy. We had phenomenal people in the military. I'm not a fan of Milley, and I'm not a fan of certain of the television people. But I knocked out ISIS, I defeated ISIS. They said, Mattis, it will take three years, and I don't think we can do it. I did it in a period of like four weeks.
Trump’s answer, of course, makes no sense. Because the truth — he is loyal to people right up until they are no longer useful to him or he needs a convenient scapegoat — is not something he is going to admit.
What truly amazes me is not that Trump is who he is (we KNOW who he is!) but rather that people keep convincing themselves that they are unique, that, sure, Trump turns against everyone eventually but he won’t turn on them!
Let me provide a visual demonstration of this line of thinking:
Every. Damn. Time. And yet, Republicans just keep lining up to be the next Charlie Brown! I do not get it. Do you?
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And you did not even mention any of the lawyers he has gone through except for Jeff Sessions, which is a very long list…. Anyone works with Trump at their own peril, and without a net…
And note his use of "I". ""I" knocked out ISIS. "I" defeated ISIS.........."I" did it in a period of like four weeks." As always, it's all about him.
He completely dismisses what the military did. And even more ironically, he will still likely get an overwhelming majority of the military vote.