Joy Reid summarized Trump’s cracked NYT interview on Twitter last night, concluding, as most of us have, that it’s further evidence that Trump is dangerously delusional. I recommend Reid’s entire thread, but I’m particularly interested in the implications for elected Democrats, and Reid explores that. Here’s an excerpt:
I’ve never observed anyone who is more precisely like his biographers have described him. And Trump’s biographers have, to put it mildly, not been kind. He lives inside his own reality, where he is part beloved autocrat/dictator and part main character in a never-ending TV show.
It is absolutely stunning that this person is president of the United States.
I’m not sure, by the way, what this means for Democrats. Trump clearly assumes that they HAVE NO CHOICE but to come crawling to him to do infrastructure, DACA, and inexplicably, to make a new, *better* healthcare (he specifically says “not Obamacare.”
He clearly thinks this will happen, and that somehow magically, they will “do bipartisan.” That’s his actual phrase: “do bipartisan.” Not “do bipartisan legislation,” just “do bipartisan.” He thinks it naturally will happen.
If Democrats go along, it will only feed his grandiosity. If they don’t, it feeds his rage and opens the black hole of vengeance inside him, which he could take out on them, vulnerable populations, maybe other countries (war is still not unthinkable…) I just don’t know.
But it’s absolutely stunning that this is what’s happening. But it is what’s happening.
Right on cue, Trump tweeted the following this morning:
The Democrats have been told, and fully understand, that there can be no DACA without the desperately needed WALL at the Southern Border and an END to the horrible Chain Migration & ridiculous Lottery System of Immigration etc. We must protect our Country at all cost!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 29, 2017
So, put yourself in Schumer and Pelosi’s shoes this morning. Your choices for the coming year are to work with this pinwheel-eyed lunatic and his fawning enablers in congress to try to govern in a way that minimizes the damage to vulnerable people and the rest of the country. That risks exacerbating said lunatic’s grandiosity, as Reid pointed out. It also risks demoralizing the base and normalizing Trump.
Or, you go all-in on obstruction, knowing that your power is limited due to your minority party status and that further enraging the lunatic and his lackeys might result in worse outcomes for the country. (I say “might” because I’m not confident Dems are in a position to extract significant concessions from Trump and the Republicans anyway.) You also have to consider your blue dogs, who could be tempted to break ranks with the right incentives.
What the fuck do you do? They’re going to have to figure this out quickly — the continuing resolution bill congress passed last week only funds the government for a few more weeks.