Kernel of humor hides a cornucopia of truth
For someone who lies more often than any president in history, President Donald Trump has a remarkable ability to speak profound truths almost by accident. His comment in January 2016 that “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters” has proved more prescient than anyone realized at the time.
And Tuesday, at an event hosted by a group opposed to abortion rights, Trump began by reading part of his prepared text and then went off script in a revealing way:
“Your vote in 2018 is every bit as important as your vote in 2016. Although I’m not sure I really believe that, but you know. I don’t know who the hell wrote that line, I’m not sure. But it’s still important, remember.”
You can pinpoint the second House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s, R-Calif., heart rips in half, his dreams of becoming speaker of the House dashed against the shoals of Trump’s monumental ego.
There are two ways this Trump quote gets at larger truths.
First, it’s becoming clear that Trump is pretty much done caring about Congress. It’s not that Trump doesn’t want Republicans to hold onto the House and Senate. He surely knows that if Democrats get subpoena power, they’ll be able to open all kinds of investigations that will bedevil him for the rest of his term. And his lack of concern about the midterms could prove to be a serious blow to Republican hopes of holding onto both chambers at a time when they have enough problems already.
Still, there are reasons it’s hard to blame Trump for not being too interested in Congress. Legislating is complicated and involves a great deal of work, requir- to campaign aggressively for them. But with a president as singularly focused on himself as this one, it’s even worse.
The second reason that this Trump quote gets at a larger truth is that it really may be harder to get Republican voters to care about the elections when he isn’t on the ballot.
Trump will try to transfer some of his energy to down-ballot Republicans. He’ll do some events in places where there are key races. But we know how those will go, because we’ve seen it before.
Republicans plan a rally in the district, but like every Trump event, it’s a Trump event, not an event for Candidate X at which Trump is appearing. At the beginning of his speech, he reads some perfunctory remarks about the local candidate, mouthing words about what a great guy this fellow is and how we need him in Washington. Then with that 30 seconds of drudgery out of the way, he proceeds to talk for the next hour and a half about himself. The assembled Trump fans leave the arena with their love of Trump renewed, giving reporters the finger on their way out and talking to one another about how awesome it’ll be when the wall is built and how Special Counsel Robert Mueller is an operative of a “deep state” conspiracy probably directed by Hillary Clinton. But they aren’t talking about their local GOP congressional candidate.
One of the reasons Trump won in 2016 was that in some key states, conservative voters who otherwise might have sat the election out were motivated by the idea of electing Donald Trump to get to the polls. But now Democratic voters are the motivated ones, the ones who want to vote in order to strike back at the president. It was never going to be easy for Trump to persuade his most ardent supporters to go to the polls when he’s not on the ballot. But he’s only making it harder.