Introduction
My wife had a complicated pregnancy, and went to the hospital multiple times with pre-term labor scares. During one of these frantic trips to the hospital where I was distracted and under enormous stress, I managed to run into the side of our garage and bang up the back panel of my car. It was an understandable mistake, and nobody ever criticized me for it -- in fact, my dad seemed pleased that I'd finally done damage to a car I'd kept pristine for years.
A couple of months later, Hanna had delivered two happy, healthy twins. But the car was still damaged, and every time I went out for groceries or to take my (now much larger) family for a checkup, I got to walk past the reminder of my mistake. One day, as I was preparing to run some errand, a couple of guys were pulling into our apartment complex in a work truck. They noticed my car's body damage, and said they could repair it quickly and cheaply, right there in parking lot.
I should have been skeptical. There were many red flags. These guys were making many promises that weren't realistic. They could touch up the paint so it would be exactly the same color! (Really? Without a full body shop? And you can do this for any random car?) It would only take half an hour! There would be a discount if I paid cash! (That one really should have tipped me off.)
I let them work on my car. I paid them $300 — in cash, plus a generous tip — even after watching them work and it became abundantly clear that they were going to leave it half done at best. There were many excuses that I could use to justify this poor decision. I was massively sleep-deprived from taking care of two newborns, it was late in the day and I'd barely eaten, I was trying to stretch our budget during some difficult times for our family. But the truth is I got conned. I was hustled. I got taken, and I should have known better. And that stung. It still does, sometimes. To this day, there is still rust and discoloration on that back panel; the paint does not, in fact, match the original color.
Watching the first one hundred days of the Trump administration, I wonder if his supporters are feeling the same way. Trump has proved to be governing exactly the way he campaigned -- unpredictably, crassly, and without any semblance of skill. To get elected, he promised everything to everyone, and it seems more and more clear that he's unable to deliver. His constant lying continues, beginning with the crowd size at his inauguration and continuing from there. His promise of a revised health care plan that wouldn't touch Medicaid and would cover more people for less money ended in a bill that did precisely the opposite, assuming it makes it though the Senate and reconciliation. He promised to "drain the swamp” -- yet his cabinet is stacked with former Goldman-Sachs executives. He promised that Mexico would pay for his (stupid, ineffectual) wall, and that is clearly not going to be the case. He promised infrastructure investment, which is nowhere to be seen. He promised to shake up the tax system, and there's no evidence that he will be able to work with Congress to make any such legislation possible. At best, his role seems to be relegated to rubber-stamping whatever the Congressional GOP leaders can manage to do. At worst, the grey cloud of the Russian investigation may yet end his presidency in scandal and criminal prosecution.
At the beginning of the Trump administration, I reached out to a high school classmate of mine, someone who was a vocal Trump supporter throughout 2016. Now that Donald Trump has had 100 days to prove himself, I returned with a new set of questions. His unedited responses are below.
After I posted the first interview in January, some readers raised concerns that, by reaching out to someone who expresses the opinions and attitudes of the alt-right, I was unwittingly giving a platform to that brand of nationalist, xenophobic, and racist ideology. I understand those who don’t think I should be publishing those types of ideas, even as part of a dialog where those views can be contrasted with my own, where their flaws can be made self-evident. But I think that shutting down dialog is a mistake. Ideas should be challenged, forced to defend themselves. The ones that cannot hold up to scrutiny should be discarded. The ugly, vulgar, vicious attitudes that have flooded our political and social discourse should be held up to the light and called what they are -- and often, their flaws and problems will be self-evident. We should be reminded that they exist, what they look like, and why they are flawed. But in order to bring such criticism to bear on the ideas of others, we must also be willing to have our own opinions and attitudes examined, our assumptions and conclusions questioned. We must risk being uncomfortable. Of course, some ideas don’t merit much effort; I can’t see anything to be gained by arguing with people claiming the earth is flat, for example. But as disconcerting as it might be, the candidacy of Donald Trump spoke to enough people to get him elected President of the United States, and his rhetoric and actions while in office have not (yet) been deemed sufficient cause to remove him from that position. This is something that we must grapple with if we are to understand the current direction of nation, the possible results of that course, and how we might change it.
* * *
The Person
Trump's relationship with the truth continues to be . . . strained, at best. (http://www.factcheck.org/2017/04/100-days-whoppers/) He’s claimed, without evidence, that three million illegal votes were cast the 2016 election. The President has since gone on to assert, without any evidence, that President Obama wiretapped his phones. Anything Trump disagrees is declared “fake news”, to the point that it has become a meaningless phrase. If so many of his lies were not so easily shot down, I'd be tempted to think the President's crazy assertions might be part of some larger, clever scheme. But he's not making statements about issues that are open to interpretation; he's claiming things are verifiably, demonstrably false, and then doubles down when called out on these statements. This also seems to extend to his staff -- Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts" (http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/conway-press-secretary-gave-alternative-facts-860142147643) and "Bowling Green Massacre” (http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/kellyanne-conway-cites-bowling-green-massacre-which-never-occurred-n716281) or Sean Spicer's angry (and trivially disprovable) assertions that Trump had won the largest electoral college victory since Reagan. (http://time.com/4642689/kellyanne-conway-sean-spicer-donald-trump-alternative-facts/) This was not a surprise to me, as Trump had campaigned in exactly this fashion, and his entrance to the political stage was based the ludicrous, racist, and repeatedly disproved "Birther" movement. Some psychologists have even suggested that he has a mental disorder. (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/trump-and-the-pathology-of-narcissism-w474896) How do you feel about Trump's relationship with facts and objective reality?
I really don’t care, to be honest, and I think it’s a non-issue. When Trump makes some wild claim, such as the three million illegal votes, I don’t think anyone – least of all his supporters – takes him exactly, literally at his word. Trump comes from a world of advertising and show business, so exaggeration and puffery are simply part of his communication style. To get caught up over whether something is “factually accurate,” like a piece of scientific data, misses the point. Trump is a showman and a promoter, and everyone knows it. The only ones who take him completely literally are people who are already opposed to him anyway, and they only do it for the purposes of advancing a political agenda. Studies have shown public distrust of the media and Congress is even greater than for Trump, and this is why I really don’t care. It isn’t because I think truth is unimportant, but because I totally believe Trump’s enemies in the government and the media are even more dishonest, and the implications and purposes of their lies are more dangerous. Not once has any of Trump’s buffoonish braggadocio approached the level of malevolent deception as the Bush-era lie, “they attacked us because they hate our freedoms.” There is no sinister plot or hidden motive behind Trump’s lies, they are always obviously and comically intended to either promote something or deflect criticism or blame, and these instincts were honed in the world of NYC tabloids. The lies of the media and the rest of the establishment, however, have put a whole generation into debt slavery, destroyed our once-thriving middle class, and caused wars which have resulted in the deaths of millions. So this is a case of “the pot calling the kettle black,” and in this case, the “kettle” is definitely a shade of light gray compared with the black night of oblivion that is the “pot.”
You said at the beginning of the Trump administration that he is a "master of public relations and how to manipulate the media. There is a Zen-level of method to his madness, and liberals and the media astoundingly continue to be blindsided by it, and dangerously underestimate it, over and over again.” Speaking as a progressive, I admit consistently underestimating his ability to withstand controversies. Over and over again during the campaign, I thought, “He’s gone too far this time. This one is too much.” But while his media and PR skills helped him defeat Republican and Democratic opponents in the campaign, this hasn’t seemed to have translated into running the Executive branch effectively. The White House seems remarkably ineffectual -- in-fighting, power plays, distrust, blame, and general unprofessionalism seem to be the rule. (https://secure.politico.com/story/2017/04/27/the-education-of-donald-trump-237669) Would you agree? Do you still see brilliant media plays where I see a petty narcissist lacking discipline, fortitude, and intelligence?
There is no doubt the Trump administration to date has been almost totally ineffectual and plagued by problems and controversies. Trump bears some responsibility for this, however, when I compare the level of noncooperativeness and outright subversion which has taken place within the Republican Party and inside Trump’s own White House to the level of Messiah-like reverence granted to the Obama administration in the early months of 2009, I’d say much more blame lies with the media and the opposition. For example, the hatred for Trump on the political Left, the failure to acknowledge or accept the outcome of the presidential election, the disrespect and contempt for Trump’s family, Trump’s supporters and anyone who ever said a kind word about Trump has been compromising and total. There are now powerful political incentives to not only obstruct, but demonize and undermine Trump’s agenda at every step of the process. But even worse, the Big Business core of globalist Republicans, personified by Paul Ryan, haven’t the slightest intention of putting Trump’s populist and non-interventionist promises into action, and have only looked for opportunities to redirect his mandate into anti-populist policies which were utterly discredited by the will of Republican voters themselves. I think if Trump’s administration somehow collapses under the weight of establishment forces and powerful interests arrayed against him, even fully taking his responsibility for his own mistakes into account, the judgment of the people will be that Trump was never really given a chance. The media and the establishment have been too eager, too bloodthirsty, too arrogant and contemptuous and blinded by their own self-importance to just let Trump make his own mistakes and fail of his own accord. By doing everything short of a “color revolution” to cause his presidency to fail, they’ve made themselves culpable in the eyes of the public and have shielded Trump from the full blame, whether or not he deserves it.
The Policy
There is clear nepotism in the administration, and there are still questions about to what extent Trump may be financially benefiting while he is in office -- he has not divested himself in a fashion that would satisfies ethics professionals, and with his refusal to release his tax returns we still don't know the complete extent of his possible conflicts of interest. (http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/trump-kleptocracy-watch-an-update) His proposed budget is pure supply-side, trickle-down economics. He spends a small fortune in taxpayer money every weekend he goes golfing, often to resorts and properties he owns. When we spoke in January, you said, "I trust Donald Trump to not just hand the country over Exxon or Goldman Sachs. We've had decades of trickle-down bullshit from Republicans and it always makes everything worse. Trump isn't owned or controlled by these people so I see no reason why he would just cave into their wish lists, especially since the results would inevitably hurt the very working class people who elected him and his popularity would collapse.” Given his actions in the first 100 days of his term, do you still think Donald Trump is the champion of the working class, that he is pursuing policies that benefit the people that voted for him?
Now we’re getting onto the subject where I’m really forced to condemn Trump. Whether out of inexperience or by design, he has sidelined the populist and non-interventionist voices in his own administration and has thus far pursued policies which are, as you say, “trickle down bullshit.” He’s broken so many of his promises, but the worst of all was when he caved in to neocon pressure and struck Syria. I absolutely believe the source of this corruption is his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as Carl Icahn, Gary Cohn and other globalist Jews with deep ties to Israel and an even deeper commitment to finance capitalism and globalism, at the heart of the Trump administration. (http://www.timesofisrael.com/meet-the-jews-in-the-trump-administration/ ) Now he is even talking about appointing former Senator Joe Lieberman, another rabidly Zionist, socially liberal globalist with deep ties to the financial industry, as head of the FBI! One does not need conspiracy theories about Jewish illuminati when billionaire Jewish financiers such as Sheldon Adelson are openly dominating and shaping the policies of the American government. To say a clique of powerful Jews controls Donald Trump is like saying a clique of powerful Arabs controls Saudi Arabia – it’s only controversial because it’s true, and just as one could not get away with criticizing the Saudi royal family within Saudi Arabia itself, so too one cannot get away with naming the element holding the levers of power in the United States without suffering massive political and personal consequences. In the end, though, I hold Trump responsible for giving in to these very bad people. When Trump struck Syria, after all his promises and assurances to the contrary, I knew immediately who was pulling the strings on his administration. Steve Bannon has been sidelined, Michael Flynn was replaced by maniacal neocon McMasters, and Sebastian Gorka was ousted. If Trump is so weak that he is letting these scheming traitors pull his strings, then he is a failed leader and is not worthy of the trust we put in him. Also, these are the same globalist establishment forces whispering for him to compromise with the Paul Ryan Republicans on issues like health care. I do not believe they have his best interests at heart, and I certainly don’t believe they have the best interests of the American people at heart. Trump still has it within his power to reject the advice and pressure of these people, but as long as he doesn’t, I’m off the Trump train.
The original health care bill that Paul Ryan and President Trump both championed faced so much opposition from all sides — including many Republicans — that Ryan didn’t dare to even bring it to the floor for a vote. The bill that did eventually pass the House continues to face an uphill climb, despite GOP control of the Senate. Even when he hasn't needed to work with the legislative branch, President Trump has been ineffective at pushing through policy and fulfilling many of his campaign promises — many of which he explicitly said would be accomplished in his first 100 days. His original Muslim travel ban was blocked by the courts, as was his barely-changed follow-up. (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/trump-thinks-the-constitution-makes-us-look-weak-w472544) The wall (that “Mexico will pay for”) remains empty rhetoric. There have been some small changes — environmental regulations that have been rolled back, for example — but Trump seems to lack even the foundation for the big, sweeping reforms he repeatedly promised in his campaign. When we spoke last, three of your biggest hopes for the first 100 days were: 1) "construction started on the wall with Mexico"; 2) "talks under way for revision or scrapping of globalist trade agreements such as NAFTA"; 3) "a major infrastructure bill being prepared." More than 100 days out, there’s no infrastructure bill. His statements regarding NAFTA are, at best, mixed. What, if anything, does all of this say about the future of his administration and his ability to move any policy forward?
As you say, Trump has only so far moved forward in the areas where I opposed him most strongly, such as the environment. His administration has been a total disaster to in terms of pursuing the populist, nationalist policies on which he campaigned. The same billionaire finance globalists are in the saddle as would have been if Clinton had won, the same who controlled the policy of the Obama administration. I have to say, I’m feeling the same sense of betrayal as I did in early 2009, when Obama appointed the son of a former Israeli terrorist, Rahm Emmanuel, as his Chief of Staff, and later when he supported “regime change” in Libya and Syria and totally forgot about his own promises to take a second look at NAFTA. The mainstream media is openly bragging about this change within the Trump administration. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2017/05/04/nationalists-are-losing-ground-in-the-white-house-thank-wealthy-elites/?utm_term=.02be74566941) I will say this, however: I’ve been very impressed an encouraged by the response of the Alt Right, including “Alt Lite” figures such as Ann Coulter, who have called Trump to account for his broken promises sharply and without hesitation. (http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/333388-ann-coulter-trashes-trump-this-is-the-great-negotiator, http://dailycaller.com/2017/05/14/ann-coulter-is-worried-the-trump-haters-were-right/) This is the exact opposite of the Left in the past eight years, who blindly maintained a cult of personality around Obama, who they viewed as some kind of incarnation of post-racial liberal utopia, even as he expanded and accelerated some of the worst globalist, interventionist policies of the Bush administration. If Trump abandons his promises, then he deserves no mercy, and neither did Obama.
Your final hope for the first 100 days was "a major dialing down of tensions with Russia and less foreign interventionism abroad." Trump famously said he had a plan to defeat ISIS, something he didn't want to reveal. I note that ISIS is still present, still a cause of problems in the Middle East. His handling of Syria has seen 180 degree shifts in a matter of days, as he went from explicitly banning Syrian refugees to claiming to be defending those same people from chemical weapons attacks by launching a military strike against a sovereign nation. (http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-non-transformation-of-donald-j-trump) President Trump’s also contradicted himself about NATO, the “one China” policy, and rattled sabers toward North Korea in a manner that seems lacking in any kind of long-term strategy or principle. (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/trumps-terrifying-north-korea-standoff-w478201) He’s insulted allies and praised tyrants. Is there any coherent or consistent philosophy in the President's foreign policy? Do you condone his behavior on the international stage?
I don’t have a problem with the “allies” he’s insulted, such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is destroying her country with a policy of forced migration and who runs a police state where free speech does not exist and critics of the liberal globalist order are thrown in prison. I also have no problem with the praise he’s showered on “tyrants” like Russian President Vladimir Putin and Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, both of whom are wildly popular in their own countries precisely because they are daring to defy the dictates of the globalist liberal world order. As for Trump’s foreign policy, so far I just see it as a continuation of the same rotten policies we’ve had under the last 25 years of Clinton-Bush-Obama. This is extremely disappointing and contemptible, as I said, and why I’m off the Trump train for now.
The Pushback
For me, perhaps the single bright spot of Trump’s election is the newfound level of political engagement I’m seeing. Citizens are organizing. People are going to town halls and asking tough questions. People are rallying in the streets for causes they support. They are writing and calling and meeting with their senators and representatives. They are running for office themselves. Much of this seems to be happening on the liberal-progressive side, both opposing GOP politicians as well as running and supporting more progressive (you might use the word “populist”) candidates in Democratic primaries. Support of Trump (and of terrible bills such as the AHCA) may well sink Republican candidates in many places. What are the odds that the GOP will retain control of the House or Senate in 2018? Will Trump will be a liability to Republicans running for office? What do you think his impact is on the Republican party has been so far?
Trump is failing especially because he never had a solid core of professional, “movement” Trump officials and operatives throughout the country. He had himself, his own outsized personality, and huge masses of the frustrated and forgotten working class and middle America. But the Republican Party machine, and all its elected officials, were still in the same George Bush mode. They are undermining him and sabotaging him from within – again, this is not to absolve Trump of responsibility, but only to point out the obvious. The Republican Party is suffering from split personality, with two irreconcilable agendas pulling in opposite directions. If Trump goes with the establishment, then his supporters will be left without a voice, but their anger and frustration will remain. I think the Democrats are suffering from a similar problem. Capitalist, globalist establishment figures never released their grip over the Democratic Party, and it’s obvious the same elements which sabotaged the Bernie Sanders campaign from within are now channeling liberal and progressive rage against Trump into putting themselves and their class back in power. Once in, they have no intention of delivering on the Sanders promises any more than establishment Republicans intended to implement Trump’s agenda, and even if a Sanders-like figure were somehow to get elected (which is doubtful, there is no equivalent of Trump on the Left when it comes to ability to communicate with the mass or to self-finance their own campaign) that person would suffer the same fate as Trump. I don’t think it matters at all whether or not the Democrats take control of Congress in 2018, the gridlock will remain, the promises of both Sanders and Trump will remain unfulfilled, and the entire situation of our country will continue spiraling downward until a breaking point with the military or with the economy opens cracks wide enough for genuine change movements to overtake it.
Is “Trumpism” still a useful term? If so, how would you define it? Has that definition changed in the last 100 days?
Trumpism is still a useful term, and it’s exactly what Trump hasn’t implemented. I agree with Coulter when she says she still believes in Trumpism, if not Trump. To put it another way, I believe in nationalism and I believe in populism, and this combination of politics has not had an avatar in this country in recent generations until Trump, so the legacy of Trumpism will live on in this country long after Trump has left the scene.
The allegations of collusion with or benefits from Russia keep getting worse. (http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/most-wtf-moments-from-trumps-wtf-week-w482058) If firing FBI Director Comey was an attempt to get rid of these stories (as the President himself said this week), it has backfired in a spectacular fashion, to the point that options ranging from independent investigations to outright impeachment are being openly discussed. Where do you think it ends up?
I’m not sure, but I think it’s in the interests of both parties to see him impeached. I kind of want them to do it myself, just because the longer Trump remains in an ineffective and compromised position, or betrays his own supporters, the harder it will be to revive that nationalist, populist combination in the future. I don’t think Trump betrayed any secrets to the Russians, and I think the implication that he is some kind of “Russian agent” is patently absurd. But I believe liberals, Democrats, progressives, the media and establishment Republicans are so eager to be rid of Trump, they are starting to believe their own propaganda. They aren’t dealing head-on with the issues that propelled Trump to power, and they are trying to remove him over an issue that doesn’t resonate with the people. There just isn’t that sense of outrage out there, in the public, that “Trump betrayed us to the Russians” or whatever. The only people who are really pissed about it are people who hated Trump from the beginning, and their motives are obvious to everyone. If it wasn’t Russia, it would be something else. I think the most dangerous aspect to this game is the fact that Trump is being forced to scrap rapprochement with Russia in order to provide political cover for himself, so he has room to make any headway with his agenda. That won’t be enough, of course, to appease the Left, who are pursuing this not because they care about Russian spies but because of naked power politics. But it’s creating powerful incentives for a confrontational posture with Russia, which, I needn’t remind you, has the potential to escalate into a crisis which would be the end of civilization. It is dangerous and highly irresponsible for Democrats and others to treat this Russia situation as a political football to score points. The Russians are not our enemy, but they could be, if we try hard enough.
It probably doesn’t seem like it, but I didn’t set out to make these questions a volley of attacks on Donald Trump. His administration’s first 100 days, however, has left me without much I find praiseworthy, or even logical. But, for all of my shock and outrage, there are still many Americans that see the same events differently. Where I see obvious incompetence and possibly outright malicious behavior, a recent article in the Washington Post shows that Republicans see something else entirely, with 84% expressing approval of the Administration thus far. (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/05/12/the-one-little-number-that-so-far-is-all-of-the-protection-donald-trump-needs/) This sharp divide continues to hamper our ability to work together against threats and disruptions that no individual can stand against: global climate change, nuclear conflict, and the massive economic and social transformations brought about by our ever-expanding technology.
I’ll go further than that: I think we are headed toward some kind of civil war. I believe the disconnect between the urban, affluent liberal elements in the cities which are prospering under this global capitalist economy, and the rest of America which still does the vast majority of its building, plumbing, serving in wars etc, is reaching dangerous levels. I see violence in the streets where people are only trying to peacefully express their opinions. I see a Left which is bent on destroying not only the traditional family structure, but the legitimacy of the existence of white people or European culture in America. I see hordes of third world immigrants not only occupying the “jobs Americans don’t want to do” such as seasonal agricultural labor, but the brain drain from Asian countries displacing our own white collar tech employees. I see a literal cabal of Jewish elites, whom I could name and point to without the need to infer a hidden conspiracy, openly pulling the levers of power in Washington and New York in ways which benefit themselves, their race, and the state of Israel, at the extreme disadvantage of everyone else. I see a white liberal Left which has lost all contact with the working class, which has become totally capitalist and bourgeois, shallow and materialistic to the core, yet obsessed with politically correct “virtue signaling” as a way to deflect its own guilt in the capitalist nightmare ravaging the Earth. I see far too many “poorly educated” white working class Trump voters who still foolishly believe in America, who stubbornly refuse to see the truth, that they’ve been lied to for decades and that the entire structure of this country which they patriotically serve is dedicated to exploiting them and ultimately seeing their people and way of life disappear from the Earth. And all this is to say nothing of the rape of the environment, which continues unabated under Democrats and Republicans alike, because the immediate rewards of resource extraction and exploitation always outweigh the incentives for preservation in our short-term, profit-based economy. Greed is the source of the world’s problems, the greed unleashed by Classical Liberalism, which has found new life in modern social liberalism, but which always and everywhere comes down to one principle: the profit of individuals comes before the common good. This corrupt philosophy was almost exhausted in the crisis of the Great Depression, but the material and military gains of the Second World War gave it artificial new life. I believe we are drawing to the end of that life cycle, as American global hegemony begins to wane, and the inherent unsustainability of radical individualism causes it to collapse of its own weight. But this is going to be a painful and ugly process – it’s going to get a lot worse before it starts getting better again.
In many ways, Americans in the 21st century seem to live in different worlds: left vs. right, red vs. blue, conservative vs. liberal. It’s become easy to live in an illusion of one’s own choosing, to either deliberately or unconsciously cut yourself off from any opinions — even any facts or objective information — that we might find uncomfortable or disagreeable. It’s easy to label people, to attack individuals based on which box we’ve decided to place them. We should attack ideas, not people. (To quote writer and neuroscientist Sam Harris: "We have a choice. We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That's it. Conversation and violence.”) I continue to believe that there is more that unites us than divides us, if only we are brave enough to look for it; to continue the conversation. I hope that this set of interviews has helped that goal in some small way.
Thank you, and I feel the same way. I don’t despise liberals, I despise hypocrisy. What bothers me most about the Left is the self-righteousness and the tendency to prefer virtue signaling to reasoned and respectful discourse. But I believe the positions of the Left I disagree with can honestly be arrived at by a thinking men or women of good heart, given certain information. I would much rather talk with a Leftist who disagrees with me for good reasons, than someone on the Right who takes the same position as I do, but for all the wrong reasons (the Trump campaign is a great example of that). Your heart has to be in the right place.
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