What does a TRUMP presidency look like?

[viper37]

I thought Pence was supposed to be the competent one.

Compared to Trump...  Compared to Trump...

[The Brain]

I thought Pence was supposed to be the competent one.

Women sense his power. But he denies them his presence.

[Admiral Yi]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc_k2eDFqJk

The Trump campaign is selling autographed marker pens for $15. 

[Oexmelin]

The President of the United States sells memorabilia of his dishonesty.

[DGuller]

I think all of this is a strategy, even if Trump stumbled into it more than reasoned it out.  Truth doesn't matter, only the reactions of people who care about the truth matter.  It's a gaslighting of sorts, straight out of Russian playbook.
I find it hard to find any part of it amusing, I feel like laughing at it would play into it.

[Syt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77vhJnNlBko

[Maladict]

Bolton just got fired by Trump.

[Syt]

 

[Eddie Teach]

Bolton just got fired by Trump.

Good.

[HVC]

poor michael

[Syt]

poor michael

[Legbiter]

Bolton just got fired by Trump.

Good.

Yeah.

He might have done some good as a negotiating tool. Maybe.

[Legbiter]

Found the quote I was thinking about.

"Trump thinks that Bolton is a key part of his negotiating strategy," said the same person who described Trump as "touchy" about Bolton. "He thinks that Bolton's bellicosity and eagerness to kill people is a bargaining chip when he's sitting down with foreign leaders. Bolton can be the bad cop and Trump can be the good cop. Trump believes this to his core."

https://www.axios.com/trump-john-bolton-doctrine-iran-venezuela-war-427ca897-aaa1-4e10-a7c9-2a67c1d20354.html

[The Minsky Moment]

There is a logic to that except that it requires the person implementing the strategy to understand the basics of international diplomacy, which Trump doesn't.   It also requires people to believe that people under than Trump have any meaningful influence or authority as against Trump's own views, which no one believes anymore either.  It also makes no sense for Trump to play good cop to Bolton's bad because the other party would just ignore Bolton and appeal directly to Trump via known and accepted means (flattery and complimentary tweets).  It would make a little more sense the other way around, depending on one's willingness to encourage accidental escalation of a conflict, and on the counterfactual that Bolton would be capable of playing good cop (he isn't)

[grumbler]

Trump believed that "bad cop/worse cop" messages worked.