Trump’s Masquerade

17 May 2011 |permalink | email article

The Donald’s flirtation with a presidential bid ended in true Trump fashion. While he will not be a candidate this year he said that if he had run, he would have been able to win the primary and ultimately, the general election without offering any proof that he was the real deal. Recognizing that running for public office is not a walk in the park, he finally coughed it up.

“Ultimately, however, business is my greatest passion and I am not ready to leave the private sector.” In the end his decision had more to deal with his lucrative NBC television contract for his “Apprentice” franchise – with some reports estimating it to be as much as $60 million. Greed is still good!”

In his statement Trump say he wanted to personally thank the millions of Americans who joined the various Trump grassroots movements encouraging him to run. There’s little doubt that for a short and electric moment in early May he shot to first place in a Gallup poll with 16 percent among Republicans largely because of his non-stop obsession that President Obama was not a native-born American. He claimed to have dispatched agents to Hawaii to question Obama’s birth certificate but nothing ever came from it.

The Birther issue, embraced by conspiracy buffs and racially driven, never caught hold as conservative national Republican lawmakers dismissed it as untrue. Even then among Republicans who disliked Trump grew to 44 percent. After Obama announced the death of Osama bin Laden in the early hours of May 16, Trump’s name suddenly dropped from the news.

Big Ideas

Newt Gingrich on “Meet the Press” called upstart Paul Ryan’s thoughts about reforming Medicare “right wing social engineering” while suggesting it represented “radical change.” Ryan, the GOP’s new ideas man, fired back before the Economics Club of Chicago on Monday, noting “with allies like that, who needs the left.” Ryan, weighing a U.S. Senate run, may regret saying his plan for phasing out Medicare will strengthen “welfare for those who need it.” Big mistake! 

130