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Home » Trump has learned who his friends are – and who they’re not

Trump has learned who his friends are – and who they’re not

The New Neo Posted on by

Trump had a bunch of handicaps first time around:

– The Democrats didn’t think he had a mandate, because of his failure to get the popular vote. Or just because.

– He knew very little about Washington and how it worked.

– Even people on the right didn’t know much about him and were hesitant to work for him.

– He had to rely on others to make recommendations for people to appoint, and their suggestions often involved establishment figures who weren’t onboard with Trump’s agenda. Some were even actively – or secretly – against it

– The “resistance” was out to undermine him and was powerful and quite successful at it, and I doubt he expected the strength of their resolve and the lengths to which they would go.

Now a lot has changed, and all to his advantage. He’s been president before and knows the ropes. Most world leaders already have had dealings with him. He won the popular vote. He has slightly more cooperative GOP leaders in Congress. He’s assembled an interesting group of iconoclastic and often-brilliant allies to help him – at least for now. He’s appointing people who support his agenda. He is seen as having more power. He know what the forces arrayed against him have been and what they’ve been willing to do. He’s older, perhaps wiser, and certainly tougher. The left is still be determined to undermine him, but for the moment they are demoralized and divided.

For the moment.

Comments

Trump has learned who his friends are – and who they’re not — 38 Comments

  1. Another big advantage for him is that the Legacy Media has effectively had its back broken in terms of people’s trust in them. Propoganda only works when its intended audience doesn’t know that it’s propaganda.

    It certainly will be interesting to see how Trump 2.0 progresses. It seems as if he has the wind at his back this time.

  2. People should learn how to fly an airplane before attempting flying it…

    Trump has kept his big mouth shut since being elected – which I credit to CoS Susie Wiles.

  3. I think much depends on his appointments getting confirmed. Looks like many are on his side so will do what is needed to start attacking the Deep State. Not sure how that his message can get through the Democrats Propaganda Ministry but sure he will try.

  4. I was interested to hear Stuart Varney, on Fox Business this morning, saying that in spite of his electoral victory Trump is still not using the official transition mechanisms. Calls with foreign leaders are made from his own phone with his own translators. He is going to be very, very careful about contact with the existing bureaucracy.

  5. “…which I credit to…”

    Not sure.
    As an avid reader of this illustrious blog, he’s most probably been listening to you and Bauxite….

  6. I do not doubt that the “resistance” will coalesce – they’re dusting off their “pussy hats” as I type this…

  7. See my link in the open thread concerning Bergum. I’m not sure I support Bergum or Gaetz. Maybe more on Gaetz than Bergum. I get the feeling Bergum is a RINO.

  8. From my perspective he has gotten excellent advice from Susie Wiles that he has listened to and followed – a major change for him. To his credit he learned a lot from losing as he did in 2020 and from the relentless attacks, from both political parties and the government swamp people in particular, during his first term. And then they sent someone to kill him, twice, and were nearly successful. That seems to have cemented the change in attitude and approach. Plus all the things you mention Neo.

  9. Kate:

    Interesting report from Stuart Varney that Trump is using personal, rather than official, communications systems. I certainly hope that is true: the betrayal by Lt.Col Vindmann at the beginning of Trump’s first term was when I realized the holdovers were even worse than the staffers who stole the W keys off keyboards at the end of the Obama administration. These are vengeful, arrogant people, whether you call them the deep state of whatever. They cannot be trusted. It is heartening to learn that Trump has learned that lesson and is fighting it.

    Thanks for the tip.

  11. @BF— Being so old as to remember back then*, I think it was the Clintonistas who pulled the “W” from the keyboards because it was Geo *W* Bush who replaced Slick Willie. Some kind of protest, maybe even “election denial” in that the Dems still make the claim that the SCOTUS stole the election for Bush, aka “Dubya”.

    *even farther back if pushed.

  13. Even if Trump is using personal rather than government communication systems, you can bet that NSA is listening to every word he says. Expect leaks to begin soon.

  14. Re: Pulling the W keys

    F, Another+Mike have got it right.

    It was the outgoing Clinton staff who removed the W keys from White House typewriters, before W Bush took office.

    Sticking it to the Man!

  15. The missing W keys were glued above the office doors in plain sight. Things were less rabid in 2001, and I thought the stunt was clever and harmless.

  16. Ah. Thank you, all, for answering my question. I learned something new.

    PS: Apparently, the system can’t read thumbs up emojis, so I learned another thing that’s new.

    PPS: Third thing that’s new; the system can’t read sad face emojis either. 🙁

    PPPS; 4th thing that’s new, it can make sad face emojis if you use parentheses and the curved symbol. 🙂

  17. Re: Pulling the W keys

    Which reminds me of an old Mad Magazine joke.
    Harry and Bess Truman: “We swept dirt under the rugs before we turned the White House over to Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower.”
    Dwight and Mamie Eisenhower. “We found dirt under the rugs when we moved into the White House.”

  18. The missing W keys were glued above the office doors in plain sight. Things were less rabid in 2001, and I thought the stunt was clever and harmless.

    Gordon Scott:

    How nice. If I had pulled such a stunt as an office joe guy, I think I would have been in trouble and maybe lost my job.

    This is the WHITE HOUSE. Not a place for stunts, however clever and harmless. This is about governing the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

    I don’t mean to get too solemn about it, but it is, or should be, serious business.
    This is the WHITE HOUSE.

  19. I have always thought that part of his problem during his first term was that the tried to do things the way a new CEO coming into a business would.

    CEO’s generally do not come in and fire large swaths of employees. They may initially fire people that the board has identified as needing to be got rid of, but generally they sit back and watch a bit and see who’s getting stuff done and who isn’t before they start cutting heads. Most people don’t want to lose their jobs, so they get with the new program.

    I think Trump didn’t understand that government employees weren’t like people in the private sector and would actually try to undermine him. He appears to have figured this out and is going in with a plan to shut down any opposition.

  21. Re: Government transition team

    There was apparently an attempt to kick up a fuss that Trump wasn’t using the ‘time-honored’ transition bureaucracy a week or so back. They attempted to claim that it was a big deal because it dated back to 2010. (For those keeping score at home, that means it had been used as often as twice, on Trump’s previous entrance and exit of the White House.)

    Gee, why would the permanent bureaucracy be up in arms over Trump not using their services a second time, after how well they did eight years previous?

  23. Boobah, very true; but I don’t think anyone believed that Obama would be as devious and unethical as he proved to be during that “transition” period.

    (More like the “How-to-Trip-Up-And-Totally-Hogtie-Your-Successor” period….)

    Entirely unprecedented in American history…but that’s “Transformation” for ye’…

  24. Also benefiting Trump this time around.

    He’s going to win the popular vote, and might actually maintain a slim majority (even if some media are rounding his percentage down to 49.9)

    As unlikeable as Hillary was/is, Harris has no more appeal and more significantly, Harris has no base of support built up over multiple Presidental runs (including Bill’s). This means there’s no clear Democrat candidate for 2028 to focus on right now. Also, Obama’s two terms delaying Hillary’s ascendancy made losing to another man even harder on the “it’s her turn” crowd. Nobody is saying that about Harris.

    There’s no prospect he can be ejected via impeachment since they failed twice, and Vance is good insurance against it even being attempted.

  26. Team “Biden”—running true to form—getting in its “last licks” against NYC…and the Zionist Entity….

    “Biden admin quietly loosening immigration policies before Trump takes office — including letting migrants skip ICE check-ins in NYC”—
    https://nypost.com/2024/11/21/us-news/biden-admin-to-let-illegal-migrants-skip-nyc-ice-appointments/

    “How Israel and Lebanon can stop the slaughter Another ceasefire is bound to fail“—
    https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01JD7586XT2TPQT76Y262P0FK3_3
    H/T Mosaic

    And it looks like the Pope is batting “clean-up”!!
    “ The Pope Turns on Israel”—
    https://ctrk.klclick1.com/l/01JD7586XT2TPQT76Y262P0FK3_7

  27. It is worth remembering that Trump was not particularly conservative when he was first elected…. he was a populist. And he remains relatively liberal on social issues… he refused to be drawn into the abortion issue and did not give the evangelical constituency many goodies, aside from those that accrue naturally from the more mainstream reforms.

    Were/are those positions calculated or a reflection of his own beliefs? Based on the love from his former workers, he seems to have been the kind of fair-minded, salt-of-the-earth guy raised on the American Way that both parties could claim just a few decades ago.

    I believe his trial by fire has hardened his stance and shifted him rightwards – at least in terms of the size and scope of government.

  28. Trump learned from his experience, I thought that impressive in itself. Old dogs and all that …

  30. For three days now I’ve been seeing many of Trump’s allies posting their sincere belief that Trump has not learned who is his friend and who his enemy, insofar as these allies assert that Trump is poised to select Mike Rogers to head the FBI.

    I don’t share their fear, but that insistent fear of theirs does give me pause. Well, that along with the fact that Trump hasn’t declared Kash Patel as his man for the FBI already. Yet, I will contine to believe Trump will so declare for Kash, right up until he doesn’t.

  31. I don’t know what Trump has learned (or not). I do think we’re witnessing the work of a brilliant entertainer.

    If you look at it that way, nominating Gaetz, Gabbard, Kennedy, and so on is actually brilliant. The story is phenomenal. In one episode, Trump successfully turns a scion of the most famous dynasty in the Democratic Party to the Republican Party, nominates him to high office, and then fights the Deep State and RINOs who are threatened by these developments. In another episode, Trump converts a former Democratic Congresswoman and Democratic candidate for president, nominates her to high office, and fights the “sinister” forces who want to keep her down so they can continue fighting “endless wars.” In yet another episode, Trump fights back against the Deep State by raising up a Trump loyalist who, like Trump, Kavanaugh, and so many before, is the subject of a slanderous accusation of sexual misconduct. Trump bravely counters the Deep State and RINOs who, surely, are only opposing Gaetz because they fear his “success” as AG.

    In other words, I don’t think it makes sense to think of this in terms of Trump knowing who his friends are. Republicans who are more interested in governing and less interested in creating compelling entertainment are actually pretty uneasy friends of Trump.

    Trump’s personality, style, and the fact that his voters don’t bother to show up when he’s not on the ballot make it very likely that Democrats are going to sweep 2026 and 2028. (That, and Democrats are guaranteed to nominate better candidates. See Josh Shapiro jumping to the head of the parade and condemning the county commissioners who violated the law in the Casey/McCormick race, but not until after the PA Supreme Court weighed in.)

    If Republicans want to get anything out of the Trump administration that won’t be immediately washed away in 2026 and 2028, they can’t be afraid to cross Trump now, especially on dumpster fire nominees like Gaetz.

  32. re concerns about Trump not using the ‘official’ transition bureaucracy, etc….I’ve observed that Democrats tend to have excessive reverence for institutions, even at the expense of what these institutions were put in place to do. The belief that education will not happen unless there is a Federal Department of Education is an example of this.

    There is a relevant Churchill story:
    https://ricochet.com/696389/regular-and-irregular-channels/

  33. I’ve observed that Democrats tend to have excessive reverence for institutions, even at the expense of what these institutions were put in place to do.

    It helps when you just make up the “institution” – I believe that “The Office of the President-Elect” was a Rahm Emanuel creation – and then demand reverence for this thing that never existed.

  34. Having learned nothing from the last four years picking up what joel greenberg dragged through a trailer park to save his butt (he still got eleven years)

  35. Thanks to commenters who corrected my statement that the Obama staffers pulled the W keys off the White House computers.

    I knew it was Clinton staffers — just had a momentary brain fart. Had Obama staffers wanted to make a similarly nasty gesture they would have left rattlesnakes in the desk drawer. Clinton’s people were a lot gentler.

  37. Trump 45 was a practical man more than a populist and much more than a conservative. He wanted to fix some practical problems, rather than throw around ideological slogans, and I appreciated that. I’d be happy if he did that again (this time paying more attention to the deficit), but the Democrats have moved so far to the left, that any attempts to return to “normal” will be portrayed by Democrats and the media as radical (or reactionary) and ideologically doctrinaire.

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