Trump is Hoping His Base Is Too Stupid to Notice

Donald Trump is perhaps the biggest and most consistent liar to ever haunt the halls of the White House.  His entire career has been built on lies and skirting the law wherever possible with a large measure of bullying opponents and those to whom he owes money thrown in for good measure.  That his supporters ever believed a word that he said is, in my view, either an indictment of their intelligence or their willingness to vote for a man who called on them to give in to their racism and ugliest prejudices. Now, with the stock market tanking in large part due to his uncontrolled big mouth and petty grievances, the national debt ballooning, and demographic change continuing across America, Trump is once again trying to stoke the fires of racism and blaming everyone other than himself and failed Republican policies for the nation's circumstances.  Much like during the 2016 presidential election, Trump is hoping the members of his base are too stupid to realize that they are being conned yet again.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the phenomenon.  Here are excerpts:

You can tell what President Trump is afraid of by what he chooses to lie about. That means he must be petrified of losing support over his failure to build a single mile of the “big, beautiful” border wall he promised.

Trump is scared of a lot of things — special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, honest reporting by the news media, adult-film actress Stormy Daniels and, reportedly, sharks. But nothing seems to make him quake and tremble more than the fear that his core base will realize all his tough-guy huffing and puffing about Latino immigration was a bunch of hot air.

On Easter morning, . . . . . Trump was dishonestly tweeting in a frantic attempt to look strong and uncompromising. His first tweet ended with this bleat: “ ‘Caravans’ coming. Republicans must go to Nuclear Option to pass tough laws NOW. NO MORE DACA DEAL!”

Trump was apparently referring to a Fox News story — I know, you’re shocked — about a “caravan” of 1,200 would-be immigrants who say they are coming north through Mexico to enter the United States; they were last seen traveling on foot 900 miles south of the border, meaning the “threat” is less than imminent. The reference to the nuclear option is yet another call for the Senate to eliminate its filibuster rule, . . . finally, Trump appeared to rule out any agreement on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program — which he canceled — allowing undocumented immigrants brought here as children to stay.

First thing Monday morning, Trump was at it again. A 7:02 a.m. tweet blamed Mexico for allowing “these large ‘Caravans’ of people” to enter Mexico, which made no sense. A second attacked Congress and claimed that “our country is being stolen!” 

Why such a frenzy of untruth? Because Trump apparently sees anger building among his most fervent supporters over his utter failure to deliver on what they understood as his central campaign promise: to halt or reverse the flow of Latino immigration and the “browning” of America.

That’s what this is really about. On the emotional level, Trump appealed to white Anglo chauvinism. He skillfully stoked the anger and resentment of those who are annoyed when they phone the electric company to straighten out a bill and are told to press 1 for English, press 2 for Spanish. When he writes things like “our country is being stolen,” it’s crystal-clear who’s supposed to be stealing it.

What I didn’t realize during the campaign was that Trump’s base realized he could never fulfill his absurd pledge to deport all of the estimated 11 million people who are here without papers. But his supporters did expect him to do something to stem what they see as an invasion — something concrete and unambiguous. Like the promised wall.

But the . . . . man who fancies himself a master builder, has been unable to even begin construction of a new border wall. And some of the most vocal anti-immigration commentators — with influence among Trump’s base — have been getting restless.

I don’t know how to break this to you, folks, but Trump’s wall promise was no more serious than anything else that comes out of his mouth. His antipathy toward Latinos and non-whites is genuine, I trust, but his ability to follow through is pure counterfeit. With all of his heart, he hopes you’re too stupid to notice.