After Donald Trump once again demonstrated his monumental ignorance with his answer to a question about child care at the New York Economic Club last week, I was curious about what people in that audience thought about him. There was some clapping and cheering but it wasn't his usual rally crowd so it's hard to tell how enthusiastic they were. The person who asked Trump the question, Girls Who Code CEO Reshma Saujani, told CNN that his word salad answer was insulting, which is true. But what did the Big Money Boyz in the crowd think of Trump's "economic" agenda focused on tariffs and tax cuts but not much else according to his rambling presentation?
"The GOP-leaning business elite I talk to," the Washington Post's Jeff Stein reported, "are convinced the Trump tariff threats are ultimately bluster, position-taking, bluffing."
Trump benefits in numerous ways from being the world's greatest liar. People can believe what they want to believe and these Masters of the Universe are free to think that he's just "blustering" and "buffing" and doesn't actually mean that he will impose policies that are likely to crash the economy. One suspects they think he'll just do what Republicans always do, which is hand out tax cuts to the wealthy, cut regulations, raise military spending and slash domestic programs wherever they can get away with it.
Maybe they're right, although I don't think we can be sure since Trump is surrounding himself with extremists and weirdos and has lost whatever fragile grasp he once had on reality. But they feel confident he won't disturb their fortunes, perhaps because he has one of his own, and that's all they care about.
Trump also made a startling comment in Wisconsin over the weekend about his plan for mass deportation of migrants. He said, "getting them out will be a bloody story."
Trump yesterday in Wisconsin on his promised mass deportation: "Getting them out will be a bloody story." pic.twitter.com/JlcpdWkUG4
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 8, 2024
That's more than a little bit disturbing. It's clear that he's priming his followers to support violence across America as police and the military carry out the Project 2025 policy of round-ups, internment camps and deportation of tens of millions of people.
David Frum in the Atlantic assures us that this won't actually happen because the logistics are too complicated and the cost is much too high. I find it hard to believe that Trump will just give up on this signature policy but perhaps Frum is right and they'll only succeed in forcefully removing a million or so families and possibly only build a few camps instead of the thousands that would be necessary if he followed the proposed program to the letter. Frum points out that the Japanese internment in WWII was met with the cooperation of the 150,000 internees and required ten full-scale detention camps. Imagine how much more complicated and expensive it would be to remove millions of unwilling people.
You have to assume, however, with rhetoric like this, calling his deportation scheme the "conquest and great liberation of America," that he won't follow through at all:
Trump, pretending immigrants have taken over swaths of America, says that "as soon as I'm back in the White House the conquest will & the great liberation of America will begin...we will take back every single square inch of territory that has been invaded by these migrant gangs" pic.twitter.com/YFAOTP3Obs
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) September 6, 2024
Many Americans have been worked up into a frenzy over immigration. Still, it's always possible that, just as the Big Money Boys don't take him seriously on the issue of tariffs, most voters know in their heart of hearts that Trump is just hyping it up for electoral purposes. They don't really care if he's able to deport 100% of what he calls the "vermin" who are making our economy function. But it's certainly exciting for them to fantasize about,
Does he really mean any of that stuff? Who knows? Tariffs and immigration are the only traditional "issues" Trump has talked about for years, even as he obviously doesn't really understand them. But do they really mean anything to him? I doubt it. Trump only cares about himself and these two issues are just talking points (kind of like NATO dues or "take the oil") that he came up with years ago and continue to be his answers when anyone asks him about "policy."
But there is one thing he keeps bringing up in his speeches and his rallies that I think he is very, very serious about. I've written about it here many times over the years because it is the one philosophical belief that he has spoken about consistently for decades: vengeance.
"I love getting even when I get screwed by someone," Trump famously wrote in his book "Think Big":
Always get even. When you are in business you need to get even with people who screw you. You need to screw them back 15 times harder. You do it not only to get the person who messed with you but also to show the others who are watching what will happen to them if they mess with you. If someone attacks you, do not hesitate. Go for the jugular.
Just last year he announced to his ecstatic CPAC audience "I am your retribution" and posted a word cloud with the word "revenge" featured prominently on his Truth Social platform. At the Economic Club speech last week, he alluded to it again, whining about his legal travails:
I didn’t do that to Crooked Hillary. I said, that would be a terrible thing, wouldn’t it? Putting the wife of the President of the United States in jail. But they view it differently, I guess, nowadays, but that’s okay.
And they always have to remember that two can play the game
Over the weekend he posted a threat to his Truth Social platform to prosecute "Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters and Corrupt Election Officials" to the "fullest extent of the Law which will include long prison sentences" over alleged "cheating" which, of course, isn't actually happening. The rant was followed up the next day by another screaming post declaring that Tucker Carlson had interviewed an "expert" who said that 20% of Pennsylvania mail-in ballots are fraudulent and called on the FBI to investigate. Pennsylvania ballots have not gone out yet so it's nonsense but he's already building his case.
If he loses, Trump will once again try to rile up his disappointed followers and who knows what will happen then. But he's not president anymore and it's unclear how that will help him do anything but salve his ego.
If he wins all bets are off.
He may or may not follow through on his inane tariffs or impractical mass deportation, but he damn sure believes in vengeance and there is no doubt he will follow through with that if he happens to eke out another win, especially now that he's been granted immunity by his friends on the Supreme Court. Nothing matters more to him than getting even. He means it.
