Politico convened the five authors who have written biographies of Trump. They know him as well as anyone but his immediate family.
They didn’t expect him to win the election. They think he didn’t expect to win the election.
Now that he will be president of the United States, what is he likely to do?
An interesting and fairly scary read.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I am terrified what Trump and his GOP regressives will do to the ACA, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Bush tried to privatize SS in 2005 but failed. Now that the GOP is triumphant, there is nothing to stop them. The Democrats are the shattered party. Will they have the guts to filibuster and obstruct as the GOP did for more than a decade and especially during the Obama era? Of course not, now that the GOP is fully in charge, there will be calls for the Democrats to reach across the aisle and to cooperate. The Democrats are pretty much irrelevant at this point unless they grow a spine and follow Bernie’s lead. I’m still recovering from the double shock of Trump winning and Russ Feingold losing. What’s the matter with Wiskansason???????? Now the supreme court is like a huge chunk of raw meat for the GOP mad dogs to have their way with. Oh, I’m sorry, I apologize for comparing the GOP to mad dogs, that was uncalled for.
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I don’t believe the democrats will have the guts to stand up to republican efforts to, for example, privatize social security. I don’t believe they will stand up for us because I don’t believe they represent us. That’s why they didn’t get elected in the first place. All these guys go to Washington, get rich, rig the system to get richer then leave. They do not care about the rest of us. They walk over the homeless lying in the street. What in the world would make you think they will fight on our behalf? If that were the case we would have had Bernie Sanders who would have beaten Hillary. They kept Hillary because they wanted to keep their crooked system.
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Janet,
I disagree. Chuck Schumer knows the legislative system. He has watched the Republicans fight and obstruct Obama for 8 years. He is well prepared to fight the GOP agenda unless there is meaningful compromise.
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Diane, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid has been a Senator since 1987 and has been in office a lot longer than Schumer, so he is very well aware of the legislative system. And while he issued a powerful statement and critique of Trump, he, despite his extensive experience dealing with the Republicans and witnessing their obstructionism, did not fight anywhere near hard enough against that Republican agenda.
What makes you think that Chuck Schumer will do any better?
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dianeravitch
And you are certain the GOP will not use the “Nuclear Option” no pun on words here.
The rules of the senate are set by the majority party at the start of each session . There is no written law requiring a 60 member majority to end discussion and bring bills to the floor for a vote.
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Joel, the nuclear option is an example of Republican overreach. Clinton still won the popular vote and Americans are still mistrustful of and fed up with Washington. Invoking the nuclear option would prove to angry Trump supporters nothing has changed and they were duped. Americans like checks and balances. I can’t wait to see the backlash on that one if the hapless GOP establishment changes the rules.
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The world sees the US now as a Banana Republic.
We had two presidential candidates, both potentially indictable for crimes, and now we have the bigoted and ignorant clown leading the nation…and the pundits now are trumpeting that we will NEVER have a woman Prez. Is this the best of what America has to offer for leadership?
tRump is appointing the most worn out, rejected, crooked, Right Wing, ideologues to his Cabinet, and a fascistic Chief of Staff who, like the new Prez, has NO governmental experience, except maybe ‘tax dodging’. And rounding it out, he is appointing his three oldest children, scions of immense wealth who never spent a day with the riff raff, as his prime advisers. Not any economists, professors, legislators, or other proven intellects, but his CHILDREN. He seeks to create a dynasty so that after his 8 years,(YES I said 8 years) Junior will take over, then the lesser heirs, so that America will have KING tRumps long into the future.
Even Wall Street seems to have fled from these menacing leaders.
Giuliani is licking his chops to attack Hillary in court when he is AG. Christie, another indictable, has been banished. Newt the newt is urging a return to HUAC and McCarthyism. Pence will shut down all Planned Parenthood and women’s health clinics as he leads the transition team. And even the evil and idiotic Sarah Palin is being touted for a role on the tRump Cabinet.
Do you remember two old films, ‘Viridiana’, and also the ‘King of Hearts’, where the inmates take over the asylum? That is America today.
What a scenario for our country which used to be the most respected and admired in the world.
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Diane..once again my post did not go through…I give up.
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Sorry, Ellen, I went out to lunch and your post was in moderation.
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Thanks, Diane, for finding and posting it.
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Joe,
Don’t let thinking about tomorrow steal your today. Relax, and trust that the political system was built to handle strife.
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Fascinating. And, scary. Yes, right word, Diane very scary.
About half way through the piece I started getting spooked. The whole thing about nuclear bombs.
Then there’s this part, “Barrett: With a Republican Congress, they agree on tax cuts for rich people and just crush every program for the poor that they possibly can.”
[Meanwhile, in the background here my daughter is playing Christmas songs from the 1950s…. she loves the holidays. Brenda Lee and “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”]
How devastating…. Isn’t the greatest percentage of the poor in our nation children?
My god…..”crushing” them?
Let’s truly hope that the enormity of this job does humble Mr. Trump.
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Reblogged this on BLOGGYWOCKY and commented:
I, too, don’t think Trump expected to win, I think he was trying to drum up support for his various business and television ventures. If there’s one thing that Trump is good at, it’s marketing himself.
And now we’re stuck with him.
He has no idea how to govern, so he will turn over the reins of government to people like Pence, who will be his Dick Cheney.
I hope that the Democrats find their spines and obstruct as much as the Republicans did under Obama.
But I am afraid that they will not do this. They will try to “reach across the aisle.”
And I am also afraid that the “lesson” that the Democrats will learn from this is to move even farther to the right.
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If the Dems move more to right, then there’s no reason to have a party anymore. Although I voted for Clinton, she is very much a centrist Republican in the mold of Gerald Ford–not that that is a bad thing–but it’s not what we need now. Demi need to show something that they haven’t had since early in LBJ’s full term: backbone and principle.
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I think so, too, Greg.
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Pence has just taken over the transition team from Christie…who seems no longer to be playing any role. Pence, unlike Trump, knows just what he is doing, and will work hand in hand with Bannon to dismantle all social services. Bannon as Chief of Staff is the most frightening aspect of all of this. He is even more destructive, smarter, and loonier than Trump.
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I think that Pence and Bannon will be Trump’s Dick Cheney, and run the government the way they want it. Unfortunately.
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Greg,
I think a Clinton would have been a Democratic in the mold of LBJ.
Too many people swallowed GOP propaganda. She is a good woman, would have been a good president, instead we have a huckster who legitimates and incites hatred.
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I was willing to take that chance in my vote after you convinced me a few months ago. Now we’ll never know and have to hope leadership and a strategy will be built to get the party back to its roots of FDR and the Four Freedoms. The domestic LBJ was the last one who understood that.
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agreed but they never have.
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It gets worse. Flipping channels today. There is Fox Skews speculation of Ben Carson as Ed. Sec. and Rick Scott in HHS. I can’t imagine a nightmare any worse for the two issues I value the most.
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I have not read it anywhere, yet… but this paranoid man, is going to have access to data from the the NSA FBI and the CIA and he is going to go after anyone and everyone whom he feels has humiliated him.
it will be a bloodbath, and they will never know what hit them. It will be his ‘ploy!’
Also, because has no scruples, and ethical behavior is unknown to him, he will use information to blackmail legislators, judges , governors and anyone from whom he needs something!
We needed a bernie sanders to represent the working people who lost everything as the ‘deep state’ http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Trump-Ploy-by-Linh-Dinh-Deep-State_Donald-Trump-161111-37.html (what some call the Cabal, the oligarchs) wrecked the middle class, to cause panic and chaos It was their plan. And since they owned the media lock stock and barrel…. the internet repeated the lies they initiated,
THEY gave us this monster. Anyone who remembers Germany in 1939, remembers a people who were crushed. They needed a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread.
They needed a charismatic liar who would ‘save them.”
Good people who are ignorant of the truth, so no fault of their own, look for a savior. Hillary was wrong to call them ‘deplorables.’ She was just referring to the behaviors of the most vocal, the bigots and racists who wanted chaos. She knew the people who wanted Bernie, turned to Trump because they had lost their homes, their jobs, and now had to choose between rent , food and health care.
The deep state, the hidden puppet masters did this. They gave us this low-esteem child who has few skills, a vocabulary of 200 words, and a total ignorance of history or the world.
he never wanted to govern…only to win. he is ignorant beyond description, but our people do not know this.
He will hand over the running of nation to the very worst people.
he will bring change, but never a greater nation… he is the destroyer
I still cry when I see his face, and someone says “President Elect.
And like Trevor Noah, last night, I cringe and want to vomit, when I think of TRUMPS wife in the house where the wives of FDR and JFK, SLEPT, where Mamie, Barbara,Lady Byrd, Nancy and Bess, once were the FIRST LADY –.. this illegal immigrant whose nude body graced magazines, and who was in his bed while he was still married… she is the perfect 10, to be at the side of this president.
The only bright side, is that the people will finally see what he is, and they will rise . There will be revolution; we seats beginnings now, and he more they see of the fraud…
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Well, could they have predicted that his ‘transition team would be his kids an son-in-law?
I bet no one would predict at in the middle of the night, he would FORGET that he is already THE PRESIDENT, and that he represents ALL the people, even the ones who are protesting, and tweet a ‘nasty’!
I can just see his ‘people'(family/)advisors going nuts. Daddy, “You are president. The race is over. YOU can’t tweet negative things about YOUR people. You gotta bing them together… so back to tweeting a Hillary line about bringing us to gather. Hypocrisy is beyond his ken.
Can you imagine, a US president-elect, who has so much to learn, to do, but is ‘tweetting’ in the middle the night, because he is watching TVa and is upset that the more than half the people didn’t vote for him.
Listen, it is sooooo easy to write non-stop about this walking disaster.
What we have to do, is concentrate on what we can do… and we can do a lot.
He is going to role back all the environmental protections, so we have to work at a state level to get things done.
We are powerful as a people, and we can make it happen, but not if we get distracted by non-stop TRUMP. We need to change the channel to the one were we the people get things done!
Still… who knows what he will do next.
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I think the fall of the Roman empire might give us some clues.
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Great minds, etc, etc: https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/gregg-popovich-on-the-election-of-donald-trump-we-are-rome-020433327.html
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On the positive side, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Raúl Grijalva, Keith Ellison and the other progressives (even Al Franken) will continue to fight the good fight. There is a petition at moveon to repeal the electoral college. I signed it, it’s worth a shot.
http://front.moveon.org
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Maybe we should just follow Garrison Keillor’s advice
“The government is in Republican hands. Let them deal with him [Trump].”
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Mate,
There is a tiny bright side in what you say. When Trump is unable to deliver on most or all of his outlandish promises, he can’t blame anyone but his own party–or himself (which he will never do).
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The American people just elected Donald Trump do you think they are sophisticated enough to realize they are getting screwed.
The only thing that will stop the right agenda is obstruction and that is decided by the party in power.
Trump will deliver what the right has craved for years . The rest is divide and conquer. Look at Wisconsin .
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Joel…not ‘the American people’ but only less than half the voters elected tRump.
A travesty, but these are dangerous voters. A small swath of the wealthiest Beverly Hills residents all voted for him, reports informed us today, in this monolithic Dem area bordering WLA. Those who voted for him seemed to live near his house which is now up for sale for about $30M.
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To the extent that the election was about economics, the Republicans have two years to deliver economic gain to the lower middle and middle class. I’m with Garrison, if they deliver, that is great for progressive economic policy and fairness in economics. If they don’t deliver, they lose their voting base.
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Trump’s best move is a tax rebate similar to George W. While somewhat of a cheap gimmick, it is in dollar terms, not regressive, not flat, but very progressive.
It’s basically basic income in a very small amount. The radical George W. started it, so Trump can follow him.
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He won’t touch social security or medicare. He has said this many times. He also just reversed himself on Obamacare. He was always for a single-payer health system like in England or Canada. He may go to this, and that would be awesome from anyone’s perspective. The Republicans will fight him on this, of course. A lot of what he said was theater to get votes.
Of course, he believes in a woman’s right to an abortion. He just couldn’t say it. This is a new movement going on, and I think that even liberals will find things they like here. Just wait and see. He’s is going to do what is best for “Americans.”
No, he does not care about illegal aliens, or people in other countries as much, and he shouldn’t. We shouldn’t either. We have enough problems “here.” He cares about Americans of all races and sexual orientations. Wait and see.. I think we all dodged a bullet with Hillary. She would have led us to WW III against Russia. It is better to be friendly and work together. This is a good thing, but you have to open mind and wait.
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We will see what happens, Steve.
His racist and misogynistic comments didn’t sound like political theater.
That’s a low blow to say that Hillary would have led us into war. How do you know that? I am waiting to see if he abandons our allies in Europe so he can hang out with Putin.
Trump may end up in a battle with his own party, and that’s fine, because they control the Congress and he will soon control the Supreme Court as well.
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Steve
One way we judge people is by the company they keep . By that metric we know whats comming.
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coming
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Trump has so many different positions on issues, I could disagree with you and we’d both be right.
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After seeing so many iterations of the Trojan Horse in school reform, yes, wouldn’t it be a pleasant surprise if Donald Trump was the Trojan Horse for just a little bit of the Bernie Sanders platform?
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I read this morning that he’s turned the transition team over to Mike Pence… My fear: Mr. Trump let’s Mike Pence set the legislative agenda and be the “inside guy” while Mr. Trump puts a happy face on what’s happening…
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It could be another Bush, Cheney puppet master administration.
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Media report that hedge funder, John Paulson, will be the biggest winner, from Trump’s presidency.
In 2015, Paulson gave $8..5 mil. to Success Academy.
It’s for the kids (sarcasm).
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and Hedge Funder Mnuchin as head of the Treasury….long article today in the LA Times Business section about this pick and that Yellin will quickly be gone from the FED….and that the tRump policy will cause rampant inflation…
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http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/this_new_wall_street_journal_interview_with_donald_trump_is_ridiculous
Found this one interesting and telling in the reversals of thought and language, and choice of the Wall Street Journal for the interview.
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