Trump thinks “the Democrats don’t seem like a threat,” according to a former White House official.
President Donald Trump will be out of the office for the next ten days. He is going on vacation, spending the next week at his Bedminster, New Jersey golf club, as he does every August. But on his way to the Garden State Air Force One will take a detour to the Hamptons, where two billionaire real estate developers will hold separate mega-donor fundraisers that are expected to deliver $10 million in just a few hours to the Trump re-election effort. Tickets to one, now highly controversial fundraiser, held by SoulCycle, Equinox Fitness, and Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross start at $5600 and go up to $250,000.
The Associated Press sets the scene, noting the President is “confronting a storm of crises, at home and abroad, that could set the course for his upcoming re-election bid,” which, it should be noted, literally began the same day he was sworn in to office in 2017.
Trump’s “aides say his attention will be focused on golf, cable news and Twitter. They often worry about the scattershot outbursts,” the AP notes, “that can emerge when Trump escapes Washington and has more access to his friends and less to his staff.”
The President is clearly in trouble, and some are questioning why he’s on vacation as Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi formally requested the President just yesterday use his constitutional authority to call the Senate back in to session to pass strong and meaningful gun violence protection legislation.
“With his poll numbers stalled and his ability to rally the country questioned, he’s being tested by an escalating trade war with China that may slow the economy, rising tensions with both Iran and North Korea and, in the aftermath of the latest mass shootings, pressure to act on guns and face accusations of his own role in fostering an environment of hate.”
In fact, he has little “ability to rally the country,” which is his own fault. The “escalating trade war with China that may slow the economy” is his own fault. The “rising tensions with both Iran and North Korea” are his own fault. And “the latest mass shootings” are in part his own fault, given his refusal to do anything about violent white supremacism, domestic terrorism, the gun crisis, and right wing extremists.
Or, as the AP says, “pressure to act on guns and face accusations of his own role in fostering an environment of hate.”
And while many across America are feeling increased stress and fear – a video this week of a car backfiring in New York City’s Times Square had hundreds running for their lives fearing yet another mass shooting – the AP says “The president himself does not seem bothered.”
“He doesn’t think he is facing any challenges. His attitude is, ‘The economy is doing great, I am putting the hammer down on China, the rest is just noise,’” said former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. “The media is against him, his supporters are for him and the Democrats don’t seem like a threat.”
“He’s going on vacation feeling smug.”
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