Wednesday, August 31, 2016

What Could Possibly Go Wrong? Trump's Impulsive Trip to Mexico

This kinda came out of the blue last night, and I was distracted by the Florida primary voting so I didn't give it much attention, but this is what I'm waking up to.

Trump accepted an invitation to speak IN MEXICO this day, in-between a morning fundraiser in Los Angeles and then a planned "major immigration speech" in Arizona.

If you read the tweet-storm that the Balloon-Juice article highlights, this isn't exactly the sanest thing the Trump campaign's ever done.

What's the Spanish word for "straitjacket" again?

I can think of a few reasons why Trump is doing this:

1) It's a chance to preen before more cameras. His vanity compels him to do this.

2) As an impulsive creature, any off-the-wall proposal given to him will be accepted as a challenge.

3) Trump thinks this will help his "pivot" to win over White voters horrified by Trump's racist anti-Latino statements of the past year lifetime as well as stop more Latino voters from joining African-American voters in the #NeverTrump coalition.

4) The Mexican President Nieto making the offer must have thrown in an offer of a free lunch.

5) Trump's really bat-shit crazy. That BJ article links to Josh Marshall, who posits "Trump's Razor" as the reason this is happening:

...Trump's Razor helps here. It's tempting to assume that there's some angle Trump has here, some plan or understanding with Peña Nieto to make this not as silly a decision as it appears to be. I'm tempted because how could they think this was a good idea? Trump's Razor tells us to resist this temptation. "The stupidest scenario possible that can be reconciled with the available facts." I think that's what we have here. It's as stupid as it looks. Who knows? Maybe Trump will handle this deftly and it'll be a huge success. But Trump's Razor has yet to fail me...

At best? Trump comes away from the Mexico visit with a subdued, mature impression that he can handle foreign visits and provide "context" to his openly bigoted statements ("Mexicans are rapists") and positions ("Let's build a Wall and have Mexico pay for it!"). Most likely, Trump will trip over himself with a grasping, ad-libbed presentation talking about himself more than anything or anyone else ("Isn't it great that I'm here! People respect me to do this! Mexicans really love me!"). At worst, by this afternoon we'll have the luxury of watching Trump get arrested by the FBI at the Phoenix airport for having instigated a border war with Mexico.

It's a good thing I'm in meetings this afternoon. I have other things to stress about.

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