Trump Goes to the Mattresses

Donald Trump came into office just like a Mafia Don. Don Donald. Michael Flynn, the guy who led chants of “Lock her up,” and Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal lawyer, began selling favors before the inauguration. Flynn could be seen making deals on his cellphone from the White House lawn. Cohen sought out multi-national companies and advertised his strong access to the President of the United States as a strong selling point.

No hesitation in these gangster types. They get a foot in the door and you have to pay them protection…. Or else. 

Trump took the same approach as his associates. Emoluments clause? Hell with it. I can run a business and the USA at the same time. He did not want to divest his business holdings and never did.

Trump has “played” politics just the way the recently risen Mafia Don works his crew, the streets and the civilians. Everything’s for me. Everybody sends a cut of their earnings  to the top. 

Donald Trump will steal your lunch money until you fight back. America has not fought back and he keeps gouging until the final dollar is pressed into his personal coffers. Don’t like it and you can try your best to get him out of office.

Office never mattered to much to Donald Trump. He loves the theater and confrontation of electoral politics and loves watching television. But a certain movie captures the Trump phenomenon, even better than Celebrity Apprentice.

In Casino, the 1995 Martin Scorsese film starring Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone and Robert De Niro, we get an insight into Donald Trump. 

Robert De Niro as Ace Rothstein is quietly running a casino in Vegas. The De Niro character translates to Barack Obama, a capable man doing an honest day’s work. Joe Pesci is Donald Trump—the guy who shows up like a tornado, kills the game for everybody else. 

The Joe Pesci character, based on Anthony Spilotro, a real life mob enforcer and hit man, arrives and things spiral downward and end with a thud. Joe’s character lacks self-control. He is programmed to hurt others. He lives only for himself. The Joe Pesci  character adds insult to injury by stealing and banging De Niro’s wife—Sharon Stone as Ginger McKenna.

Okay, so Donald Trump never made a play for Michelle Obama. I’m sure she’s not his type. He likes tall women but prefers Eastern European and Russian woman. That’s how you end up with a daughter named Ivanka.

Trump’s daughter’s name does not imply he’s colluded or conspired with Russians. Trump’s most obvious trait—acquisitiveness—includes the element of bringing everybody else down. It’s not enough for him to win. The others, (i.e. the American citizenry) can fend for themselves. 

We must protect ourselves from Donald Trump’s habit of playing the game so hard, working the casino till every nickel has dropped out of the slot machine and then declaring bankruptcy. 

After 5 bankruptcies, including Atlantic City casinos, Trump moved to the next hustle. Bankers lost confidence in his Midas touch and Donald Trump went east to Moscow to find new bankers. 

Russia, as the banker of last resort, may prove to be the end of Trump. Putin is a better gangster, probably more cruel and efficient than the garrulous Donald Trump. Putin is more the Carlo Gambino style mob boss. He keeps quiet and motivates associates—called Russian oligarchs—to do his bidding. Putin is said to be the richest man in the world.

The Mueller probe gets closer to President Trump and Don Donald hires an army of lawyers. I heard 40 lawyers hired—but maybe 17, the more conservative number is accurate? In either case, that’s a lot of lawyers. 

Trump hiring an army of lawyers is a presidential version of the old Mafia term “going to the mattresses.” Mob wars required the Mafia soldiers to move into apartments and sleep on mattresses on the floor—until matters were settled. 

Trump’s two greatest assets are:

1)   His base of loyal voters

2)  His mastery of media communication

Like a good gangster movie, the two sides are lined against each other and ready to do battle. Carlo Gambino survived by following the traditional Mafia rule of omerta—silence when questioned by police and total loyalty to the mob family. But that is more Putin. Trump plays more like John Gotti—very fond of the spotlight and his notoriety.

Gotti flamed out quickly as “boss of all bosses” precisely because he was too loud, too flamboyant and overly narcissistic. 

Sound familiar?

-->

Trump versus The Great War (1914-18)

Donald Trump has conveyed a great respect for military men, except John McCain, and stressed the importance of a strong military to maintaining American hegemony. He speaks proudly of a bigger button and America’s unfathomed ability to strike our enemies.

Trump attended New York Military Academy and graduated in 1964.  His record with the draft board is well documented:

While in college from 1964 to 1968, Trump obtained four student deferments from serving in the military…. In October 1968, he was given a medical deferment which he later attributed to spurs in both heels and classified as 1-Y, "unqualified for duty except in the case of a national emergency."

Trump seemed inspired by the thought of surrounding himself with generals—savored the nickname “Mad Dog” applied to Marine General James  Mattis and made him Secretary of Defense.

Trump made John Kelly, another retired Marine general, the White House Chief of Staff. Kelly, reportedly, has reached the end of the line. Soon he will move through the spinning revolving door for cabinet members. Kelly seems rock-ribbed and stone jawed and had some success in reining in the President. 

Maybe military generals are not so much fun when you have to work with them in real life. 

Piers Morgan appeared on Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski’s daybreak television program on MSNBC. Piers was a winner on Celebrity Apprentice and claimed to spend upwards of 100 hours around the conference table with Donald Trump. Piers observed that demonstrating respect for “Mr. Trump” was essential to succeeding as a contestant on the show. Trump looked favorably on those who accorded him a measure of success. That need may have been intensified by Trump’s reputation as hustler as much as a businessman. Respect matters more to the insecure more than anything else.

The question remains why did Trump falter in Europe at the Centennial celebration for the ending of World War, fought between 1914-1918. Emmanuel Macron represented France honorably at the dais. Angela Merkel joined them, though German soldiers fought against the Allies from the other side of No Man’s Land. Vladimir Putin represented Russia and Canada’s Justin Trudeau made the important gathering.

One pundit suggested Trump didn’t like going where he is not liked—Macron, Merkel and Trudeau have also suffered the slings and arrows of the mighty Donald.

But Donald Trump looked to be in a daze. Maybe the military gravesite and rainy conditions did not suit his preferences. The decision to no-go the ceremony caused shockwaves. The image of innocent lives cut short, infantrymen ordered to head out of the trenches through the razor wire and directly into enemy fire has been burned in our psyches. Mustard gas maimed and killed in a manner we seem unable to exorcize. Like now, technology leapfrogged ahead of man’s consciousness. We were unable to control the demons we had created from steel and chemicals, hot flying lead bringing down good men and ending lives before their human potential could barely be tapped.

Trump has been criticized for a lack of intellectual curiosity. He took a misstep this time—underestimating the world’s fascination for a war mainly recalled for the unusual outbreak with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and its terrible toll. Just the name, World War I, evokes thoughts of cannon fodder and human folly. By acknowledging this past, even 100 years later, we acknowledge the existence of our sins. In this battle The Great War (1914-1918) defeated Donald Trump’s political and public relations talents.

Piers Morgan made another observation on Morning Joe,commenting on Emmanuel Macron’s relative success in dealing with Donald Trump. Macron, said Morgan, shows respect for the office of President of the United States but does not hesitate to criticize policy. Macron stated that nationalism was the opposite of patriotism during the ceremonies, drawing Trump’s ire no doubt. But Macron gave Trump credit and that is always a smart policy, with friends and foes alike. 

Commander Chaos: Trump moves faster

Marshall McLuhan, the great Canadian media guru, explains that a faster system destroys a slower system. The faster medium circles around the slower medium, surrounds it, consumes it and destroys it. Television moves faster than film. The Internet surrounded newspapers and destroyed them. The Internet destroyed bookstores; digital music did away with record stores; bookstores, likewise, fell out of sight. The cellphone moves around the desktop computer and personal computers decrease in number.

Donald Trump learned the television world as an insider with his own show. Cable TV moves faster than the networks. Twitter moves faster than cable TV and Trump keeps several steps ahead of the "mainstream media" through his Twitter account.

I laugh to hear people, including cables news media pundits, exclaim "can't somebody take that cellphone out of Trump's hand." That's like saying Robin Hood should put down his bow and arrow. What-- and pick up a spear and shield. Robin moved lightly and stayed ahead of the king's men.

Trump has a tool, his Twitter account, for getting to people faster than any of the cable outlets allows. He has a knack for moving quickly. He tries a strategy. If it fails, he never admits failure, just steps to the side, tweaks it, spins the story long enough for the story to get muddled and moves to the next thing. The man is a master of movement. His campaign struggled. He changed campaign managers. The next crew, including Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway did better and stayed. He found his audience, responded to the narrative they liked and moved ahead like a bull in a china shop.

Trump runs roughshod. His casino business didn't work. He went bankrupt and kept moving. We all wonder if this modus operandi works for running the free world. The story goes that his White House staff is in a state of constant turmoil. To quote a book of a few years back, he doesn't sweat the small stuff.

Presidents usually reassure us. President Franklin Roosevelt had his fireside chats and reassured the nation across the radio waves. That soothed anxieties through a Depression and a World War. How does the Trump method of stirring the hornet's nest compare to the peacefulness of a Barack Obama? A chorus of angry people, from the Tea Party rabble rousers to the Republican congressmen, hurled a constant chant of invectives at Obama. The right wing radio crowd led by Rush Limbaugh gnawed on Obama like he was a kind of satanic, malevolent force and never relented. Steve Bannon falls into that category. Be careful what you wish for--

Now Commander Chaos is in power. Trump sleeps 4 hours a night and wakes each morning stirring for a fight. Remember "speak softly and carry a big stick" came from Teddy Roosevelt, another master of imagery.

Trump insulted a Judge who rejected his Muslim ban. He called the man a "so-called judge." That move upset me. He spit in the face of the American system, the balance of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches. Trump knows no boundaries-- hence the Commander Chaos moniker.

He continues to move at warp speed and exhausts everybody, even in the media hounds who thrive on the campaign trail. They love the jab and parry of electoral politics. That election season, the horse race of politics, was supposed to slow down with the election of a new president. Not for Trump, he enjoys King Lear's blasted heath. He refuses to slow down. We all suck wind to keep up and long for quieter days.

Melissa McCarthy's parody of Sean Spicer, White House press secretary, on Saturday Night Live, captured the insane, fever pitch of the present situation better than just about any rational analysis presented these last few weeks. She captured the Alice in Wonderland aspect of Mr. Trump's White House with brilliance and Trump-like intensity. Alec Baldwin has done a great job as Trump. SNL 
seems like a voice of sanity in this whirlwind. Is this the new normal? That's the question we all must ask ourselves. Just look at that cellphone in your hand.