Play to win
Someone made a one-hour loop of Trump saying “winning” repeatedly.
Trump thought it appropriate to put it up on the White House site, and post it on Twitter/X.
Trump surprises. Trump offends. He is tiresome, but never boring. There is something new every day. As the DJs of my youth said on KYJC and KBOY, the local AM top-40 stations, “The hits keep on coming.”
It took Trump several months into his 2016 campaign before he made winning the triumphant finale of his speeches. In the fall and winter of 2015-2016 he talked about immigration while criticizing Obama and Obamacare. But by March, 2016, I described a rally in Boca Raton, Florida:
He ended his talk assuring people that “You will start to win if I am elected. Win. Win. Win. You will win so much you will start to tire of it. But we will keep winning. You will call out to me, “Let’s stop winning so much, we are tired of winning,but I won’t stop. I will keep us winning and winning.”
Trump frames relationships as a transaction, with a winner and a loser. It isn’t just the theme of his book, The Art of the Deal; it is fundamental Trump and Trump-ism. Trump’s casual disregard for alliances and trade relationships that had been built over decades is explained by that frame. Trump doesn’t value cooperation and win-win arrangements. Win-win means half losing. One left “money on the table.”
Our political system was not prepared for Trump, although the writers of the Constitution presumed that a Trump-like figure would come along, so the tools are in place to use if Americans dare. Other presidents have overstepped their power, but they did not really test the system because they did it in bits and pieces, tentatively, carefully, and hypocritically.
President Biden’s attempt to forgive some student loans was an example, something he declared and tried, then got shot down by courts, with Biden promptly succumbing. President Obama faced the situation of an American citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-born Muslim cleric and high-level Al Qaeda operative. Obama arranged a CIA-led drone strike against him in Yemen on September 30, 2011. There was no practical way to stop al-Awiaki through normal criminal police apprehension, removal to the U.S., and trial. Obama argued that he was an “imminent threat” and was in the act of waging war against the U.S. and therefore a legal military target.
Trump doesn’t care about normative fair-play boundaries and therefore doesn’t tiptoe and nudge. He blasts past former norms and dares someone to stop him. He doesn’t obey in advance. He disobeys in advance and demands that the courts, Congress or anyone else confront him if they are to stop him.
Foreign powers have done a better job than domestic ones in saying “no” to Trump. Iran did not obey in advance. They are still fighting, not consenting. Denmark and the countries of NATO who moved warships toward Greenland did not obey in advance. Canada, which immediately started making side-deals with China did not obey in advance. The House obeyed in advance on the Epstein matter until, finally, a fifth GOP member stepped up, which meant there was a majority when added to Democratic votes to demand Trump release the Epstein files. When Congress played the cards it had, Trump folded.
There is a huge difference between Trump 45 and Trump 47. In his first term, Trump’s top people obeyed the rules of the game. In his second term his top people obey Trump.
If Congress doesn’t impeach and convict him, he will continue to do as he pleases on tariffs. He will make war on Venezuela, Iran, Cuba, Greenland or anyone else if he can get away with it.
Trump will assure that Republicans win every race in the 2026 midterm election if he can get away with it. He will assert whatever pretext serves his purpose. States with GOP control will let him. Ones without full GOP control will resist. Federalism is a partial check on Trump. Congress is not.
Trump can be stopped, but he doesn’t stop on his own. He plays to win it all. It requires opposition to Trump to have a play-to-win attitude as well, otherwise he will steamroll right over opponents.
It’s ironic that as we near the 250th anniversary of our rebellion against Mad King George, our own mad would-be king is inflicting many of the same offenses on us that led to the revolution. Adding insult to injury, Trump is preparing a gala celebration in honor of himself, including a cage fight on the White House lawn – an appropriate symbol of his self-proclaimed “dealmaking” ability.
There’s something seriously wrong with a country that puts such a blatantly deceitful, malicious, corrupt convicted felon in its highest office. Trump’s unchecked, unbalanced ego is turning our once-great nation into a sleazy monument to his megalomania: Your tax dollars at work.
Since today is Star Wars Day, May the Fourth Be With You! Tomorrow is Cinco de Mayo, a day celebrated more in the United States than in México. There is a good but relatively obscure reason for this. In 1862, a French army was marching from the Gulf of México toward México City. Napoleon III, the Emperor of France, knew that if his forces could take the Mexican capital, he could overthrow the democratic government of President Benito Juaréz and control the entire country. On May 5th, near the city of Puebla, the French forces encountered General Ignacio Zaragoza, a young commander, who surrounded them and routed their troops with significant losses. Since it had been Napoleon's intention to support the Confederacy with arms and money, this dealt a significant blow to the Southern side in the American Civil War. People of Hispanic heritage, particularly in the western United States, saw this as a defeat for slavery and Southern oppression. Although the French captured Puebla less than two years later, the position of Napoleon's puppet, Maximilian I, remained shaky. The French were ousted in 1867, Maximilian was executed, and the last European invasion of the Western Hemisphere ended. A reason to celebrate indeed.