When 'The Donald' tramped into The White House and immediately proceeded to drop 'Twitter' clangers all over the place, we all - well, me, anyway! - all waited with bated breath for a really 'yuuuuuuuuuge' one that would not only blow his wig off - er, it is a wig, isn't it? - but also blow him right out of the Presidency. I'm still waiting but, incredibly, it ain't happened yet! In fact, just the opposite, his popularity numbers keep creeping up higher and higher just as various economic stats do the same. Even more incredibly, there is a chance - tiny but a chance all the same! - that the Republicans might, just, hang on to both Houses in the Congress after the mid-term elections. WHODATHUNKIT?
A year or six months ago, it was possible to see Trump as Samson pulling down the temple on top of himself and his party in an epic feat of destruction. It hasn’t happened. Of course, he’s capable of committing a monumental blunder at any time. But he has not yet lived down to the assumption of so many of his critics that he would make it easy for them as the instrument of his own rapid undoing.
Trump's hyped-up altercation with 'Fat Boy Kim' which at one stage had us all thinking of buying in plenty of tinned food and crates of fresh water, just in case, is now moving towards what might be a sort of unbelievable 'love in'! If - and it's still a very big 'IF' - this meeting in Singapore ends successfully, it will provide the Republicans with enough political rocket fuel to enable them to blast past the Dems in November. Mr. Lowry puts it more carefully:
If Republicans manage to hold the House (still a very dicey proposition) and pick up Senate seats (probably more likely than not), 2018 will be to Trump what 1998 was to Bill Clinton — an unexpected midterm victory in which remarkably good conditions in the country trumped the politics of scandal.
Since November 2016 I have had the fingers of both hands firmly crossed but now, I wonder, is it safe to uncross one of them?
What has his hair got to with anything? It is a comment typical of you anti-Trump people.
Posted by: Backofanenvelope | Saturday, 09 June 2018 at 12:00
One can uncross a pair of fingers - never a single one.
Posted by: decnine | Saturday, 09 June 2018 at 12:23
Each party has its own challenge come November: the Dems have to refrain from acting insane and the Repubs have to act like they have a spine. A tall challenge for both.
Posted by: Whitewall | Saturday, 09 June 2018 at 12:24
Steady on, BOE, I'm not "anti-Trump". He is an exceedingly eccentric American President and given the inherent power of that position it is necessary to keep him under observation. Anyway, he's a politician now and you will recall Auberon Waugh's advice on seeing a politician on a soap-box, "Always shout 'show us your willy!'"
Sorry, Deccers, sums were never my strong point!
It will be a fascinating election, Whiters.
Posted by: David Duff | Saturday, 09 June 2018 at 12:37
Betting against Candidate and then President Trump has proved to be a losing strategy.
Posted by: Timbo | Saturday, 09 June 2018 at 12:43
"his popularity numbers keep creeping up higher and higher"
Not true. An average of all polls still has him lower than January of last year:
https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings/?ex_cid=rrpromo
Small details in diplomacy should not be underestimated. Trump said he'll invite Kim Jong Un to the White House if next week’s summit goes well. Leaks from the Department of State indicate the two leaders plan to eat McDonald's quarter pounders with cheese and kimchi in Trump's "executive time" bedroom while cursing American newscasts, after which they will do each other's hair.
Posted by: Bob | Saturday, 09 June 2018 at 14:29
I think that Mr Trump has played, and is playing, a blinder. In Twitter he has devised a way of talking to the American people that is not controlled by the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party. He has let the Witch Finder General get on with destroying the Democrats in the bureaucracy. Yesterday, be dropped a bomb on the Eurotits and their little Canadian friend. We should be grown ups and invite the Russians back into the G7. I can just imagine the looks on the faces of the 3Ms and Trudeau. What a pity it wasn't filmed!
Posted by: backofanenvelope | Saturday, 09 June 2018 at 17:32