There is a scene in the iconic 1999 movie Office Space where the protagonist, Peter, is unburdening himself in a group therapy session. He says that he’s realized that ever since he started working in a cubicle, every day is worse than the day that came before it. And that means that every day that you see him, you’re seeing him on the worst day of his life. The therapist asks, “What about today? Is today the worst day of your life?” Peter responds, “Yeah.”
At this point, it seems like that pretty much describes President Trump.
Every day brings a cascade of bad news for him. Today began with him being disinvited to the State of the Union speech. There’s been unrelenting bad coverage of the government shutdown with bad polls and economic forecasts to rub salt in the wounds. Everyone is accusing him of being a not-so-secret Russian agent. And now the Inspector General at the General Services Administration is saying that his DC hotel lease may be unconstitutional because it violates the Emoluments Clause. The Washington Post even demonstrated that the hotel is encouraging domestic corruption with a big story on how a phalanx of Verizon executives conspicuously patronized it last year while seeking a favorable ruling on their proposed merger with T-Mobile.
It’s not the worst thing on today’s list, but it’s still my favorite. Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has a new book coming out and Axios obtained an advanced copy. At one point, Christie has this to say about Trump’s administration: “[He has a] revolving door of deeply flawed individuals — amateurs, grifters, weaklings, convicted and unconvicted felons — who were hustled into jobs they were never suited for, sometimes seemingly without so much as a background check via Google or Wikipedia.”
Of course, Christie has an axe to grind because he was in charge of staffing the incoming administration until Jared Kushner had him sacked. But everything Christie said is plainly true.
It’s not actually true that every day of the Trump administration is worse than the day that preceded it, but it sure seems that way most of the time. And, as a general trend, things are definitely getting worse at a rapid pace.
And even though we’re not into the now traditional evening news dump, more is coming in.
News of an attack in Syria that has killed 4 Americans which ISIS took credit for just hours before Pence gave a speech saying ISIS was beaten.
His poll numbers continue to trend downward, reaching the sacred territory of his base. There’s not enough ‘hamberders’ to feed the vultures beginning to circle his carcass.
I read (no cite; can’t recall where, either CNN, Boston Globe, or Wash. Post) that he’s still in positive territory with his non-college-educated white male base — but even there, his support has dropped by 9 percent since the shutdown began.
Meanwhile, over at 538, look at the current trend:
https:/projects.fivethirtyeight.com/trump-approval-ratings
538’s trending is interesting, even Rasmussen at 43 is showing a 5 pt drop from its own polling. If they were tossed out of the mix he’d be rightfully averaging 39-40.
Must be expensive polling these days with all Trump’s bad days back to back, sort of like being a gas station trying to keep up with the ups and downs of the price at the pump.
Aren’t you always in positive territory with your base, by definition?
Reminds me of a comment my mechanic said about my brand of car: ‘They’re reliable until they’re not’.
Oh but I must beg to differ (yes a bit tongue in cheek but wait…):
Every day is BETTER than the last because Trump infuriates the LIEbruls, so it’s all one big fat WIN as far as Trump’s base and most of the Republican party is concerned.
As I stated previously: Facts. Don’t. Matter.
Ergo, everything you reported in your post has no effect on a good 40% of the country, who believe that Trump’s doing an outstanding job. I see people posting that daily.
Kayfabe: works for WWF, and is currently so far working for Trump as POTUS.
For the rest of us: ugh.
Christie was a NJ US atty and the Gov of NJ. He had knowledge of money laundering case against the Trump family AC casino. Yet, Christie has had nothing to say until now. Well, what Robert De Niro said about the donald can be said about Christie.
Christie left office with a 15% approval rating after being caught manipulating the Port Authority to punish a mayor who declined to endorse him, not to mention getting photographed sunning himself on a beach after shutting down his own government and closing it to the public.
He was a pretty perfect fit for this administration.
Oh, make no mistake, things are absolutely getting worse, week by week, month by month. We have an incompetent fascist-ized executive branch, whom the traditional “conservative” elements of the society/government have decided to wholeheartedly enable, thus ensuring that the archaic constitutional system of 1789 collapses. On every domestic issue, we have effective rule-by-judges, where the final arbiter is conservative-activist-posing-as-Justice John Roberts and his team of rightwing Booferite ideologues. On every military issue, we have an unqualified madman (advised by other crackpots/madmen) with plenary power, overseen by a failed legislative branch that has (over the past 60 years) given all its power to the (equally failed) executive.
Of course, one need not even mention the corrupt corporate media, currently engaged in one of its patented “Both Sides!!” exercises vis-a-vis the tyrannical National Trumpalist shutdown.
The (latest) willful and reckless mismanagement of the fiscal position of the US government by “conservatives” means that there is simply no Keynesian maneuvering room upon the start of the next recession–the baked-in deficits are already enormous, the taxes so low they cannot conceivably go lower as stimulus. The Fed is now scrambling to raise rates so that it can claim to have some rate-cutting ability in future, but the task is futile and an exercise in wishful thinking.
We are thus ripe for complete catastrophe. And this doesn’t take into account an actual global crisis, in which we will be saddled with an incompetent political criminal who is roundly despised (both at home and abroad) as the national “leader”. Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, MAGA-ites…
“Office Space” is one of my very favorite movies. It is so well scripted and acted. But it’s subversive voice (like a comic version of Mr. Robot) was so right on.
Frankly, I don’t know whether Trump pays much attention to the criticism of him, even in the Congress except when it is when of his declared enemies (Chuck, Nancy) or in those instances when he is being “coached” by Fox News and Hate Radio.
He’s both incompetent and a national danger and should be walled off ASAP if he can’t be otherwise impeached/convicted.
And more specifically to the character in “Office Space”, the notion that Der Trumper could possibly have enough insight to recognize he has a deeply damaged personality and participate in any form of therapy is riotously funny.
As a human being, he is a total loss.
Strange that Christie was so desperate to join the Trump party that he regularly humiliated him during the campaign. I guess he’s upset that he didn’t get the AG gig.
Given that he put Jared’s father behind bars, I never understood why he thought he’d be given anything in a Trump administration.
Considering he’d already torched his own career, this was probably his best option. Even if it was a 100-1 shot.
“It’s not actually true that every day of the Trump administration is worse than the day that preceded it, but it sure seems that way most of the time”
That’s because not only is Trump worse than you imagine, he’s worse than you CAN imagine.
So, this post has aged well.