When President Trump says that he is 'very clever' he is not judging himself academically, or even claiming that he is knowledgeable. Trump is sly. He knows he is sly. Sly is what Trump means by 'clever.' Getting 'one over' shows that he is clever. Trump believes he is smarter than Obama. Obama knew a lot of stuff. He sounded good. But he did not get one over anybody! And of course what really shows it up is not that Obama couldn't get anything done. It was that Obama was unable to hide it!
Trump is a racist. Trump (and his dad) have 'form' when it comes to racism. From legal battles about racist employment issues going on to support for 'good people' among the militant fascist groups in the US, the Trumps bend towards the extreme right wing. His 'camps' for immigrants on the Mexican border are the latest vile initiative which demonstrate that.
But everything in Trump-land has another purpose. Many Trump actions are deliberately designed to cover up previous Presidential claims and start new directions. For example, Trump's camps are covering up the colossal defeat of Trump's wall. It was number 1 or 2 of his promises when he stood for election. The wall has been hidden away from national controversy for the time being. Trump's racist attacks on 4 Democratic Congress women have two, clever/sly objectives. (Britain's two candidates for Tory Party Leader and UK Prime Minister were too scared to call-out Trump as a racist!) First, Trump believes that many traditionally blue-collar Democratic voters will vote for white supremacy. Second, he believes he can split the Democratic Party itself by using the socialist credentials of the women he has maligned. (Fox news is already calling them communists.)
New jobs yes, but mainly folding boxes or serving coffee; wages static; no wealth trickling down from Trump's monster tax relief for the rich; no alternative to Obama-care; gun nuts still on killing sprees and teachers taught to shoot back; the black population criminalised; abortion under threat. It rolls on.
What does Trump offer as he campaigns for a second round? White supremacy and 'get' the communists. In Trump's mind, that is 'clever.' It substitutes for policy.
Trump's view of the world is that the US is big enough, as a nation, to tame the international corporations - especially if he can break up or isolate the huge geo-political blocks like the EU, or China's international grip. That's his answer to globalisation. But his drastic failure to dominate, or accommodate, or even to get close to the great digital giants, most recently with his totally laughable attack/acceptance of Huawei, illustrates that even the greatest capitalist power in the world is unable to 'rewind' globalisation.
That means there is no way that the US's ex-blue collar workers have any real future following Trump's direction - or the genuine, US, middle classes. (Just has they had none under Clinton or Obama.) But Trump has no intention of failing like he saw the Clintons or Obama did. And as he cannot stop the basic trend of capitalism, it means Trump has to do something else. He has to fiddle the elections (for example reducing or removing voter registration, using Supreme Court action to increase 'State Rights); he has to up and up racism and the fear of minorities; he has to use the Democrat Party weaknesses - in that its leadership have no answers either, and he has to create sly initiatives to keep the whole, empty show on the road. In the end, his bellicose trade 'wars', up to now relatively harmless, might spill over into the real deal. After all, Hitler secured his domination through international war. But as Trump is so sly, he could do it just by accident!
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