RUSH: I got an email last night from a friend very depressed, very, very depressed. Ardent Trump supporter. Very depressed. And you know what depressed him? When I say “depressed,” that’s the wrong word. Disappointed. And it made me ask myself how many people are of the same train of thought. You know what bothered the guy more than anything? Aside from tax cuts.
So the guy sends me this note and he’s talking about these things, and what really bothered him was, “There isn’t anybody in Washington that seems to like Trump. I’m shocked by this. And that’s gonna be a problem. There’s nobody.” And I was dumbfounded by this.
Let me ask you a question, folks. You’ve listened to me, you listen to me daily, you listen to me hourly, you listen to me by the minute, and therefore there’s nothing that you don’t know. It just depends on how much you remember. How many of you expected Donald Trump to be loved and adored by a significant percentage of the people in Washington? I didn’t. I thought he would be hated and reviled for as many terms as he’s there.
None of what is happening in Washington to Donald Trump is the — and I’m not trying to criticize my friend. I’m always fascinated by the way people think. And my guy had a lot of hope and a lot of hope that once Trump got elected and once everybody came to grips with that, that Trump’s agenda is something everybody with common sense just has to get behind. Because it’s good for the country.
So after the initial anger at having lost, the initial anger and humiliation evaporating over having lost, that people, not just Democrats, but just people in general — not the media — but just people in general would be a little bit more open to working with Trump and helping his agenda.
Well, anyway, the guy goes on to think that because that isn’t happening, he thinks that it’s over. He thinks that, “Well, you know, I guess we gave it our best shot, but there’s so much opposition that’s just intensifying and is never gonna end. I just don’t… I don’t see how this could work.” And I was really surprised, cause this guy knows the way of the world as well as anybody does, and I never thought any of this was gonna eventuate like that. Again, I’m not being critical.
To me, it’s just fascinating, as I say, to learn the way people think, because then what they tell you they think helps you analyze it, understand it, and respond to it (if you choose to). I’ve thought this was gonna be a knock-down, drag-out. This is the establishment. These people are not gonna… Folks, the way I look at this… Can I be really bold with you? The way I look at this, if Hillary Clinton had won the election, the forces around the world who have sought to end the reign of the United States of America as this world’s leading nation would have won.
To me, this election was that dire. And it went way beyond the specifics of policy, and it went way beyond what is conservatism and what isn’t conservatism and who’s loyal here. This was all about, to me, the future of the country. There are powerful forces around the world arrayed against this country, some of them peaceful, some of them found all over the United Nations, some of them found in Eastern and Western Europe. I’m talking about, in many ways, nations and people who, at first glance, you would think are our allies.
I mean, those are the people we were on the cusp of losing to. Well, those people were so close they could see it. If we’d gotten four years of Hillary Clinton or eight — and everything that would happen, policy-wise, judiciary-wise — you have to be up front and admit that America as we knew it was gonna take a huge hit. Well, those people aren’t just gonna go away having been defeated here after being, in their minds, on the cusp of finally reducing this country to being something no different, no better than anywhere else in the world.
And you get that close to your dream, that close to your objective and have it taken away by this — by some guy they think is a pig, some guy they think is an outsider, some guy they think is a rube — and made possible by the very American people they resent, the very American people they have been governing against for the last eight years, for example? It’s just not gonna go away. And they’re not gonna all of a sudden turn around and like this guy that they hate and resent. They’re not finished, by any stretch, trying to ruin Donald Trump.
Now, I don’t think they’re gonna succeed in this instance in the example I gave you. But I’ve never expected Trump to be universal popular in Washington. Never. I’ve thought this is gonna be a never-ending knock-down-drag-out and that every victory he has is going to be met with a brand-new wall of opposition on something else. And the efforts to sabotage his agenda, we see them every day, and I’m not just talking about the deep state embeds. I’m talking about the people that are trying to impede the Trump legislative agenda.
And now when people meet him they find, “Wow, he’s a nice guy,” as though it’s some kind of a surprise that he’s a nice guy. The story’s in Bloomberg: “Trump Woos Lawmakers With Flattery and White House Bowling — Less than two months on the job, President Donald Trump is showing that when it comes to wooing members of Congress, he’s no Barack Obama. Where Obama was usually reserved and met sparingly with lawmakers, Trump has launched a full-out charm offensive, much of it aimed at bolstering the beleaguered Republican Obamacare plan. …
“Trump’s early outreach on a wide range of issues has included Republican leaders, conservatives who opposed him in the election and leading Democrats. On Wednesday evening, he dined with Texas Senator Ted Cruz — and his wife … Cruz said Thursday that Trump and the first lady were ‘warm and gracious,’ and that one of their daughters took a picture with Trump and her kindergarten’s stuffed-animal mascot, Joe the Giraffe.” What, you mean Trump didn’t eat the giraffe and he actually paused to take a picture?
Wow, what a guy!
Whether you want to call that ideological breakdown or objection, go ahead. But the reason things don’t happen in this country is the American left, is the Democrat Party. But Lindsey says, “There’s actually a chance for President Trump to do things you could never get another Republican to do,” because Trump’s “not ideological.” I think what he means by that… I’m just taking a flier here. I think what he means by that, since Trump is not… He tends conservative in his lifestyle and his beliefs, the policies that he’s advancing.
But he doesn’t run around saying, “I’m conservative” and then defining it each and every day, and he’s not out there articulating a bunch of conservative theory. Graham’s point is that he’s not, thus, a giant conservative target, ideological target. And by that Graham says that that means there’s actually “a chance for President Trump to do things you could never get another Republican to do.” That could also mean… Let’s be honest.
It could also mean that Lindsey Graham (who’s not crazy about conservatives, either), thinks that since Trump is not an ideologue, it’ll be more easy to move him along to agree with, say, amnesty or things the left likes. It could be open ended. It could be any number of things here. “Graham said he encouraged Trump to do more such meetings,” and more outreach. “He’s very charming.” So he encouraged Trump to do more such meetings and more outreach. So this not being ideological, that could cut both ways.
Could be good and bad. We’ll have to see on this. But, at any rate, I think to a certain extent Trump expected more people to be on his side by now. That’s the history of his life. And I don’t think — I’ve never thought — that was gonna be the case. Why would anybody think that all of a sudden the establishment’s gonna lay down arms and sign up and become kumbaya buddies with Trump? I think he’s got the lay of the land now. I think he’s probably aware that there isn’t gonna be any instant unity here.
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