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Go Home Is Donald Trump Joking?

JONATHAN CHAIT APRIL 18, 2011

Is Donald Trump Joking?

BY JONATHAN CHAIT

Maggie Haberman and Ben Smith have a nice piece on the Donald Trump pseudo-candidacy. Long story short, his campaign is not a joke in the sense of Trump being in on it, but it is a joke in the sense that his entire career is a joke:

The widespread assumption that Trump’s flirtation with the presidency is a publicity stunt is no doubt at least partly true. But that’s merely the point of departure for a man for whom almost every public move over the past 30 years has been a publicity stunt. Trump has, in the past, hinted at presidential bids, only to pull back after basking in the public interest. But in the same voraciously media-hungry spirit in which he has leveled an array of accusations — some overstated, others flatly false — atPresident Obama in recent weeks, Trump appears likely to launch a formal presidential campaign, hire staff, shake hands in Iowa, participate in debates - in short, run for president. (See also: Trump draws Obama into 'birther' fray)

Trump is making the “types of moves that one makes if they’re actually running,” said one top Republican consultant familiar with his efforts.

The real estate mogul has spoken to pollster Tony Fabrizio as well as members of Larry Weitzner’s Jamestown Associates, sources said. Three Republicans said that Florida-based media consultant Rick Wilson had been recommended to Trump as a potential hire. (Wilson declined to comment on whether he’d been approached or spoken with Trump).

He recently called pollster and strategist Kellyanne Conway, who agreed to set him up with some evangelical leaders.

Trump as a GOP candidate represents the easiest oppo hit in the history of primary races. He has advocated single-payer health care and called George W. Bush "evil." You can imagine a world in which he could win the nomination. That would be a world in which the Republican Party as an organized political force, as opposed to a collection of voters, ceases to exist. It would be like the end of the Roman Empire, when anybody who can grab some soldiers together can call himself the Emperor. But, while the GOP establishment may have lost some power, we don't live in anything resembling a world like that right now.

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14 comments

Trump isn't even a real estate developer; he is a promotor who licenses his name to projects that other people develop. I suppose it's less than amazing that people will pay to live in a building with Trump's name on it.

- rayward

April 18, 2011 at 1:49pm

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I saw him on CNN yesterday. I couldn't believe my ears. He more or less suggested we threaten China and take Libya's oil. I think he is nuts.

- Sophia

April 18, 2011 at 2:05pm

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Donald Trump is the joker in the deck, the wild card. He will kick up a lot of sand if he enters the Republican primaries and caucuses, but he won't win. And Trump isn't nuts at all, he is a publicity hound, and he has decided that he can prosper by pitching to the fringier (not a word, I know; it is my neologism) elements of an already epistemically-closed right. God, 2012 is going to be fun.

- liberalref

April 18, 2011 at 2:12pm

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Incidentally, has anyone noticed the amusing non-story out there about Mitt Romney's birth cert, that apparently can't be viewed? A non-story now, at least. http://politicalwire.com/archives/2011/04/14/wheres_romneys_birth_certificate.html

- ironyroad

April 18, 2011 at 2:18pm

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Maybe Kellyane Conway can help Trump bone up on his answer for church attendance: "Well, I go as much as I can. Always on Christmas. Always on Easter. Always when there's a major occasion. And during the Sundays. I'm a Sunday church person. I'll go when I can.” At least in my parish, anybody who just goes to church on Christmas, Easter, and "a major occasion" is considered a heathen. "I'll go when I can". During the Sundays. Yeah, that'll go over big. And of course Trump, like any good Republican hawk, has a grand total of zip-zero-point-shit number of days of military service. How many marriages? That's always a good barometer of fitness for the GOP.

- dubyadoubte

April 18, 2011 at 2:22pm

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I like how Trump is talking to Ralph Reed about making inroads into the evangelical community. Seriously, if Jeffrey Dahmer were still alive and wanted to run for President from his Wisconsin jail cell, Reed would probably talk to him about how to make inroads into the evangelical community.

- wildboy

April 18, 2011 at 2:27pm

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There are all sorts of shades of "nuts," and Trump most certainly fits snugly in the "Narcissist / Ego Maniac / No Sense of Self-Awareness" category.

- W_Bombay

April 18, 2011 at 2:41pm

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In short, W_Bombay, perfect for the post-Palin Republican Party.

- AllanL5

April 18, 2011 at 3:43pm

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rayward: "I suppose it's less than amazing that people will pay to live in a building with Trump's name on it." I started looking to buy an apartment in NYC about a year and a half ago. The one restriction I told my broker was: no Trump. And that was before he reached these new levels of odiousness. What's really amazing is that he's taken seriously (if the poll numbers are to be believed) while advocating a permanent military presence in Libya to take the oil there--as if the Libyans might not have some problem with that....not to mention what it would do to our standing in that already very skeptical part of the world....

- dsimon

April 18, 2011 at 3:48pm

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- As long as Trump is the center of attention and posting competitive poll numbers he is a problem for the GOP. They already had a weak field where no one has a ceiling with more than 1 in 5 voters. He's their only potential candidate to suck oxygen from a postponed beginning while benefiting from each sensational pronouncement. We may not live in a world where he can win the nomination but the GOP doesn't want him to hang around on his terms which need not include that goal. Since I don't think anyone doubts he could linger, the question is how long can Republicans wait before ignoring him isn't good enough. Not a winner isn't the same as harmless and his history and pathology suggest he can cause a world of trouble and call it getting what he wants.

- michaelg

April 18, 2011 at 4:23pm

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Be careful: any number of commenters at TNR would come under the rubric that is laid out by that nationally-known psychologist, the erudite Dr. Bombay.

- liberalref

April 18, 2011 at 5:55pm

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I have resided in a sunbelt new city most of my adult life, a place where a famous actress (after filming a movie in the area) once said there is no there there. And then an enterprising developer came up with a plan to build a high rise condo there (or no there), and bought a license to put Trump's name on it. It was something of a laugher (not laffer) by locals, but in no time many of the units were pre-sold. Of course, no "Trump Tower" was never built, the developer having gone bankrupt. And all those gullible folks who put up very large deposits they will never get back? I suppose they can tell their children and grandchildren they almost, almost lived in "Trump Tower".

- rayward

April 18, 2011 at 8:03pm

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libref. the free online dictionary does recognize "fringy" as as adjective meaning marginal or peipheral--which would apply in your context. So "fringier" or even fringiest". The problem I see with your usuage would be that the interesting part of the expression "fringe" is that the distance involved (far-right fringe) or composition (lunantic, cocaine sniffing, zombie) is normally placed before the word "fringe" itself. Using "fringier" or "fringiest" you are talking about those even more marginal or peripheral without defining their "characteristic". it would be strange to read "the lunatic fringier", but "the more lunatic than ever fringe" is long-winded, but still managble and immediately understandable. I could see the expression "Those Tea Party people are fringier that the (lunatic) fringe--but with "lunatic" as an essential modifier...I don't see it working out.

- kras

April 19, 2011 at 8:53am

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karmussen: True! And I suspect if someone were to look up "ad-hominem" and "first", that person may be less surprised when told that they are normally the first poster to engage in such behavior on a thread.

- Nari224

April 19, 2011 at 11:58am

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