Ron Brownstein: Donald Trump is About to Betray His Rural Supporters

Source:CNN with a look at part of Donald J. Trump's 2nd presidential agenda.

"CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein joins CNN's Jessica Dean to discuss how Trump's policy agenda, including tariffs, mass deportation, and cuts to Medicaid could conflict with the interests of his rural supporters." 

From CNN

"Small-town America voted heavily in his favor—but the policies he’s pledged won’t reward that faith.

Donald trump’s support in rural America appears to have virtually no ceiling. In last month’s election, Trump won country communities by even larger margins than he did in his 2020 and 2016 presidential runs. But several core second-term policies that Trump and the Republican Congress have championed could disproportionately harm those places.

Agricultural producers could face worse losses than any other economic sector from Trump’s plans to impose sweeping tariffs on imports and to undertake what he frequently has called “the largest domestic deportation operation” of undocumented immigrants “in American history.” Hospitals and other health providers in rural areas could face the greatest strain from proposals Trump has embraced to slash spending on Medicaid, which provides coverage to a greater share of adults in smaller communities than in large metropolitan areas. And small-town public schools would likely be destabilized even more than urban school districts if Trump succeeds in his pledge to expand “school choice” by providing parents with vouchers to send their kids to private...

From The Atlantic

This takes me back to Donald Trump's last Meet The Press interview with Kristen Welker, where he admitted that he might not be able to bring down the cost of living, because it's too high. 

Now imagine if you were on some month long meth high, (and somehow managed to survive that) or were drunk for a month straight, (and somehow managed to to survive that) perhaps you were vacationing on Planet Zoron (or some other made up Star Trek planet) and you saw Donald Trump there and he was completely honest about everything. Perhaps not intentional, but he simply couldn't lie about anything, perhaps by force. Perhaps someone spiked his Diet Coke with truth serum.

So now this made up character (lets call him Honest Don) is being interviewed by Kristen Welker, or some other NBC News anchor, or some other news journalist was asking him questions about what his 2nd presidential agenda will be, what he would do as President again, etc, and she asked him the same questions. And remember, Donald Trump can't lie anymore in this hypothetical. His answers to these questions might sound something like this: 

"Well, running for President of the United States and being President are two different things. You have to say and do things just to get the job. But once you have it, saying what you are going to do and actually doing what you are going to do, are two different things. 

My MAGA base, as well as a solid majority of Independent voters, believe everything that I tell them. So I can just make up things and say I'm going to do things, promise to do things that are simply impossible to accomplish. And they eat everything that I feed them. 

Which gives me a great advantage over every Democratic, as well as Republican opponent that I've ever faced, because my opponents are always expected to be honest and truthful about everything. Or the media and voters slam them anytime they're wrong or dishonest about anything, anywhere, at anytime. 

Just because I ran on tariffs, and mass deportations doesn't mean I'm actually going to do them as President of the United States. I can't afford to have a weak economy and low job approval going into 2026, because then I won't be able to get anything done. And that could risk Democrats winning back Congress, which would make my life very difficult."

Ron Brownstein's colleague over at The Atlantic Magazine wrote the Wednesday after Election Night this year: 

"Americans who care about democracy have every right to feel appalled and frightened. But then they have work to do. 

An aspiring fascist is the president-elect, again, of the United States. This is our political reality: Donald Trump is going to bring a claque of opportunists and kooks (led by the vice president–elect, a person who once compared Trump to Hitler) into government this winter, and even if senescence overtakes the president-elect, Trump’s minions will continue his assault on democracy, the rule of law, and the Constitution.

The urge to cast blame will be overwhelming, because there is so much of it to go around. When the history of this dark moment is written, those responsible will include not only Trump voters but also easily gulled Americans who didn’t vote or who voted for independent or third-party candidates because of their own selfish peeves." 

From The New Democrat

And Mr. Nichols would later go onto say that the only reason why Donald Trump ran for President of the United States again, was to stay out of prison. Not to become an American dictator, or do anything that could jeopardize the American economy. Simply because he wanted to try to look tough on China and Europe. I think he's right about that, but we'll have to see how his presidency goes to see whether he's right or not about that. 

But to go back to my original point about what Donald Trump would be like, if he's literally forced to be honest about everything, every time he spoke about anything... my advice for him (if he we ever spoke) would be to go back on every MAGA promise that he made. Especially the tariffs and mass deportations. 

What would a President Trump have to lose at this point? He's never going to prison. He's going to die as a very wealthy man. He can just concentrate on the basics as President and just do the job. That might be boring for him. But he's never worked very hard anyway in life, especially as President of the United States. And none of his base would leave him because he's their cult leader.

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