Michael Smerconish: James Carville: Donald Trump Collapse Happened Quicker Than I Imagined

"Legendary Democratic strategist James Carville discusses his bold prediction on the "massive collapse" unfolding inside the Trump administration and how Democrats should respond." 

Source:CNN talking to the father of the modern political rope-a-dope strategy: James Carville.

From CNN

From The New Democrat back in February on this very issue: 

"Democratic strategist James Carville called on Democrats to make a "strategic political retreat" in a guest essay for The New York Times on Tuesday, telling members of his party "to play dead."

"Allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight, and make the American people miss us. Only until the Trump administration has spiraled into the low 40s or high 30s in public approval polling percentages should we make like a pack of hyenas and go for the jugular. Until then, I’m calling for a strategic political retreat," he wrote. 

"With no clear leader to voice our opposition and no control in any branch of government, it’s time for Democrats to embark on the most daring political maneuver in the history of our party: roll over and play dead," the strategist continued.

"Carville compared his suggestion to a "tactical pause," and argued the Democrats needed to stop regularly playing defense against the Trump administration's actions.

"It’s a vision move — get out of the hour-to-hour, day-to-day combat where one side (ours) is largely playing defense and struggling to defend politically charged positions (like explaining D.E.I. or persuading voters to care about foreign aid), and take time to regroup, look forward and make decisions about where we want to get to over the next two years," Carville said.

He said Americans were likely not waiting around for lawmakers and commentators to make the same old arguments to criticize the president. 

"They’re tired of it, and our Democratic voters are tired of watching us moan and groan to cover up our impotency out of power. They want us to be smarter than that," he added." 

And my response to that: 

"When you see your arch-enemy is drowning in the ocean. don't throw them a lifeline. Let them drown. 

When you see your arch enemy's house is on fire and no one is there to do anything about it, don't even offer to spit on the fire, let alone dump your own water on it, or call 911. Just let the house burn down. 

Let MAGA burn our national house down. Hopefully they don't destroy the country. But don't help them do that, or try to get in their way, outside of what's going on in the courts and at the state level. Show American voters this is exactly who you voted for and the consequences of that fateful decision. And tell them and show them there's a better way on the campaign trail and why you deserve to be in power again." 

From The New Democrat

From The New Democrat 2 weeks ago: 

"Along with all these organic and peaceful protests that are happening mostly outside of Washington and at the grassroots level, and the townhalls. That's how you defeat Donald Trump and MAGA, Instead of reminding voters why they don't like you either and voted against you in 2024, you just keep the focus on why they don't like Donald Trump and MAGA and make the case why they shouldn't be allowed to govern at all when their terms are up and speak out against them in unity." 

From The New Democrat

No offense to Michael Smerconish (who I do have some respect for because at least he talks about interesting issues) and I don't pretend to be a professional media critic by any means... but you can see why he's never been a correspondent for Ted Koppel's Nightline, or for 60 Minutes, Meet The Press, etc. You don't get any followups from him (at least in this interview) and you get a lot of softball, mainstream media questions from him like: 

Michael Smerconish: "So, Harry -- Harry Enten, I really respect his opinion. He crunches numbers for us here at CNN. And he spoke to Trump and right track, wrong track numbers. Let's roll the clip and then have James respond. Go ahead.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF ANALYST: All we talk about is how unpopular Donald Trump is. But in reality, he's basically more popular than he was at any point in term number one and more popular than he won election back in November of 2024.

When you wrote in "The Times" and you spoke of rolling over and playing dead, you said, allow the Republicans to crumble beneath their own weight and make the American people miss us.

But if the approval rating of the Democratic Party is at 29 percent, according to CNN's data, who's missing Democrats right now? They might be upset with Trump, but who is really missing the Democrats?

OK. Still -- still staying --

He says, the Democratic brand is toxic right now. What are Democrats doing to fill the vacuum or the void that Trump is leaving open?

 Final comment. This comes from a critique to your "Times" op-ed of a month ago, the Muhammad Ali, the rope-a-dope strategy. Put this on the screen." 

And these are just Michael Smerconish's points from his interview with James Carville on Saturday, from CNN. 

I mean Smerconish could've gotten his questions from his local newspaper. Or worst... someone's Twitter feed. Not a lot of research and preparation for his interviews. A lot of straight, belt-high fastballs, at around 90 miles an hour, over the middle of the plate, that Carville whacked out of the park for home runs. Yes, it's baseball season. 

I know the mainstream media wants to talk about how unpopular the Democratic Party is right now... at least the journalists who are worried about potential backlash they may get from Donald Trump and his administration. But the Democratic Party is not in charge right now. 

To paraphrase James Carville: political parties are in the business to win elections... period. Not to be popular. And they do that with the candidates that they recruit, nominate. And then you win elections by getting more votes than your opponents. And the Democratic Party as of right now is not in charge of anything in Washington, at the Federal level. It's not their job to be popular. Their job is to beat Republicans in every elections that they can. 

And as Jame Carville told Michael Smerconish: 

Mr. Carville talking about the Trump Administration: "Well, what tense are we in? Is it collapsing or has it collapsed? That's the only argument to have.

And I was wrong. I said, Memorial Day. It's before April Fool's day which the Trump administration should make a national holiday because it's so accurately represents who they are. So, I'm not really -- no one -- do not argue with me". 

I mean when you are running against an April Fools Day administration and political party... how popular do you have to be? The better question there is: how much smarter do you have to be than a daily fool and joke? The Democrat:

"You might not like me. But at least I'm not a fool. 

I don't share classified information with journalists.

 I don't claim that tariffs pay for themselves, or the other country would just pay the higher prices.

 I don't have drunks working for me... or Russian contacts... or people with enemies lists running the FBI".  

And Mr. Smerconish can talk about all he wants that he's more popular now than he was 8 years ago at this time... the key point is the President is still unpopular. More to the point: his polices are even less unpopular. 37% approval on the economy... you have to go back to G.W. Bush in 2008 to find a Republican President who was doing worst on the economy politically. 

President Trump is unpopular on the economy primarily because his own small town rural base (the heartbeat of the modern Republican Party) is paying the higher prices for basic necessities because of his tariffs. 

Trump 2017 vs Trump 2025: he might more popular now, but he was in the low 40s at this time 8 years ago, when he had only been President for 2 months at that point. I mean the idiot can say he's more intelligent than the moron. But is that even worth mentioning? 

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