Chris Cillizza: Donald Trump is Committing Political Malpractice

"Chris Cillizza criticizes Donald Trump's recent all-caps statement that his policies will "never change," despite significant economic concerns. They highlight how the stock market suffered its worst drop since 2020, recession risks have risen to 60%, and China imposed a 34% tariff on U.S. goods—effectively escalating a trade war. The speaker argues that tariffs historically do not work and will likely increase prices for everyday Americans. Politically, they see Trump’s stance as a self-inflicted wound, hurting his party while Republican leaders hesitate to challenge him. The speaker questions how long Trump will maintain this position and whether anyone in his party will push back, emphasizing that this strategy is politically and economically unsound." 

Source:Chris Cillizza with a look at Donald J. Trump's latest political suicide mission.

From Chris Cillizza

I guess my response Chris Cillizza here is similar to what my colleague Fred said yesterday in response to Chris Cuomo: 

Donald J. Trump doesn't play on the same field as every other American politician. 

He doesn't live on the same planet (in more ways than just 1) as every other American politician, politically. 

He doesn't swim in the same pools as every other American politician. And if he ever wanted to do anyone else a favor... other than himself, he would never swim at all. Who needs that visual? 

Hopefully you get my point by now. The American public, at least before 2025 (I believe the next 2 years will be different for him) have never held Donald John Trump accountable for doing the same bad things, or worst bad things, the same political and governmental mistakes, as any other American politician. 

The exceptions to this rule would be 2020 and they took President Trump's poor job performance out on the Republican Party like in 2018 and to a certain extent 2020, which cost Republicans the Senate as well. But this man has essentially gotten way with politically shooting both of his feet off, every time he's made a political suicidal mistake. And this thing with the Stock Market yesterday, where his tariffs are wiping out Wall Street, with the President seen on a Florida golf course, just hours after that, is just the latest political self-inflicted wound to himself. 

You go back to 2015: imagine a Democrat, or a mainstream Republican, (you know, like an actual Conservative) calling Senator John McCain a sucker and loser because he was captured in the Vietnam War. And ignoring, or being completely unaware of the fact that then Lieutenant McCain could've been released years before he was actually released from captivity, had he simply given his fellow officers up, so they could've been tortured and killed. Imagine Barack Obama making that mistake in 2007... he's probably still in the U.S. Senate right now. 

Then candidate Donald Trump in 2016 calling all Mexican immigrants, rapists and terrorists. Apparently unaware that the American agriculture and food industries are dependent on Mexican immigrants to produce and sell our food in this country and to export our food to other countries. Solid bet that these industries don't view Mexican immigrants as "rapists and terrorists". And yet DJT got more Latino votes in 2016, than Mitt Romney did in 2012 and got even more Latin and African-American vote in 2024, then in 2016, or 2020. 

How about attacking Gold Star families in 2016 and questioning whether they were even "real Americans". You think Mitt Romney or even George W. Bush would've gotten away with that? As Fred said yesterday: 

"Donald J. Trump doesn't think like a politician... certainly not like an American politician, or a public servant. He simply uses the democratic tools to gain power for himself. But once he's there, there's no rulebook that everyone else follows. It's just about what he thinks would be good for him and how much he can get way with. DJT is not a public servant... he's a self-servant. And everything and everyone else be-dammed, including the Republican Party, if they try to get in his way." 

From The New Democrat

What Donald J. Trump can do... at least  politically, is: 

Shoot his foot off with a flamethrower. 

Bomb his own mansion while he's still inside. 

Sure! A lot of other people, including other Republicans, would feel the devastation from those Kamikaze tactics by a madman. But DJT's foot would grow back, someone would buy him a new mansion, free-of-charge. And DJT would look for his next political suicide mission. Why? Because he almost always gets way with it, because he's always playing the game of strategic diversion. The next scandal will break, or the mainstream media, or Democrats will overplay the current scandal and become the issue themselves. (Which is why The New Democrat is fully onboard with James Carville's political rope-a-dope strategy)  

But while DJT is still getting away with everything, his party and his voters pay the real prices. I mean DJT is piling up political debts with his own party, (that of course he would never even attempt to pay off) but as long as he's still standing, he doesn't care about any political collateral damage that he personally causes anyone.

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