Every President runs on certain campaign promises, and once he gets into office, certain things happen.
He becomes part of the Washington power structure.
He is surrounded by advisors who know a lot more than he does.
He is confronted by reality.
This is why candidates can be flamethrowers when they are running, promising to clean house, drain the swamp, balance the budget, kill our enemies, renegotiate treaties, etc etc etc. But when they actually get into office, they start to realize, hey, this might not be so easy.
This is why I expect Trump to start trimming back on his promises pretty soon. For example, he'll see how wildly impractical, expensive, and ineffective a border wall would be. He'll see how a trade war would raise the cost of almost everything in our stores. He'll see how throwing out the nuclear treaty with Iran would force him to choose from some very risky choices. He'll see how throwing out 11 million undocumented illegal aliens would devastate the agriculture, hotel, and construction industries.
I think Trump is actually a pretty smart guy. He got himself elected, and now he is confronted with actually being President, and the weight of the sun, moon, and stars has fallen on his shoulders, and like every other President-elect, he is suddenly considering how he will be looked at 50 or 100 years from now.
I expect him to do some symbolic things that will enable him to say he's fulfilling his campaign promises. But in the end, he'll govern like a mainstream Republican.
He'll be bald after 1 year.
Quote:He'll be bald after 1 year.
That glorious mane? Nah. Lol
Quote:Every President runs on certain campaign promises, and once he gets into office, certain things happen.
He becomes part of the Washington power structure.
He is surrounded by advisors who know a lot more than he does.
He is confronted by reality.
This is why candidates can be flamethrowers when they are running, promising to clean house, drain the swamp, balance the budget, kill our enemies, renegotiate treaties, etc etc etc. But when they actually get into office, they start to realize, hey, this might not be so easy.
This is why I expect Trump to start trimming back on his promises pretty soon. For example, he'll see how wildly impractical, expensive, and ineffective a border wall would be. He'll see how a trade war would raise the cost of almost everything in our stores. He'll see how throwing out the nuclear treaty with Iran would force him to choose from some very risky choices. He'll see how throwing out 11 million undocumented illegal aliens would devastate the agriculture, hotel, and construction industries.
I think Trump is actually a pretty smart guy. He got himself elected, and now he is confronted with actually being President, and the weight of the sun, moon, and stars has fallen on his shoulders, and like every other President-elect, he is suddenly considering how he will be looked at 50 or 100 years from now.
I expect him to do some symbolic things that will enable him to say he's fulfilling his campaign promises. But in the end, he'll govern like a mainstream Republican.
He'll also immediately start thinking about reelection. Then he'll realize that only about 25% of American adults voted for him.
So, yeah, post-campaign Donald will be a different person than campaign Donald. And that's a good thing.
Quote:He'll also immediately start thinking about reelection. Then he'll realize that only about 25% of American adults voted for him.
So, yeah, post-campaign Donald will be a different person than campaign Donald. And that's a good thing.
Less salt in the diet is a good thing.
OP, I agree with a lot of what you said, but if anybody can break the barriers of a status quo ineffective president, that man is the president elect. I'm excited to see what happens and I do think a border wall will happen.
Quote:He'll be bald after 1 year.
You mean he'd stop wearing the rug?
Quote:I agree with most of this. Trump has few friends in congress. He'll need to keep congress happy, or else stay squeaky clean.
Paul Ryan said that the cost of a border wall was not a problem. As far as being ineffective, it wouldn't completely stop illegal immigration, but it would slow it down significantly. Trump already said that he would go after the criminals among the illegals first. That alone will probably take four years, so those who committed no crime other than illegal entry will be safe for quite a while at least. Congress and Trump are both OK with a comprehensive immigration plan, but border enforcement has to be in place first. It does no good to bail out the boat until you plug the hole in the bottom.
I think Trump's policies, which I fully expect to be toned down from the campaign rhetoric, will actually end up being pretty popular amongst the US population when it's all said and done. The GOP will find itself needing to adapt to work with him closely or risk being pushed into obscurity.
Immigration is really a separate thread, but most of the areas that would benefit from a border wall already have one. Trying to build a wall on the side of a mountain is dangerous, it's hard to not build in Mexico by mistake, and it's prohibitively expensive. You'd have to build the wall at the base of the mountain on the US side, effectively ceding a large chunk of land to Mexico. Same basic concept along the Rio Grande: you'd be giving up American soil to Mexico because of the requirement that neither country can alter the natural flow of the river. Building a wall directly on it would do that. The existing "fence" in most of the southwest is just steel beams buried in the sand to stop vehicles and barbed wire as a deterrent to pedestrian traffic. It's just shy of useless. The real investment in securing the border should come in a different form:
1. More UAVs, including simple quadcopters that cost $500 on Amazon and can carry a GoPro as well as a massive Predator without being as easy to detect
2. An easier process for foreign citizens (it's actually more people from Guatemala, Venezuela and other poor countries south of Mexico coming through) to get a US visa if there are no red flags that would necessitate keeping them out
3. An economic fence that greatly increases penalties for employers hiring illegal immigrant labor, including much larger fines, loss of business licenses, lawsuits targeted at company officers and principals and, in extreme cases of repeated, willful misconduct, criminal penalties for those involved
A physical wall is for show. It can be driven or walked over, tunneled under or cut through, and its overall ineffectiveness is achieved at a staggering price. There are other forms of wall that work better and cost less. I mean, please, try and convince me that 1,000 Phantom quadcopters would cost more than hundreds of miles of fence that gives up large chunks of American land to Mexico.
If that's a rug, he should sue someone!!
Quote:If that's a rug, he should sue someone!!
His hair has basically been the same since the 70's except for the dye job.. He kinda went from a light black to a burnt cheeto orange haha
Here's some more reality..
![[Image: 84ffa40b177e013439ff4d7b9b6445cc72a2bf40...4ecc_1.gif]](https://img.ifcdn.com/images/84ffa40b177e013439ff4d7b9b6445cc72a2bf40d5789749e0a81f5e04cc4ecc_1.gif)
Quote:Made in China. Hahahaha
A Chinaman pissed on his rug. Huh. So that's where all this "trade war" stuff is coming from.
Quote:A Chinaman [BAD WORD REMOVED] on his rug. Huh. So that's where all this "trade war" stuff is coming from.
Wouldn't you be mad? :yes:
Quote:Wouldn't you be mad? :yes:
Probably. That rug really tied his head together.
Quote:OP, I agree with a lot of what you said, but if anybody can break the barriers of a status quo ineffective president, that man is the president elect. I'm excited to see what happens and I do think a border wall will happen.
Agreed. I think that the one thing we can expect from Trump is that it won't be a conventional presidency. That may be a good thing because the conventional approach has proven to be relatively ineffective in recent years. It will be an interesting thing to watch to see how he approaches his agenda. Every newly elected president will have to tone down their agenda to a certain degree once they're governing. He will be no different.
Quote:You mean he'd stop wearing the rug?
I think Trump's policies, which I fully expect to be toned down from the campaign rhetoric, will actually end up being pretty popular amongst the US population when it's all said and done. The GOP will find itself needing to adapt to work with him closely or risk being pushed into obscurity.
Immigration is really a separate thread, but most of the areas that would benefit from a border wall already have one. Trying to build a wall on the side of a mountain is dangerous, it's hard to not build in Mexico by mistake, and it's prohibitively expensive. You'd have to build the wall at the base of the mountain on the US side, effectively ceding a large chunk of land to Mexico. Same basic concept along the Rio Grande: you'd be giving up American soil to Mexico because of the requirement that neither country can alter the natural flow of the river. Building a wall directly on it would do that. The existing "fence" in most of the southwest is just steel beams buried in the sand to stop vehicles and barbed wire as a deterrent to pedestrian traffic. It's just shy of useless. The real investment in securing the border should come in a different form:
1. More UAVs, including simple quadcopters that cost $500 on Amazon and can carry a GoPro as well as a massive Predator without being as easy to detect
2. An easier process for foreign citizens (it's actually more people from Guatemala, Venezuela and other poor countries south of Mexico coming through) to get a US visa if there are no red flags that would necessitate keeping them out
3. An economic fence that greatly increases penalties for employers hiring illegal immigrant labor, including much larger fines, loss of business licenses, lawsuits targeted at company officers and principals and, in extreme cases of repeated, willful misconduct, criminal penalties for those involved
A physical wall is for show. It can be driven or walked over, tunneled under or cut through, and its overall ineffectiveness is achieved at a staggering price. There are other forms of wall that work better and cost less. I mean, please, try and convince me that 1,000 Phantom quadcopters would cost more than hundreds of miles of fence that gives up large chunks of American land to Mexico.
I completely agree with the bold part. I think his policies will actually win over quite a few people, especially early on in his term where he will be dealing with executive orders and overbearing regulations that have proven to be unpopular.
As far as building the wall goes, I don't think anyone expected that to be strictly a physical wall from the Pacific to the Gulf. Most who supported him support stronger border security, which doesn't necessarily translate to a wall. Geographically, that would be a pretty significant challenge, and fairly unnecessary, but there are areas where a wall is completely needed, and has already been mandated by past legislation. Technology, personnel, and physical barriers will be combined to create that "big beautiful wall" he's been talking about.
Quote:
I expect him to do some symbolic things that will enable him to say he's fulfilling his campaign promises. But in the end, he'll govern like a mainstream Republican.
...except he's been a Democrat all his life.
I expect more pragmatism than either side is probably expecting.
Well as someone living in Texas these folks fully expected a wall to be built and a deportation force along with a complete repel of Obamacare.
They will be rudely awakened...
Quote:Agreed. I think that the one thing we can expect from Trump is that it won't be a conventional presidency.
Considering how well conventional presidencies have worked out for us as of late, I for one welcome our new capitalist overlord.