When Democrats started calling Elon Musk “President Musk,” their purpose was clear. It was to get under the skin of the insecure president-elect, saying Musk was at the helm in their relationship. This strategy wasn’t clever, but it worked as intended. Speaking at Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest conference in Phoenix on Sunday, Donald Trump couldn’t help but refute claims that someone other than himself is in charge. “To be clear, he will not be president,” Trump said. “And I’m safe. Do you know why he can’t do that? He wasn’t born in this country.”
A PhD is never required. Psychology to understand President Trump’s motivations and fears. He places them directly on the surface. This almost comical obsession with showing everyone how strong and manly you are – in this case, claiming that you can’t be at the mercy of the richest man in the world – clearly shows that people It comes from the fear of being seen as weak. But just days before he was about to seize power, that’s exactly who he is.
Look at what happened when President Trump returned to deal with Congress. As he moved to avoid a shutdown of Congress and start his second term, President Trump didn’t get what he wanted every step of the way.
Time and time again, President Trump’s reckless attempts to project strength only end up making him look weaker.
The plan began with a bipartisan agreement to fund the government through March, giving the new Republican Congress time to craft tax and budget proposals to their (and Trump’s) liking. But when Mr. Musk posted a post opposing the deal, Mr. Trump rushed to say he was against it, too.
After the deal broke down, President Trump tried to avoid raising the debt ceiling in his first year in office, a move aimed at limiting the influence of both Democrats and opposition members of his own party. He initially called for lifting the debt ceiling, but after House Republicans refused to do so, he moved to propose a two-year moratorium. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) dutifully introduced a new funding bill that included this provision, but it failed when 38 Republicans voted against it.
A spending bill was finally passed on Friday, but it did not include the suspension of the debt ceiling that President Trump had called for. As NBC News reported, “President Trump on Wednesday threatened ‘any Republican’ in the primary who voted for a fiscal bill that does not extend the debt ceiling.” On Friday, 170 House Republicans did just that. ”
This pattern of Trump making demands, Congress saying no, and Trump doing nothing was exactly what characterized his legislative efforts during his first term. He never bent Congress to his will or negotiated victory when the outcome was in doubt. His only significant legislative accomplishment was a 2017 tax cut for the wealthy, a foregone conclusion given that Republicans controlled both chambers. By contrast, among his failures was the longest government shutdown in history, which only ended when he relented and abandoned his demands for funding for border wall construction.
That doesn’t mean Trump can’t control the party or better punish those who oppose him. He often does that. He ended the careers of Republicans who stood up to him, threatened some news organizations, and, with the help of conservative Supreme Court justices, avoided legal responsibility for all manner of misdeeds. . But time and time again, Mr. Trump’s amateurish attempts at strength only end up looking weak because he has such a simplistic understanding of how power and politics work.
The problem is that madness is not strength. It’s just angry.
This is evident in his standard negotiation strategy. He makes exaggerated threats and waits for everyone else to give in, without even trying to figure out what they want or how to convince them. There he says he will bomb all his enemies, sue all his critics, and destroy everyone who opposes him. This threat may need to be taken seriously, as there is always the possibility that President Trump will do what he says. But most of the time he’s not.
President Trump has long talked about the value of being the “crazy guy” in negotiations. His approach is reminiscent of Richard Nixon’s “madman theory” of foreign policy. That is, if you convince your enemy that you are insane and unreasonable, they will act carefully so as not to provoke you. The problem is that madness is not strength. It’s just angry.
Consider, for example, Trump’s recent declarations to seize the Panama Canal, annex Canada, and take control of Greenland. When that doesn’t happen, Trump just looks like a fool. Similarly, after the 2024 election, Trump will have a trifecta and his first popular vote victory. But a completely unnecessary spending showdown destroyed any momentum he was supposed to have entering the White House.
Everyone in both parties knows that when a really strong president sits in the Oval Office, if he makes threats or promises, he will keep his promises. No one trusts Trump on either point. For him, strength means abuse and control. He is always the loudest person in the room and treats every interaction, whether between people or between nations, as a zero-sum competition for supremacy where there are always winners and losers. But his recent failure to bend Congress to his will portends a difficult four years ahead for his own party, let alone the rest of Washington.
With the shutdown on the horizon, it appears President Trump’s second term could be much like his first. Because nothing matters more to Republicans, they will pass more tax cuts, many of which extend previous tax cuts. But things can get confusing after that. With a razor-thin House majority and dozens of Republicans poised to cause trouble over spending bills, it will take a savvy negotiator or a president with real power to navigate the legislative minefield. It will be necessary. Donald Trump will never be that president.
