The Big Switcheroo Gambit

The Big Switcheroo Gambit

By Stephen P. Pizzo

Republicans in Congress are in a state of shock and awe this morning. Shock at what Trump did to them yesterday, and awe over how casually he did it.

‘GOP members were shocked at Trump’s stunning decision yesterday to abruptly side with “Chuck and Nancy,” as he chummily called the Democratic leaders, in a deal to avert a government shutdown Sept. 30 — at the price of reviving the politically painful issue right before the 2018 elections.” (Axios)

“Abruptly” is an understatement. During an Oval Office visit by the leaders of both parties and both houses of congress, Trump listened to arguments from both sides about how to handle the looming debt-limit crisis. McConnell and Ryan wanted to spike the ball, bringing the matter to do or die vote as soon as possible. Pelosi and Schumer wanted a three-month continuing resolution to get through the year, putting the matter back on the agenda in December.

As his own Treasury Secretary, Steven Manchin, was elaborating on the GOP position, Trump cut him off, turned to Schumer, stuck out his hand and declared, “Okay, great, so we have a deal.”

Republican leaders were dumbfounded. Of course, if they’d studied Trump more carefully, they should have seen it coming. It was entirely in character.

Trump is what psychologists call a, “High-functioning Psychopath.” And if you’ve never known one of these types, first, you’re damned lucky, and likely richer for it. Trump and his type function very much like a wild predator that has learned how to prosper in, what for them, is a hostile environment. Nothing else around them is “like them.” Yet it has proved to be a victim-rich environment, largely because it’s victims do operate on such a different wavelength.

So Trump’s kind, like any successful predator, is highly in tune with how the wind is blowing at any given time.

Yesterday Trump sniffed the political winds and realized that the environment had changed and his continued survival required him to do so as well, and quickly. He found himself in a real muddle:

• His “repeal & replace” gambit had failed,
• His border wall was going nowhere fast,
• His empty threats to N.Korea hadn’t yielded anything,
• His DACA decision had unleashed holy hell on him and his party.
• The Russian probe continued to grind on despite his efforts to derail it.
• Impeachment was no longer being dismissed as too outlandish to imagine.

All of that had already occurred to Republicans in Congress, and many were beginning to stake out positions contrary to Trump’s stated goals, just to distance themselves from this increasingly unpopular party leader. It was becoming an “every man for himself” situation on the GOP side of both the House and Senate.

Which perfectly explains what Trump did yesterday. He could have waited a day and issued his decision supporting the Democratic Party position on the debt-limit vote. But slapping down his own rebellious party in front of “the enemy,” was simply too delicious a moment for a psychopath to miss out on.

His decision to side with his two newest friends, “Chuck and Nancy,” … his words, not mine… was a stroke of evil genius. Yes, I said genius…not a term one associates with Trump. But high-functioning psychopaths are like that, idiot savants, if you will; not very smart mostly, but brilliant when it comes to one particular thing. In Trump’s case that thing is survival through deceit.

So, just what is Trump up to this time?

He faced a bruising and damaging fight over the debt-limit this month. In particular the whackadoodle “Freedom Caucus” in the House was going to demand all kinds of cuts to popular programs rather than increasing the debt-ceiling. A government shutdown had become a distinct probability. Such a mess in DC might have once played to Trump’s base, but not now … not a this moment. Not with Houston underwater and Irma bearing down on another Trump haven, Miami. So he had to stop that from happening, which he did by agreeing to the Democrats plan to kick the can down the road to December.

This of course completely upended the GOPs plan to use a national crisis to push through their agenda. And it provided Dems time, which they needed to gin up support for new DACA legislation and then tying that to a new debt limit. It’s exactly the situation the GOP feared most, since 2018 is a mid-term election year…and hispanics vote.

Also, by so publicly and brutally slapping down his own party leaders like that, Trump sent them a message too… “Work with me, or I’ll work with whomever will work with me.” In other words, he warned members of his own party that if they think they can get away with hanging him out to dry as his popularity plummets, think again.

Oh, and let us not forget the Russian investigations…you can be certain Trump hasn’t.

Trump instinctively senses that, come Nov. 2018, Republicans could lose control of Congress. And Democrats have long memories. They remember the aggressive and never-ending GOP investigations of the Clintons and their hopeless pursuit of Obama’s imaginary birth certificate scandal. And by now he’s been schooled on the impeachment process and understands it starts in the House…which may flip next year.

By siding more now with Democrats he hopes to create a dilemma for them; Dems realize that suddenly he’s working with them. Suddenly (like yesterday) they are getting things done working with him. If they impeach him, they get Pence, a man much less likely to work with Democrats and a man who, in many ways, holds positions far to right of Trump. What to do? As we have come to learn about Democrats they usually take the path of least resistance in such matters…and that’s exactly what Trump is counting on.

Oh go ahead, call me an armchair psychologist, if you must. But if you’ve been paying close attention to this man, you must know what I just laid out above is as likely a explanation to yesterday’s extraordinary act as any.

Let me just add a personal note. As an investigative journalist for three decades I ran into more than my share of sociopaths and psychopaths — like Charlie Keating. From that I gained a shallow understanding of these creatures. But it wasn’t until one of these horrors married (blessedly briefly) into my nuclear family that I came to learn the true nature of these beasts.

I remember googling “psychopath” back then and found a support group for families victimized by a psychopathic personality. I recall one post from a woman who’s family had been utterly destroyed by one of these folks. She wrote, “If you have determined the person you are involved with is indeed a true psychopath, RUN. Don’t look back, just RUN.”

Unfortunately we can’t run from Donald Trump. All we can do is develop a clear and unambiguous understanding of what he is and how he operates. Then act accordingly.

Democrats…(hello in there.. ) First, congratulations for steering Trump in the right the direction this week. Just make damn sure it really is you doing the steering.