You Got Trumped! Trump rapidly losing strongest supporters

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Maybe Trump didn’t realize that all of his supporters actually expected him to deliver on all of his hard-edged statements. Or maybe he was Trojan Trump from the get go, just as I postulated many months ago to the outrage of many of my fellow anti-establishment readers who wanted to believe Trump was their champion. (I sympathize with them and understand their hopes, but have never seen such a self-aggrandizing narcissist as likely to fulfill that role.) The Trump election upset is turning out to be more upsetting to his supporters than to his critics. As Michael Savage says below, their world has turned upside down.

The biggest problem seems to be that Trump is getting no traction, to where his most ardent supporters are wondering if Trump is just a master of illusion. Travel bans I and II were stalled by courts (whether rightly or wrongly); Obamacare Repeal I and II have both stalled in the Republican caucus (so he can’t even get anywhere with his own party). World’s Biggest Tax Plan Lite was scoffed at by both Republicans and Democrats alike for appearing to have been written overnight on a single page and looking more like notes of objectives for a tax planning meeting than any kind of actual plan. The date by which a tax plan might finally be hammered out and actually get voted into being has been pushed, even by its architects, to December of this year, at best, or early next year.  The border wall seems to be moving around in search of money as though it is just a bargaining chip. And over time, Trump’s Goldman-Sachs cabinet has shifted away from Steve Bannon and infilled with more Goldman.

Trump has in his first hundred days spent more time on golfing vacations than most presidents spend in a year. He travels down to Florida to enjoy cake every other week, and he complains in interviews that the job has turned out to be much harder than he ever thought it would be — much harder than his work as a CEO of Trump, Inc., which he enjoyed a lot more.

“I loved my previous life. I had so many things going,” Trump told Reuters in an interview. “This is more work than in my previous life. I thought it would be easier.” (Reuters)

Who would have thought that being president could be so difficult? It’s almost as hard as revising Obamacare.

The roll call of supporters who aren’t any more … or who are deep in doubt

The result of Trump’s noisy and erratic first hundred days is that many of Trump’s strongest and most vocal supporters are doubting him and becoming openly critical of his accomplishments. While a hundred days is a rather short yardstick, it is usually any president’s most effective period because it is his honeymoon period with congress. The Trumpet’s relationship with congress ended the day he took office.

It’s been the most contentious hundred days most of us have ever seen. Some would say that is because he is fighting the establishment, but many radio commentators who supported Trump and campaigners who worked hard for him say they are upset because he has caved in to the establishment and appears to be owned by the establishment. Their concern is not that he didn’t accomplish anything enduring in his first hundred days, but that what little he did accomplish moved in the wrong direction:

Michelle Dallacroce, an anti-immigration activist, is more pointed. Immigration is “why we voted for Donald Trump,” she said. “This could be the most elaborate reality show. I’m wondering, was this all an illusion for us, using our movement so he could get in there?”

It’s the big-talking flip-flopping that getting to them.

Paul Joseph Watson says,

I guess Trump wasn’t “Putin’s puppet” after all, he was just another deep state/Neo-Con puppet. I’m officially OFF the Trump train.

Mike Cernovich says,

Today over 500,000 people have watched my videos and streams. 90% are @realDonaldTrump supporters, none want war with Syria.

Ann Coulter:

Those who wanted us meddling in the Middle East voted for other candidates.

Florida Radio show host and Trump supporter John Cardillo is now disillusioned:

As a former New York City police officer, Cardillo identified with the candidate’s blue-collar style. He fell hard and got aboard the Trump train early, backing the insurgent candidate over home-state favorite Marco Rubio. Trump voters “felt like they were voting for an anti-establishment candidate — and they’re terrified, they’re losing faith,” Cardillo said.

Rick Wiles, longtime host of the popular weekday TRUNEWS radio programs has also dropped his support:

President Trump’s bombing of Syria was the ‘last straw’ for a conservative Christian radio host. Rick Wiles … accused President Trump of betraying the voters who elected him last November. Pastor Wiles said, “The Deep State coup succeeded in overturning the populist revolt of the American people. It appears that President Trump surrendered to the Goldman Sachs war lords. “I’m finished playing games with the Republican Party elite. President Trump has no intention of draining the swamp. In fact, he is now swimming with cunning crocodiles.”  (TruNews)

Even one of Trump’s loudest and brashest supporters — Michael Savage, a man who talks a lot like Trump — is now expressing deep concerns to Alex Jones, another Trump-talking supporter — about how entirely different President Trump looks from Candidate Trump.

Here are some excerpts from the interview:

“I don’t know whether we can reach Trump…. Someone has now turned him…. The president’s now launched wars…. What in the hell is going on here…? Who is leading here…? The world is upside down. Who is making these decisions…? We are being tested like we have never been tested before. I don’t know how we come out of this…. I don’t know if Donald Trump is listening to anyone other than this inner cadre around him…. What kind of presidency is this?“

While Politico has always been an enemy of Trump, the following quotes from Trump’s supporters match what I am seeing everywhere:

As Trump struggles to keep his campaign promises and flirts with political moderation, his most steadfast supporters — from veteran advisers to anti-immigration activists to the volunteers who dropped their jobs to help elect him — are increasingly dismayed by the direction of his presidency…. The crux of their disillusionment, interviews with nearly two dozen Trump loyalists reveal, is a belief that Trump the candidate bears little resemblance to Trump the president. He’s failing, in their view, to deliver on his promise of a transformative “America First” agenda driven by hard-edged populism…. Said Tania Vojvodic, a fervent Trump supporter who founded one of his first campaign volunteer networks. “We expect him to keep his word, and right now he’s not keeping his word…. I’m not so infatuated with Trump that I can’t see the facts…. People’s belief, their trust in him, it’s declining….” Said Lee Stranahan, who, as a former writer at Breitbart News, once worked with Bannon. “There was always the question of, ‘Did he really believe this stuff?’ Apparently, the answer is, ‘Not as much as you’d like.’”(Politico)

As it turns out that, when you try to drain the swamp, the swamp drains you. The most extraordinary thing about the changes Trump has made in his first hundred days are his own personal transformation into Establishment Man.

The border wall has moved all over the map for a wall that is supposed to be stationary on a border. And it has moved in time from one of the things Trump was going to get right on to “maybe in September.” “Deport all illegal aliens” shrank to “deport only the illegal illegals;” i.e. only the ones that were breaking other laws than immigration laws. “Drain the swamp” has become “learn to swim in the swamp.” Imposition of import taxes on nations like China seems to have shifted to “We’ll give you a much better deal if you help us with North Korea.” It seems like Trump changes his mind in both directions at the same time.