Trump Raises an Army

[Dulcinea]

Trump’s supporters see him as vector; he sees them as market.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/31/opinion/trump-harvey-storm-army.html?mcubz=1

[pangaia]

1. RIGHT ON THE MONEY...

Wish I were not constrained to 4 paragrahps

But in addition, and perhaps more sinisterly, I think that Trump is raising an army, whether or not he would describe it as such, and whether or not those being involved recognize their own conscription. This is not a traditional army, but it is an army no less.

SNIP----------

Should something emerge from the Robert Mueller investigation — an investigation that is continuing unabated even as Harvey rages — that should implicate Trump and pose a threat to the continuation of his tenure, Trump wants to position any attempt to remove him as a political coup. His efforts to delegitimize the press are all part of this because one day the press may have to deliver ruinous news.

In that scenario, Trump knows that the oligarchs and establishment Republicans would be quick to abandon him. Their support isn’t intrinsic; it’s transactional. But the base — the market — the ones with guns as well as those who are simply excited, the die-hards, the ones he keeps appealing to and applauding, will not forsake him. They see attacks on Trump as attacks on themselves.

Trump is playing an endgame. In the best-case scenario, these die-hards are future customers; in the worst, they are future confederates.

[hedda_foil]

2. And here's the money quote.

If these people should come to believe — as Trump would have them believe — that establishment systems have unfairly and conspiratorially acted to remove from office their last and only champion — another thing Trump would have them believe — what will they do?

What would Trump’s army do if he were compelled to leave but refused to graciously comply

[icymist]

3. Good read.

K & R