Forecasting Donald Trump’s demise

Note: This is the second in a series of blog postings emanating from work originally compiled for a Daily Bullshit entry. That text has now been moved here.

Update, August 21, 2017: When I originally published this entry, on August 19 at 1:10 pm, I failed to cite a source for my claim that Trump had flip-flopped on who was to blame for Charlottesville. Since then, the Los Angeles Times has published an article specifically documenting the flip-flops.[1] I have added the reference to the original.


Following Steve Bannon’s departure from the White House,[2] John Bennett at Roll Call considers Trump’s alienation of conservative factions, especially now what are really paleoconservatives.[3] There are actually two levels to this matter: First, there is the question of how much support Trump actually sacrifices by ditching Bannon. Paleoconservatives, apart from calling attention to themselves with protests such as at Charlottesville,[4] and occasional terrorist incidents, don’t really amount to much—and, truth be told, the less insane among them are well aware of this. Read more

  1. [1]Colleen Shalby, “From blaming ‘many sides’ to ‘racism is evil’ and back again, what Trump has said so far on Charlottesville,” Los Angeles Times, August 21, 2017, http://www.latimes.com/politics/washington/la-na-essential-washington-updates-how-trump-s-responded-to-violence-in-1502831078-htmlstory.html
  2. [2]Michael C. Bender and Peter Nicholas, “Steve Bannon, Controversial Aide to Trump, Exits White House Staff,” Wall Street Journal, August 18, 2017, https://www.wsj.com/articles/steve-bannon-leaves-white-house-staff-1503075345
  3. [3]John T. Bennett, “Trump Is Quickly Running Out of GOP Factions to Alienate,” Congressional Quarterly Roll Call, August 18, 2017, http://www.rollcall.com/news/trump-gop-factions-alienate/
  4. [4]Joe Heim, “Recounting a day of rage, hate, violence and death,” Washington Post, August 14, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/local/charlottesville-timeline/

Authoritarian Populists, Paleoconservatives and Donald Trump

Events in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which, among other things, an “alt right” neo-Nazi ran his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at a paleoconservative rally, killing one and injuring several, have brought questions of Donald Trump’s relationship with paleoconservatives into an all too fuzzy focus.[1] Trump was slow to condemn the incident, initially blaming both sides, then blaming the “alt right” (paleoconservatives), then reverting to blaming both sides. This is the first of a few postings in reaction to those events, slightly refined from the now-removed original on the Daily Bullshit. Read more

  1. [1]Joe Heim, “Recounting a day of rage, hate, violence and death,” Washington Post, August 14, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/local/charlottesville-timeline/