Take the Money and Run

Take the Money and Run

Michael Cannata

           I read an interesting article that made me wonder just how seriously Donalf Trump is thinking about running for reelection in 2020. Since his election, Trump has been running around the country holding rallies as though the 2020 campaign had already begun.

          He still loves to get his supporters fired up with chants of “Lock her up!” He still has them convinced that Mexico is going to pay for his wall. He's still making pie-in-the-sky promises and insulting anyone he chooses with vicious invective.

          During his run for president, Donald Trump made a lot of promises about how much he was going to cut taxes. And, true to his word, with the help of the greediest GOP Congress in history, he pushed a tax cut through. He pounded his chest and his supporters pointed to the accomplishment as proof positive that he was a man of his word.

          The only problem is, since getting his tax bill passed, a lot of people did get huge tax cuts... just not people like me or most all of his supporters. People like me, average working class Americans, they might get a tax cut that will give them an extra tank of gas or a trip to the movies every month.

          But billionaires, people like Trump, they are going to be showered with money, Money they don't need nearly as much as the average tax payer. And by all accounts, Trump is perfectly happy with the result. Despite a number of published reports from several agencies whose job it is to track the effects of such legislation. Reports that say that the national debt is going to to increase bigly, Trump doesn't seem to care.

         According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office the deficit will reach a trillion dollars by 2020. You know... the year Trump is supposed to be running for reelection.. the year this enormous bill is going to be due. The year when, if the numbers are correct, America's economy will go in the tank. We are supposed to believe Trump will ask his supporters to vote for him again

          But I think Trump has unwittingly revealed his true plan. Trump is an ignorant, uncouth, small minded, spiteful, greedy, narcissistic egomaniac... but he isn't stupid. His goal was to reap the bounty of his position for as much personal gain and then cut his losses.

          When his aides tried to show him just how bad the national debt was going to be by 2020 using a graph that looked similar to a hockey stick, a long uphill slope that suddenly shoots upward, he waved them off. According to sources and acknowledging that it would happen he stated blithely,

          “Yeah, but I won't be here.”

          In 2020, Trump won't be running for office... he'll just be taking the money and running.