Blind Man's Bluff

An article in Politico noted an interesting, possible strategy by progressives in Congress for taking on Trump – calling his bluff on some of his campaign “promises.  If they succeed, they can take credit for bringing them to the table.  If they fail, they can bash Trump for it.
 
Among the examples are Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Sen. Richard Blumenthal who have said they would work with Trump on anti-trust issues he claimed he was for.  And Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Bernie Sanders both said they would be happy to work with him to bring his campaign “promise” of capping credit card interest to fruition.
 
It’s certainly seems unlikely that these are two issues -- that progressives would love to see passed -- hold even the slightest interest to Trump and therefore will get nowhere.  But then, as noted, Democrats can build a long laundry list of Trump promises that he gave lip service to during the campaign, but were nothing more than his standard flim-flam.
 
No doubt beyond just these two issues there are many others that fall in the same box.
 
In fact, already, Trump has claimed that he reached an agreement with the President of Mexico and posted on social media that the border will be closed.  The problem for Trump is that Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum later released a statement contradiction Trump’s claim of a “beautiful call” where everything was resolved.
 
For instance, two headlines stated – CNN reported: “Mexico’s president denies Trump’s claim that she agreed to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border.”  The New Republic wrote: “Mexican President’s Harsh Takedown of Trump Exposes an Ugly MAGA Scam” and Yahoo News stated “Trump Mocked After Mexico’s President Blows Up His Brag About Their Call.”
 
That’s one of the big differences between campaigning and making random statements and promises that can’t be fact-checked – and the reality of being a president talking to others who actually can read what you say and then respond.  And now Trump is on the record saying that the border issue is resolved and will be closed.
 
No doubt he’ll blame Mexico.  No doubt, he'll claim his version of the story was right.  No doubt he'll say it was a perfect call.  Unfortunately for Trump, in the end, he is the one (and the only one) who publicly promised there was an agreement and that the border would be closed -- and most certainly, it won’t be.
 
Go figure.  Trump promises that don’t become reality.  Who would imagine…?