The Trump-a-paloser

I'm not quite sure what to make of the weird MAGOP pre-Mid-Term gathering in Texas, though I feel comforted by it appearing that the MAGOP don't know either. Many MAGOP candidates and members of Congress aren't showing up. Those that are attending -- rather than staying home campaigning -- are being charged a minimum of $25,000 and up to $100,000. Trump is charging $88,000 to have a selfie taken with him. Rather than creating party unity, it's being divisive -- a MAGOP candidate for Congress in Wisconsin slammed his party's nominee for governor -- whose old seat he's trying to get elected to. It's even being creepy, like when HUD Secretary Scott Turner appeared to give a butt-slap to the female speaker who preceded him. And odd, when Democratic senator John Fetterman introduced his state's MAGOP senator by video.

Ultimately, what the convention mostly seems to be is about fundraising -- candidates meeting those who will give them money, and candidates hoping to play nice with Trump so that he will give them money. Which is why journalist Ayman Mohyeldim refers to it as TrumpCon.

There are two major hurdles for political candidates, whether attendees or not. Well, two hurdles out of many.

The first is coming to the Trump-a-paloser and hitching a ride with a party leader who has a 32% approval and being tarnished by having to campaign on issues two-thirds of the public dislikes -- not limited to starting a war he promised he'd never do and can't get out of, rising gas prices, high consumer prices, tariff taxes, calling "affordability" a hoax, pushing AI data centers, starting a battle with Canada, putting out crazy and megalomaniacal AI memes and more. Or distancing yourself from Trump and avoiding the event, but risking discord in the party by your absence. Alas, that's the challenge you create when you've made the choice to enable a fascist with dementia, which is degenerative and can only get worse.

The second is that fundraising bugaboo, trying to ingratiate yourself with Trump to get some of the $400 million war chest. (He's now saying it's a billion dollars, but then this is Trump where inflation seems not only to be his middle name, but one of the big problems he and his party are facing.) Trump has said that he's going to spend his money on candidates who show the most support for hm. And that's the huge, added problem --

On the one hand, the candidates distancing themselves from Trump and his 32% approval and staying at home campaigning and the ones in close races and most in need for the financing -- and least likely to get it from Trump. On the other hand, the candidates in attendance at the TrumpCon and sucking up to their dear leader are more likely the ones in safe Red districts and least likely to need the financing. And complicating that all the more for these hopefuls -- though in another way simplifies the matter if you're aware of reality -- is that the answer is fairly simple: Trump does not give away money, without it being dragged from him...or court-ordered. All these people thinking they're going to get "money from Trump" are living in a fool's paradise. Yes, he might give out some money, most probably to those who don't need it. And even in those districts he does give money to, he's said that he wants to spend it on ads about himself. But he's not giving away $400 million that he controls. And to think he'll give away a billion dollars is ludicrous. And worse, when candidates think you have a billion dollars (which you don't) and you don't spend a billion, it just creates a bigger wedge than your 32% is creating. Only yesterday, in fact, came the story that Trump was likely going to hold on to as much of his war chest as he can in order to save it for potential lawsuits and legal defenses he expects to face if Democrats take control of one or both houses of Congress. Welcome to the TrumpCon! And of course, to make matters worse, this overlaps on the first day of the NFL season, with a highly-promoted game between the two teams that played each other in the last Super Bowl, followed the next night with a highly-promoted game being played in Australia, all of which reportedly outraged Trump -- whose favorite team sport is football, he once tried to buy an NFL team, and he knows the sport's popularity -- when he discovered it. All of which cuts down on viewership, even of his own base.

And we haven't even got to Trump's Hail Mary Act of Desperation. While saying out of one side of his mouth that "affordability" is fake, from the other side he makes his promise to give every adult in America $5,000 -- as long as the MAGOP retain control of both the House and Senate, and recipients spend it in the U.S. (Yeah, try keeping track of that and the whole concept of the government watching over what you spend.) Putting aside that this will never happen, that Congress would have to approve it, that it would increase the deficit by a trillion dollars, that this is a bribe for votes which is illegal that Trump has already promised $5,000 from "DOGE" cuts and $2,000 from tariff refunds and $1,000 from ACA cuts -- and none of that ever happened, putting all that aside...if this was such a great idea and we actually had the money rather than a $40 trillion deficit, why wait until after the election and if MAGOPs retain full control of Congress, and not give this $5,000 bounty now??!! You could almost see the desperation dripping from every delusional grifting pore.

And that was just a tip of the iceberg that was Day 1 of the Trump-a-paloser. But hey, Trump and his crack team of organizers did so well with the 250th Fourth of July Anniversary gala in Washington, D.C. So, this only follows. So, it's cool to see them taking the show on the road into Texas. Okay, sure, it's pretty much a mess. But look at the bright side, at least there isn't a Reflecting Pool.