Beating 69-year-old former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in a stunning upset Nov. 8, 70-year old President-Elect Donald Trump finds himself under intense scrutiny only days after the election. With old GOP hands considered for Cabinet positions, the press questioned Trump’s promise to “drain the swamp” of Washington lobbyists and special interests. Learning that Hillary spent about $1 billion on her campaign largely from lobbyists and special interests, Trump’s Campaign Manager Kellyanne Conway was grilled by Fox New Chris Wallace today about inserting insiders into Trump’s administration. Promising “the gravy train is about to have its wheels blown off” when Trump takes office Jan. 20, 2016, Kellyanne only symbolically promises to end Washington corruption. No one should underestimate the value of setting a new tone.
No one really believes that Trump, in his first 100 days or even his full term, can reverse generations of lobbyists and the legal industry doing businesses in Washington. Voters cast ballots for Trump because he self-financed his campaign, rewriting the rules on presidential campaigns. Trump spent about one-tenth of Hillary, who now blames FBI Director James Comey for her loss. Oversimplifying her failure, Hillary won’t admit that her chief strategist John D. Podesta completely miscalculated the 2016 election, focusing on locking up the minority vote over the vast forgotten silent majority. Hillary’s loss in traditionally democratic states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania directly relates to her assuming she had the white labor union vote, suffering because of the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA], shipping manufacturing jobs overseas or across the border.
Trump tapped into disenfranchised former union workers whose jobs were sacrificed by NAFTA and other trade agreements. Voters in Rust Belt states heard Trump’s message loud-and-clear: He intends to reestablish U.S. manufacturing jobs, preventing more companies from taking their business elsewhere. When Democrats hosted the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, TV viewers saw a party taken over by minorities. Watching ranting black preachers, Latino activists and Muslim clerics, voters in the Upper Midwest realized Hillary’s platform didn’t include them. Trump worked hard in states hard hit by NAFTA, promising a change. Whether voters get the change wanted, at least they had one candidate speaking their language. Hillary spent much of the $1 billion on negative attack ads against Trump, painting him as a racist, misogynist and sexist.
Comey’s Oct. 28 announcement that he was reopening Hillary’s email investigation played a minor part in her defeat. Rust Belt voters worried about working harder for less money since bad trade deals shipped off their good paying jobs. “When they go low, we go high,” became Hillary’s mantra borrowed from Michelle Obama. But when you really look at Hillary’s campaign, it almost exclusively focused on negative attack ads against Trump. Podesta badly miscalculated Poly-Sci 101 that negative campaigning eventually backfires. Podesta so badly demonized Trump during the campaign at least half the U.S. population thinks he’s the Devil-incarnate. Protests and riots around the country directly parrot Podesta’s talking points about Trump: That he’s a racist, misogynist, xenophobe, anti-Gay, sexist, hell-bent on destroying minorities’ Constitutional rights and civil liberties.
Responding to criticism about Trump considering old names for key White House positions, Kellyanne told Wallace that Trump couldn’t fill key positions with political novices. “Look, these are people who are talented and have done this before. You can’t just appoint novices, you have to have people who know what they’re doing . . “ said Conway, reassuring Wallace that the most important fact is that Trump isn’t beholden to anyone. After taking millions from the Saudis and the Gulf States into the Clinton Foundation, Hillary couldn’t be trusted to implement a foreign policy independent of political payback. Hillary’s 100% backing of the Saudi and Gulf State proxy war against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was directly tied to taking Saudi cash. Even President Barack Obama expects to receive millions from the Saudis and Gulf State to help fund his ambitions $2 billion presidential library.
Trump’s first real test of independent leadership comes soon when he picks his chief of staff. Conservatives in the House and Senate want Trump campaign Chairman Breitbart editor Stephan Bannon. If Trump picks Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus it will signal he’s not going to pander to conservatives in the House and Senate. Trump said many times his campaign was not about left or right, conservatives or liberals, but about doing what’s right for the American people. Judging by his high praise at the New York Hilton on Election Night for Reince, he’s got the edge to get the job. When there was talk of a GOP mutiny before the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Priebus paved the way for Trump’s nomination. Voters cheered at Trump rallies when he talked about the “dishonest” media. Voters expect Trump to fix the “rigged system,” especially the biased press.
