April 15, 2011

Donald Trump on Obama "He's a terrible president. I think he's gonna go down as the worst president ever, frankly."

"I used to say that about Jimmy Carter but I think he's gonna be surpassed. But I think that the one thing he is, he's a good campaigner. He just campaigns well. If you ask me about Obama, the only thing he does well is campaign."

That was on the Rush Limbaugh show today. Trump also said:
I'm a Republican, but if I had my choice of running or having Obama... be a great president, the greatest president ever, I'd be so happy for the country.  But he's not a great president.  He won't be a great president.  He doesn't have the capability to be a great president, and the world is laughing. We're like a joke.  As a country, we're becoming like a joke.  Everybody is ripping us off....

There's one theory that he wants to destroy the country and create a socialistic country. There is that theory, and I've read a lot.  This isn't necessarily my theory.  I personally think they're incompetent....
I cannot imagine Trump getting the nomination, but he is on track to do a lot of damage to Obama... and perhaps to the other Republican candidates. And Rush Limbaugh is into helping him. After the interview, Rush talked about the email that was coming in:
[B]oth of these people that sent me these e-mails said: "Are you aware of what you're doing here?  I mean, you have Trump on some time ago and he's doing okay in the polls and he shoots up and he shoots up. Every time you have Trump on, he goes higher and higher and higher in the polls!  Do you know what you're doing here?"  
Rush is into this Trump thing, enough that he is taking credit for it. A little subtly — reading email — but not that subtly.

53 comments:

Synova said...

I can see how Rush would like having Trump on his show. It's win-win for both of them.

Also... my vote is for incompetence rather than malice or even just thinking that a socialist country is better.

Unknown said...

Trump is doing a great thing here for the GOP, and I hope it's some grand conspiracy. He's drawing Obama out, and Obama is making all these ridiculous statements like "the president was born in Hawaii" and generally providing lots of sound bites. I hope Trump loses to someone really great like Ryan/Rubio/Whoever when the time comes.

Punching down. Barack falls for it every time.

Harry said...

I cannot imagine Trump getting the nomination, but he is on track to do a lot of damage to Obama... and perhaps to the other Republican candidates.

Is Trump going to do the other Republican candidates a lot of damage by forcing them to actually talk about the many bad policies Obama has put forward as president, rather than being polite like John McCain, who wouldn't consider bringing up anything truly damaging?

Unknown said...

I'd like to see more people talk up the economic nationalism he pushes on shows like Cavuto, but there's enough weird in Little Zero's backstory, somebody should be making some noise about it.

But I agree with Ann. He won't get the nod. I think this is just for his amusement and the fact he loves the attention.

Freeman Hunt said...

Right now Trump is a daisy cutter that's landed on Obama untouchability.

Rush should be pleased.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Trump is like a free opinion poll for Obama's opponents. They can just follow Trump around, and take notes on what issues do bigtime damage to the President.


Trump also sounds a bit like a grumpy old nationalist "hey you chinese kids- get the hell off of my lawn".

gk1 said...

I was thinking that Trump must be doing some dollar and cents damage to obama's polls as he's responding to Trump and trying to "help" the republican's see they are only hurting themselves. President douchebag will be polling in the 30's by next year.

Anonymous said...

The hope is that Trump finally says that one thing that gets under uhbuhmuh's skin and gets the guy to come undone, just fly off the handle or otherwise lose it on camera. Obama is so assured of his incandescent awesomeness, that he won't abide Trump's brassy New York style forever.

Go Trump! Keep firing away.

J Lee said...

On the other hand, Mark Levin has been tearing into Donald Trump's conservative bonafides over the past couple of days, and he and Limbaugh rarely if ever are at odds on how they view major political issues or key politicians. So my guess is by next week, you're going to start seeing Rush taking a more skeptical line towards Trump (though not as hostile as the position Levin's been taking), even if he continues to enjoy Trump's attacks on Obama.

David said...

Obama will (should?) ignore Trump.

Only when he starts to respond to Trump will we have anything significant.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Althouse: I cannot imagine Trump getting the nomination

But can you imagine yourself voting for him? I can.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Trump has the outside the Beltway bonafides so I agree with Jason.

Kovacs said...

Rush and Trump are a match made in repulsive rich vulgarian heaven, that's for sure.

AST said...

I think of Obama as having the the ineptness of Jimmy Carter and the strategic skills of LBJ.

PaulV said...

Obama promotes himself.
Trump promotes himself.
I am skeptical.

WV: outedu

outed u?

Carol_Herman said...

Well, if you don't like Trump, then, perhaps you'll like the way the New York times is run?

CLUE: INTO THE GROUND!

The only reason Trump is gaining is that Chris Cristie said he wasn't read to run, yet. And, the field is wide open!

Mitt Romney?

Do you know what happened to Meg Whitman? Meg Whitman earned BILLIONS. Running for governor in California, to her, was like buying a box of chocolate! The republican elite inmates ... when they hear a candidate is gonna pay "fer da whole thing," line up like men at a whore house who heard the entertainment inside was FREE.

Trump has caught the WAVE. He did not make the waves happen. A lot of unhappy people, who voted in November, saw clowns in DC. Instead of any serious business getting done.

Palin's not living rent-free in the bamster's head, anymore.

james said...

Given the precedent, another vanity president may need more than just a Nobel Peace Prize to induce him to deign to the office. Will Trump also need the Physics Prize and an option to be the next pope?

Synova said...

I think that people polling for Trump are angry.

I think that a whole lot of people are profoundly angry at some level, if they realize it or they don't. They're angry when they put over $60 in the car and then remember that what they're supposed to do is buy a new one instead. They're angry because they don't like their job but they know they can't quit. They feel trapped. They feel powerless. Even the joy of a job and being able to meet the family's needs is turned into something hopeless and oppressive because looking ahead doesn't look like anything but more of the same slog.

Lucius said...

Trump is giving us the hell-raising anti-Obama campaign we want to see in mid-2012, *today*, and that's why he's getting irresisitible to watch.

No doubt Trump's 'candidacy' will fade (or not?!) but regardless--he's scratching a major itch for someone in the public eye to take on Obama.

Whether there's something deeper-- some kind of psy-op campaign to see just what truly rankles Obama in the depths of his free-floating soul, who knows.

Trump had some very unkind things to say about the Dubya administration, which is fine by me. I hardly think he's a party ideologue, but I'm sure he's sincere in his contempt for Obama and his cronies. So let's here it from him.

Lucius said...

--Or 'hear', you know . . . . Just keep talking, Trumpster. Who else have I got to listen to right now?

(Oh, so Sarah's comin' to Madison, is she?!)

RuyDiaz said...

Trump is plagiarizing himself. He used the 'worst President ever' routine on Bush.

MaggotAtBroad&Wall said...

Trump is no Republican. The blog GOP12.com reported today he's given more money to Charlie Rangel than any other candidate since 1990. In the past, he gave to Chuck Schumer, Joe Biden and Ted Kennedy. He even gave money to Harry Reid in the 2010 cycle!

I can't figure out why he's suddenly pretending to be a hard core conservative when it's obvious from his donations he's not. I agree with the emailers to Rush. Rush is turning off some of his listeners by allowing Trump to parade around as a faux conservative spouting the birther nonsense.

Jason (the commenter) said...

RuyDiaz: Trump is plagiarizing himself. He used the 'worst President ever' routine on Bush.

Bush gave us Obama. I'm not put off by someone having said bad things about Bush. It's so much better than the rest of the Republican party, who were only too happy (privately) that he didn't show at the last Republican National Convention.

KCFleming said...

These are seriously bad times if Trump is even being remotely considered.

It's close to running a fictional TV character.

Jason (the commenter) said...

Pogo: It's close to running a fictional TV character.

Will the fictional character not veto budget cuts? I'll vote for them.

Methadras said...

I don't know why Rush is into Trump right now outside of using him as a prop against Erkle. I don't trust Trump at all and never have, especially considering that just a few months ago he donated large sums of cash to Democrat operatives.

KCFleming said...

I'm holding out for Jessica Rabbit.

Personal reasons.

Anonymous said...

It's a year and a half to the election, Althouse.

Let a full dialogue play out. It isn't time yet to crush political dialogue down to the bland nothingness we can expect from the final two candidates left standing.

Respectable dialogue be damned.

I hope Trump continues to stretch the boundaries of the debate.

EnigmatiCore said...

Trump speaking of Obama on Rush. What a clown show-- a triple, even! Let's just add the trifecta of Olbermann critiquing Beck's opinion of Gore while we are at it.

The Crack Emcee said...

AJ Lynch,

Trump also sounds a bit like a grumpy old nationalist "hey you chinese kids- get the hell off of my lawn".

Well, at least he likes "the blacks". Is it just me, or are the Chinese kids catching a lot of flack right now? And which Chinese kids are we talking about?

I'm so confused,...

Revenant said...

Neither Carter nor (thus far) Obama, nor Bush before him, is anywhere near being the worst President in American history.

Freeman Hunt said...

Oh, we're supposed to be talking about Trump as a real candidate? I don't think he has any intention of being that. He's great in this current role.

Freeman Hunt said...

As for donations to Democrats, you see that from a lot of people who run large businesses. Arkansas is certainly like that. If you're doing business that is easily affected by government decisions, you give to everybody. It's leave-me-alone money.

Alex said...

I listened to the segment that Rush had Trump on and was VERY disappointed. Trump kept ranting about how the Chinese are ripping us off left & right. Apparently he wants some form of protectionism and Rush never challenged him on that. I thought Rush was a 100% free-trader.

bagoh20 said...

I'm not reading a lot of compelling rebuttals to Trump's points. Lots of personal attacks unrelated to his arguments. He's doing the press's job, but then again who isn't now days..., I mean besides the press themselves.

William said...

I would consider Obama as unsuccessful rather than catastrophic. That's what bugs me. Obama has not yet experienced his epic, defining moment of failure, but you just know it's out there. He's like the corporal who shows pictures of his wife and kids in a combat movie. You just know what's coming.......Trump is crass and shameless. He has never promoted anything except himself. Any society that would accept Trump as its leader deserves Obama as its President.

rhhardin said...

Rush's point, made to the milquetoast Republican establishment, is that the campaigner who takes the debate to Obama wins.

Revenant said...

I'm not reading a lot of compelling rebuttals to Trump's points.

I would have to actually pay attention to what he's saying first, and I'm unwilling to make that sacrifice.

Anonymous said...

"Every time you have Trump on, he goes higher and higher and higher in the polls! Do you know what you're doing here?"

Of course Rush knows what he's doing ... he's tapping into the zeitgeist.

Rush has always been out in front of mainstream Republicans too prissy and country club to actually get down in the dirt and punch their opponent twice as hard.

Democrats count on Republicans thinking they're above a street fight. It's how Obama rolled John Boehner in the budget negotiations. Obama is WILLING to shut down the government and Boehner isn't. Boehner is going to blink and Obama just has to sit back and laugh until Boehner blinks.

But Trump is different. He's not an "establishment" Republican. He's a winner and a fighter and a tactician. Democrats don't even want to debate him because they know he won't fold up like a cheap suit - ala Boehner.

Rush is going to give Trump as much airtime as possible because Republicans need a lesson in how to take down a powerful psychopath.

You do that by getting in his face and crushing the fuck out of him. He'll blink.

They always blink if you stand up to them.

Anonymous said...

Trump is hoisting Obama by his own Alinsky rule #5 petard.

"Ridicule is man's most potent weapon."

What was good for the goose during the last presidential election, has now become sauce for the gander.

We already see that Obama cannot abide ridicule, another year of Trumps sniping and Barry will be in schoolyard verbal fights across the spectrum.

Carry on Donald.

Fen said...

Is Trump going to do the other Republican candidates a lot of damage by forcing them to actually talk about the many bad policies Obama has put forward as president, rather than being polite like John McCain, who wouldn't consider bringing up anything truly damaging?

No kidding. If the GOP is going to fail, I'd rather it was from over-reaching than passive mistakes.

We still have a batch of "conservatives" that prefer to compromise on their compromises for a chance to enter to win a better table at Martha's Vineyard.

Fen said...

"oh oh oh! Can you put us next to Lindsey and Hillary?"

virgil xenophon said...

Ut, NYTNYorker and Fen are on a roll with this line of thinking.

The reason (or one of the larger ones) the Dims hated Regan is that he didn't give a tinkers damn about being invited to all the "right" salon parties in D.C. and NYC. It's not that he was overtly hostile, he just didn't care--the worst possible insult imaginable to the self-important lefty DC establishment. Worse, it also meant they had no psychic leverage over him.

wv: prosp------> what we will be on the road to if we can jettison Obama and elect a true conservative.

DADvocate said...

my vote is for incompetence rather than malice

Even if there's malice, incompetence is Obama's greater quality.

Will Trump also need the Physics Prize

Trump could win the Physics Prize just for his hairstyle.

If you're doing business that is easily affected by government decisions, you give to everybody. It's leave-me-alone money.

That's pretty much what Trump said on Hannity the other day. Where he lives and primarily does business is heavily Democratic. He wants favorable consideration.

The reason (or one of the larger ones) the Dims hated Regan is that he didn't give a tinkers damn about being invited to all the "right" salon parties in D.C. and NYC.

Yep. Trump could care less about impressing any of the political "elites." No matter what happens his life will go on and he'll be richer, more famous and more powerful than any one of those guys. Plus, Trump doesn't count on public opinion for his success. Don't like him? Fine, he'll just go make another billion and get a new hot wife.

damikesc said...

People want a blunt man in office. Somebody who will say what he believes clearly. And, on the GOP side, the only doing so IS Trump. If Pawlenty went there, it'd help him immensely. Ditto Daniels.

AllenS said...

Plus, Trump's choice in women is better than obamas.

Phil 314 said...

Trump has demonstrated his bonafides to be
an American Idol judge.

zeitgeist
Didn't we agree not to use that word anymore?

Big Mike said...

Trump is not going to win the nomination and Rush knows it. It's possible even Trump knows it.

But both are having a lot of fun with this, and Trump -- whose poll number virtually force Obama to respond -- can afford to raise issues and say things that "serious" candidates feel, rightly or wrongly, that they cannot afford to say themselves.

As Synova said last night, it's a win-win for both of them, to which I'll add that it's nothing but a dead total loss for Obama.

themightypuck said...

FDR and LBJ have to way worse than Obama to your movement conservative types. They built the sundae. All Obama did was put the cherry on top.

Anonymous said...

Trump's choice in women is better than obamas.

He's had a couple of chances to get it right. Obama still has time.

Original Mike said...

"If you ask me about Obama, the only thing he does well is campaign."

That about sums it up.

Moneyrunner said...

The problem with most of the Republican wanna bees is that they are desperately seeking respectability. Rick Moran and Peggy Noonan both wrote pieces advising Republicans how to be respectable. Donald is not following that aadvice, that's why he's rising so fast in the polls.

More here: http://moneyrunner.blogspot.com/2011/04/desperately-seeking-respectability.html

Alex said...

The problem with most of the Republican wanna bees is that they are desperately seeking respectability.

Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio?