Steve Schmidt explains the rise & inevitable fall of Donald Trump

7:04PM Aug 28, 2023

Speakers:

Steve Schmidt

Keywords:

people

trump

american

millions

america

americans

deliver

country

donald trump's

american democracy

talks

state

result

trump phenomenon

crisis

malice

accusations

expectations

stands

tens

There are many people in America who stand in opposition to Donald Trump, but still don't understand him. They don't understand the appeal. They don't understand the people in their own families who vote for Donald Trump, despite being against everything that he stands for in the conduct of their own personal lives. They don't understand why decent people are attached to the malice, to the insanity, to the complete and total imbecility and idiocy that flows from his mouth every day. They don't comprehend why these people who they know, who they work with, their neighbors, good people, some of them who voted for Barack Obama will not walk away from a man who faces 91 felony accusations. Why is that? During this election cycle, tens and tens of millions of dollars will be spent on polling. The airwaves and the Internet will be filled with data scientists. Everybody will have their models and their predictions. And once again, as we head into 2024, they will likely be wrong. They don't have their fingers on the pulse of the American people, and they don't understand the Trump phenomenon. The defining issue of our time is the total and complete collapse of trust between the American people and almost every institution you can think to name. The United States military for a very long time was immune from this trend, but recently, it has become susceptible. This is the fruit of Donald Trump's incessant attacks on the American Armed Forces and Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley. It is the result of all their smears, all their lies, all their silly accusations of "wokeness." The impact is most seen amongst Republican voters. So now, the military joins other institutions in a freefall of trust. The crisis facing American democracy, at its core, is a crisis of faith and belief. At the beginning, our founding fathers talked often about faith and belief, but also happiness. They believed that happiness was deeply linked to the concept of freedom, and that within a happy society, the people must be free to pick their leaders. This is elemental to the American way of life. Most Americans understand this. Most Americans wouldn't abide a dictator, a tyrant, somebody who proclaimed themselves emperor or king. They'd be laughed at and mocked. So why is it tolerated by so many tens of millions of Americans who place their hand over their hearts and say the Pledge of Allegiance or sing the Star Spangled Banner with fervor and conviction? How can they support a man who denied an election result and staged a coup? It's very simple. When you look at the polling, it explains why. There are no expectations for millions of Americans that government will deliver anything for them. Who are these people? Well, among them are the 60% of the population that lives paycheck to paycheck. Remember, 40% of the country does not have $400 cash available for a state of emergency. They hear the promises, but nothing in their life ever changes when gasoline nears $6 a gallon. Middle class people in America don't believe the economy is good for them. We're at a hinge in American life. The labor movement's ascendancy and resurgence is proof of that. The strikes that are taking place are meaningful and important because they speak to the very nature of work and foster dignity of the citizen in the 21st century. But what happens when people no longer have an expectation that anything will happen? Once expectations are bottomed out and fall to zero, someone like Trump can rise. Because what Trump is, at the end of the day, is a philosopher. He's a philosopher of "fuck you-ism." The philosophy of "fuck you-ism" is very simple to understand. Tens and tens of millions of Americans who have lost faith, who believe that the game is rigged, there is one set of rules for the people at the top, and one set of rules for everyone else. Among them, there are the millions and millions of Americans who lost homes after the financial collapse of 2008, while not a single Wall Street executive went to prison. Their only hope is that somebody from somewhere will deliver the only thing that they think they can count on. They just want someone to say, "Fuck you!" to the people they hold responsible for wrecking their American dream, and they feel utterly powerless. How does Trump deliver for that? Again, they're not looking for policy results. They don't believe them. Even when something as grand as Biden's infrastructure Act is passed, they're so poisoned by the billion-dollar propaganda machine that surrounds the empire of MAGA malice that they don't believe a word of it. The only thing they see is the reaction by the people that they hate, by the people that they think condescend to them, disrespect them and ignore them. Yes. I am talking about you, American media. What they want to say is those people antagonized what they hope to see and what they laugh about, is how they react to Trump. Every day Trump delivers his "fuck you," and the people cheer. Why? It's not in their interest. It's not in their country's interest. This is the cost of cynicism, the cost of disillusionment, when the only thing that millions and millions of people look for can count on from their political leadership in their country is to deliver a "fuck you." When you reach that point, and we have, we're in a crisis. Trump is part of the crisis. Trump is a threat, and the greatest danger to American democracy. But politics in America is downstream from American culture. A healthy society does not produce a President Trump. A sick, decaying and rotten one does. These things happen in democracies, mistakes are made, as it is said. But in the end, the next election is the one that matters. Because there's nothing new to learn about Trump. We know what he is. We know what he stands for. We know that he means it when he talks about a platform of retribution and revenge. He does not have enough people in this country to support him to be elected, unless there are enough people who are apathetic enough to weigh in with their indifference. And then maybe, just maybe, he can achieve the small majority he needs to take power for the very last time. Then there will be chaos. There will be mayhem in American society. The job of American politicians, whether they be at a local, county, state or federal level, is to serve the public interest and to do it in a way that is consistent with American law and the Constitution of the United States. Donald Trump's betrayal of that document, betrayed also our history Our story

and sacrifices that beggar the imagination over 250 years. What he did was immoral. It was appalling, but nothing he did could have been done without the appalling, utterly despicable cowardice of nearly every single elected Republican at a federal, state, county and local level, everywhere across America through 50 states of the Union.