{"id":33756,"date":"2018-11-24T00:02:47","date_gmt":"2018-11-24T00:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=33756"},"modified":"2018-11-24T00:18:38","modified_gmt":"2018-11-24T00:18:38","slug":"did-trump-really-believe-he-would-win-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=33756","title":{"rendered":"Did Trump really believe he would win in 2016?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/angry_trump_0.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-33034\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/angry_trump_0-300x207.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/angry_trump_0-300x207.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/angry_trump_0-768x529.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/angry_trump_0-1024x705.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/angry_trump_0.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m fairly deep into the &#8220;Fear,&#8221; the blockbuster book by Bob &#8220;Watergate Fame&#8221; Woodward.<\/p>\n<p>The book touches on a theme I keep encountering as I read analyses of Donald Trump&#8217;s administration, his winning campaign in 2016 and the slipshod way he assembled his White House team after he won the election.<\/p>\n<p>The theme is this: Trump didn&#8217;t actually expect to win the 2016 presidential election.<\/p>\n<p>Woodward refers to the surprise that voters delivered to the Republican presidential nominee on Election Night. Noting that surprise time and again throughout the book, I keep wondering: Why did Trump actually run for this office? Was it a business deal to end all business deals?<\/p>\n<p>I have noted in this blog that Trump &#8212; before becoming a politician &#8212; had spent his entire adult life seeking to attain personal wealth. He is the master of self-aggrandizement. Self-promotion is his MO. He is wired solely and exclusively to promote himself.<\/p>\n<p>How in the world does someone with that sort of makeup sincerely believe he is capable of assuming a job that requires him to take an oath to look out for the interests of others?<\/p>\n<p>I cannot possibly believe that such a man actually intends to set aside his entire adulthood existence for a life of public service. When I refer to &#8220;public service,&#8221; I intend to suggest that one who climbs into that arena is dedicated to others.<\/p>\n<p>Does the 45th president of the United States strike you as someone who fills that bill . . . or even <em>expected<\/em> to find himself in the role he now plays?<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m fairly deep into the &#8220;Fear,&#8221; the blockbuster book by Bob &#8220;Watergate Fame&#8221; Woodward. The book touches on a theme I keep encountering as I read analyses of Donald Trump&#8217;s administration, his winning campaign in 2016 and the slipshod way he assembled his White House team after he won the election. The theme is this: &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=33756\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Did Trump really believe he would win in 2016?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[74,696,1424,5635,3688,5246],"class_list":["post-33756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","tag-2016-election","tag-bob-woodward","tag-donald-trump","tag-fear","tag-potus","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33756"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33760,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33756\/revisions\/33760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}