Tossing Off

The man who said he doesn't toss people aside has tossed aside his campaign manager. Donald Trump fired Corey Lewandowski yesterday.

Lewandowski has been by Trump's side since he entered the Presidential race and has on many occasions been embroiled in controversy, including roughing up a female journalist. Trump refused to get rid of his right hand man, no matter what other people said.

For months it has been rumored that Trump's children have not been pleased with Lewandowski's influence on their father and it appears their influence was what brought on this firing. According to certain reports Lewandowski had been trying to undermine Ivanka Trump's husband and one thing is clear, don't mess with Ivanka.

Politicians firing campaign managers is pretty routine and not very interesting. In this case it is particularly meaningless. Lewandowski himself had made it clear that he had not been in charge of the campaign since April 7th.

Trump liked Lewandowski because he embraced all that Trump is and believed firmly in letting Trump be Trump. The truth is Trump will continue to be Trump and all that entails. He is incapable of following the advice of others because in his opinion he is always the smartest man in the room. The definition of insanity is repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different outcome. Donald Trump keeps doing the same thing.

Everything he does is for the purpose of basking in the glory of hearing his own name. He has used his campaign to promote his businesses and to talk about his many lawsuits. In the Trump University fraud cases he has tried to suggest Obama conspired with the New York Attorney General to go after him, despite the fact the case began before he declared his Presidential campaign. He then spent days smearing a federal judge for his Mexican heritage. The judge is presiding over one of the Trump U cases being litigated in California.

The Trump campaign is essentially broke. A few days ago they sent out an emergency letter to donors stating they needed to raise $100,000 by midnight. In the world of Presidential politics $100,000 is chump change. Why didn't the alleged self funder just give the campaign the money. The answer of course is that he has never been a self funding candidate. He has loaned his campaign money but never given. He is not financially capable of self funding his campaign for two reasons, he's too cheap and more importantly he doesn't have the necessary liquidity. Trump believes he can win the Presidency with earned free media and he won't have to raise much money. Now there's a report that twenty percent of the campaign's spending is going to Trump businesses, what a shock.

Trump is engaged in a monumental game of salesmanship using every technique in the book. Avarice, envy and fear are not just words, they are key to making the sale. Over the top rhetoric and the imagery of shiny objects keep the potential buyer from asking the important questions and making a truly informed decision. "The Art of the Deal" is not just a book he wrote in the eighties, it is his bible, the sacred text of the cult of Trump.

Caveat emptor is appropriate advice, unfortunately if enough people are convinced to make this purchase, we will all suffer the consequences.