Theories Why Trump Openly Shows No Interest In Actually Governing

Martin Longman picks up on a theme I brought up earlier this year, theorizing that Trump wants to win but has absolutely no interest in governing. Longman backs his thoughts up by referencing a New York Times interview where Trump was asked whether he would actually serve as President if he won the election. This is not a typical question for the presumptive nominee of a major party but, then again, we are dealing with Trump. Trump’s truly shocking answer was, “I’ll let you know how I feel about it after it happens.” He apparently made no effort to clarify that statement. As Longman points out, it’s taking a pretty bold step to hint that you won’t serve even before you’ve become the official Republican nominee. Longman goes on to state, “I think this show was a lot more fun for Trump when he was leading in the polls and he wasn’t responsible for anyone else’s fate. Maybe, consciously or unconsciously, he actually wants to have the nomination wrested away from him in Cleveland. That’ll make him much more of a martyr than a loser, or at least he might feel that he can spin it that way.” While I don’t disagree with Longman about Trump’s disinterest in governing, I think he is playing a different game with these comments. He is desperately searching for a Vice President with at least some credentials. Just in the last two days, Bob Corker and Joni Ernst have dropped out of the running. What better way to entice a potential VP than by hinting that you may actually decide to not serve as President. In fact, some of the named VP potentials apparently are only interested because they don’t believe he can last as President, either through disinterest or through Mitch McConnell’s “constitutional constraints“. But you have to be a pretty narcissistic fool to believe that a guy with as big an ego as Trump will actually go away quietly. Then again, they are politicians.