Trump has again shaken up his staff. He now has had as many campaign managers as he has had wives. He previously parted ways with Corey Lewandowski, then with Paul Manafort. Now Kellyanne Conway has taken command of this "huuge" ship of state-- perhaps a vessel more like the Titanic or "Ship of Fools," rather than the "Good Ship Lollypop" image that the Trump camp is attempting to project.
Smart Republicans are jumping ship, some for political reasons and others for moral motives. My advice to Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and Reince Priebus is to get in a life boat while seats are still available-- save yourself from this shipwreck.
Or is Trump really changing? Kellyanne Conway has launched a new Trump-Lite to make him look more "presidential." Gone is the orange spray tan, make-up, or whatever Halloween substance he had on his face. Now he uses the Teleprompters that he previously ridiculed, and is out seeking big donors, something he formerly bragged he didn't need or want.
And a couple days ago, Trump apologized (sort of), telling a crowd at a rally in North Carolina, "Sometimes, in the heat of debate and speaking on a multitude of issues, you don't choose the right words or you say the wrong thing. I have done that, and I regret it, particularly where it may have caused personal pain. Too much is at stake for us to be consumed with these issues."
However, Trump followed that ambiguous mea culpa with "But one thing I can promise you is this: I will always tell you the truth." Of course, that statement was itself a lie. You just can't keep up with this guy.
In fact, in December of 2015, Pulitzer Prize winning PolitiFact named him the worst lying presidential candidate, stating they have "been documenting Trump's statements on our Truth-O-Meter, where we've rated 76 percent of them Mostly False, False or Pants on Fire, out of 77 statements checked. No other politician has as many statements rated so far down on the dial." The same month Factcheck.org named him the "King of Whoppers"
The coup de grâce of Trump playing president was Friday when he and his current Vice Presidential candidate Mike Pence went to flood ravished Louisiana, unabashedly using the flood victims to promote Trump as looking presidential. He did this even though Louisiana Governor Jon Bel Edwards didn't want politicians showboating there. A spokesman for the Governor reportedly stated, "We welcome him to LA but not for a photo-op. Instead we hope he'll consider volunteering or making a sizable donation to the LA Flood Relief Fund to help the victims of the storm."
And Friday Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway told ABC News, "It's also presidential today to have him and Governor Pence going to Louisiana in a decidedly nonpolitical event, no press allowed, going to help people on the ground who are in need."
What? "Nonpolitical?" Ha! If not political, why did Trump chastise President Obama for not yet going. "No press allowed?" How did we all see it if no press was allowed? And what did they do to help people on the ground? Trump was seen in Louisiana signing his autograph on his hats, t-shirts, and other paraphernalia-- but did anyone a catch glimpse of him signing a donation check?
Trump may pretend to be presidential, but that doesn't make him so. There's an old saying "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig." Oink Oink.