This Donald Trump quote explains a whole lot

In an upcoming narrative about his time on workplace, previous Vice President Mike Pence states a discussion he had with Donald Trump.

Here’s the crucial bit, from an excerpt released in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday:.

” Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert and other Republican politicians had actually submitted a claim asking a federal judge to state that I had ‘unique authority and sole discretion’ to choose which electoral votes must count. ‘I do not wish to see ‘Pence Opposes Gohmert Match’ as a heading today,’ the president stated. I informed him I did oppose it. ‘If it provides you the power,’ he asked, ‘why would you oppose it?'”

” If it provides you the power, why would you oppose it?”.

If you had just one quote to comprehend Trump and how he sees the world, that would be a respectable one.

The only thing that matters to Trump is power– and how to wield it. He sees the world as an unrelenting defend power and control. The winners are individuals who take power– no matter the expense. There is no “ideal” in Trump’s worldview. There’s just what you can do– and who can attempt to stop you.

Which is precisely how Trump ran his presidency.

” When someone is the president of the United States, the authority is overall which’s the method it’s got to be,” he stated in April 2020 around efforts to raise limitations connected to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Trump routinely dealt with the federal government as his individual play thing. He grew disappointed when the Justice Department declined to pursue his individual vendettas. He described “my military” and “my generals.”.

In other words: The presidency was a significant power journey for somebody who has actually invested his life looking for to obtain and maintain simply that sort of power.

Which brings us back to the lead-up to January 6, 2021, and the pressure that Trump was offering on Pence.

For Trump, the only concern was whether somebody stated that Pence had the power to decline the Electoral College count. Not whether Pence in fact had that power under a little thing called the Constitution.

See Trump’s response to Pence’s persistence that he didn’t have the power to interrupt the electoral vote count from the book excerpt.

” You’re too truthful,” Trump informed Pence. “Numerous thousands are gon na dislike your guts. … Individuals are gon na believe you’re dumb.”.

See, in Trump’s conception, individuals who do not take power when the chance emerges are not clever. They are rubes who are benefited from by smart individuals– individuals like Trump.

Naturally, the serene transfer of power in a democracy is not the very same thing as some power play worldwide of company. The stakes are considerably greater.

Trump has actually never ever appeared to comprehend that truth.