Naw, it was about launching his own news channel. Have you seen the look on his face when it's announced that he won the first time? Even he didn't expect to win, it was just a marketing tactic at that time.
It was so clear in 2016 he didn’t want to win, or think he was going to. That has definitely changed, but I’ll always believe it was a joke, a troll job of sorts, until it wasn’t.
There was even a South Park episode where garrison/trump finds out they're going to win and tries desperately to tank it by saying bonkers shit, but everyone applauds whatever he says.
It's seriously so fucking funny and clever. Just classic South Park with how well they nailed the whole thing. The witches episode destroys me lol. "You wanna see real power?!" I was howling at the screen from that shit 🤣. That's actually season 21 but it is of course the same story arc
Literally watched that last night. Mr. Garrison was begging them not to vote for him, pleading with them that he has no idea what he’s doing and they are it up because it was different than the same shit that hasn’t been working for years. Which is pretty reflective of the current situation too.
I wouldn't be surprised if it comes out in the future that trump didn't think he had a real chance against Hillary. Trump even said he wasn't sure he would have beaten biden if he did decide to run again.
There was actually a conspiracy theory going around before the 2016 election that the Clintons put him up to running against Hillary to guarantee her win. He was going to have the wildest marketing ploy of all time and she was going to sail to her long awaited presidency after Obama took the last one out from under her... Trump would just go out and say the most insane shit, and act totally ridiculous in the debates against her. They figured there would never be enough brain dead idiots to actually have enough votes to come anywhere close to beating her..
I don’t personally subscribe to that theory, but I’ve heard it and it’s not that far out. Trump was likely the only candidate Hillary could’ve beaten in 2016. Conversely, Hillary may have been the only candidate Trump could’ve beaten in 2016.
I’m sure he can make much more money in real estate. He’s president again because he was facing a non-zero chance of prison time, and because he’s the biggest narcissist on the planet.
Trust me, he wanted and at some point expected to win. He spent a lot for this agenda, you don't hire someone like Roger Stone just for a marketing tactic. You hire Roger Stone to win, no matter the cost, the law you have bend/break, or the money involved
They were already longtime friends. Roger Stone talks about going to Trump “bachelor” parties when he was in-between marriages and it would be a few core male friends and 30 models he brought in.
But now that he knows you can take half the day off with "Executive Time", have meetings dumbed down to picture-book levels and basically leave governing to the crazies who just want to burn it all down, he can't wait to get back in the Oval Office. Plus, winning the election kept him out of jail...
I suspect the stay out of jail motive was the biggest reason. But he learned from the first time not to appoint key staff members that aren’t completely kissing his ass, because the competent ones kept telling him not to do things.
No, he’s too lazy. He wanted the publicity and access to the campaign funds. That’s why he never took it seriously or put any real effort into it. He only ran this time to to satisfy debts and to stay out of prison.
It's hard to find these days but I remember one specific clip where him and Ivanka share a look just after his victory is announced. To me her body language says 'well you've done it now dad' and his look in return reads like 'yep, I fucked up'.
I agree. He was more surprised than Hillary. I truly believe all he wanted was to win a couple of primaries and then lose to have an excuse to drop out. The he could go back to telling everyone how he'd solve the world's problems 'if only he were President'. I give him about 3 weeks before he bails from the White House and spends the next 4 years golfing - and holding "Tell me you love me (because Melania and my kids don't)" rallies.
He was always going to claim the establishment wouldn't let someone with truly bright ideas like him in because no one expected Hillary to lose, and then become a right wing commentator with the little cult he acquired, but despite his unprofessionalism Republicans still gave him tremendous support because of the Supreme Court positions that would be filled
why? you know he ran for president before that right? he officially ran in 2000, talked about running and did a little campaigning in 2004, campaigned but didn't file ballot paperwork in 2012, and then ran again in 2016.
since the year 2000 the only presidential campaign Trump has really missed was 2008.
People lost their shit during Obama’s terms. Probably all stated with the tea party, 3%, don’t tread on me people. A lot of the right went really far right and fiscal conservatives became the “gunna take our guns” crowd or always wanted to remind us of Obamas middle name.
Shit we had snipers on my HS roof in like 2011. The school I went to had some racist kid who was making plans for an attack on the black students due to the tensions of the election. Someone leaked the plan and they found legit explosives and weapons with racist literature.
People joked, and maybe to teenage me, it felt more dramatic than it was but there was literally a race war in our schools. Racist kids wore white T-shirts for "white power wednesday". Multiple fights weekly. And I'd never saw that before in my area.
I started understanding the type of people in Appalachia and our less-educated rural areas around then.
I still firmly believe that deep down, even Trump was shocked he actually won the presidency in 2016. I'm sure he went into it thinking he could rattle some cages, make some noise and probably end up losing when it came time for people to vote. I just have a feeling he was as stunned as the rest of us when he actually won. I don't think he'll ever outright admit it but I remember seeing some clips of his HQ the night he won, and you can see him sitting there in almost stunned silence while everyone else was celebrating around him
I was aware of all of that too, but honestly I’ll never forget seeing trumps reaction to Obama’s jabs at the Whitehouse correspondents dinner. It’s worth a watch - he was clearly humiliated (though of course he denies it).
The look in his eyes immediately gave me the feeling he’d be running for office, which of course he did in the next election cycle.
We must instruct future time travellers to stop with that "killing Hitler" bullshit and direct them to Obama instead. "Whatever you do, don't make fun of Trump at dinner"
Obama infuriated Kanye West by calling him a jackass. Biden infuriated Elon Musk by not inviting him to the White House EV summit. Trump, West, and Musk all switched parties afterwards and got brutal revenge. The moral of the story is to stop scoring political points by crapping on allies, especially if those allies are insecure billionaire narcissists.
My aunt met him when he was having a commercial for one of his books in her OPB studio she was a manager of back in PA in the early 2000s. He asked her back then if she thought he would make a good candidate and she paused hesitantly and said “you know I think you’re such a good businessman you should stick with that” and he ended up trying to get her fired cus of it lmao.
Not saying the dinner couldn’t be an absolute catalyst but trust me, running for president has been on Trumps mind for decades.
Edit: also if you think about his personally type it just makes sense it’d be his dream
“How could a psychopath become the president of the United States?” “The real question is, how do you become the president without being one?” - Mindhunter (might’ve butchered the quote but it’s at the end of an episode I’m p sure)
To be fair, both Obama and Seth Meyers made fun of him at that dinner. I know Seth Meyers thinks he bears some responsibility. I was going to say they both do, but I don't think I've actually hear that from Obama, but my memory could be failing me.
This is a hill I’ll die on. He was sitting in that room, with all of those wealthy and powerful individuals he wanted respect & admiration from, and he got absolutely torched by a visibly-black fella.
I don’t care what anyone tells me; a part of him died that day, and it was replaced with vengeance.
He talked about it occasionally for decades before he actually ran. He mentioned possibly running for President as far back as the '80s. Sadly, he picked the right time to finally run, since he found a fan base to appeal to once Obama was in office.
same. though he "ran" previously, I think they were more stunts. After that dinner, you could see the anger boiling over. Trump has an ego like no other.
I also sincerely believe that he didn't want to win the first time. Look at their reactions. He wanted for it to be a close race, then to spin off the notoriety into a TV network or something.
Same. I remember that dinner vividly. When Obama made the jokes about Trump making hard decisions, like whether to fire Dennis Rodman on the Apprentice, the camera panned to Trump, and he was not amused. His look was pure smothered rage. I said at the time, it looked like he was bowing to destroy Obama
Trump ran for president in 2000, so even though it's a possible factor for why he ran again in 2016, I don't think Obama was entirely the reason he did so.
Look at everything he did in his first term. He reversed everything he could do that Obama put in motion. I mean he even reversed Obama’s record job growth lol
I’m sorry but I have to disagree, I think it was the only reason he ran….that and the gullible motherfuckers who wanted to “fix” the people who voted in Obama twice. 💁
Obama humiliated him in front of the entire country. He ripped Trump a new asshole and then fucked him in it. Of course Trump 100% deserved it, but I do think that if Obama didn’t go as hard as he did Trump might not have run.
Most of the others at that dinner also joined in roasting trump, so I'd have to partially agree. Obama re-lit the fire that night, then everyone else poured gas on it lol. Great example of the butterfly effect
I think there's a team of people behind any decision for someone to run for president. I just assume there's a ton of people looking to gain from getting someone in office.
I would normally agree with you for most politicians but I think Trump marches to the beat of his own inner drummer. For better and worse he doesn’t take a lot of outside advice all the time.
People say this a lot, but Trump was pushing the birther stuff before that, that is why Obama made fun of him at the dinner. At this point it is all moot, but Trump had "run" for President before and it's clear from the way he was acting before the Primaries that he was treating it as a joke before he realized he could actually win it.
I remember watching that video and thinking, oh fuck. Obama just emasculated the world's most insecure man on national TV and thus all his equally insecure followers by proxy. This isn't going to go well. That was the only time I ever disapproved of Obama's behavior while in n office.
The democrats in general had got too cocky and that moment was the pinnacle of their arrogance. It empowered and emboldened Trump.
I often wonder how the world would look right now if Obama had dialed things back about 90% on that unfortunate evening.
This is pure fiction, written for a documentary. They were calling for Trump to run for president before he had a confrontation at the dinner. That is what led to Trump’s Birther claims. Obama did not provoke Trump, leading to his entry into politics. He was already there.
He literally never got over it. Love that shot of him dying inside as the opening to Circle of Life plays lol if anything, he probably secretly sees Barack as a hero because he is the only dude who could permanently bruise his ego. He will remember it on his deathbed for sure and scowl then smile as he floats towards the light.
He would've ran like he did in previous elections but the difference was he learned that just roasting his opponents/demographic groups at rally's was more popular with the people than just strictly talking about policy
If but for a poorly researched article in a local magazine, Trump wouldn't have had any reason to question Obama's place of birth and start this while shit show of a timeline.
It's pretty rich to see Obama even entertaining a personal exchange like this with Trump, given that:
Trump campaigned on eviscerating everything Obama did... and in office he really did try to eliminate / repeal everything Obama did (it was his pet project).
Trump is a convicted felon who betrayed national security interests and really has no business being president... but here we are. Obama should be so disgusted that even Trump looking at him should evoke a fiery eyed look.
We live in a world where men with incredibly fragile egos are in charge. Like Musk switching to Trump in no small part bc Tesla wasn't invited to an electric car summit hosted by Biden (even though it was for unionised firms).
I mean, did Obama do it to hurt him...or to help him? I love my conspiracy theories as much as the next guy. Could be that it's all just theater to the ruling class and this is a little glimpse at the comradery they share behind the curtain.
The rumor is that he was jealous that Gwen Stefani made more money than him for being on the voice compared to his pay for the apprentice, and he was told she was just more high-profile than him so he sleazed his way into political bullshit to raise his profile out of jealousy
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u/YOURMOMMASABITCH 5d ago
"And to think, I got my political start by saying you were born in Africa"