Sort of. There was actually a really great analysis on Trump's politics over the years (forget if it was an article or a video. I'll see if I can find it after work). But essentially, Trump was never really anything, and at best, you could identify not his ideology, but what party he was most closely aligned with, by following criticisms he gave over the decades and throughout his career. By doing this, the analysis' conclusion was quite interesting, and also showed that he likely was planning to eventually run for president his entire career.
So, what it basically showed was this: There's a fairly well known historical trend in American politics, where the opposition party typically wins an election after a 2 term president (not always, but almost always). So, 8 years of a republican means a democrat is most likely to win the next election. It makes sense as to why this happens, but delving into that now is irrelevant, as we're mostly just talking about Trump's party affiliation (but not his ideology, which has remained very consistent).
Trump, like many others, was aware of this historical trend. For him to run as president, his best bet would be to run during an election cycle following a president's second term. If we look at Trump's rhetoric and political commentary over the years, what we can observe most consistently, is that Trump was almost always critical of whatever party was in power (in the executive branch). This shows his long-term aspirations to run for president. He'd continually criticize the president, whether (R) or (D). This, effectively, set him up perfectly to run for president, as part of whatever party was not the party of the previous president. This became particularly true as he criticized Bush Jr., and then Obama, relentlessly, but he did this before W. as well. So really, Trump was neither D or R, but himself. MAGA party, if you will, with a political ideology that has remained very consistent over his career. But he also knew how the system operated, and that he'd have to hijack one of the two major parties in order to run a successful presidential campaign.
I think, while he always had it in the back of his mind to run, he finally knew for sure, and that it was time, sometime during the Obama admin, and thus, he'd be running as a republican. This set everything in motion for him to take control of the GOP, as he did. I'd like to go on more, but... well... damn TD.W really makes getting work done impossible lol
Sort of. There was actually a really great analysis on Trump's politics over the years (forget if it was an article or a video. I'll see if I can find it after work). But essentially, Trump was never really anything, and at best, you could identify not his ideology, but what party he was most closely aligned with, by following criticisms he gave over the decades and throughout his career. By doing this, the analysis' conclusion was quite interesting, and also showed that he likely was planning to eventually run for president his entire career.
So, what it basically showed was this: There's a fairly well known historical trend in American politics, where the opposition party typically wins an election after a 2 term president (not always, but almost always). So, 8 years of a republican means a democrat is most likely to win the next election. It makes sense as to why this happens, but delving into that now is irrelevant, as we're mostly just talking about Trump's party affiliation (but not his ideology, which has remained very consistent).
Trump, like many others, was aware of this historical trend. For him to run as president, his best bet would be to run during an election cycle following a president's second term. If we look at Trump's rhetoric and political commentary over the years, what we can observe most consistently, is that Trump was almost always critical of whatever party was in power (in the executive branch). This shows his long-term aspirations to run for president. He'd continually criticize the president, whether (R) or (D). This, effectively, set him up perfectly to run for president, as part of whatever party was not the party of the previous president. This became particularly true as he criticized Bush Jr., and then Obama, relentlessly, but he did this before W. as well. So really, Trump was neither D or R, but himself. MAGA party, if you will, with a political ideology that has remained very consistent over his career. But he also knew how the system operated, and that he'd have to hijack one of the two major parties in order to run a successful presidential campaign.
I think, while he always had it in the back of his mind to run, he finally knew for sure, and that it was time, sometime during the Obama admin, and thus, he'd be running as a republican. This set everything in motion for him to take control of the GOP, as he did. I'd like to go on more, but... well... damn TD.W really makes getting work done impossible lol
Sounds right on