Where Chris Christie Goes, So Goes the Donald

Governor Chris Christie was the prototype for Donald Trump. Brash and unfiltered, he said what he thought and didn't care if hurt people's feelings. He was abrupt, impolite, arrogant, self-assured, and loud-mouthed. And the people loved it. For a while.

But when it became obvious that he was just another self-serving dickhead who didn't give a damn about who he hurt to get what he wanted (Bridgegate, for example), the luster wore off and his standing in the polls plummeted.

Now, with photos of Christie sunning himself on the same beach he closed to the rest of New Jersey's citizens, his popularity has fallen to new lows. He shut down the government -- and all state parks -- to force Democrats to pass a bill that would let him skim "excess" reserve funds from the state's largest health insurance company.

Donald Trump is following the same arc as Christie. His approval rating is deeply negative, though he still holds great appeal to the racist and misogynist elements of the American public. After Trump's sincerely stupid comments about Mika Brzezinski many Republican politicians have stopped defending him. Each time Trump shows what a total jerk he is, it becomes easier and easier for Republican politicians to defect from the Trump camp without fear of repercussions.

Trump likes to think that his followers would never desert him, not even if he shoots someone on Fifth Avenue. But that's false.

The thing that Trump voters really hate is that liberals think they're stupid. They hate politicians who think they know more than the voters. This was the big knock against Hillary: she thinks she knows so much.

But Hillary never said she knew more than they did. It's just that when she talks, they hated her voice. She just seems to know too much. She's got a lot of experience and knows there's more to health care policy and international affairs than jingoistic soundbites.

But Trump loves soundbites. They're easy for him to remember. And they get applause from Republican crowds that just want to hear their preconceptions reinforced.

While Hillary never said she was so smart, Donald Trump did. He constantly praised himself, saying he has a very good brain, he has the best words, and how stupid the other politicians are. He bragged about his uncle, as if had could inherit intelligence from his father's brother (maybe Trump knew something his father didn't?). “My uncle used to tell me about nuclear before nuclear was nuclear,” Trump said, clearly illustrating that he remembered nothing "nuclear" that his uncle told him.

To see what Trump really thinks about the people who support him, look at Trump University. Trump U depended on the fact that people who like the Trump brand are suckers. They were losers who had been conned by scam that gave them absolutely nothing for tens of thousands of dollars. They were lectured by phonies who knew zero about real estate and who had never even met Trump.

By settling with his victims, Trump admitted that the whole thing was a con. The settlement was an explicit acknowledgment that the people who attended his "university" were suckers and losers who would pay for any piece of crap that had "Trump" stamped on it.

Trump's fatal flaw is that he inevitably turns on everyone who has anything to do with him, because they will inevitably disappoint him by not stroking his ego hard enough.

It's hard to know when or how this will happen, but it'll probably start when Trump voters begin feeling the pain that Trump's reckless style of governing will inevitably inflict upon them.
Trump's voters will realize his promises to keep jobs in the United States are hollow, and his health plan will cost Trump voters much more and deliver much less than Obamacare does, while giving giant tax cuts to millionaires.

His poll numbers among core Republican constituencies will start to falter, and he'll lash out at them, the way he always lashes out when he thinks someone is being disloyal.

At that point Trump will write a Tweet that reveals what he really thinks about the suckers and losers that voted for him.

Or he might characterize coal miners in West Virginia and Kentucky as lazy, inbred heroin addicts sitting around watching TV while on disability.

Or he might run over some kid asking for an autograph with a golf cart, yelling, "Get off my lawn, you stinking little runt!"

Or he might get caught on video bragging to fellow billionaires at Mar-a-Lago about the idiots sending $10 checks to his 2020 presidential campaign: "I'm just using the money to pay back the loans I made to my 2016 campaign. And I made so much money -- so very, very much money -- off that election, just like I said I would!"

Whatever Trump does, he will blame it on someone else -- Jared, Ivanka, Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Chris Christie, Pope Francis -- and then bitch about how terrible the media are for repeating everything he says verbatim.