Trump stormed out of negotiations yesterday when Nancy Pelosi refused to cave to his stupid wall.  He’s starting to figure out that the advice he got from the White House Resident Nazi, Stephen Miller, to shut down the government was not any more smart than separating tender-aged children from their parents at the border.

The wall is idiotic and will never happen.  Think about it; even when Trump controlled the WH, House, and Senate he couldn’t get the wall funded.  Even the invertebrates in Congress refused to acquiesce to such folly, so Trump decided to turn to his mafia upbringing to extort what he wants.  First, it was the government shutdown.  Second it was threatening to declare a national emergency to get what he wants.  After Pelosi just sat there staring at him yesterday, Trump stormed out and went straight to twitter, announcing he was shutting down FEMA funding for California wildfire relief funding.  Never mind that he probably can’t do that, the tactic is clear.

Trump is running the US government like a crime family, not the open and free society that we are.  He sees himself as the absolute authority.  If he doesn’t get what he wants, he turns Full Mafia, threatening millions of innocent Americans with cruelty never before seen in a US president.  What he’s saying to Pelosi is, “Nice little state you have there; it would be a shame if something bad happened to it.”  That is the only explanation of Trump’s bizarre behavior that makes sense.  Watching this train wreck reminded me of Sean Connery’s explanation to Kevin Costner about “the Chicago way” in the Untouchables.

https://youtu.be/xFWfOBfTQLg?t=60

Trump’s problem is that he’s so goddam stupid he doesn’t understand that Mafia tactics only work in the dark.  In the light of day it is completely ineffective.  If he thinks that Pelosi will clutch her pearls and suddenly cave in to his threats in fear of his retribution against her constituents, he’s dumber than he looks, and that’s pretty goddam dumb.

Trump’s Mafia tactics will simply not work with the sole exception of seriously damaging millions of Americans and the Constitution that he swore to protect and defend (before the largest inauguration audience in history) on January 20, 2017.  This episode won’t end well for anyone.