I don't think Trump even wants to be president again. He knows he wasn't good at it.
I believe he's running primarily in hopes of shutting down the prosecutions against him and avoiding prison or financial ruin as consequences of his own actions.
I'm afraid he very much does want to be president again.
He wants the power.
He wants to jail his political opponents, journalists and prosecutors.
He wants to make money off of the country, and from foreign countries.
He wants to help Putin.
@rbreich I think the main point of Trump’s candidacy is pushing the Overton Window. It allows Biden’s bunch to become more authoritarian while still appearing liberal by comparison. And, if DT should win, big money gets accelerated authoritarianism as a bonus.
@rbreich he wants to be a king….the way he looks at MBS? Guarantee if he every fled the U.S. that would be one place he might go. If he had total power he couldn’t resist punishing Obama for making fun of him or Hillary for being the woman who beat him in the popular vote.
@rbreich Basically he doesn’t care about running the country, only staying out of jail and keeping his handlers happy by undoing environmental, alternative energy and social programs.
@rbreich
I doubt it matters to tRump whether he is good at something or not. He cares about the prestige and the profit that he can exploit.
He has a pathological need that overrides any want.
He reportedly plotted a coup because being second felt embarrassing to him.
He is a sad sack. It is hard to imagine, how needy he feels to not acknowledge 70mio votes telling him that they "approved" of him.
@rbreich I don’t think he can “know” he wasn’t good at it. Clinical narcissism means he can’t even articulate such a thought in his own head. He can’t fail, he can only be failed by others.
The effort of maintaining this fiction is one reason he won’t ever be good at anything I value.
@rbreich He does not know he isn’t good at it. He spends too much time lying to himself to ensure that he never finds out. Even if he did know he wouldn’t care, it’s irrelevant from his point of view.
But he probably doesn’t want it - that’s true, except for avoiding consequences and the idea of it yes. And he can’t stand losing.
@rbreich I don’t think he wanted to the first time! He was goaded into running, and if he hadn’t, most of his crimes would have continued to go uninvestigated. But now we’re stuck with him because he thinks the office is his only get-out-of-jail-free card (and SCOTUS refuses to set the record straight).
Donald Trump wants to BE president, he just doesn't want to do the job of president. But then he didn't do it the first time, either.
This time, though, he would have a phalanx of Stephen Millers and Jeffrey Clarks to do the job for him. And another 100,000 of them distributed across the federal govt to make sure it never functioned again. Their first targets would be the DoJ, the IRS, and the SEC.
@rbreich I don't think he really wanted to win the first time. He's just too good a conman and his narcissism won't let him "lose face" by backing out.