THE PIVOT

Throughout this election, many people, me included I think, have said that Trump is only saying his awful things to encourage his base and that once the general election comes he will pivot towards the middle a bit, moderating his views and possibly running to the left of Hillary Clinton on some issues.

We are now less than seventy days away from the election and folks... I don't think the pivot is coming.

I had left the pivot idea behind long ago, before the primaries ended actually, I became convinced that when he says terrible things about minorities he actually means them, I don't think he means it when he talks about anything else, mostly because he doesn't know anything about anything, but he means it when he talks about folks darker than whitey.

I will admit to some concern when I learned he was going to Mexico this morning to meet with President Pena Nieto, the concern grew when I saw the press conference the two of them gave directly after and they seemed to act like they were on good terms, I still think Nieto made a dumb as hell move even inviting Trump, let alone treating him nicely and acting like a friend, but it turns out the meeting perhaps was a bit more fraught than that.

During the campaign, the one consistent thing to come out of Trump's mouth was building the wall, he was definitely going to build it and Mexico was going to pay for it, it was his only policy position that he actually had, and it was the most well though out of any policy he ever talked about, and yes I realize what I said there.

Then this afternoon happened, first a statement from Trump about how he and President Nieto never discussed the wall was roundly denied, then he held a rally in Arizona where he basically informed everyone that he will deport the shit out of anyone who pisses him off, anyone who is even arrested, I assume he meant illegal immigrants but honestly he didn't make that clear at several points in his speech so it is possible he just wants to kick all criminals or accused criminals out of the country, he specifically suggested doing so to Clinton, but that has been pretty standard for the last week or two.

The point is that Trump will not pivot, if the campaign is showing signs of such, it is because a spokesperson is desperately trying to pursue some sort of damage control, or Trump wasn't really thinking about what he was saying at the time and was attempting to say anything to get a cheer, possibly because he is coming down from the "diet pills" that I suspect are the only things that keep him awake during his exhausting schedule of two rallies a day, an interview with Sean Hannity or two, then flying back to NYC to sleep in the Trump Tower, something he literally does every day.

I don't know what Trump's policies would look like if he somehow got into the White House, except for anything relating to immigration, he has made it abundantly clear from day one his position on that and anyone who says otherwise is lying to themselves.