RUSH: “CNN Ponders Trump 2020: ‘What Is the Magic That He Doles Out?’”

Now, this dovetails with the frustration that they’re feeling. They know that they’re a bunch of Wile E. Coyotes now, that everything has been essentially a bomb that’s blown up in their faces. And they’re finally starting to ask something they should have asked before the election in 2016. How’d this guy get the nomination? What the hell did we miss here?

But their arrogance was such that they couldn’t go there. They could not treat Trump seriously. Therefore, they couldn’t seriously analyze what he had just achieved. He’d become the Republican nominee. That’s not an easy thing to do, particularly somebody who’s not a professional politician who is up against a candidate — Jeb Bush had a hundred million dollars starting the primary season.

Trump had zip. He had his own organization and his own money. And not once did any of the professional political consults or operatives in either party take even a day to try to figure it out. All they did was continue to insult Trump and his supporters. And they continued to operate on the belief that he had no prayer. There was no way he was gonna win. Hillary can’t be beat. We got Google doing things for us. We got Facebook doing things for us. We got the Clintons doing things; we got Obama. She can’t lose! And then they add Trump to the equation, especially to the orange guy, she can’t lose!

Because in their minds this guy’s the biggest buffoon that has ever come out of New York City. Well, he wins. And not until this week — and we’re coming up on the three-year anniversary of the election in November — not until this week are they actually starting to ask why and how. Their entire existence from election night forward has been devoted to trying to pretend that what happened didn’t happen.

They’ve been trying to run Trump out of office. They’ve been trying to redo the election results. They have been trying to disqualify the election results, everything they can think of, rather than trying to figure out how he did it.

Now, you would think this is the height of irresponsibility. These are people in the business to do what? Get votes and raise money. That’s the primary job of political operatives. They are to get their candidates’ name in the victory column. They think they know how to do it, they all know how to do it. The Republicans and Democrats are all in the same club. There’s the same blue book, the same textbook, it all involves fundraising, it all involves finding the get-out-the-vote schemes, whatever it is.

Trump comes along totally outside the box, outside the blueprint, outside the textbook, outside whatever models there are, and they can’t figure it out, and they don’t even try to. Such is their arrogance and conceit. They stay cemented to the notion that it was not possible. They do not take one step toward reality. And that’s why all of this stuff has blown up on them, folks. And it’s been hilarious to watch.

They really thought Andrew Weissmann, by now, would have sent Trump to jail after a scorching interrogation in an impeachment trial in the Senate. And now nobody can find Weissmann. Now Mueller doesn’t even know what’s in his own report. Nadler and his crowd in the House have totally, totally botched this whole attempt at impeachment. Pelosi’s thanking the gods somewhere that they didn’t go forward with it officially.

At the end of the day, Trump is running rings around them. And all they’ve got, all they’ve got to give them solace is the polls that they make up that shows Trump’s approval numbers are 42, 44, disapproval, 50, 55. And yet he keeps outsmarting them. So we get to the CNN story yesterday. “What’s the magic?” What is it that he doles out? How does he do it?

Rolling Stone magazine published an article recently called: “Trump 2020: Be Very Afraid.” It carries the following subtitle: “America is the first country to ever elect a Mad King, and the way things are going, we may be dumb enough to do it twice.”

The Mad King is a reference to some lunatic former king in Game of Thrones. Basically killed all of his subjects, his daughter came along and burned the whole town down in the series finale. The Mad King. Some clown named Targaryen. That’s who Trump is being compared to here. And if the American people don’t wise up, they may reelect him.

So he’s a Mad King. He’s insane. He kills his enemies. That’s how he does it. The author of this Rolling Stone piece, a guy named Matt Taibbi. He is the son of a guy in New York named Mike Taibbi, who was a street reporter for WCBS-TV Eyeball News 2 in New York. I’m just telling you who the guy is.

He sat down on CNN Tuesday morning, and among other things, said, “The enthusiasm at Trump’s campaign events this year is even greater than it was in 2016, and reporters who cover Trump are not explaining it.” So Matt Taibbi is basically saying you people are not even yet trying to figure this out guy. His rallies are bigger, they’re more exciting, they’re more fun-filled, thrill-packed, there are more people outside than inside, and you’re still not talking about it. He’s very, very frustrated.

CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, the infobabe hosting Taibbi in the interview said, “What is the magic that Trump doles out?” And Matt Taibbi said, “Well, it’s a lot of things. Trump is appealing on a lot of levels that we don’t write about. I mean, race is obviously part of it, but class is another thing that’s a huge thing. I mean, Trump doesn’t get credit in a lot of ways for being a very canny politician.”

I would dispute even this. He’s canny. He is smart as a whip. He is clever, and he’s way ahead of people, but he’s not a politician, and that’s why these people don’t get him. And they can’t accept the idea that a nonpolitician could ever come in and upend their business the way he has. In their world, only one of them should be able to do this.

Now, it may be a fine line when I say he’s not a politician, because a CEO can be a politician. A talk show host can be a politician in terms of the way you deal with interoffice affairs or whatever. But what Taibbi means, he’s not a professional, gets elected as his job politician. He doesn’t raise money for his job as a politician. He does it as a businessman. It’s an entirely different prospect.

In Trump’s world you can succeed being hated. In their world you can’t. That’s what they don’t understand. How could a guy so universally hated and reviled — and they’re wrong about how universally reviled he is. But this is what they ask themselves. How can somebody so universally disgusting and reviled get elected? That’s not the question.

The question’s the wrong question, and it betrays all of their bias and their ignorance and their lack of understanding of who Trump is. I don’t think they have the humility to ever be able to answer the question, “What is the magic that he doles out?” What is the magic, by the way? Is it even magic, or is it just a word that they would never associate with Donald Trump?

Humility.

You tell them that the secret to Donald Trump’s success is humility and they’re gonna think you are nuts. They’re gonna think I am nuts. That is the last thing in the world they could possibly associate with Donald Trump. He’s an ogre. He’s a braggadocious buffoon. He’s a narcissist. He doesn’t care about other people. He’s a white supremacist. These are all the things they think Trump is and that they think everybody else thinks that way of Trump, but obviously the people that vote for him don’t.

Taibbi then said to Alisyn Camerota, “He runs against people very well. Last time he ran against the Republican establishment, first with Jeb Bush, and that was kind of an easy contest.” It was? Running against the Republican establishment was easy? Okay. “Then he took on Hillary Clinton and Wall Street and the military … but now the media is a big part of it.”

Here’s the bottom line answer from Taibbi on the magic. “He appeals to a certain kind of people in middle America. And to them, he’s their champion. And you know, the people on the coast, in New York and in Washington and L.A., they’re the enemy, and they’re cheering for him.” Meaning the people in the middle.

By the way, what is “a certain kind of person in middle America”? These people don’t have a prayer when they have that attitude about fellow citizens.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: So this guy Matt Taibbi, he covered Trump from the beginning, and he admits that he still made the same mistake other reporters did. He believed the polls. So did Hillary. He believed the polls that Hillary was gonna win in a landslide. Therefore, Trump was nothing but a joke throughout the entire campaign. He was an oddity to be laughed at and looked at.

Taibbi says, “We looked at the polls. And so the first thing is recognizing the extent of his popularity in small-town rural America. You know, if you go outside cities in this country, you will not find Democratic signs during an election. It’s wall-to-wall Trump in most places. You know, not paying attention to that I think is a big problem.”

Well, why don’t you pay attention? You mock people. Not maybe Taibbi, but Democrats, the left mock people that live in what they call rural America. They make fun of people in flyover country. It doesn’t even have to be rural America. If it’s not on the coast, it’s a bunch of backwards hayseeds.

You can’t go through life making fun of over half the country and expect them to love you and elect you. But Trump’s appeal is more than just rural America. They’re not even taking the time to find out.

Let give you an example. This is actually a great example. This whole Denmark flap. When Trump started talking about buying Greenland — Denmark owns Greenland. It costs them $600 million a year to maintain Greenland. Trump was talking about buying it for $700 million. The prime minister of Denmark, some woman, began to spout like everybody in Washington does about Trump, he’s an ogre, he’s a buffoon, he’s not welcome here, all of this kind of stuff, started trashing Trump.

So Trump says (paraphrasing), “You know what? Buying Greenland was an idea. I was serious about it. But I’m not gonna go. I’m gonna cancel the trip. Nobody talks about the United States the way that woman did as long as I’m president. They’re gonna show us respect or we’re not gonna go.”

Now, official Washington needs smelling salts after that. Official Washington’s going through the vapors because this is such a gross violation of diplomatic procedure. But here in rural America, quote, unquote, the rest of the people are cheering. This is the kind of thing every president should be saying about countries that diss us or mock us, countries that we defend, countries that we protect, countries that we do everything possible to help.

So she starts joining this train of mockery of Donald Trump and, by extension, the country. And he, “All right. Fine. It was a serious proposal. I was gonna talk about it seriously with her, but if she’s gonna speak that way of me and by extension the United States, then I’m not going because nobody disrespects America like that under me.”

You don’t have to worry about the Democrats ever copying this because they couldn’t. This is the kind of thing that sends them to therapy, folks.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Crofton, Maryland, next. John, you’re up. Your turn. Your big showbiz break here on the EIB Network. Hello.

CALLER: How you doing, Rush? I’ve been listening to you for, what, 31-plus years now since 1988. I’m not sure how you count it, but I guess you’re in your 31st year.

RUSH: That’s right. We count it from August 1st of 1988, even though it started a month earlier in New York. But we count it August 1st, 1988.

CALLER: You said something about an article I guess in Rolling Stones where they’re trying to figure out Trump’s secret to success.

RUSH: Yeah. It’s Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stones, “What is the magic he doles out?”

CALLER: It’s not just magic. I mean, the guy’s got what it takes. People don’t realize what a hard worker he is, I guess. Maybe they forget that he only seems to get about three or four hours’ sleep a night. You know, they look at the hour on his tweets, and he’s like up all the time. And at 73 years old — I’m 79 myself — and at 73, I couldn’t do what he does.

You know, when I went, say, across the country to Seattle from Baltimore on business, I worked for Westinghouse Radar, which has been taken over by Northrup Grumman, but, you know, for 25 years I’d go on these business trips, and they would say, “Don’t make any decision within the first 24 hours because of jet lag.”

And here Trump, he seems to be immune to any kind of lag. He’s always on his game. He said that Joe Biden is losing his fastball or something like that. Joe Biden never had a fastball. He comes from the smallest state. He’s a complete idiot. I mean, he should be ashamed that he’s even trying to run for president.

RUSH: Wait a minute. Why should anybody be ashamed that they’re trying to run for president?

CALLER: ‘Cause he’s got no chance. He’s taking the place of someone else —

RUSH: What do you mean, got no chance? He’s leading the Democrats by a significant margin!

CALLER: Yeah, and they said that he’ll beat Trump. (laughing) I think they said the first four top Democrats will all beat Trump. That’s garbage. Unless the stock market crashes — and right now I’m looking at the Dow is up 270, S&P up 24 —

RUSH: Wait a minute, now. Don’t start. There’s, what, 14 or 15 months. It’s impossible to predict this. Unless you can guarantee that circumstances today are not gonna change from now to election. That’s why these polls don’t mean anything when you got right down to it. They have a relevance in terms of fundraising and media energy and all that. But in terms of the thinking of the American people, unless they are just consistent one poll after another and if you trust the poll.

But look, let me go back to something else, because you have hit on something that I think is really important that they don’t mention. And that is Trump’s energy level combined with his commitment. I don’t think — and this is based on observation – and it’s not a cut. I’m not putting anybody down here, so don’t anybody misunderstand. I don’t think anybody in politics has any understanding of working as hard as Donald Trump does.

You know, Trump comes from the private sector where you have to put in the time. It’s scarily competitive in the businesses that Trump has been in. Plus he loves it. He loves this stuff. He loves America. He really does want to save the country. He’s got a compulsion to be the best at whatever he’s doing. If it’s playing golf, if it’s being president, he’s going to be the best.

And he wants to be considered by outside opinion the best. The hardest politicians work is fundraising. And they will admit that. Talk to your average senator and ask him what’s the bulk of your time spent on and they’ll whine and moan about how much time it takes to raise the money to get reelected. For six years, four days a week is devoted to fundraising. Dinners, speeches, writing appeals and so forth. But actual applied energy to the tasks at hand, there isn’t anybody that can keep up with Trump.

You know who I think is a second, really, really focused hard worker is Pelosi. And she is from Trump’s generation. He’s 78 or 79. She puts in an incredible amount of time too. But I think that this is something that, you know, most people don’t work anywhere near as hard as Trump does in politics, in that business. That’s one of the attractions of the business. You’ve got so many staff members to do so much for you. You’ve got assistants here, the equivalent of personal assistants to do all of this for you.

And it is something that I don’t think they factor in. And they don’t have anybody who can keep up. Go back in your minds and remember the 2016 campaign and Trump doing four to five of those rallies a week every day, different place, getting on the airplane, taking the media with him on his plane sometimes, making sure that all of the stuff that needed to happen, all the logistics, he’s a hands-on person with this kind of stuff. I just don’t think there’s anybody that can keep up with him. And it matters.

But you have to have not just the energy — and the energy is born of desire, loving what you do — the energy combined with a commitment to actually do something with all that busy time you’re spending. There’s nobody in his league.

Now, I’m not saying this automatically adds up to victory. But the way the caller presented it to me, something the left doesn’t understand, factor as they try to figure out Trump’s magic. The bottom line is there’s nothing and there’s no substitute for hard work, in anything.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Bill in Pittsburgh.  It’s great to have you, sir.  Hi.

CALLER:  Rush, it’s great to talk to you for the third time.  I’m calling because I wanted to talk about why the Democrats are going insane.  There’s an underlying reason that ties together the whole thing, and nobody seems to be talking about it.  I honestly think that what Trump is doing to them is he’s taking back political areas that they thought they already owned. For example, the health care thing, the Supreme Court. Now he’s going after the urban populations, the Justice Department, EPA regulations. All these things are areas of our society and the government that the Democrats thought they’d owned and he’s taken ’em back, and they can’t say that their solutions were great. But —

RUSH:  You know, I actually think there’s something to that because in Washington… You know, we have this illusion that the parties in Washington oppose each other.  But in many ways, they don’t.  The Republicans and Democrats really agree on a lot.  I mean, they agree on comprehensive immigration reform.  They agree on growing agencies and growing the size of government and bureaucracies and so forth.  Even some of our Never Trumpers.

In fact, if you recall, one of the leading Never Trumpers… At some point during the Bush administration when all of this media annihilation of Bush was taking place, one of the leading — and I don’t want to mention the name, because I don’t actually want to elevate or publicize these people. But one of the leading Never Trumpers said that conservatives needed to understand that there’s been a change in the American people and that the American people now want a big government with a strong executive utilizing smart leadership.

Now, the point here was that was a Never Trumper, so-called conservative caving and giving away a lot of the foundational building blocks of conservatism. One of the big ones is reducing the size and intrusiveness of government.  This guy said, “You know what?  The American people are voting.  And they’re expressing their desires with their votes, and they keep electing people to expand the welfare state.  We Republicans had better understand this and we better understand that the American people want a Big Government and they want a large bureaucracy that is helping them manage life,” and so forth and so on.

What we end up getting — not because this guy was a factor in it. But in many ways, both parties are similarly aligned when it comes to the size and scope and reach of government.  And you’re right.  So here comes Trump, and as part of the agenda Make America Great Again, he is wresting control of these things and downsizing them and trying to limit their reach or taking control of them, as in the Supreme Court with his various nominations, and the judiciary at large — the federal judiciary — refusing all of these climate change ideas that Republicans and Democrats signed on to.

Like the Paris climate accords, various other aspects of this.  So I think this is part of it too.  This is something, by the way, that Washington never thought was gonna happen.  I mean, if somebody from Washington, somebody in the existing political class gets elected president, this stuff isn’t gonna change.  The left is gonna own the judiciary.  The Republicans are gonna control as much of the government as they can for the limited time they have the White House.  Then they’ll lose and Democrats get back control of it and so forth.  It’s been the rule.

It’s been the game.  But part and parcel of it was that the Republicans — and I’m sure you’re nodding your head in some agreement out there, because one of the problems was these guys would campaign with a promise to take all these things on and then they get elected and don’t!  And so it led to people saying, “You know, there really isn’t any difference in these two parties. There’s no difference and Republicans and Democrats,” and when it came to earn is things in Washington, that was true.  They put on a good show of being opposed to each other on various things.

But at the end of the political day, Washington never gets smaller, the budget never gets smaller, the bureaucracy grows, and it’s all under the contest of, “We’re trying to make life better for you.” So Trump comes in and literally does what Republicans have been promising to do all these years, or makes a serious effort at it.  And I think this is why both parties are discombobulated over Trump, why both parties have people that hate Trump. Because they’re Washingtonians first.  They’re establishment types first, and Trump has really taken aim at it.  That’s an excellent point.