Randi Kreiss

The Donald’s pivoting, softening and other fantasies

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The one true thing about Donald Trump is the one thing no one, left, right or in between, seems willing to acknowledge: He knows and likes who he is and he really, really doesn’t want to change.

Yet despite all the evidence to the contrary, the press has made a cottage industry of observing the candidate’s every gesture and tweet as a sign of an imminent “big shift.” His steadfastness to his core beliefs, delusional and bigoted as they may be, is also ignored by his staff members, spinners and surrogates, who keep saying that he didn’t exactly mean what he said when he said it. Or he has since changed his ideas, plans or allegiances.

At times, Trump himself, at the urging of staffers, will say that he didn’t really mean to insult people like U.S. District Court Judge Gonzalo Curiel, who Trump said could not be unbiased in a ruling because of his Mexican heritage. But we know he meant what he said, and he can’t make the regret sound genuine.

His people are constantly walking it back, talking it back and speaking about his positions “softening” or how he is “pivoting” toward more centrist views as Election Day draws closer. All of these spokespeople are ignoring the most obvious fact about their candidate. He doesn’t want to move off the dime he dropped when he announced his run for the presidency.

His grudging announcement that he regretted some remarks that may have hurt others was remarkable in its lack of sincerity and any evidence of real contrition.

His promise to build a wall to keep out Mexicans, his vow to ban Muslim immigrants and his lifelong misogyny stand as they have always stood, as the bulwarks of his policy and philosophy. They are the bait luring his base.

Trump is on the record in print and on video. His comments, which reflect his core beliefs, are incontrovertible:

On Mexican immigrants: “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”

On women: “Women have one of the great acts of all time. The smart ones act very feminine and needy, but inside they are real killers. The person who came up with the expression ‘the weaker sex’ was either very naive or had to be kidding. I have seen women manipulate men with just a twitch of their eye — or perhaps another body part.”

On guns, after the Orlando shooting: “If you had some guns in that club the night that this took place, if you had guns on the other side, you wouldn’t have had the tragedy that you had. If people in that room had guns with the bullets flying in the opposite direction right at him … right at his head, you wouldn’t have had the same tragedy that you ended up having.”

When a lawyer facing Trump in 2011 asked for a break to pump breast milk for her infant daughter, Trump apparently behaved badly. According to a CNN report, he got upset and called her “disgusting.”

Trump has said he would be open to other nations developing nuclear weapons. He seemed flattered and disarmed by Vladimir Putin’s compliments. He suggested wiping out the families of terrorists who plot against America.

On torture: “I would bring back waterboarding and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.” He advocated waterboarding as punishment even if it doesn’t help gain information, because “they deserve it anyway.”

He said women should be punished for having abortions.

On Rosie O’Donnell: “Can you imagine the parents of Kelli [Carpenter] … when she said, ‘Mom, Dad, I just fell in love with a big, fat pig named Rosie [O’Donnell]’? Can you imagine the expression on their face?”

He publicly wished for a housing crash that would benefit his business interests.

He compared his financial losses to the suffering of Ghazala and Khizr Khan, whose son died fighting in Iraq.

Trump’s statements, pronouncements and tweets stand as ample proof of his inability to find his better angels, because he has no better angels. He is what he is. No amount of walking back or spinning can erase the pain his insensitive remarks have caused. No tailoring by his handlers can make him suitable or appropriate for the presidency of this great country.

Copyright © 2016 Randi Kreiss. Randi can be reached at randik3@aol.com.