Trump builds his team — and isn’t changing his style

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack got it exactly right then when he told The Washington Post’s Greg Jaffe that the current state of the Democratic Party is like a tree that “looks healthy on the outside but is in the throes of slow and long-term demise”.

After Deitz ended her segment, the panel took questions from the audience about the Electoral College, the goal and effectiveness of political polling and the lack of popularity of Trump and Clinton, which, according to several national polls, were two of the most unpopular presidential candidates in recent history. Romney, who was one of Trump’s fiercest critics during the campaign, emerged from their dinner this week with warm words for a man he’d only recently called a “phony”.

Trump initially gave a good answer, which was that he is focused on jobs and health care and would consider the Clinton issue later.

But it is not clear whether Trump will take questions there.

“We have no choice; we want a strong military and we don’t have to use them, although we will destroy ISIS”.

But they also said that there were circumstances beyond their control that made it hard to overcome, even getting their message out with the media so focused on Trump.

Huh? The person he called Crooked Hillary? They also said that Clinton’s understanding of the electorate was wrong, saying they used a model that projected turn-out more akin to the 2014 midterm races, when Democratic turnout was low, than President Barack Obama’s 2012 victory.

It was incongruous to say the least.

At one point during the panel discussion, praise began to shower down for (the absent) Breitbart’s Steve Bannon, who acted as the campaign CEO for the last few months of the race and will continue as Trump’s chief strategist. Hillary Clinton’s campaign indicated it would participate in the recount. Grow up and start working at getting things where they need to be. Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway asked, fuming.

We note with irony the editorial reaction of The New York Times to that decision. But the American public might. In fact, reports detail that the Justice Department is suppressing the FBI’s attempts to seriously investigate the Clinton Foundation.

Trump has frequently cited his love of well-attended political rallies, and some analysts described his thank you tour as the inevitable continuation of a campaign also fueled by social media and 24/7 media.

Clinton lost because her campaign condescended to millions of citizens who felt the New America was leaving them behind. “Serious bias – big problem!”

Back in February, the Obama administration made it easier for the National Security Agency to share information with other government agencies, an agenda first set forth by the Bush administration beforehand. To argue that her gender was an insurmountable obstacle is to underweight everything her name connotes for many Americans.

It seems most of Trump’s major promises were in fact campaign rhetoric, aimed exclusively at firing up his base of supporters, and not indicators of actual policy objectives. The media may have jumped the gun in declaring Clinton home free.