Mike's Minute: Trump is full of bullsh*t - but I think he'll win
The Mike Hosking Breakfast - A podcast by Newstalk ZB - Thursdays
If you forget the politics for a moment, a trait of Donald Trump I admire is his unrelenting persistence and unwavering belief. In a contest no one can confidently call based on fact, as opposed to feels, or gut, or hope, I think I can very confidently say if Biden had stayed in it, it wouldn't even be close. Age for age, just the sight of Trump stampeding across the landscape in the way he does would have left Biden gasping. Trump out-campaigned Hillary Clinton 10 years ago. He might well be doing the same thing in 2024. Biden was the antidote, and it worked, but they never thought past that. That will be a soul-searching exercise as to why not later tonight if things don’t go well. The sad bit about Trump for me is he isn't very good. He doesn’t represent high office well, which isn't to say he can't win, obviously, or indeed win twice. There is a combination of luck and genius in his recipe. He got lucky he faced Clinton, a Washington insider with a pile of shabby baggage. He got lucky he faced Biden, who was so bad they ejected him for another insider, not so much with baggage this time, just nothing your average American can get their head around. What I can't work out is whether it's luck, or genius he's been able to become impervious to scandal. Forget the fringe nutters - the simple truth is he is a convicted felon. He is a grubby, loudmouth with no sophistication. He's just a wannabe desperate for high office and power. Not that he wasn’t a half-decent president. Too many of the Liberals who hate him forget that the world didn’t end between 2016 and 2020. He's a conservative on economics and the economy was fine, if not healthy. He's an isolationist, which suits a lot of Americans because "America first" resonates. My international high point was his success with NATO. He embarrassed a record number of countries into paying their way. That's solid leadership. I dislike his dishonesty. When he was president, it wasn’t the greatest economy, as he claims. He wasn’t the greatest president. It wasn’t the cleanest air and the purest water Essentially, he's full of bullsh*t. But a lot of the BS is show and the Liberals don't see that. He doesn’t want the media literally shot. You can't take him literally. Why can't they see that? That’s why so many of them will combust if he wins, as they have no sense of humour, or at least of the absurd, which is what this race has been. I ask you this - is the bigger story Trump winning, or the Democrats not being able to win? Because if you want a gut call, I think that’s how it's going to play out. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.