Trump's Best Trick Was Telling You Republicans Wanted Him to Run for Anything
Sometime within the next year, it won't be surprising if perpetual pretend politician Donald Trump tells us that he's letting plenty of Republicans down and has decided not to run for governor of New York — a fitting end to a draft campaign that he allegedly started himself.
.Sometime within the next year, it won't be surprising if perpetual pretend politician Donald Trump tells us that he's letting plenty of Republicans down and has decided not to run for governor of New York — a fitting end to a draft campaign that he allegedly started himself.
For the last month or so, there have been whispers of Trump being seen as the Katniss Everdeen of the New York GOP — the only person who could take down the brutal and powerful regime of Democrats and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Trump even had a meeting with Republicans on Wednesday. "There is only one prospective candidate who could run on the GOP line and win against Cuomo in 2014 — Donald Trump," a leaked memo from Rochester-area Assemblyman Bill Nojay declared.
That's pretty flattering stuff, so flattering that it seems like Trump wrote it himself. According to Capital New York, he sort of did. Capital reports that one of his closest aides, Michael Cohen, actually circulated this supposedly organic Republican idea of a Trump gubernatorial run:
A senior G.O.P. official told Capital that Trump first reached out to Republican State Chairman Ed Cox in mid-October, but was rebuffed.
Trump aide Michael Cohen “called and said he wanted to get his name out there, and asked if Ed would say nice things about him if asked,” said the official, who was briefed on the conversation. Cox told Trump to show he was serious by placing his assets in a blind trust and depositing several million dollars in a campaign account. Trump, unsurprisingly, did not. Cohen then called Cox this week and asked him to attend Wednesday's meeting, but Cox demurred.
Mid-October is some curious timing. The "leaked" memo that Nojay circulated was published around October 14. Around that time The New York Post reported that Trump "only recently learned of the effort", even though Cohen is one of his closest aides.
Fast forward to Wednesday, and there's been a slight change in tone from Trump, who is now allegedly warming up to the idea of running for political office again. Trump softened from having no interest in a gubernatorial run to (surprise), being open to meet with Republicans again. If Capital's source is solid, the whole thing is not unlike Clueless when Cher sends herself fake flowers to get someone else interested in her (and it wouldn't be the first time that Trump has reminded us how many people are really interested in him).
Despite all this posturing and flattery, it doesn't sound like Cox, the Republican chairman, is very impressed. "Donald is a very astute observer of politics. He's very good in public relations. He has numerous interests, of course," Cox told Capital.