Molson Hart

This is going to sound stupid to a lot of people, but, for me, it was enlightening so here goes: Trump has lower favorability in Washington DC than anywhere else in this country. I used to think this was the case because Washington DC is politically very different from Trump 1/n

Or because Trump’s stated mission was to “drain the swamp” and that the “swamp” understandably wasn’t too happy about being drained. What I learned instead is that people in DC think that he’s an idiot, but not necessarily in the sense that he’s physically stupid but that 2/n

He’s not only a complete novice and amateur to the political process, but also arrogant about it. For example, in DC, there is a way to get things done, and in many respects, it is counterintuitive and bizarre. You need to understand the system, in order to enact change 3/n

Through it. Trump doesn’t know how to use and navigate the system and has taken a BATNA approach to it, I.e., rather than learning how DC works (and to be clear I’m not saying it’s corrupt, I’m saying it’s a different game from what Trump knows), he’s basically said 4/n

“Fuck the system” and by extension, the people who know it. Compounding on this, in DCs viewpoint, major strategic error, Trump, perhaps in an effort to “drain the swamp”, has avoided hiring or working with anyone who knows how to navigate it. 5/n

For example, he ditched Reince Priebus and many other career politicians who could’ve been quite useful in enacting his agenda. Combine this with his lack of control and rapport with the media and Trump is stuck working in a self-created caustic environment 6/n

Which to him, probably only solidifies the idea in his mind that DC doesn’t work, resulting in a self-perpetuating feedback loop of political dysfunction. Anyways, that’s what I learned from speaking to thoughtful people in DC. Was enlightening for me, hope it was for you. 7/7

This thread is very much from the perspective of DC folks. As a recovering DC folk, Id say this is all true. With a blindspot for the degree to which the dysfunction is in spite of Trump. Confidence in institutions is at historic lows, because they haven't been working.