When I was young, instead of joining the Boy Scouts, my dad encouraged me to join the Sea Cadets. So, instead of learning how to tie knots while camping out in tents, i learned how to tie knots while on a ship out on the Pacific. Our commanding officer had a unique way of handling disputes between cadets, in the boxing ring. Here I am, a tall overweight and awkward young teenager wearing my ‘cracker jack’ uniform, and I really did not want to get in the boxing ring and fight with the cadet that I was caught fighting. I don’t know why I feared fighting in the ring with the cadet i was just caught fighting with, but I was. I remember a term used by one of the cadets watching. He said ‘rope a dope’. I don’t know if he was trying to instruct me or calling me names, but all these years later, I still remember the term, rope-a-dope. Now, as I understand it, rope-a-dope is a term used to discribe a boxing style where one boxer gets himself against the ropes and lets the elasticity of the ropes absorb most of the impact of the punch while his opponent wears himself out punching and then, makes a mistake which can be exploited.

Here in America in August of 2015, Donald Trump is running for the Republican nominee for president in 2016. In an earlier post, I compared Donald Trump playing chess while the others are playing checkers. But what if Donald Trump is even more sinister than that. If you actually take a look at Trumps views on issues in the past, I just wonder about his true motives and if he had an apiphany. What if Donald Trump is playing ‘rope a dope’ with the American people? Donald is a person who wants to be in control. He has an ego that matches his fortune. But he is not the guy that actually ‘does’ things, but rather he is the guy that ‘makes’ things happen.

Do you remember Ross Perot? This guy was much like Trump, an eccentric millionaire that was running for President on a third party ticket. He split the vote and was responsible for William Jefferson Clinton winning the Presidency in 1992. In documents now revieled, Ross Perot never intended to win, but wanted instead to punish the then president George Bush. Ross Perot, as it turns out, was involved in back door negotiations with the Vietnamese government trying to have the many enprisoned veterans (POW’s) released. Several people, including George Bush, did not like or sanction the way Ross Perot was negotiating on behalf of the American government. So Perot was enacting a personal vendetta that hurt George Bush, but also the rest of the country by giving us a Clinton presidency. It turns out that he really was crazy.

Donald Trump seems like the kind of guy that likes having people, especially politicians, in his pocket. People that owe him a favor, the bigger the better. What if Trump plans on running for president as far as he can go, then when it looks like the time is right, say something over the top or back out thereby giving America Hillary Clinton or worse as the president. Wouldn’t Hillary owe Trump a big or many big favors. People like George Soros and Donald Trump and even Micheal Bloomberg like to ‘lead from behind’. They are idea men that like to surround themselves with people that can get the job done. Puppet masters instead of puppets, the hand inside the sock so to speak. Now, I do not claim to know what is in the mind of Donald Trump, but look at the people following him. Blindly supporting and defending him like he was the messiah. Hmm, sounds familiar. He is right about several key issues, but what makes me think he will be a good leader for this country? Again, I am not predicting anything, just opining. Or, maybe it is time for a ‘non-politician’ to be in the White House. It is not like Donald needs the money, the job of president would be a big pay cut…in the short term. I wonder if he would buy Washington D.C. and rename it Trumpland.