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In a parallel universe, this is what Donald Trump would do right now. And it would win him the 2020 election
It’s Tuesday, in a parallel but possible universe. Donald Trump wakes up, hits the gym with his boxing trainer, showers, then styles his hair.Gone is the orange barnet, with its intricate candy-floss styling. Instead, his mane is a muted dark brown, slicked back like on his recent trip to Virginia.He’s still wearing the Brioni suits, but the cut is different. Instead of the boxy jackets with dangling sleeves and trousers with absurdly wide legs, everything’s tucked and tapered, cutting a cleaner outline.His Twitter account, managed by his communications team, is updated sporadically. Everything posted in his name has been ruthlessly tested in focus groups. Ever since he handed over the logins, he has to go through a group of PR experts whenever he wants to lash out at a perceived enemy. Every time, they round off the edges.It’s still Trump, just not as we know him.Recognising that one man can’t do it all, he’s emboldened a chief of staff — a sensible GOP hand — to manage the sprawling West Wing bureaucracy. Now there’s no need to navigate daily Game of Thrones-esque power plays, every staffer is focused on policy, not self-preservation.Trump’s love of fast food has evolved from his days as a brash upstart developer from Queens. He still munches burgers, but he’s brought aboard a hot, creative young chef who’s turning out American wagyu delights on brioche buns, and dazzling the culinary world with his various twists on the American classic.Imagine this man heading into a general election just 18 months from now, and ask yourself: does he perform better or worse than the Donald Trump we’re used to seeing day in and day out? The answer seems clear — he’d walk it.It was often said, before and after the 2016 election, that the weight of the office would force him to become presidential. After catching sight of the nuclear football, and kicking off his shoes in the Oval Office and feeling the hand of history on his shoulder, he’d transform from carnival barker to muted statesman.It was not to be. Had it been, then today’s President Trump would be set to walk 2020. Because for all of his opponents’ distaste for his policies, it’s the disdain for his demeanour, his coarseness, his vulgarity, his unsophistication, and his norm-breaking that super-charges the opposition to him.Trolls on the right mock Trump’s opponents with the refrain "orange man bad”, but it’s true that for many the idea of a clownish, new-money guy from Jamaica Estates in the White House really does add insult to the injury of his policies. By comparison, Barack Obama was professorial, at times aloof, and looked like he knew his way around a plate of scallops and a blue cheese soufflé. Donald Trump, by contrast, orders his steak well-done with a side of ketchup.There are three reasons that our Trump of the parallel universe would be a shoo-in in 2020.First, the Democrats — itching for a new generation of leadership — may have been more inclined to take a punt on riskier, unproven prospects like Pete Buttigieg or Beto O’Rourke. A less offensive Trump could have allowed an outsider to assert dominance over the field of Democratic candidates by setting out an inspiring, utopian vision: the sort of vision easily dismissed as pie-in-the-sky by Republicans.Instead, voters are now more likely to be armchair tacticians going into voting season — which has seen Joe Biden transformed from gaffe-machine to elder statesman because he’s strong against Trump in key demographics. The folksy bumbler has become frontrunner, and a credible threat to Trump’s administration.Secondly, expect almost every person who identifies as Democrat to turn out next year, regardless of the candidate. It’s the public’s first chance to lash back at the president. Millions of Davids versus the Oval Office Goliath. A more presidential Trump would have taken the heat out of that need for vengeance.Thirdly, while Trump’s personal approval rating has been historically low, elements of his actions as president have been well-received. In the most recent Gallup poll, 43 per cent of voters disapprove of how he’s doing his job as president. But if you ask them about individual issues, the numbers are much higher.On North Korea, terrorism, unemployment, and national defence, more people approve than disapprove.On the economy — the cornerstone of most election campaigns — he’s at 56 per cent, a significant amount of polls show that many voters tend to credit him for the strong economy, rather than seeing it as a handover from Obama.Parallel universe Trump would still have his media champions and hardline surrogates — Kellyanne Conway and the like — boosting him on Fox News in the raw, base terms that fire up his most diehard fans.And the man at the centre of it all could sleep comfortably, banking on the incumbent’s lurch towards victory rather than the near-coin toss (with Democrats as slight favourites) that bookmakers currently anticipate.
Donald Trump has denied raping the author E Jean Carroll, the latest woman to accuse him of sexual assault, partly on the basis that “she’s not my type”.
Carroll appeared on CNN on Monday to provide further details of the alleged mid-1990s incident in which she says Mr Trump cornered her in a dressing room, forced her up against a wall and raped her.
“He pulled down my tights, and it was a fight,” she told the broadcaster. “I fought. It was over very quickly, and it was against my will, 100 per cent. I fought and then I ran away.”
Speaking to The Hill in the Oval Office, the US president said Carroll was “totally lying”. He said: “I’ll say it with great respect: Number one, she’s not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?
“I don’t know anything about her,” he said, referring to Carroll. In previous interviews he has suggested he never met the author, until it emerged the pair have been pictured together. “I know nothing about this woman. I know nothing about her. She is — it’s just a terrible thing that people can make statements like that.”
Carroll’s allegation against Mr Trump is included in her upcoming book about the "hideous men" the Elle magazine columnist says she has encountered throughout her life. She says what started as a friendly encounter with the future president at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan, in 1995 or 1996, ended with him entering her “halfway — or completely, I’m not certain… it turns into a colossal struggle”.
Carroll told CNN's Anderson Cooper later on Monday that she was glad Mr Trump does not consider her his type. "I love that," she said. "I'm so glad I am not his type."
Carroll said there were no attendants in the dressing room area at the time of the alleged assault and she did not file a report with the New York Police Department.
During the 2016 presidential campaign, more than a dozen women accused Mr Trump of sexual misconduct in earlier years. Mr Trump has denied the allegations and said the women are lying.
It is also not the first time the president has used the “not my type” line to disparage an accuser.
In 2016, after a former magazine writer accused Mr Trump of assaulting her in 2005, he responded: "She lies! Look at her, I don't think so."
And when another woman claimed Mr Trump groped her on a plane in the early 1980s, he said: "Believe me - she would not be my first choice."
The president has also attempted to discredit Carroll by suggesting she - or the outlet that first published the key extract of her book - might be politically motivated.
“If anyone has information that the Democratic Party is working with Ms Carroll or New York Magazine, please notify us as soon as possible,” he said.
Carroll told CNN: “With all the 16 women who have come forward, it’s the same — he denies it, he turns it around, he attacks, and he threatens. Then everybody forgets it, and then the next woman comes along. And I am sick of it. We have to change this culture of sexual violence.”
Yahoo News 
