Trump's style of speaking leaves it wide open for misunderstanding. He is a businessman and salesman. He employs a "presumptive close" in his manner of speaking. When he states "we are going to....." it should be understood as his statement of the objective.
Fair point. But the problem for me here isn't the "presumptive close" -- it's the
objective of the government charging royalties for that pipeline in the first place. One worry a lot of us have is that when push comes to shove, Trump may end up wanting just as expansive a federal government as the Democrats do.
I think part of this is a function of him being from the East Coast, where there is a long tradition of back-scratching/graft, etc.. between local governments and businesses. That's particularly true in the case of developers like Trump, who are inevitably forced to jump through a million hoops to get permits, easements, variances, etc.. Not his fault -- just the way it is if you want to do business there. And I think he sees his role as President largely as a continuation of that, just getting a "better deal" for the U.S.. And he's a "deal-maker", so he sees this as right up his alley.
That's not nefarious or evil, but I think what a lot of us want is someone who thinks his goal isn't to get a "better deal" for the government, but rather to get the government out of deal-making altogether. And I just don't think he sees the world that way. It's not his experience, and it's just not how things have ever been done in his part of the country.
This isn't a deal-breaking issue for me on Trump. It's kind of just one of the many little straws on the camel's back at this point. But what I'd really like to be seeing is some pushback from his advisors, or supporters, saying "No, this really isn't a good idea", and at least trying to educate the guy on the right concepts. But instead, it seems to be a somewhat reflexive urge to justify everything he says or does, with no critical component to try to make him a better candidate.
