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He absolutely seems to have changed.

Only if you assume that he is telling you what he really believes. I think that an errant assumption. I think he is a massive liar, exactly the same sort of demagogue as Obama.

Somewhere along the way he appears to have rejected the Elitism side of politics. I suppose once you get F.U. Money, you are freed from some of the shackles of the establishment -- and he most definitely has F.U. Money.

Appearances can be deceiving. Take a close and skeptical look at what you wrote there Laz. Such suppositions could be deemed fantasies, as you have little in the way of substantive evidence for his support of those positions that have nominally changed. He has never talked about WHY he "changed" those positions. But even if he had, to me they are a matter of convenience.

I think the rationale is simpler: The Donald believes whatever is good for The Donald. After all, he does know how to make a sale.

It is now Elitist vs. Populist. That is why you see so many Republicans acting so inexplicably oddly.

Well one explanation for that is that some people (myself included) have made a life of explaining how the neo-mercantilist game works and that it was embedded in the Constitution to be instituted via international law.

The Elitists have very VERY bad plans for us.

Yes, I laid them out here fifteen years ago. Some want to off five-sixths of the world's population. Some have eschatological fantasies to feed. Your problem is that Donald Trump is made his fortune among gambling interests that include exactly such people, and some very dirty players to boot. Moreover, those investments are not just in America. How is he going to play straight with Erdogan when he owns a major hotel in Istanbul? How is he going to squeeze the sultanates into fighting ISIS when he has investments in Dubai?

You see, his supporters actually know very little about him beyond the public persona. He takes advantage of that. He always has:

I play to people's fantasies. People may not always think big themselves, but they can still get very excited by those who do. That's why a little hyperbole never hurts. People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular. Donald Trump, The Art of the Deal, 1987 Worst, when Trump talks about what he is going to get done, have you noticed that he rarely mentions going through Congress? Is what we want instead of an autocrat with a pen and a phone wearing a Marxist logo a similar autocrat wearing our team logo? Seems to me that much of the left is unhappy about how it's turning out. So are we.

Much of what he says shows his ignorance of (or possibly contempt for) Constitutional process. As an executive in business, he gets to simply issue orders. That's not how it works with limited government. Are we so desperate we really want a despot? A guy who has screwed his creditors with bankruptcies while he had funds to pay them in other companies? A guy who claims massive assets much of which are actually built on the "value" of brand names and "goodwill"? Really? I don't.

Now you may think I am engaging in the same speculations as you, but if you look back through the post, I am working off what he has said or done just like I analyze what he wrote in his immigration plan as opposed to what he promises that it will do. As a dealmaker, sometimes, he broadcasts his true intentions in the full light of day, when you least expect them. Oh he says he'll deport illegals (how he'll get past the courts he doesn't say), but then he drops that their return will be an expedited process. He'll tell you later that you were told. With a guy like him, I want it in writing.