theo the Trump Employee Episode 24 Back to the Routine

                Theo is back in DC after his trip to Portland.  At first, he was relieved that there wasn’t much publicity about what he did.  Still nobody knew who was driving the car that took out members of ANTIFA but he didn’t want to see any videos.  To Theo’s credit, he got back into his routine and returned to the White House to get back to work.  President Trump was at the G7 conference so the atmosphere in the White House was more relaxed since the boss wasn’t there.  It’s not that they are intimidated by President Trump, it’s just that there are a lot security personnel and Secret Service when the President is at home.  One of Theo’s co-workers exclaims, “Did you hear that Joe Walsh is going to run as a GOP primary challenger to the President?”

                “Who?”

                The co-worker laughs and responds, “Exactly”

                “No, I seriously don’t know who that is.”

                “He used to be a Congressman in Illinois.”

                “Oh, alright, I have family in Chicago, I’ve still never heard of him.  Whatever though, every moment he spends on mainstream media is time that isn’t given to a Democrat”

                “You don’t think he’ll take some Republicans from the President?”

                “No, I mean Buchannan ran right of Bush but you can’t really go right of the President.  If you go left of him, well you have Democrats so nobody will care.  That, and name recognition is key and nobody knows this dude.  The lowest numbers I’ve seen in the polls for Trump is 84% approval with Republicans.  So, no, I’m not really worried.”

                “Don’t count anyone out.  People make late surges.  A little anxiety is always good.”

                “If you say so.” Theo replies not convinced.

                Work ends and Theo keeps with his routine to go to a bar and argue with the liberals of D.C.  He sees a middle aged man looking at his phone and he comments to the friend he’s with, “Kramer says that Americans need to start rooting for Trump with the trade deals with China.”

                The friend chuckles but Theo sees this as an opportunity.  He comes over and says, “Well, if you are rooting for Trump, then you have to be pleased with the way it’s been going?”

                “What are you talking about?  China has backed out of their agreement and our economy plummets every time Trump says anything about China”

                “And then it rebounds in like a day or two.”

                “Well, for how long?”

                “Well, let’s look at the current progress.  President Xi approached President Trump at the G7 conference to reopen negotiations.”

                “Oh, well that’s good.”

                “Do you think that happened by accident?”

                “I’m thinking you don’t”

                “No, I don’t.  Trump is turning Chinese allies against them.”

                “Wait, I think I did hear about this.  Something with Japan.”

                “Yea, Japan is buying all the grain that China said they were going to buy.”

                “So when the news talks about how the American farmers are getting hurt, Trump fixed that problem by having Japan helping them out instead of China.”

                “Now you’re getting it.”

                “Alright, that buys us time.”

                “No, that’s his strategy.  One by one, he’s replacing a Chinese export with another country so that America no longer needs Chinese products.  Look for a deal with the UK soon.  He just closed another one with Canada and Mexico.”

                “Why do we hate China all of a sudden?”

                “Not all of a sudden.  Past presidents made assumptions that have proved false”

                “What assumptions would that be?”

                “Two main ones.  The first one was we thought when China joined the World Trade Organization, they would start acting responsibly and follow the rules.  They didn’t.  They continued with stealing our intellectual property, manipulative government procurement programs and currency manipulation.  They also use their products to spy on us with their massive data analytics technology.”

                “So, China plays dirty”

                “That’s right.  The other mistake we made was we thought that globalism would lead to political freedom for the citizens but it hasn’t.  They are the largest surveillance state in the world.  Look at what’s happening in Hong Kong now.  They’re tearing down facial recognition towers.”

                “You seem very knowledgeable on this but we just came for happy hours.  We gotta get home.”

                “Alright, have a good night.”

                They left the bar and Theo realized that he didn’t even get their names.  He shrugs his shoulder and forgets it and orders another drink.  Without fail, if you spout conservative ideas or candidates in public in a liberal city, someone will confront you on it.  Nothing too serious has happened to Theo.  The worst was when he lived in New York, someone ripped a Bush pin off his shirt and threw it across the bar.  He relished the debates because they often didn’t last long.  Liberals loved running away from arguments.  That’s why Candace Owens offered Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez $ 100,000 to debate her and she refused.  Almost on cue, a tall blonde came over to Theo and stuck her hand out and said aggressively, “Hi, I’m Maria”

                Maria was thin and as Theo got up, he realized they were eye level.  This was odd for Theo because he was six feet tall so wasn’t used to seeing a woman also six feet tall.  His eyes glanced downward to see if she was wearing heels.  She was not, she was wearing flats.  Her face had sharp pushed in features.  He shook her hand and replied, “Theo”

                “I heard you talking to those guys over there.”

                “Yes, I was”

                “Are you a Trump supporter?”

                “I am”

                “So, you like how he cages children?”

                “He doesn’t do that.  That’s just a ridiculous accusation that fake news tells you.”

                Maria pulls up a video of kids behind chain link fences and barks, “So, this isn’t real”

                “That’s not a detention center.  That’s not where they wait for their trials.”

                “What do you mean?”

                “Do you see any border patrol agents?” Maria looks at the video and hesitates.  There are no agents in the picture.  Theo continues, “Those chain link ‘cages’ have existed since the 90s.  Funny, you people didn’t have a problem with it then.”

                “Well, I didn’t know about them.”

                “Yea, it’s only now fake news shows them.  It’s only a problem when President Trump is president but not when Obama was.  He did the same thing with the same facilities and I don’t blame him either.  See, that’s called being consistent” Theo switched to a condescending tone for the last sentence.

                “I just don’t think we should cage children” Maria’s tone took a much less aggressive approach.

                “You just believe whatever the fake news tells you to believe.  When we only detained the adults, you complained about separating children.  Now that they are together, you complain about detaining kids.  There’s no solution that assuages you people except complete open borders, which is absolutely asinine.”

                “Don’t act like you know me.”

                “I do know you. You’re a sheep at best, an ant at worse.”

                Maria’s eyes widened in shock.  She was fighting the urge to slap him in the face.  “I’m not stupid, I can think for myself.”

                “Really?  If you researched this so much how do you not know the difference between ICE detention centers and Border Patrol facilities?  Ken Cuccinelli is doing a good job.”

                “Who’s that?”

                “Trump’s immigration guy.  If you’re going to hate people make sure you know their names.”

                “I don’t need you to mansplain things to me.  You’re a chauvinist pig” she said as she swung her body so fast, her long hair snapped to the side.  She walked away seething and Theo smiled.  This was his favorite reaction; when a liberal got so mad they stormed off.”

                Theo finished his drink and closed his tab.  One argument normally made him a pariah for other challengers so he had to go to another bar if he wanted to continue.  He travels nearer to Georgetown as he loved schooling the Ivy League kids who are normally very snotty and think they know everything.  He goes to a popular Georgetown hang out and orders a drink.  At 35, he sticks out like a sore thumb amongst these late teens early 20s people but he doesn’t mind.  He sees a boisterous group talking about Hillary’s e-mails.  Theo is surprised as there hasn’t been much talk about that lately but he still remembers the talking points from a year ago.  A boy says, “I don’t even know why they’re looking at Hillary, I mean the IG report cleared the FBI, what more do they want?”

                Theo walked up to them and asked, “What are you talking about?  IG Harrowitz said that there was political bias to shelve the Hillary e-mail in favor of Trump’s Russian collusion hoax”

                “That’s not true.”

                “Pull it up, the exact words are, ‘we can’t rule out political bias as it appears to be politically motivated.”

                The boy looks it up and sees that Theo’s right.  He tries to save face by remarking, “I just don’t understand why we’re still talking about it.”

                “Because what she did was illegal.  All but four of her e-mails were going to an e-mail address that many believe is linked to the Chinese government.  It was a shadow forwarding algorithm.  When you have all your e-mails automatically secretly forwarded to someone, it’s normally not good.”

                “I get that but she’s not the president.”

                “It doesn’t matter. It’s damage control to find out what exactly she let get out.”

                “Like what?  It’s been three years?  What are they worried about?”

                “The biggest one is why the FBI ignored Hillary’s e-mails with Obama.  The issue isn’t only that she sent classified information over an unsecure server, it’s that the FBI was complicit in covering it up.”

                “Why would the FBI protect her?  She has no power now.”

                “I still think she has a lot of influence and power but that’s beside the point.  They’re not protecting her, they’re protecting Barack Obama.”

                “Obama said he had no idea she was sending him e-mails from an unsecure server.  He had no knowledge.”

                “I work at the White House.  That is impossible.”

                “You don’t know what the President knows.  You can’t say it’s impossible.”

                “Yes I can.  The President’s blackberry is programmed to only allow e-mail addresses from a white list.”

                “What’s a ‘white list?”

                “You know how normal e-mails have a list of e-mail addresses to block and not let through?”

                “Yea”

                “That’s a blacklist.  For increased protection, the President works the opposite.  It blocks all e-mail addresses except the ones the president specifically requests to be on the approved list.”

                “So, you’re saying everyone that e-mails the President has been pre-approved?”

                “Yes, by the President.  The president tells his staff, who tells WACA or the White House Communication Agency.”

                The boy turns his back to Theo and starts talking to the people he came with.  Theo grins and takes the hint.  He sits back at the bar and looks up at the TV.  There’s a video of a father yelling at a group of ANTIFA members blocking the street since they made his kids cry.  The ANTIFA group criticizes him for yelling in front of his kids but he doesn’t back down.  Theo watches as the ANTIFA group backs up on to the sidewalk and waves at each other to follow.  Theo smiles and wonders if his little car stunt has emboldened other people.  Maybe ANTIFA is nervous to mess with people who have a car that can be used as a weapon.  He writes it off as him just being a little too arrogant.  He remembers that not too long ago, he was happy that there weren’t many videos of it that was on the news or social media.  Thinking that ANTIFA was intimidated or this guy knew about it was far-fetched but it was nice thinking about it. 

                CNN transitions to Brian Stelter’s “Reliable sources” and Theo hears a psychiatrist he has on the show.  The psychiatrist claims that by the time it’s over, Trump could be responsible for more deaths than Mao, Hitler and Stalin.  Theo glares at the TV and yells, “How does that troll not interrupt him for saying something that fucking ridiculous?”

                People within ear shot chuckle and he turns to them with a smile.  He waves his hand, “Come on, I know you probably don’t like the President but can we at least admit that he hasn’t killed hundreds of people let alone millions.”

                The people smile and concede, “Yea, I can’t really go there with a straight face”

                Theo points to the screen, “They did.”

                “I hate to defend Trump but that was a little bit of an exaggeration”

                “A little?!” Theo burst out

                “That’s about as good as you’re going to get.” He said with a smile

                Theo smiled back.  He closed his tab and got on the train home.  He saw someone with a backpack filled with Bernie Sanders stickers.  Theo rolls his eyes and says, “Hi I’m Theo”

                The girl replies, “Selena”

                “Can I ask why you support a communist?”

                “Well, he wants to make wage boards to make sure that people are paid fairly.”

                “Do you know that Bernie Sanders doesn’t pay his own staff $15/hr?  He even cut their hours so he wouldn’t be required to under his rules.”

                “That can’t be right”

                “It is right.  He goes and yells at Walmart for not paying employees $15/hr.  He claims that anything below that is starvation wages yet he gives the same starvation wages to his lower staff members.”

                “Well, Walmart has billions of dollars”

                “And a shitload of stores to maintain and thousands of employees.  Bernie is a millionaire with no brick and mortar retail places.  He’s never had a real job in his life but he’s got millions.  He’s in a much better position to give his employees $15/hr.”

                “Well, I don’t know about that.  I just think things should be fair.”

                “Everyone does but government is not the answer.  Capitalism only looks bad compared to Utopia.  How can you trust the government?  Especially socialist governments that have always led to tyranny and oppression everywhere it’s been tried?”

                “Well I trust the government more than corporations.”

                “Oh really?  Ever take an Uber?”

                “Yea, all the time, what’s your point?”

                “Didn’t your parents ever tell you when you were little not to meet up with people you meet on the internet?  What about ‘never get in the car with strangers.’”

                “Well, that’s different.  Uber’s an app and they monitor who’s driving the cars and who’s getting picked up.”

                “Do you know what that’s called?”

                “What?”

                “Trusting a corporation.  You are trusting the business model.  You are trusting the employees of Uber to make sure you won’t get kidnapped.” 

                “That’s different”

                “How?”

                “Well, I don’t know, just because I trust Uber doesn’t mean I don’t trust the government.”

                “If someone pulled over and said, ‘I’m from the government, get in the car’ would you?”

                “Well, I’d ask for a badge or something”

                “Oh, so you’re a little more hesitant.  You don’t ask an Uber driver for credentials.”

                “Yea but I hired the Uber driver, I didn’t ask the government to pick me up.”

                Theo pulled out his White House credential.  “I work for the White House.  I have a government job.  Do you want to come home with me? I want to show you something.”

                “No, you’re a Trump employee, I don’t trust that asshole.”

                “Oh, I see.  So when a Democrat is in control of government, you trust the government but when Republicans are in charge then you’re extremely mistrustful of them.”

                “Yea, pretty much.”

                “So, government is so unstable that every four years it goes from reliable to unreliable.  Is there any time you don’t trust Uber?  I mean I went to Thailand, they have Uber there.  Is there any country you don’t trust Uber or any time?”

                “Well….I mean…..alright, I like Uber sue me.”

                “See Republicans are consistent.  Whether Republicans or Democrats are in control, we want limited government and want liberty and freedom.  You just admitted your trust with the government is dependent on if your guy wins the election.  We don’t trust the government ever and pick candidates that will most leave us alone.”

                “Dude, I’m way too tired for this.”

                “Alright, have a good night.  I hope your guy loses so that we can be in agreement to not trust the government.”

                He flashed Theo a dirty look and Theo just smiled back exposing his teeth.  He reached his stop and exited the train.  He got in his car and drove to his house.  It was back to the routine of work and he loved it.