Trump the Deal Maker: What did he give for Palin’s support?

Donald Trump boasts that he is the guy who can do big deals. He points to his book, “The Art of the Deal,” and brags that he won’t allow the country to be taken advantage of like he says it has been up until now.

This begs the question, what sort of deal would it take to get Sarah Palin, someone who, by all accounts, is a staunch conservative, to endorse arguably the least conservative candidate for the GOP presidential nomination?

To those who are paying attention, there are plenty of indicators that Trump may not be the guy he claims to be. Evangelicals’ eyebrows were raised when he quoted Scripture during a speech at Liberty University recently. He cited, “Two Corinthians 3:17” as the source of his quote. The reference is to St. Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian Christian congregation. Those with even the most casual acquaintance with the Bible would say, “Second Corinthians 3:17.” Perhaps Trump’s Christian life isn’t what he pretends it to be.

The Donald has recently been shaking his head in disgust as he speaks of what an angry and awful person Ted Cruz is. “Nobody likes him,” he says, “because he said such vile things while in the Senate.” While there may be some grounds for his comments on Cruz, Trump assumes everyone has forgotten his own words. He publicly called Rosie O’Donnell a “fat pig.” He has been generally disrespectful toward women. When attacking his opponents, he doesn’t focus on their policy positions. He usually makes it personal. Who can forget Trump’s personal attacks on fellow GOP candidates, such as, Bush is low energy and Cruz is a hateful guy. Didn’t he also say that Fiorina’s face isn’t one that people would vote for for president and that Carson is pathological? Yet nobody seems to notice. Sometimes he says out loud what others think, especially when it is not politically correct. People seem to get great satisfaction from that. His policy positions are, for the most part, thin. Though they seem conservative now, he has publicly expressed support for liberal policies in the past. He is for allowing the government to force the sale of a citizen’s own property to a developer if the government thinks it is better for the “people.” That sounds like the position of a selfish developer.

So what would Sarah Palin see in Donald Trump, the candidate? It wouldn’t be that he is led by his faith. Ben Carson, Huckabee, Cruz or Santorum would be more in line for that. It wouldn’t be his staunch conservative values. His life hasn’t seemed to reflect the kind of values Palin has confessed. Perhaps it is because she too can be pretty caustic on the campaign trail and she likes his approach. Or could it be that a deal was made? From Trump’s rhetoric, I would bet on it.

As we survey the landscape, we seem to see more politics, even from some of the “outsiders.” Trump has been involved in politics for years using his money for influence. As leader of the race thus far, there are other things he wants and other things that he can offer. The top 6-8 candidates are the walking wounded with all of the political barbs and arrows flying around. The only candidate that seems to stay clear of the nastiness of politics has been Ben Carson. He has declined in the polls. Could it be that the people don’t really want a non-politician after all? Maybe they are so used to seeing the same things from politicians that they expect their outsiders to behave that way too. Maybe they think that one must share the same values as the political elite in order to be elected. Perhaps people just aren’t sure what they want.

Decision time is approaching. It will be fascinating to see how things will turn. Will people take a leap of faith and vote for a true outsider or pick the newest face of the political class to defeat the old guard?