Unsure why but for somej reason Tom Wolfe's A Man In Full came to mind when readIng your assessment - just a flashback memory from reading many decades ago. (Along with The Bonfire of the Vanities)
And of course that old cliche - the emperor has no clothes - or a man in an empty suit - ugh - now thinking of the self centered outrageous excesses in The Great Gatsby too.
Tom Wolfe saw this guy coming decades ago. Charlie Croker. Sherman McCoy. Men built entirely out of other people's deference who have no idea what they are without it. And Gatsby, obviously, the shirts and the parties and the violence underneath the charm everyone politely ignores. You nailed the lineage. Thank you for reading that closely.
This read like something that could have been written by Mary Trump, his psychologist niece. The more his behaviour becomes outrageous and reprehensible, the easier it is for all of us to accurately analyze and describe him. He has become an open book of everything that is shameful and vile.
Wow! That was going to be exactly the way I opened my post. What other reaction but wow!! A child reliving the moment over and over of what he thought was his own legendary greatness, when in fact, it was the moment that set him on a course of conflict that would define every relationship as a transaction in which someone came out the winner, usually himself. Of course that made the other person the loser. A fact he won’t let them forget. One of his favored insults.
The fact that Americans looked at this man and chose to vote for him twice is why the international community will take a long time to trust America again.
This has the ring of truth and symmetry. One could feel sorrow for such a being, except we are well past that point. Now, he and his enablers need to be sequestered where they will no longer have the ability to do further damage…
And they will go on doing so after he is gone (quite soon). And it seems they will push an oppressive, toxic Christian Nationalist agenda, not because they are either Christian or Nationalist, but for the sake of the oppression, and the oppression for the sake of the inequality, for the riches it will bring them at everyone else's expense.
That’s why we have to invoke that article of the constitution that allows us to throw them all out at once. That won’t be possible, I know, until we take both houses of Congress.
Like Napoleon on St. Helena, after France realized that he could talk his way off Elba. We need to take his phone away, or let him have it because he's such an aggrieved baby, but jam the signal.
I feel sorrow for him. I also would like to see him held accountable to the nth degree. I believe that the most effective payment would be payment. Make him return every nickel he pocketed as president. Everything spent whether on himself or matters of state. Return the any alterations to the White House to the former architecture at his expense. Take back every bit of the $800 billion missing from C19 funding his first term. Leave him with very little left and the same should go for his family members.
I pity the sad, terrified, elderly man who looks for approval like a four year old.
I detest what he has done to our country and the world. I hate that so many defenseless people have been harmed and killed by his actions. All the unnecessary suffering and deaths because people who believe whatever they are told without requiring evidence to support the claims, couldn't see he is a con man.
"The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted."
Eloquently written. I keep thinking about the Biblical reference "the sins of the father". His own father exhibited and encouraged this behavior or found ways of saving his son from consequences. His mother was ill and absent during his early years when bonding occurs, and then she was emotionally distant afterwards. Having difficulty managing his behavior, the Trump's sent Donald to the New York Military School when he was a teen.
He. Was. Sent. Away.
This man simply doesn't understand love. He has failed at finding it his entire life. The tell is that he has to publicly announce that people love him. Yet, he never says he loves anyone, not even his kids and his wife. They seem to be convenient props who tow the line. How can he love our country or want what is best for it when he perceives its people as either useful or not useful?
Trump does NOT love America. In fact, he behaves as though he loathes and despises our country. Otherwise, why would he be doing his damnedest to destroy it? Hmm?
Yep this writer pegged it. Let me tell you how I can relate. And, how you may adapt. When I was 11 yo my father kicked me out of the house. I adapted and slept in the sandbox at my elementary school. This happened three times. Then I was sent to a boarding school in a foreign land… no friends, no family. I adapted and made friends. When I came back in less than a year he threw me out again. This time I left permanently and first lived with friends I had just made until I moved out and lived in the Latino ghetto behind the local train station. My employer at a local furniture store a Mr. Amir Sokol helped me pay for my first semester of college. Then I activated my reagent scholarship and went away to a state school. I adapted. The story goes on… the point is I never ever gave in to tyranny. This is what we all need to do. As I learned from a Russian woman whom came to America with her mother after her father was killed in Russia for public dissent… never, ever give up!!
powerful that you could keep the momentum going.. too many internalize despair and create a victim identity and blame others and excuse self for any poor choices from then on
Share trenchant stories as well-written as this one.
A candle lights a candle, and sooner or layer, finds a fuse. Cf. primary incumbents with VETTED people. Write Postcard to voters. Plan to track your ballot. Write a letter to the paper editor.
This is closer to my understanding of Trump than anything I’ve previously read. I had not heard the story of the school teacher, but that feels like the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle finally filling out the picture. What an awful human being he is.
I posted a comment either yesterday or this morning saying much the same things you said, but without your level of detail. I so much appreciate what you write because it’s good to know someone sees him as I do. The line spoken by Macbeth comes to my mind: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” I would substitute “He is a tale…” but the rest suits him. Shallow, bloviating, spewing bile every time he opens his mouth also suits. Thanks for your analysis. The subject matter is disgusting but your essay gets every bit of him. And beautifully written as well.
Unsure why but for somej reason Tom Wolfe's A Man In Full came to mind when readIng your assessment - just a flashback memory from reading many decades ago. (Along with The Bonfire of the Vanities)
And of course that old cliche - the emperor has no clothes - or a man in an empty suit - ugh - now thinking of the self centered outrageous excesses in The Great Gatsby too.
You nailed it.
Tom Wolfe saw this guy coming decades ago. Charlie Croker. Sherman McCoy. Men built entirely out of other people's deference who have no idea what they are without it. And Gatsby, obviously, the shirts and the parties and the violence underneath the charm everyone politely ignores. You nailed the lineage. Thank you for reading that closely.
This read like something that could have been written by Mary Trump, his psychologist niece. The more his behaviour becomes outrageous and reprehensible, the easier it is for all of us to accurately analyze and describe him. He has become an open book of everything that is shameful and vile.
Wow! The way u use words to describe things is simply marvelous!
Wow! That was going to be exactly the way I opened my post. What other reaction but wow!! A child reliving the moment over and over of what he thought was his own legendary greatness, when in fact, it was the moment that set him on a course of conflict that would define every relationship as a transaction in which someone came out the winner, usually himself. Of course that made the other person the loser. A fact he won’t let them forget. One of his favored insults.
Facts, facts, facts. Not a word a MAGAt could refute.
The fact that Americans looked at this man and chose to vote for him twice is why the international community will take a long time to trust America again.
Some voted for him 3 times!!!!!!!!
If ever ?
Superb analysis - thoughtfully and clearly laid out. Without rancour - but with truth emanating from every sentence. Thank you
This has the ring of truth and symmetry. One could feel sorrow for such a being, except we are well past that point. Now, he and his enablers need to be sequestered where they will no longer have the ability to do further damage…
The only defense one could mount for him: He literally does not know right from wrong… Like a wolf, like a tornado, like a wildfire.
His enablers, on the other hand, know what they’re doing. They cynically use him —or try to—, to advance their own agenda.
And they will go on doing so after he is gone (quite soon). And it seems they will push an oppressive, toxic Christian Nationalist agenda, not because they are either Christian or Nationalist, but for the sake of the oppression, and the oppression for the sake of the inequality, for the riches it will bring them at everyone else's expense.
That’s why we have to invoke that article of the constitution that allows us to throw them all out at once. That won’t be possible, I know, until we take both houses of Congress.
We won’t let them.
Please!
You forget I believe that last election . He’s a crafty man and he has something up his sleeve ‼️🙃
The world is run by the C students, for whom the A students all work.
Trump is not even a C student.
And he is no longer running the world, but his puppet masters - all C students.
Like Napoleon on St. Helena, after France realized that he could talk his way off Elba. We need to take his phone away, or let him have it because he's such an aggrieved baby, but jam the signal.
Shunning, like the Amish do!
I feel sorrow for him. I also would like to see him held accountable to the nth degree. I believe that the most effective payment would be payment. Make him return every nickel he pocketed as president. Everything spent whether on himself or matters of state. Return the any alterations to the White House to the former architecture at his expense. Take back every bit of the $800 billion missing from C19 funding his first term. Leave him with very little left and the same should go for his family members.
I pity the sad, terrified, elderly man who looks for approval like a four year old.
I detest what he has done to our country and the world. I hate that so many defenseless people have been harmed and killed by his actions. All the unnecessary suffering and deaths because people who believe whatever they are told without requiring evidence to support the claims, couldn't see he is a con man.
And he knows _nothing_ about music, or... or... Well, anything really.
Probably especially music, since to appreciate an art form he would need a soul, which de does not.
"The man that hath no music in himself, Nor is not moved with concord of sweet sounds, Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils; The motions of his spirit are dull as night, And his affections dark as Erebus. Let no such man be trusted."
—The Merchant of Venice
Absolutely! Everything is in Shakespeare or the Bible!
One of my favorite passages from one of my favorite works. Nailed it.
https://youtu.be/QDYi4JgQA2I&t=455
Eloquently written. I keep thinking about the Biblical reference "the sins of the father". His own father exhibited and encouraged this behavior or found ways of saving his son from consequences. His mother was ill and absent during his early years when bonding occurs, and then she was emotionally distant afterwards. Having difficulty managing his behavior, the Trump's sent Donald to the New York Military School when he was a teen.
He. Was. Sent. Away.
This man simply doesn't understand love. He has failed at finding it his entire life. The tell is that he has to publicly announce that people love him. Yet, he never says he loves anyone, not even his kids and his wife. They seem to be convenient props who tow the line. How can he love our country or want what is best for it when he perceives its people as either useful or not useful?
He has said he loves stupid people.
And the inflation
and kim of No Korea, and anyone who says nice things T , a whore for words of praise
Trump does NOT love America. In fact, he behaves as though he loathes and despises our country. Otherwise, why would he be doing his damnedest to destroy it? Hmm?
Good writing, my Man! Very good, I wish I could do that. I'm Canadian, so I would write about Pierre Pollievre.
Grammarly helps 😊
I couldn't capture the FIRE, your writing is so… compelling, it has a weight to it.
Yep this writer pegged it. Let me tell you how I can relate. And, how you may adapt. When I was 11 yo my father kicked me out of the house. I adapted and slept in the sandbox at my elementary school. This happened three times. Then I was sent to a boarding school in a foreign land… no friends, no family. I adapted and made friends. When I came back in less than a year he threw me out again. This time I left permanently and first lived with friends I had just made until I moved out and lived in the Latino ghetto behind the local train station. My employer at a local furniture store a Mr. Amir Sokol helped me pay for my first semester of college. Then I activated my reagent scholarship and went away to a state school. I adapted. The story goes on… the point is I never ever gave in to tyranny. This is what we all need to do. As I learned from a Russian woman whom came to America with her mother after her father was killed in Russia for public dissent… never, ever give up!!
Mr Vicedomini, you are to be commended (and VERY much ADMIRED)!
powerful that you could keep the momentum going.. too many internalize despair and create a victim identity and blame others and excuse self for any poor choices from then on
So, what is to be done about the situation?
Share trenchant stories as well-written as this one.
A candle lights a candle, and sooner or layer, finds a fuse. Cf. primary incumbents with VETTED people. Write Postcard to voters. Plan to track your ballot. Write a letter to the paper editor.
Noise works.
This is closer to my understanding of Trump than anything I’ve previously read. I had not heard the story of the school teacher, but that feels like the final piece of a jigsaw puzzle finally filling out the picture. What an awful human being he is.
Brilliant explanation of the roots of this horror we’re currently experiencing. So insightful and so true. Thank you so much!
I posted a comment either yesterday or this morning saying much the same things you said, but without your level of detail. I so much appreciate what you write because it’s good to know someone sees him as I do. The line spoken by Macbeth comes to my mind: “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” I would substitute “He is a tale…” but the rest suits him. Shallow, bloviating, spewing bile every time he opens his mouth also suits. Thanks for your analysis. The subject matter is disgusting but your essay gets every bit of him. And beautifully written as well.
Cheers!
Will NDAs expire at his death? If so, we’ll be flooded with books, etc. written by still-living people harmed by Trump since childhood.
Can’t happen soon enough!
Absolutely on point in every way. He is busy destroying our nation’s capital and no one seems to be capable of stopping him.
Very very good assessment. Thank you
he owes much... time to pay up 🍸