If you want to make some money today, place a bet on Trump changing his mind about debating Joe Biden virtually next week. I bet a Trump-supporting friend $10 he would change his mind by this coming Sunday, if not sooner.
My friend was eager to take the bet and was cocky. “He’ll never agree to a virtual debate,” he says, “he feeds off human contact. He wants to look Biden in the eye, get close.”
Yes, I said, so does Dracula, so take the bet.
He did.
My idea is that understanding Trump is a lot more fun than hating him on Facebook or Twitter and wetting myself over him. And I think I’m getting his number.
Once you understand Trump, the world, as chaotic as it is, makes some sense. And I feel safer. Because although the media loves to call him unpredictable, he is predictable in every sense of the world.
And because I have known for some time now that Trump will destroy himself long before the progressives and the bedwetters and Democrats get to him.
Take the debate flap, for example.
At least once a day, usually in the morning, Trump will tweet something upsetting, outrageous, or just plain dumb and incomprehensible. The more offensive and senseless, the better.
He speaks out of pure impulse, never thought or calculation.
The other morning, he announced that he was canceling negotiations on the Stimulus Bill, the dumbest move of his presidency. The next day, without explaining the first tweet, he changed his mind. Maybe.
The media bit each time, of course, and once again, Trump dominated the news all day. He is actually talking gibberish – he rarely means what he says – but that makes no difference to the corporate media, cashing in on all those clicks.
Within minutes of the decision by the Commission on Presidential Debates to hold a remote virtual debate next week between the two presidential candidates, Trump said it was a ridiculous idea; he wouldn’t even think of doing it. Headlines everywhere.
More headlines when he will change his mind.
Almost everything Trump does and says now is about looking tough, the one quality his autocratic father Fred valued above all other things.
Debating via a computer is not in his head, something a tough man would do. A tough man stands toe-to-toe and bullies and intimidates his opponent. A wussy man talks into a computer.
As I write this, campaign aides are doing the math and trying to figure out how to convince their leader not to toss away what is perhaps his very last chance to look like a President, rather than a troubled kid about to be sent to the office, in front of a huge audience.
The election is over. The only remaining question is how bad it will be for him.
Then he did a phone interview with Fox News (check out the puffy checks in his latest photos, a gift from steroids or make-up artists).
This was his first post-hospital interview, which instantly devolved into vicious and sexist attacks on Kalama Harris (more angry and disgusted women voters) and dishonest and ridiculous boasts about his health.
Another round of headlines and it wasn’t even noon, nor had he said a single thing of significance or anything relating to the country’s governing. This is really all he does It’s like pushing a button, and the media machine roars to life.
In the early afternoon, the FBI announced it had uncovered a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who gave an eloquent and defiant speech about the plot later in the afternoon.
Donald Trump, who has tweeted hundreds of times in recent weeks, had nothing to say about the plot.
In her speech, the governor sharply rebuked Trump, saying his winks and dog whistles to nationalist and militia groups in the country has encouraged them to violence and conspiracy.
Perhaps Trump will find it in his heart this time to condemn them for it. I’m betting he will, in his own tepid way. He is desperate. If he doesn’t, another big nail in a big, heavy, coffin.
Lots of people, including me, will be wondering for years how this insanity translates into a powerful and courageous leader to so many millions of people.
The most interesting thing about this erratic behavior is that it’s no longer working for him, even though it got him elected in 2016. Biden leads him in every national poll by an average of 10 points.
People are simply sick of him now, even those who like him. It is not human nature to live in this anger and uncertainty every day for years. He’s like a deranged genie – one of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s dybbuks – stuck in our heads, he doesn’t ever go away.
Today, FiveThirtyEight’s election simulations, the best in the country, have Biden winning 85 out of 100 times, the highest margin ever. The worse it gets, the louder he gets. The less it works.
I have to credit Trump’s very perceptive niece for helping me finally break the Trump code in July when her book came out. Before that, his behavior was unfathomable. (Yes, she has axes to grind, but she sure grinds them honestly and well.)
In her best-selling book “Too Much And Never enough: How My Family Created The Most Dangerous Man On Earth,” Mary Trump writes that “Donald today is much as he was at three years old; incapable of growing, learning, or evolving, unable to regulate his emotions, moderate his responses, or take in and synthesize information.”
Donald Trump has been setting himself on fire for months.
Trump doesn’t grasp that even the people who like his policies are exhausted from his tantrums, insults, likes, his monomania, vulgarity, and constant flip-flops. He isn’t simply losing on the way he governs, but on the way, he is and can’t stop being.
He is dispiriting, no longer exotic and daring.
When he calls Kamala Harris a “vicious monster,” as he did Thursday morning, he is just further alienating the women he desperately needs to win re-election. He has made being cruel boring and ordinary.
Consequently, he is further endangering the Republican Senator majority, which FiveThirtyEight now says he is likely to lose.
Trump is addicted to the affirmation of white, angry, non-college-educated men, and some women.
He no longer cares about the support or approval of anyone else. This is what politicians mean when they talk of “going rogue.”
His need for affirmation, as Mary Trump says, is his disease. This group loves every offensive and the shocking thing he does. That has consumed him and destroyed his presidency.
Gandhi was right. Hatred does always lose in the end.
This need for affirmation says Mary Trump “is so great that he doesn’t’ seem to notice that the largest group of his supporters are people he wouldn’t condescend to be seen with outside of a rally.
“His deep-seated insecurities have created in him a black hole of need that constantly requires the light of compliments that disappears as soon as he’s soaked in.”
I don’t see any working-class white men golfing with him on all those weekend outings, or eating steak with him at Mar-a-Largo.
Then, after his orgiastic outbursts, he needs to get more attention and affirmation. There is never enough.
This is a man who deserves the pity of every person with a good heart; he is no more responsible for what he does than a child with severe learning disabilities. It would be a mercy for the media to ignore him, just as one doesn’t give a crack addict drugs.
But in the Corporate Nation, that’s heresy, it would upset a lot of stockholders.
Like a plane in a fog heading for a mountain top, Trump is heading for the worst defeat and rejection of his life. This repudiation and growing revulsion are so much bigger than him. But it is clearly eating him alive.
I feel stronger and more every day that somehow, America needed this, needed to go through and consider what democracy really means to people. We are all paying attention now.
Trump’s problems are accumulating because the awareness and ability to learn required to solve them, or pretend they don’t exist, has become more complex and difficult. It is beyond him.
Many of the people reading this will write to me – but remember what happened to Hillary in 2016, or say timidly, “I hope you are right.” They think America is falling apart, I feel a great wave, I believe America is being reborn.
It is not 2016 anymore, and I don’t really care what happened to Hillary then, it has no relevance to today. Perhaps it’s time to let it go.
And the people around him, the only ones who can help now, are either using him or are weaker than he is. All the strong people around him have left and been driven out.
There is no longer anyone close who can really help him at his time of greatest need. All of his bad ideas are hailed and enabled.
I think my bet on Trump changing his mind about the debate is a good one, but he might come up with something more dramatic.
He will find a way to get in the spotlight – he might well try to stage a rally somewhere instead for the affirmation fix he may need. Even so, I’m sticking with my bet.
I don’t see any way this shattered man will pass up the chance to talk to somewhere between 60 and 70 million people, no matter where he is.
He will be where all of the morning headlines and bathe in the praise of his Twitter army. And then go do it again.
Kamala Harris, a monster and a Communist? When Trump makes statements like this, it makes me wonder if he’s losing his grip on reality. His comments have always been good for a few laughs and a lot of frustration and anger but this seems more paranoid … and scary. I think he knows his campaign is circling the drain. That combined with Covid has got to be seriously messing with his psyche. I’m not betting he’ll participate in a remote debate. He likes to take control and be able to attack in person. It’ll be interesting to observe Trump’s behavior in the coming weeks. Just don’t let him near the nuclear codes!
Every insult tRump makes about someone is projection.
Thank you for this wonderful article. I asked my husband to read it so that he would better understand my anger with Trump. I wanted him to understand that I am just one of thousands of women that he has hurt by his words and belittling. I have PTSD and he has hurt me since before he was elected. I feel better now. Thank you
I think even thoughtful and informed people egged him on in 2016. They were attracted to his wild irreverencies and watched every debate and every word. As if it weren’t serious.
I wish media would ignore him awhile. Basic negative reinforcement should shut him up. It was always so nice when he was on a foreign trip or in the hospital where he was more silenced.
I wonder how we will get those working class workers who lost their jobs to globalization and the tech revolution back into the fold? Covid may have given Biden the ticket.
I’m happy he declined. After the spectacle he made of himself in the first debate, who wants to see what he’ll do in the second? He’s out there enough! I’m really having a hard time these days seeing him and having to listen to the utter disrespect he has for others.
I wouldn’t take that bet, I think you will exit the month with an extra ten dollars in your pocket. The only way he won’t change his mind, is, as you mentioned, is if he finds a better way to bring millions to the table to listen to him- even though they may be risking their health and lives to do so. Not mentioned here, but noted in some of your other posts, is the brilliant way the Biden Campaign reacts to each of these events. They have stepped back just enough to allow Trump to bury himself.
The media has, once again, taken a beating. There are several political shows that will no longer air his tweets, will no longer show video of him at his rallies, and have made the attempt to stop giving him the attention he so desires. And they are criticized for doing so. There seems to be an unwritten rule that because he is POTUS, everything he says and does, HAS to be covered. The media is damned if they do, and damned if they don’t. Somewhere along the line, both the media and the public need to find that ‘line’ between what needs to be covered and what can be ignored. Because so much of what he says and tweets can be construed as a direct threat to Democracy, they cover it. But there is no doubt in my mind that ratings will be tougher to achieve post Trump. I also think we need to give some credit where it’s due- some of these reporters have done an excellent job investigating, getting deep into an administration that has more to hide than any in recent history. Those who don’t like the results call it ‘fake news’, a term so overused that, at least to me, it has no real meaning anymore. And while I am aware that there have been some errors made, that there are most likely a few reporters within the web that don’t have the journalistic integrity that others employ. But overall, I am still a believer in the idea that journalists check their sources and they believe in the code of ethics that rule them. I often think of Brian Williams when having this discussion. Williams, a brilliant and talented journalist and commentator, embellished a story regarding his own exploits overseas in a war zone, and was, predictably caught at it. While he is still employed, his reputation will never be the same, and his detractors use it against him on a regular basis.
I loved this post, but found that for me, it brought up as many questions and thoughts about journalism and the media, as it did Trump. The two are obviously inexorably linked, and it becomes more interesting, lirtally by the day, sometimes by the hour.
Thank you for another thought provoking post, your honesty and insight are appreciated.
Too bad, B Thomas, I won it twice yesterday he twice agreed to attend the debate he bailed out of. Fortunately, you don’t have to pay me.