The guy with his face pressed against the glass
Chris Cillizza asks and answers why Trump is so obsessed with being on the cover of TIME.
Why does Trump care so much about Time — a magazine that, like all national magazines, has been hit hard by the fracturing of the media and the changing advertising landscape?
Because all of Trump’s ideas about the media were formed in the 1980s. And at that time, Time was a massively important part of the culture. It was a tastemaker — and breaker. And, most importantly for Trump, it had a cover. A cover that, if you were on it, signified success in the broader culture.
Except not really. Time then (and still, as far as I know) was seen as deeply middlebrow, conservative, cautious…uninteresting. It was about like being covered by TV Guide or Readers Digest. It was like eating at McDonalds.
That sort of recognized success is what Trump has spent his whole life craving — and disdaining when he doesn’t receive it. He views himself as someone who, despite his successes and wealth, has never been accepted into the clubs and communities that he covets. He is forever the guy with his face pressed against the glass, watching the people he wants to be friends with eat, drink and be merry in clubs they won’t let him into.
Yes but Time makes no difference to all that. Snobs aren’t impressed by people on the cover of Time.
Making the cover of Time was — and is — to Trump a recognition by those very elites that he is one of them.
So wrong. I don’t know if it’s Trump who’s wrong here or Cillizza, but I promise you being on the cover of Time is not a fast track to being embraced by the elites.
Neither, for that matter, is being a noisy regular on Fox News; neither is being president of the US. Don is never going to break that barrier, because he is what he is and not something else. He’s deeply vulgar; he radiates vulgarity from every pore; that’s never going to change.
Fun fact: my uncle was on the cover of Time once. Not blood-uncle: my mother’s sister’s husband.
It makes sense if you suppose that middlebrow recognition is the highest sort that Trump can wrap his head around. Time, TV Guide, Readers Digest – they’re all (1) exposed to many, many eyes, and (2) readily comprehended by many, many heads. Recognition by a careful, thoughtful, judicious body isn’t even something Trump can appreciate; numbers, he can. And he likes McDonald’s, so McDonald’s media are quite his thing, the measure he’ll use for his accomplishments, the group that he’ll mark his success by impressing and mark his spiteful power by spurning. Cillizza may not be making that clear, but it’s perfectly plausible as a read on Trump.
Yes. I think it’s that Trump wants both – mass adulation and also respect and acceptance from posh people. But I think Time belongs more in that first category than the second – which I suppose answers my question about whether it’s Cillizza or Trump who’s getting it wrong. I think it’s Cilizza. Trump wants to be on the front of Time for the same reason he wanted to do The Apprentice and run for president, for the same reason he keeps going to “rallies” even though he’s already in the office. He wants Fox AND CNN, Time AND clubs that won’t let him be a member.
“Time is not for blockheads”, as Albee reminded us. Which leaves out Trump.
https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1729736603711460/?type=3&theater
“Fun fact: my uncle was on the cover of Time once. Not blood-uncle: my mother’s sister’s husband.”
I hope he had it framed and put on display at his country club.
Hahaha nope! They did have a framed copy but it was in the little sewing room on the second floor where only people like nieces saw it.
https://www.facebook.com/144310995587370/photos/a.271728576178944.71555.144310995587370/1729775470374240/?type=3&theater
@1 and 2:
The other thing Trump wants that is forever out of his reach (and probably moving further and further out of his reach with every second that passes and every Tweet he creates) is recognition as a member of the intellectual elite. He wants the PhDs and other eggheads to admire him, to adulate him, to consider him not only one of them but their leader, the smartest kid among the smartest kids.
He seems to have at least some recognition that this is not going to happen, so he oozes contempt for the intelligentsia out of every pore to avert anyone pointing out that they don’t respect him. So what, he doesn’t respect them, they are stupid, and he can prove it. How? Because he has written it down, shouted it, and Tweeted it. So, I didn’t want to be in their old club because they are beneath me.
The thing is, getting into that particular club requires work. A lot of people get accepted who had little background because they did the work and the study to belong. But Trump is lazy. He prefers to believe that intellect is something bestowed on you at birth, and that you can tell you’ve achieved it by how much money you have (never mind that money and being one of the intellectual heavyweights don’t necessarily go together). This means he can claim membership in that group IF HE WANTS even if they refuse to acknowledge him; he just doesn’t want, right? He puts down any level of achievement he cannot or will not achieve, which may be why he also has such a hatred for art and artists.
Sachi’s dad was on the cover of Time a long time ago and I happened to find that issue of the magazine in a pile of various forgotten paper that Sachi brought home from a massive house clear out. Not even on any wall. . . Time’s cover isn’t that important, I’d say.
Snap! We are connections-by-marriage-on-cover-of-Time buddies.
*Googles*
Cool cover!
I don’t like to brag about it, but was Person of the Year in 2006
Screechy – you too? Me, too! Hi, fellow POY!!!
I refuse to be identified by the second person pronoun ‘you’ so I guess I miss out on that award :(
Heh. I was going to ask why nobody seems to be mentioning the fake Time cover.
latsot, see comment #3 here http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2017/thats-gotta-sting/
So, can we now call you Da Niece? ;)