Concerned primarily with his own ego
Andrew Sullivan has an interesting take on Trump in this conversation, saying he didn’t do all the authoritarian things he said he was going to do.
FS: So the authoritarian rhetoric didn’t materialise. Do you think that’s because it was always just talk, part of a tough guy image? Or do you think he just wasn’t capable of executing it?
AS: I don’t think he actually likes the exercise of power. He’s not that interested in controlling the lives of everyone around him, or indeed most Americans. He’s concerned primarily with his own ego, with his own glory, and with his own sense of being right in a particular moment. And so when it comes to difficult things, like rounding up 11 million people, he didn’t even try. There was some increased enforcement from ICE, but not much. We know how much wall he built, which is about a few hundred feet; we know how much Mexico paid for it, which was zero.
Hmm. I hadn’t thought about it that way before. He’s lazy. That may be the thread that saves us. He’s lazy and very easily bored. Talking about himself, bragging, threatening, that’s the fun stuff, but actually doing complicated things is work, and he doesn’t want to work.
FS: Some people have accused you of “Trump derangement syndrome” for the level of your concern. In retrospect, do you feel like you had a mild case of it?
AS: No. The former President Donald Trump is himself deranged, that is where the source of the derangement is. All we’re doing is responding to what he says and what he does. And what he said was: I intend to upend the entire Constitution of the United States and run it as a dictator. He didn’t do it. Now, the question is, why didn’t he do it? And some people say, well, he was checked by others. And he was. But my sense is he doesn’t actually want that kind of control. It’s too much responsibility.
And way too much work.
Let’s hope so.
Last time Trump was lazy and ineffective, like a badly operated wrecking ball. He surrounded himself with people who were incompetent, or who were competent enough to act as some kind of check. Next time will not be like that. Trump will still be Trump, but now the Republican apparatus is prepared and has a plan.
Rob, that’s pretty much what I thought. He doesn’t want it, but a lot of GOP biggies do. They didn’t expect him to win any more than anyone else did; they weren’t prepared. Now they are, and will make the most of a Trump presidency to remake the country as they want it to be.
Rob, exactly. Trump may be lazy, but a second Trump Administration will be staffed with people like Steven Miller, who are very very interested in controlling people’s lives and asserting power and will be quite diligent in doing so.
If I recall correctly, in 1984, it’s never clear whether Big Brother is an actual living human being or just a fictional symbol used by the Party.
He might not like to do work, but there are plenty enough willing to do it for him, or in his name.
Yes, next time, Trump will be surrounded by people willing to put in the hours and do the dirty work, with Trump as figurehead. He might not care if his grandiose plans and pronouncements are followed through (beyond the time for that sound bite to be overtaken by the next Great Project), but there will be people who will pick them up and run with them, seeing them through to completion, with Trump taking credit or blame as necessary. It’s these behind-the-scenes autocratic functionaries gravitating towards him, and the Republican Party remaking itself in his image that will perhaps be a greater threat than Trump himself. Without him, they’d have to find some other figurehead to sail behind or Trojan Horse to hide in.
Fine fine fine, stamp all over my thin thread of hope. Spoilsports.
The tell here is the way that he talks about the (doubtless-fictional) foreign president calling him “Sir”. I don’t know if American civil servants would call him that, but foreign ones certainly wouldn’t, and heads of state certainly-squared wouldn’t. But he loves the idea that people call him Sir, and that’s really what matters.
Maybe that’s the way to keep him away from the important stuff. Just pay a couple of people a handsome salary to follow him round using honorifics. It’d be a truly great use of public funds.
All part of the service. You’re welcome.
To be honest, it was a bit of a toss-up; we usually Dash hopes, or Cut threads, so there was some discussion as to the best way to deal with the combination. In the end we decided that, in this case, a good Stamping would be most effective. (Some were holding out for a Stomp, but that was deemed a bit too excessive.) Rest assured, boots are ready should they need to be called upon.
Remember, we have a discount every Tuesday on Rude Awakenings, featuring freshly brewed Coffee to Wake up and Smell, and the usual, last minute, Friday Night, two-for one special on Unwelcome News (just in time to miss the news cycle). And, as ever, Stern Looks, Pointed Fingers, and Awkward Silences are always free of charge! Enjoy!
I think of myself as more of a wet blanket.
Not sure they’re actually all that prepared… More likely to break the federal government further than anything else in such a large country.
What worries me is something that his laziness enables; all the world’s giant shitheads are waiting for him to get elected so they can go hog wild without any interference. It’s not just the likes of China and Russia; Serbia is eyeing Kosovo again, Argentina the Falklands, and so on.
The world becomes a very scary place when the US says fuck it and goes home.
I pointed out in a comment on an earlier post that Trump’s fans characterize a lot of his bluster as “trolling.”
I saw that again yesterday, in response to his remarks about Nato. Someone in a group I’m in wrote,
I think “trolling” is giving him too much credit. Trolling requires some forethought, some theory of mind, and some wit (even if twisted.) Trump lacks those things. But it’s true that he doesn’t mean much of what he says. It’s mostly hot air.
It’s also bullshit, in the precise sense Harry Frankfurt used the term. Trump simply doesn’t care enough about truth to distinguish it from falsehood.