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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsSlate - "Donald Trump is Not Having Fun"
A portrait of a sad, angry president.
By Katy Waldman
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/03/donald_trump_is_not_having_fun.html
If your name is Donald Trump, the past few weeks have brought a crescendo of bummers. Your partys vaunted health care plan appears dead on arrival, beloved by none and mocked by all. The fake news has continued to harp on Russia, emboldened by treacherous leakers and disrespectful TV comics. You dragged yourself to yet another meet-and-greet with a foreign leader whose professorial eloquence made you feel like a shlub. This time, it was Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, who proceeded to shame you and your Muslim ban with a flowery ode to Americas history of welcoming refugees. Four decades before Lady Liberty lifted her lamp, Kenny said, as you steamed and darkened like a charcoal briquette, we [the Irish] were the wretched refuse on the teeming shore. We believed in the shelter of America, in the compassion of America, in the opportunity of America. We came and we became Americans.
Then, the crowning indignity: As reports swirled about your record low approval ratings, you had to play nice with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a woman who dares to disagree with you on trade and immigration but not in a sexy, impertinent way. (Flashbacks to that nasty Hillary Clinton.) After a private conversation during which you could neither tweet nor watch Fox News, you were forced to prolong the unpleasantness by inviting the press into the Oval Office for questions and photos. Here is what that looked like:
When Angela Merkel met @POTUS Donald Trump, did her reactions speak louder than words?https://t.co/srKVRtwwPQ 🇺🇸 🇩🇪 pic.twitter.com/yCayiWKHuI
BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 17, 2017
Let the record show that President Trump, in this moment, is not having fun. The bulk of his torso caves in on itself like the imploding Affordable Care Act. As Merkel leans toward him for a handshakea perfunctory gesture of politenessTrump angles his body in the other direction and refuses to meet her eyes. His shoulders hunch, his arms hang limply, he shifts uneasily from side to side. They cant make me! he seems to sulk. Being president stinks. I want to play golf and yell at babies.
Trump does not quite have it in him to leave the room. His tantrum is equal parts fury, self-loathing, and a desire for love and approval. When a large enough star collapses, it becomes a black hole, thirsty for all the light and warmth it can swallow. This president is the teeniest, tiniest of black holes. He doesnt have the gravity to attract anyone or anything. He is enraged, exposed, alone.
Before the Merkel summit, Trumps handshake mostly made the news for its aggro endlessness. (The president manhandled Japans Shinzo Abe for 19 seconds.) That said, Trump has declined to clasp ladyfingers before. During the second presidential debate, he and Hillary Clinton sparked a mild scandal by forgoing the traditional greeting at the top of the show.
Back then, however, Trump smiled. He stood tall, perhaps anticipating the highlight reels his fans would create. He knew he was flouting convention and seemed delighted to play the rogue. On the campaign trail, Trump was a troll with a gleam in his eye, mischievously selling himself as an alternative to the pious bullshit of politics-as-usual. Standing across from Clinton, he wasnt so much skipping the handshake as skipping the handshake, polishing his brand through a kind of kayfabe that mingled ironic posturing with genuine cruelty.
At rallies, candidate Trump zigzagged hypnotically between charm and menace. After an infant interrupted his speech, he cooed that he loved babies. What a baby. What a beautiful baby, he said. Dont worry about it, you know? Then, in an instant, he transformed into a baby-hater: I was only kidding. You can get that baby out of here. Which was Trump the character, and which was Trump the person? Speaking to reporters in July, he quipped, I will tell you this, Russia, if youre listeningI hope youre able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. But he couldnt possibly be inviting a foreign power to hack his electoral opponent, right?
As Emily Nussbaum argued in her essay How Jokes Won the Election, the GOP nominees willingness to claim he was just teasing allowed him to smuggle evil into the mainstream. We thought the outrageousness was part of the act. In retrospect, we fell for a man using irony to veil his true hatred and bitterness.
Now that veil is gone. Having checked his bag of winks at the White House door, Trump has morphed into a professional angry person. He seethes at his staff. He fumes at celebrities. He threatens other countries. He denounces the judiciary. The typical Trump press conference no longer consists of sly innuendo and catchy slogans. Instead, we watch Trump rail against the Democrats and declare BuzzFeed a failing pile of garbage.
On Twitter, insult comedy (Happy Thanksgiving to alleven the haters and losers!) has become conspiracy-mongering (This is McCarthyism! FAKE NEWS.) Trumps online persona seems to have shifted from puckish to paranoid, mused the New York Times on Tuesday, in one of many articles documenting his mounting rage. Even attempts at humor, such as the presidents suggestion that he and Merkel might bond over being wiretapped by Obama, read as poorly disguised resentment. They evoke candidate Trumps cringeworthy routine at the Al Smith dinner, which appeared to be less about diffusing tension than exorcising demons.
Why is Trump so out of sorts? It could be that hes simply found, in fire-and-brimstone Donald, his latest role. Yet it seems equally likely that Trump has stumbled into an Aesops fable of his own making. Having received what he so fervently wished for, hes now found that leading the free world is a miserable chore. Trump, who loves Trump more than he loves anything else, used to jet around selling that self-love to voters. Now hes stuck in meetings pondering policies and ideologies that matter a whole lot more to the American people than they matter to him. As a candidate, he got to accuse the establishment of trashing the country. He played hype-man for a future in which hed refresh our ideals. Now hes accountable in the present to all the men and women whose lives havent become fairy tales since he took office. Thats not fun. Thats a full-time job, and thats the one thing Donald Trump has never wanted.
____________
(I've never wished "not having fun" on anyone so much in my life....)
NastyRiffraff
(12,448 posts)I hope he's miserable. I hope he implodes "bigly"
Kath2
(3,074 posts)He has to know he lost the popular vote and loses the support he has every time he speaks.
Warpy
(111,277 posts)It seems that rally might have pumped his colossal ego back up to Hindenburg size.
Kath2
(3,074 posts)Weird how he keeps staging these rallies. As if he needs an ego boost.
catbyte
(34,406 posts)not fooled
(5,801 posts)but it looked curiously "tight focus" showing the con against a backdrop of dumbasses cheering him on. The "tight focus" makes more sense now--I didn't realize the place was only ~1/2 full.
FuzzyRabbit
(1,967 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)Thanks for posting that.
malaise
(269,063 posts)He just wanted to show the 'black' President that he too could win by any means - now he wants to pay TV President not do the work
babylonsister
(171,074 posts)Stinky The Clown
(67,808 posts)dhill926
(16,347 posts)Orrex
(63,216 posts)I'm confident that this is less fun for all of us than it is for Trump.
And although the article is solid and on-point, I have to say that many of us here saw through Trump's "charm offensive" in real time, recognizing him from the outset as a hateful and petty miser.
Wounded Bear
(58,670 posts)(speaking to the article, not the OP starter) he obviously doesn't give shit how we feel.
Actually, he kind of does care, but in a rather demented narcissistic way.
Warren DeMontague
(80,708 posts)to "prove" something.
catbyte
(34,406 posts)But nothing that Dolt 45* does will erase the epic evisceration he suffered at the hands of a man he knows is superior to him.
SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)greatauntoftriplets
(175,742 posts)It's a serious job.
Grammy23
(5,810 posts)Where he got to issue edicts and commands and fly around in a nice, big plane having rallies to keep his fans enthralled. That is his fuel...the juice that keeps him smiling and happy. Without it he has to confront the realities of his miserable job. The hard day to day grind of meetings, policy discussions, reading up on a subject and the lack of free time that goes with the job. Why else do you think he has gone to Mar-a-lago so much? It is his escape where he can play golf, eat KFC and not be bothered with pesky things like work. He can hold phony photo ops with people he takes with him in the attempt to make it look like he is "working" while he is there. He even jokingly renamed the place like it really is an extension of the real White House.
Apparently he never read the job description before he applied for the job. Surprise, surprise, tRump, joke's on you. After the FBI and NSA get done with their investigation and then Congress does their job, you will regret the day you ever gave a thought to being president of the USA.
ornotna
(10,803 posts)If ever there was a miserable fuck who deserves to be miserable it's him.
n2doc
(47,953 posts)LakeArenal
(28,823 posts)The teeney weeney black hole...
dalton99a
(81,526 posts)catbyte
(34,406 posts)On edit, not we can, he can!
dalton99a
(81,526 posts)utterly incorrigible
Demonaut
(8,919 posts)zentrum
(9,865 posts)...and Trump induced anxiety. May he rot.
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)RKP5637
(67,111 posts)dchill
(38,505 posts)dalton99a
(81,526 posts)[img][/img]
RKP5637
(67,111 posts)Docreed2003
(16,865 posts)EllieBC
(3,016 posts)Who would ever expect that job to be fun? It has to be the world's hardest and worst job ever. It is certainly not funemployment.
Hekate
(90,714 posts)Blue Idaho
(5,049 posts)Soon, I had to...
woodchuck mom
(16 posts)My theory is that Melania didn't want to go thru the bother of moving to D.C. when she knows he's a clueless moron and wouldn't be there that long.
dchill
(38,505 posts)"May you live in interesting times."
Demonaut
(8,919 posts)it keeps getting more interesting, unfortunately
MFM008
(19,818 posts)to wear on those KFC greased arteries????
Demonaut
(8,919 posts)louis c
(8,652 posts)More_Cowbell
(2,191 posts)That he offered Kasich the chance to be the de facto president.
TlalocW
(15,384 posts)Is that for the first time ever, there are a lot of people calling him out on his lies, and he's never had to deal with that before. How dare they? Don't they realize that number 1, he's Donald Trump and number 2, he's the president?
TlalocW
Mc Mike
(9,114 posts)sunonmars
(8,656 posts)Vinca
(50,279 posts)Cha
(297,323 posts)a nasty way.. getting hoisted on your own messy petard.
BillyBobBrilliant
(805 posts)That in some ever-so-slight way I can add to his dismay.
It would make everything about life so much better.
Nitram
(22,822 posts)him and starts closing in. If all he had to do to launch a nuclear attack was push a button, I'd be scared shitless. As it is, there is no way he will be able to complete the steps necessary to launch a nuke before he is hauled away in a straight jacket.
Orsino
(37,428 posts)Perhaps to squeeze as many free meals as he could out of the war chest. Perhaps to bask until the last possible moment in the glow of the cheering crowds. Perhaps to set up that cable/web channel to soak a few more rubes. Those things I get, but why stay when you think you'll lose, and to a woman? Was his plan just to moan for years about an obviously rigged system, and to milk supporters for donations?
No, presidenting isn't fun, not ever, unless you know what you're doing, and even then it's mostly work. Trump, wno has rarely understood anything, has only been able to stand the White House for a few days at a time, and by now he must be aware that his honemoon is nearing its end.
Two years ago, I was sure he'd quit. Any day, I thought throughout the campaign, it will cease being fun and away he'll run.
I kept being wrong, but still I think he's fated to resign, when no one important even pretends to believe his bullshit, and when he has no more weight to throw around. When the crimes he's slouched into catch up to him, and even today's completely corrupt GOPers are ready to impeach. Will he, finally, walk away?
not fooled
(5,801 posts)drove him on to "win" the WH to get back at President Obama, esp. after that Correspondents' Dinner shellacking dump received. It's all about revenge and petty ego with the con, as he learned from his mentor Roy Cohn. Pure Evil.
Plus, the adulation. Adulation from a bunch of deluded marks isn't worth much, however.
Oh, and of course his Russian paymasters expecting their payoff for rescuing his insolvent ass.
Demsrule86
(68,595 posts)I really think the author is on to something...and as his trips to Florida face increasing criticism...he may be force to stay at the White House or sob endure the horror of Camp David.
Gothmog
(145,338 posts)niyad
(113,370 posts)everyone else that treating him as an inconsequential "joke" would wind up the way germany did.
herding cats
(19,565 posts)In his first week he started having tantrums because he wasn't being worshiped as he thought he deserved. Protesters, bad press and lower than par poll ratings were already eating at him before his first week ended. It was in an AP article 1/25/17 https://apnews.com/61415760238042f2ad7bc38acc2f468c
Things haven't improved for him, instead they've just gotten worse. So yeah, I imagine he's still not having fun. It turns out the president isn't a dictator, he isn't being admired by the world and some of his own supporters are even beginning to realize he was little more than a liar who used them to get elected.
The only solace Trump should take from all of this is the vast majority of Americans aren't having fun with him in the WH either. We share your misery, Trump. Albeit for very different reasons.
onecent
(6,096 posts)spanone
(135,846 posts)SchrodingersCatbox
(89 posts)Considering he's so dense that he has his own event horizon...
whathehell
(29,067 posts)rivegauche
(601 posts)This part was a thing of beauty:
"Trump does not quite have it in him to leave the room. His tantrum is equal parts fury, self-loathing, and a desire for love and approval. When a large enough star collapses, it becomes a black hole, thirsty for all the light and warmth it can swallow. This president is the teeniest, tiniest of black holes. He doesnt have the gravity to attract anyone or anything. He is enraged, exposed, alone. "
I'll be re-posting that poetry as often as I can. BRAVO Katy Waldman.
Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)Remember him? He ran for Governor of Minnesota in the late 1990s, basically to gratify his own ego. He was supported by many of the same sort of people who now support Trump and was elected. However, when he became governor, he found the job was not all beer and skittles. He had to work with people whose agendas did not mesh with his, who had power bases of their own and who were in a position to tell him to screw himself.
Ventura was colorful and bumptious -- anyone who has ever had to drive there knows exactly what he meant by "St. Paul was laid out by drunken Irishmen". However, when he wasted time as an XFL announcer, or got in a wrestling ring, he was telling us that he was either a low-class lout at heart, or willing to play one for a paycheck. Maybe both.
His "I'm a big bad Navy Seal" and "Until you have hunted men, you haven't hunted yet" act wore very thin very quickly. In fact, Ventura was not a Seal -- he was a member of an Underwater Demolitions Team, but that's not the same thing. He also never saw combat, so he has not "hunted men".(As a former Army Ranger in Vietnam, I have tracked and killed men. It has placed a major demon in my soul. It is not something I boast about.)
Trump strikes me as much the same. He comes across as someone who doesn't know how to govern, is not all that interested in the work of governing, and most importantly, does not work or play well with others.
egold2604
(369 posts)What do you mean he never saw combat. He got wounded in Predator, but didn't have time to bleed.
MyOwnPeace
(16,928 posts)"The Outsider" - the man who is not "one of them" - the career politicians.
But, as someone else noted - he did not read the job description. And part of that goes back to his simple, basic nature and skill - HE IS A BOSS!
Think about it - he has NO principles, NO political foundation, NO vision of what he wants to "Make America Great Again," - all he wants to do is be like Ronald Reagan was in his last few years - a "Disney" character that goes around waving at people, and daily reviewing a 10 minute "check-off" list of issues that he "decided" - "cancelled" - "proposed" - none of about which he has a single clue! And if it goes wrong, FIRE THEM - blame SOMEONE ELSE!!!!!!
Really, the ORANGE EMPEROR is NAKED - and it ain't a pretty sight.
God help us all.........................
truebluegreen
(9,033 posts)progressoid
(49,991 posts)fingers crossed
Permanut
(5,613 posts)I'm just thinking ahead a little. I'd be okay with providing a juice box and a binkie at taxpayer expense. Just sayin.
On edit, I want tk clarify that these things would be for the obergropenfuhrer, not for anyone in this thread.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)this isn't some kind of game or TV show, he'll retire on his own...