Once again, my day began with more of Donald Trump on the radio. His latest tweet, which he issued at about 5:30 a.m. on Saturday after having a Breitbart report whispered in his ear--no doubt by Steve Bannon--the evening before according to purported White House insiders, accused President emeritus Obama of tapping his "wires" at Trump Tower. Since then both the former Director of National Intelligence and the current director of the FBI, the infamous James Comey, have denied that any such thing occurred. The image that races through my mind lately when I hear these outlandish allegations from Trump and his staff is that of a man in a long coat with a bolo tie and a top hat standing on the tailgate of a horse drawn wagon trying to sell snake oil to a small, shabby crowd. Unfortunately, Trump has millions of people in his crowd of twitter followers, and they are all as eager to believe Trump's bizarre claims as they were when they voted for them...probably fans of Sarah Palin as well. And of course, the opposition is as busy discrediting the claim and its cognate sources, which the Trump camp no doubt will start condemning. The result apparently will be an appendage to the Russian meddling campaign focused on the claims of Trump Tower wiretapping, which begs the question of why Trump does these things. The answer is simple; Trump subscribes to the timeless Hollywood adage that there is no such thing as bad publicity.
In Trump's case, the advantages that inure to him from even the negative publicity are functions of ego, not just gullibility and proneness to conspiracy ideation. This isn't about national security at all, this claim against the former president. It is about narcissism...ego. It isn't about demonstrating that Trump has been victimized. It is about discrediting his predecessor, whose popularity soars way above Trump's own. Trump is not the star of recent history with anyone other than his obeisant family and staff, and he is incapable of burnishing his own stature because everything he does is questionable to at least half the population. Thus, his only recourse is to diminish the one who stands above him: Barrack Obama. This last Twitter outburst, like many of its predecessors, is not an attempt to purify America, or even to "make America great again." It is the tantrum of a seventy year old tyke in a grocery store. It is the foot stomping of a privileged rich guy who can't get his way, even with money. I'd like to say it was also the ranting of a Hitlerian autocrat, but it isn't. It is only the pathetic outcry of an egocentric carnival barker. It is just Donald Trump doing what he has always done--promoting himself first, and if that doesn't work, discrediting someone who opposes him with whatever cudgel is handy. It used to be the courts, because he had the money to hire as many lawyers as he wanted to pursue whatever frivolous claims he wanted to make, but he can't do that anymore. The president can't vexatiously sue people he doesn't like because everyone will see what he is doing. So he has to use rumor and innuendo when he can get them because he has no other resources.
But the explanation of motivation isn't really the point here. The real, overarching question is, is Donald Trump amoral on account of his stunted development in the bosom of a preposterously self-indulgent family, or is he immoral and likely to do anything he wants because he doesn't believe he answers to anyone and he can thus get away with anything he wants to do. The former is dangerous in its own right--no prudent person wants to be governed by a child king who doesn't have any moral compass. But the second alternative is geometrically more dangerous. A king who doesn't care what harm he does is not just hazardous to be around, he is malevolent. And with the power of the American presidency at his disposal, he can devastate the nation.
We will know how to resolve this conundrum fairly soon now. Trump is going on two months of incumbency, and it is becoming more and more clear what kind of a president he is going to be. So, measuring his popularity is important because it is also a measure of his impunity, but it isn't paramount. What we have to determine now isn't whether Trump is a hazard. We have to determine whether he is dangerous--not whether he is a petulant child, but whether he is a ranting megalomaniac.
Your friend,
Mike
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