tired of people treating trump like he is anything other than an ego-driven simpleton (i wrote this, this is a piece about why he is nothing more than an ego driven simpleton.)
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Would’ve been nice to have these honest articles about the ego-driven simpleton before the election. NY Times preferred criticizing Biden & ignoring his accomplishments for 4 yrs.
Thank you for sharing this article. Of course, reading anything truthful about Trump means risking elevated blood pressure and a feeling of hopelessness. But thank you again for being a truth teller. We need more courageous people like you.
The "evil genius trope" is a thing of fiction. There is nothing intelligent about causing wide-scale harms. Being stupid and being immoral are not a rare combination--call it what it is!
Excellent! Thank you for the gift article. This should be read by every American. It also slices through the veneer of inevitability of the Trump admin’s destruction of the US. Trump’s psychopathy presents an opportunity for effective resistance. This will be a marathon not a sprint, however.
Too many people write too many things about DJT. You’re absolutely right. All there is to reflect on is contained in these few paragraphs. Over and out.
What goes around, comes around.
I believe the time will come for him, and all!!!!!!
This is our country, not the ego maniacs and grifters now thinking they can go whatever!
We are STRONG!
People seek strategy behind his policies on Ukraine/Canada/Greenland etc, but it's all "vicious overlapping resentments" – Zelensky not investigating Bidens/Trudeau emasculating him with handshake and Melania rumors/Danish PM calling his ideas absurd.
Trumpism is narcissism, solipsism & sociopathy.
Beautifully & succinctly put. But I must literally bow down to you for this tres bon mot: “He is a covetous person consumed by an insatiable desire for acquisition, a man who seems to take the seven deadly sins as a seven-day challenge.”
One key insight of this piece (there are others) is that trump is retaliating against the entire country (except a few chosen oligarchs) for not re-electing him in 2020. Hard to avoid this conclusion as wild as it seems.
On the whole it probably would have been better if he had won in 2020. As it is, they had 4 years to get ready for this moment (and the Dems did literally nothing to try to stop them).
In 1890, the Tariff Act came into place in the United States. It placed tariffs on imports of up to 50%.
While touted as a way to build American industry, there was also the hope it would force an annexation of Canada. It backfired.
Let's learn more.
We really, really, really need to normalize straight calling Trump stupid, to his face, preferably recorded.
It is *exhausting* to keep seeing media avoid doing that. He is stupid as hell and I don’t understand why we don’t lean on Trump being a complete fucking idiot.
He's incurious and proudly ignorant, as well as completely uninterested in the distinction between truth and falsehood. He does have a feral instinct that has served him extremely well in Republican politics. I don't know whether you call that intelligence. It's something.
There’s a reality in the corporate world that having *an* answer is more important than having *the* answer.
You end up with these loudmouths failing upwards because they are the guys with answers and nobody can be bothered assessing the quality of the answers.
There is certainly stimuli and response to stimuli involved, but yeah, calling it "intelligence" might have substantially more of a positive connotation than is warranted.
Which is why I don't call him a liar, but rather a bullshitter. Liars want you to believe them. Trump doesn't care whether you believe him; what he cares about is whether you give him what he wants. He makes whatever mouth noises he thinks will get that result.
The question is what will the Americans do with that fact. Will they allow their country to become a dictatorship? Also, what made Trump possible? Will Americans address that topic too? In order to avoid new Trumps in the future?
I haven’t understood how how people became so enamored with him - he lies, he’s not intelligent, he has no empathy nor compassion for anyone, he’s greedy, he’s narcissistic, he’s filled with hate. One man has been able to do so much damage to the world.
It's fascinating to me that he's not only an extremely simple character with obvious traits, but that despite being on the political stage for 10 years, people still think he can be whatever they want him to be. He's not a cipher!
This truth about him might explain why he's now doing things that hurt his supporters. Is he still angry at them for not showing up in large enough numbers to protest the FBI classified doc search, his indictments, his conviction, at his 2024 campaign rallies, etc?
He certainly is an ego driven simpleton, but he’s also an ego driven simpleton who just beat us in an entirely winnable election, so maybe we’re not as smart as we think we are.
oh you’re good, I saw that as an opportunity for humour. there probably isn’t an acronym or initialism out there that doesn’t already have a meaning to some group.
There is much denial methinks. Noone wants to believe that someone so utterly unfit for the job in every way could possibly have got there without having some hidden/unrecognised qualities. Because, if he *did*, what would that say about the system which allowed it?
"To ask anyone, for instance, to treat the president’s display of childish pique opposite Zelensky in the Oval Office as some return to Teddy Rooseveltian great-power realism — as opposed to the embarrassing tantrum of a grade-school bully — is to demand that readers administer a self-lobotomy."
As a NYer now parked in California, I revel in your description. I grew up 60s - 80s NYC, great aunt in real estate knew Fred T and had nada but sh*t to say about FT. DJT is a pathological liar and narcissist. He is doing his best to destroy USA with help.
Solid article. Trump and Musk both want to burn the world and rule it at the same time. For Musk it's because his endgame of a technofascist dystopia requires the destruction of liberal democracy; for Trump it's rage, ego, hate and unfettered id mixed with that old-time bigotry.
“Let me tell you: Putin went through a hell of a lot with me,” Trump said. “He went through a phony witch hunt where they used him and Russia.” He seems to identify so closely with Putin that he sees any scrutiny of the Russian dictator as an attack on him as well. RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE IS REAL!
The know-it-all in my office was explaining to someone Trump's multi-stage master plan today, and while I make it my policy to interact with him as little as possible, the impulse to barge and point out that he's ascribing complex motivations to a mush-brained psychopath was hard to resist.
Yeah - you start asking, "how do you KNOW that?", and eventually they have to face - "because if it's not eleventy level chess, then it's just idiocy."
Jamelle, I just saw your interview on PBS Newhour with GOPer. You were great! Your last comment was perfect, and covered her BS in the most polite way. Hope you do this more often, although you looked a little like you had indigestion as she bubbled about VP Trump.
From Bouie's incisive oped:
“…It is hard to describe Trump’s first month and a half in office as something other than a retribution campaign against the American people.
Under the cover of an audit, he has empowered Musk … to take an ax to any and every program that helps ordinary Americans…”
I read it this morning and I forwarded it to many people. This article more than any other is exactly how I feel. No one realizes that the emperor has no clothes. Thank you so much for writing this. I’m going to keep forwarding it.
Trump V.1 would have immediately pulled back on tariffs as they blew up markets since that damaged his popularity. But now he thinks he is an economics genius. W/ advancing age, it seems that his feral instinct for survival no longer has the velocity required to escape the black hole of his senility
The Orange Cancer is trying to destabilize the dollar, via a depression, so that the Treasury will be transfered to crypto. Then, ANYONE, Putin, Musk, Krasnov, ANYONE with a password can withdraw funds. These people are criminals. Follow the money.
Revolution is now!
🌊🇺🇸🇺🇸🌈🟧🌍💙
That is an insult and not a fair comparison at all. He is abnormal. He is a psychopath, a malignant narcissist, a rapist, racist idiot with a 5th grade mentality and the maturity of a three year old.
Thanks for the article. You're one of the few people who gets it. Lindsey Graham doesn't, he's always trying to give Trump advice. He even told him to stop whining about losing the election because it was starting to look like sour grapes. Mitch McConnell knows not to waste his breath.
Yes. It is a rare disorder, but when one is malignant, everything else is a symptom of the malignancy, or a side effect. I'm no psychologist, but they would probably agree.
Thank you! Great article! I've hated this man since I was a teenager growing up in New York. It is so blatantly obvious what sort of guy he has always been. It baffles me how people can't see him for what he truly is! To me, it is transparent as day!
Revulsion is what I feel when I see or hear his voice. I never watched it, but I hated seeing the commercials too. What sort of person enjoys a show where the guy treats everyone like dirt and yells, "You're fired!" Please, I get enough abuse in real life at work.
That is the truly scary part. How many gullible idiots who are still fawning for this carnival barker, snake oil salesman. They can't see past it because they are so full of hate.
No argument here, but I’d add “lazy” to the description. It’s why he’ll declare Infrastructure Week once in a while, but never actually put in the effort to actually improve our infrastructure.
... The amount of spilled ink for John Bolton losing his state sponsored detail truly baffles me. The guy has enough money to hire a bodyguard if he really needs one. Just because Trump did it out of spite doesn't make it outrageous
His presidency bears the features of being in a violent relationship. The West in general are too bound to the US, but even though he consistently "slaps" us around, we still hope that one day he will become more compassionate and change his actions. He never will. Just like a violent partner.
I think you are right on that Trump wants to be a Putin, Orban, or Kim Jong-un and have total power and ability to punish anyone who dared piss him off.
This is true while Republicans and pundits act as if this is normal.
Really loved this piece! I've been thinking for a few weeks now that Trump hates America for rejecting him in 2020, and this helps explains his actions since 1/20.
Looking at this from the frame of reference that Trump is supposed to be making the country better, the simpleton explanation might be magic thinking - it’s too easy. But if the purpose had always been “to destroy the country”?(for Putin), he’s no longer a simpleton but instead quite competent.
It’s not just Trump. There are some staggeringly ignorant people in both chambers and in both parties. Just a bunch of clowns playing follow the leader. It’s pathetic and it’s not limited to public sector. People also think Musk is a genius. He’s really a Ketamine addled arrested adolescent dolt.
Don’t delude yourself. The billionaire donor class and foreign actors put him there. They need useful idiots. Both parties are owned by their donors. The United States has never been a true democracy.
I feel that you are exactly right! It bodes ill for this country, for its decent people and for the Democratic Republic that has been here for almost 250 years.
Fully agree. Many of the traitors (Vance, Musk) have evil ideologies but Trump simply isn't an ideologue, for better and for worse. He's not sophisticated enough to be a white supremacist or an authoritarian. He just thinks HE'S the best and HE should be in charge of everything.
I disagree that there's no rhyme or reason to the cuts. Every cut is to an agency that's a bête noire to Trump, Musk or the Heritage Fdn. NIH: A reminder of COVID. CFPB: Prosecutes financial fraud. NWS: Documents climate change. VA: Trump is shamed by/contemptuous of actual bravery and sacrifice.
FEMA: Trump didn't think it should help states that voted against him. SSA: Right wing has been gunning for it for decades. FAA: Regulates SpaceX. NSF: Science is anti-bullshit. National Park Service: Most conspicuous agency to go "rogue" on social media in his first administration.
I have friends and colleagues that point to his success as proof that he's a genius playing 4D chess. They always miss the far more obvious reason: boundless capacity for evil with nary a shred of conscience to bother him
DJT HAS THE ABILITY TO CON PEOPLE WHILE THEY BECOME HIS SLAVES. BEWARE OF BECOMING HIS SLAVE...
HE WILL SAY HE DOES NOT EVEN KNOW YOU IN FUTURE!
MUSK MUST LOOK AT DJT'S PAST! ELON IS BECOMING A WILLING SLAVE...FOR SHORT TERM MONEY AND POWER.
I think the kids call it “glazing” and applied to trump it leaves me with a sensation not dissimilar to licking the icing off of a thousand Krispy Kreme donuts in one sitting
I believe Trump is more than a quart low when it comes to smarts and suffers from Dyslexia giving him the appearance of a dumbass! We are experiencing a third grade playground temper tantrum just because his ego has been bruised and he’s going to screw everyone and everything he can!
Where were your BALLS last night when @algreen.house.gov
stood up to Trump?
WHERE WERE ALL OF YOU who went to the SOTU last night? WHERE was the outrage? We're calling you all opportunists for media & BS when you sit there silently.
The only thing holding Trump aloft is the fear GOP leaders have of losing power and their jobs. Many of them could go back to being lawyers, doctors, etc., but they want the money and power so much they're willing to trash their "morals" and us along with it.
I suspect part of the reason for dodging Trump’s profound stupidity is a fear of tweaking the overwhelming ignorance of the majority of American adults. 54% read below a 6th grade level, and the rest will go to extreme lengths to avoid pointing this out (when ignorance is why we’re in this mess).
Great article, a sound and true assessment. And his stupid egoism makes him vulnerable to being manipulated by others who are more cunning and who do have an ideological agenda - Putin, Russel Vought, even JD Vance. Him being their puppet complicates matters.
The problem is those “supporters,” sycophants, and apologists (large in number) are often actually deeper in their simpleton selves than the chump himself.
. . . Then there is all of their sociopathies; individual and collective . . .
And he always projects, projects, projects, accusing others what he himself is doing, making people hesitate to point out what he does right out on the open. Making us all accomplices in his deception. Learned that little trick from Roy Cohn.
I think that your diagnosis is fair. The greater questions is how 77 million people awarded a delusional liar authority over us all, an authority he is trying to extend beyond its legal boundaries. Between his malice and his incompetence, he's never been trustworthy.
The very reality that he and his group yield to even partial Court decisions in any form shows that they're not nearly as confident as their bluster makes them out to be. Not pushing trumped up charges (pun intended) with a Vyshinky also proves that, too.
This is a brilliant and on point article with deep insight and application. Take a moment to read it in full. Process what it says and marvel at it’s accuracy. When you finish, consider what means for our future. If it doesn’t motivate you to fight, you have lost.
Well done, sir! Yes, trump is the same frightened child that lashed out against the world to demonstrate the power and dominance needed to please his father. He will never acquire enough power/wealth to overcome the self loathing at the center of his psyche, but he will destroy this country trying.
You reject the idea that most of these nihilistic moves are a precursor to privatization? I was pretty shocked to find out the depth of the debt DeJoy inflicted on USPS, and his privatization goals were well-known. Now it is ripe for the plucking, but it was a 5-year process, a bit slow for some
I think that there are people in the Trump world who have this strategy and ideology. Trump only cares about ego, power, money, and revenge so the ideological people use those angles to get him to implement their strategies. But the actual ideology and end result, he doesn't care.
I agree with that, but it needs mentioning because too many people attribute everything to djt. He is not just Putin's puppet, but anybody who feeds his ego and his wallet has his ear
More proof we need to turn over the current old people Democrats, they all "liked" him when Biden turned it over, so he wasn't removed. More of the Biden mistake of trusting anyone related to Republicans or conservatives.
Refresh my memory, did any of the younger people rail against him? By the by, when wanting to turn over the old guard, please mention a viable alternative. I am leery of Republicans sneaking in situations like this and then changing party. Happened to often lately and always in the wrong direction
I believe all the privatization moves are being made by the billionaires of Project 2025, who supported getting DJT as a puppet into office. DJT is not organizing all that. Likewise, he has left it to Musk to dismantle government in prep for privatization. The harm to people is just a bonus for DJT.
The way people tie themselves into pretzels to explain Trump's behavior and thoughts when it's really always he's either lashing out or he will personally benefit from his actions. He's a narcissist, period
"Donald was my grandfather's monster. [... H]e was ultimately rendered unlovable by the very nature of Fred's preference for him. [... T]his left him enraged, and the rage, because he was never loved and would never be loved, continued to grow. We must never forget that..."
(from original 2 of 4)
The frightening part is that he has powerful money sponsoring his bid for authoritarianism - Musk, Thiel via Vance, Heritage, Opus Dei. They will all gleefully sacrifice our democracy to their own ends for control and power. The American people MUST rise to protect democracy.
This piece was spot-on and should be preserved for history.
I viewed the speech as a Nuremberg rally presented on QVC.
Aside from Al Green, the Democrats responded with paddle signs that would be more appropriate at an antiques auction. They need to be confrontational and consistently impolite.
The problem with a simpleton is that he’s given a lot of credit by people who believe that they’re too smart to be taken by such a fool. They have to build him up to be Lex Luthor when he’s a run-of-the-mill dumbfuck.
Trump is the most hard done by person in the world living in his delusional aspect of the world. His United States is the. greatest delusion of being the underdog in the world. He lives in the world of the United States, is being taken advantage of by every other country in the world
🎯"...if Trump wants anything, it is the untrammeled authority of the world’s autocrats. He wants to be a Putin or a Viktor Orban or a Kim Jong-un. He wants to rule with unchecked power. And...he will do everything he can to make that a reality, American democracy be damned."
trump is worse than that. His allegiance is to Putin/Russia and himself, NOT America.
Q: Will the pundits and journalists call him the traitor he is or will they wait until hard and numerous examples of his treasonous behavior? At the current rate it will be too late to remove him from office.
Something else I’m tired of is seeing his disgusting face in my feed. Could y’all please stop plastering everything you post with closeups of that bloated, fishlike nastiness?
I honestly think one of the reasons Trump hates Justin Trudeau so much is because Trudeau is smart and good looking, two things Trump emphatically is not.
Trump is a carjacker. If he switched places with a street criminal, nothing would change because the street guy would be shaking down zelensky and trump would be trying to mug tourists and sell shoplifted goods
Comments
With no redemption at all
– Elvis Costello, Miss Macbeth
the only thing that makes the ego happy is pain
he's a lesson for us all
I believe the time will come for him, and all!!!!!!
This is our country, not the ego maniacs and grifters now thinking they can go whatever!
We are STRONG!
Trumpism is narcissism, solipsism & sociopathy.
While touted as a way to build American industry, there was also the hope it would force an annexation of Canada. It backfired.
Let's learn more.
🧵1/10
It is *exhausting* to keep seeing media avoid doing that. He is stupid as hell and I don’t understand why we don’t lean on Trump being a complete fucking idiot.
You end up with these loudmouths failing upwards because they are the guys with answers and nobody can be bothered assessing the quality of the answers.
They rage against DEI, we should rage again EDS
ha, nice one
“…It is hard to describe Trump’s first month and a half in office as something other than a retribution campaign against the American people.
Under the cover of an audit, he has empowered Musk … to take an ax to any and every program that helps ordinary Americans…”
Thanks for writing this Jamelle.
https://artistlike.org/2015/11/23/the-dangers-of-dismissing-donald-trumps-hateful-rhetoric/
Revolution is now!
🌊🇺🇸🇺🇸🌈🟧🌍💙
But he's also a psychopath.
This is pretty familiar. Betrayal, destruction, game-playing, nasty teasing and name-calling, moving goalposts.
His cronies have their evil plans, but he's not on anyone's team.
-Maya Angelou
The superproducer behind 'Sarah Palin’s Alaska' wants to create "a series of shows from the eyes of leaders of nations."
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/mark-burnett-pursuing-vladimir-putin-804454/
This is true while Republicans and pundits act as if this is normal.
THIS IS NOT NORMAL
Exactly!
He lies without shame because and destroys without guilt because he has no moral compass.
He's not a genius. He's not even an animal. He's an ameoba.
He feeds and does anything to eat.
I have friends and colleagues that point to his success as proof that he's a genius playing 4D chess. They always miss the far more obvious reason: boundless capacity for evil with nary a shred of conscience to bother him
HE WILL SAY HE DOES NOT EVEN KNOW YOU IN FUTURE!
MUSK MUST LOOK AT DJT'S PAST! ELON IS BECOMING A WILLING SLAVE...FOR SHORT TERM MONEY AND POWER.
This was amazing, and spot on. We’d be a lot better off if more journalists were covering Trump like this.
Where were your BALLS last night when @algreen.house.gov
stood up to Trump?
WHERE WERE ALL OF YOU who went to the SOTU last night? WHERE was the outrage? We're calling you all opportunists for media & BS when you sit there silently.
. . . Then there is all of their sociopathies; individual and collective . . .
I don't know if you are able to do this but it's critical to also hold the #vichycorporations accountable for supporting this bs!
What's the best target list to share widely ?
I've started a DIY "A-Z" list on Linkedin and happy to have suggestions
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/rajthamotheram_vichycorporations-activity-7299344754427781120-xzx-?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAD0cbwBTxayitAfrXeWQ-WTk8MJBrZ9ipg
He's been nursing a grudge since he lost the last election.
Wonder what America will "look" like in four years....?
DOGECOIN is traded under (DOGE)
Musk is heavily invested in DOGECOIN
Musk runs DOGE &
owns a lot of (DOGE)
Do ya think Musk might seize assets in the name of DOGE the government agency
…then act confused when he “accidentally” deposits in the wrong DOGE account?a a
(from original 2 of 4)
But they don't. They don't anticipate what I'll do next even though it's so simple.
I hope everyone here takes the opportunity to read it.
Excellent, excellent, excellent
I viewed the speech as a Nuremberg rally presented on QVC.
Aside from Al Green, the Democrats responded with paddle signs that would be more appropriate at an antiques auction. They need to be confrontational and consistently impolite.
Q: Will the pundits and journalists call him the traitor he is or will they wait until hard and numerous examples of his treasonous behavior? At the current rate it will be too late to remove him from office.