Donald Trump: Classic or Dud?

Once, coming back on his plane with a billionaire friend who had brought along a foreign model, Trump, trying to move in on his friend’s date, urged a stop in Atlantic City. He would provide a tour of his casino. His friend assured the model that there was nothing to recommend Atlantic City. It was a place overrun
by white trash.

“What is this ‘white trash’?” asked the model.

“They’re people just like me,” said Trump, “only they’re poor.”

“You know when I was young. Of course I feel young — I feel like I was 30 . . . 35 . . . 39 . . . . Somebody said, Are you young? I said, I think I’m young. I was stopping in the final months of the campaign, four stops, five stops, seven stops — speeches, speeches in front of twenty-five, thirty thousand people . . . fifteen, nineteen thousand. I feel young — I think we’re all so young. When I was young we were always winning things in this country. We’d win with trade, we’d win with wars — at a certain age I remember hearing from one of my instructors, the United States has never lost a war. And then, after that, it’s like we haven’t won anything. You know the old expression, to the victor belongs the spoils? You remember I always say, keep the oil.”

“Who should keep the oil?” asked a bewildered CIA employee, leaning over to a colleague in the back of the room.

Ultimately Trump may not be that different in his fundamental solipsism from anyone of great wealth who has lived most of his life in a highly controlled environment. But one clear difference was that he had acquired almost no formal sort of social discipline — he could not even attempt to imitate decorum. He
could not really converse, for instance, not in the sense of sharing information, or of a balanced back-and-forth conversation. He neither particularly listened to what was said to him, nor particularly considered what he said in response (one reason he was so repetitive). Nor did he treat anyone with any sort of basic or reliable courtesy. If he wanted something, his focus might be sharp and attention lavish, but if someone wanted something from him, he tended to become irritable and quickly lost interest. He demanded you pay him attention, then decided you were weak for groveling. In a sense, he was like an instinctive, pampered, and hugely successful actor. Everybody was either a lackey who did his bidding or a high-ranking film functionary trying to coax out his attention and performance — and to do this without making him angry or petulant.

The payoff was his enthusiasm, quickness, spontaneity, and—if he departed for a moment from the nonstop focus on himself — an often incisive sense of the weaknesses of his opponents and a sense of their deepest desires. Politics was handicapped by incrementalism, of people knowing too much who were defeated by all the complexities and conflicting interests before they began. Trump, knowing little, might, Trumpers tried to believe, give a kooky new hope to the system.

1/2 term like totally used flynn as a primary russian go-between

A White House meeting that morning failed to convince Trump to fire Flynn. He was concerned about what it would look like to lose his National Security Advisor after just twenty-four days. And he was adamant about not wanting to blame Flynn for talking to the Russians, even about sanctions. In Trump’s view, condemning his adviser would connect him to a plot where there was no plot. His fury wasn’t directed toward Flynn but to the “incidental” wiretap that had surveilled him. Making clear his confidence in his adviser, Trump insisted that Flynn come to Monday’s lunch with the Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau.

just fuck the whole thing if this nominate Oprah thing gets any traction inside the DNC

i worked out how much it would cost, in 2021, to give every licensed american driver the equivalent of a 2004 pontiac G6 and it came to about 9.5 trillion

if you spread that out over two terms it's only about a trillion a year

but what would be truly extraordinary is the number of pontiac plants we'd have, and the sheer number of people required to work in them. we would be number one in pontiac plants per square mile and unemployment would probably be a thing of the past

Also, the taxes everyone would have to pay for getting free cars would pay for all sorts of other stuff! Downside: no one could sell their car, since everyone would have one already. The price we pay for the Pontiac Economy.

worth it imo

Some thought him dyslexic; certainly his comprehension was limited. Others concluded that he didn’t read because he just didn’t have to, and that in fact this was one of his key attributes as a populist. He was postliterate — total television. But not only didn’t he read, he didn’t listen. He preferred to be the person talking. And he trusted his own expertise — no matter how paltry or irrelevant — more than anyone else’s. What’s more, he had an extremely short attention span, even when he thought you were worthy of attention.

it's like an alfred jarry play come to life

“What is this ‘white trash’?” asked the model.

“They’re people just like me,” said Trump, “only they’re poor.”

I might have to call bullshit on this quote because it betrays a gift for brutally honest self-assessment that I can't believe Trump possesses.

that's a younger pre-senile 2scoops

He seemed to lack the ability to take in third-party information. Or maybe he lacked the interest; whichever, he seemed almost phobic about having formal demands on his attention. He stonewalled every written page and balked at every explanation. “He’s a guy who really hated school,” said Bannon. “And he’s not going to start liking it now.”

When Trump walked onto the field for the national anthem, he was greeted with a chorus of boos amidst scattered cheers, and struggled to remember the words to the Star-Spangled Banner he respects so much.

hooray

I totallt believe the “white trash” anecdote. Trump has always been aware that he wasn’t accepted by polite society. This is why he can convincingly (to some) rail against “elites” while being a billionaire. His brand isnas much about vulgarity as it is about glamour.

i hate his stupid fucking ugly face

it is so disgusting

Hater

he really epitomizes the old white politician “spoiled canned ham” ideal

you know what i find really helps is calling him donald butt instead of donald trump that way every time you talk about him you get to let ppl know that you think, that he is a butt

But my 6 year old would do that.

I tried just saying '45' but I couldn't keep doing it.

nicknames are silly imo. he's not the first bad president, you can just refer to him by name

Difference is, his name is a brand he licenses.

i believe 'donald butt' is a good compromise and will endorse this expression

donnie two scoops is still the best

no it's not, it's all stupid. playground nicknames? seriously? Trump is a virus & he's making everyone insane

ILM >>> ILE for maybe the first time since idk I first posted?

j/k i always preferred ilm ;)

I agree that he is a virus and he's making us all insane and we should just use his name, but also I have been calling farts "trumps" from the age of 5 because that's what they are called.

truly, we must treat Donald Trump with the dignity he deserves

finding the nicknames stupid has nothing to do with dignity

flappy bird otm. The cute albeit belittling nicknames make me cringe. It acknowledges this level of familiarity that I deeply wish I didn’t have.

This is a good use of our time

i usually call him "our president"

guys this is a stupid argument I didn't mean for it to be taken with deathly seriousness. glad to see everyone in usual formation, though

We need more discourse

when they invent the profanity strong enough to describe how i feel about president trump i'll use it. until then i'll stick with "president trump" or "the president of the united states".

yeah

I googled "Donald Butt" and was directed to a deviantart page that's mostly screencaps of Donald Duck's ass

<3

^said ass

when they invent the profanity strong enough to describe how i feel about president trump i'll use it. until then i'll stick with "president trump" or "the president of the united states".

we could spit on the ground like the romanians in that doubtlessly historically accurate snl sketch

Trump Diary- Eric pic.twitter.com/LDNzuEbkWr

— kyle Dunnigan (@kyledunnigan) January 20, 2018

scoops²

donnie two scoops isn’t a playground nickname. it’s a two bit gangster nickname, which is why it’s so appropriate.

and i usually don’t refer to him by anything except the president (i try to not use his name because of the unpleasant way it thuds into a conversation). but of all the nicknames out there (many of which are bad) the one that sounds like it would be hissed over an illegal card game is most fitting.

I am sad that there already are a bunch of Donald Dumptrucks out there.

dud

i call him "2 scoops". game of cards indeed. fuck the trumps -- granddad ran a brothel, dad was arrested at a KKK rally (and not for protesting!), 2 scoops and 2 scoops senior were fined for racist housing policy, and the guy inherited $200,000,000 but talks like a drunk bigot even though he's sober and "president". and that's his appeal!

It's funny to remember that people on this board used to make fun of dr morbius for saying like "shillary clintDUMB" and now everybody does that shit