Since the Democratic National
Convention (it’s hard to believe it ended only 5 days ago, given the height of
the still rising bounce it gave to Hillary’s theretofore faltering campaign!),
it seems as if Donald Trump has accelerated the frequency of his personal attacks
on those who have somehow run afoul of his ire. His outbursts now seem to
happen, as the President pointed out today, on a daily or even two-a-day basis,
such that it becomes difficult to keep them all in mind. Crazy has truly become
normal- or, at least, unsurprising.
Unless we want to adopt the tempting
conspiracy theory that he’s deliberately tanking his campaign (I will admit
that I’ve entertained that thought a dozen times during the past year), it’s
hard to escape the only other plausible conclusion, which is that Trump
sustained a massive, devastating narcissistic injury as a result of the avalanche
of criticism dumped on his head by two dozen remarkable speakers at the DNC. This
was unprecedented for him to be ridiculed and attacked over a period of 4 days,
with the world watching, and with him having almost no opportunity to (his
favorite word) counterpunch. And perhaps most woundingly of all to his eggshell
ego was when he was blindsided by an unlikely enemy: the short, punchy moral condemnation
of him by someone nobody ever heard of--- Khizr Khan, the grieving father of a dead
war hero, who provided the Welch-McCarthy moment that we’ve all been waiting
and praying for this past year.
And when Trump rose to the bait, and
attacked the Khans on multiple levels, each more appalling than the previous
one, this became the gift that keeps giving…to the Clinton campaign! Trump must
now be walking around 24/7 in a state of barely contained hysteria, unable to
sleep, unable to function without frequently blowing off ill-conceived steam. But
the more he lashes out, the more it boomerangs back on him, thereby upping the
pressure still further.
He has turned the entire Khan family,
including Mrs. Khan, into American heroes instantly recognizable by the entire
country and world. I just watched father Khan, speaking with Anderson Cooper,
rebut the latest smear directed against him by Trump surrogates, that his immigration
law practice caters to wealthy Arab clients—let’s just say that Trump is now
taking fire from every one of those 360 degrees!
And that brings me to my real punchline
today --- the fire that Trump sprays at Republican
targets, as he takes his petty revenge on those on his side who dare to agree
with his Democratic critics that Trump has gone way too far in attacking a Gold
Star family. The most recent “warning shot” was Trump’s mocking comment today
about Ryan: “I like
Paul, but these are horrible times for our country. We need very strong
leadership. We need very, very strong leadership. And I’m just not quite there
yet. I’m not quite there yet.”
In this
way, Trump obviously and pointedly echoed the very same closely parsed language
that Paul Ryan initially used about his hesitation in endorsing Trump after
Trump won the primary race, a month or so before Ryan eventually did so at the
Republican National Convention. It is no coincidence that Trump made this
statement today of all days, after Ryan (to Trump’s way of thinking) did not
have Trump’s back on the Khan-troversy.
It’s been a while since I first realized
that there is even more to Trump’s endless chain of personal attacks on Republicans,
who have somehow run afoul of his good graces, than wounded narcissism. What’s also
going on, particularly in these instances of “friendly fire” directed by Trump
against fellow Republicans, is that Trump is in effect peeing on the leg of these
establishment Republican figures, marking his territory. He is showing them all
(and therefore also the American people watching this grotesque reality show) that he is THE Alpha Dog among all the alpha
dogs.
When this happens (just recall Chris
Christie being humiliated very publicly by Trump several times), this reminds
me every time of the great scene in Mike Nichols’ Wolf when Jack Nicholson’s newly “enwolfed” publishing exec takes a
very singular and satisfying lupine revenge on the sleazy protégé who betrayed
him, played by James Spader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dstVRc-tifk
(start watching from 1:27:50--the exact moment of territory marking occurs at
1:30:56, and then the scene ends shortly afterwards).
As I just rewatched that scene for
the umpteenth time (this is one of my most favorite movies), viewing it this
time through the lens of Donald Trump, I realized for the first time that the best
line comes right before the peeing, when Nicholson’s character shocks Spader’s
by sneering, "You're fired". As I think about the chronology here, given
that Wolf was released in 1994, and
has been in continuous cable TV circulation since then, I wouldn’t at all be
surprised to learn that Wolf has long
also been one of Trump’s favorite movies as well. And I bet he just lurves that scene in particular- and
perhaps lurved it so much for so long, that when he started doing his shtick in
The Apprentice in 2004, he adopted Nicholson’s
“You’re fired” as his own trademark phrase. If I’m correct, then he owes
Nicholson a LOT of royalties!
And in case you were wondering,
check out the photo that Google just led me to---it’s of much younger Trump,
Nicholson & Warren Beatty sitting together in 1988 at the Tyson-Spinks fight
in Atlantic City.
So, in conclusion, how fitting if
Donald Trump, by his overaggressive marking of his territory, winds up
committing political suicide—knocking himself out with a devastating one-two
combination while the world sits ringside and gawks--or drowning, if you will,
in his own “marking fluid”.
Cheers, ARNIE
@JaneAustenCode on Twitter
No comments:
Post a Comment