A big mistake by Trump.
Trump broke character. He forgot his role. It opens a window for the audience to question whether they had misunderstood the character he was playing: Trump-the-alpha-male-president.
Worse, it makes them wonder if maybe the character is a fraud.
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| Mistake |
This tweet was a mistake. Trump looks weak and petulant He was resentful because he didn't get protection from Republicans. This breaks character. Poor me.
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| Democratic mockery |
I write about Trump as a character because he has revealed a fact that has always been true about human behavior, that it is a constructed public presentation. A politician in the spotlight is playing the role of a version of themselves. (I watched Christie and Rubio and Cruz give essentially the same speech, with apparent sincerity and spontaneity multiple times. Politicians are actors playing a role written and directed and performed by themselves. My readers understand this intellectually, I am sure, but it is especially evident when one sees multiple performances by the same politician. One sees the reality that the politician is doing an extended reality-show performance.)
Trump plays the role of the dominant alpha male leader, the bad boy who is on our side, the self confident bully who refuses to be a victim or to let America be a victim. Take a moment and consider other bad boy heroes. Would Dirty Harry complain that he didn't get support from the San Francisco police department, complaining about being unappreciated about all he does? No. He would accept it like a tough guy and scoff that their pusillanimity.
Did Rambo go whining? No. He went shooting.
Do we admire the sports star when he complains that his teammates just aren't good enough? Not at all.
Did Rambo go whining? No. He went shooting.
Do we admire the sports star when he complains that his teammates just aren't good enough? Not at all.
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| In character: Trump the accuser |
Possibly when he wrote the tweet about the ungrateful teammates who owed him protection he thought he was doing another iteration of Trump-the-Enforcer, the tough guy who knows who has been naughty and nice, and is therefore ready to punish the bad and reward the good. Trump may simply have made a mistake in tone, an infelicitous choice of words. After all, he had just made a display of warning Senator Heller of Nevada. Another tweet he wrote was in-character, positioning the US and his base of voters as being mocked by Democrats and Russians--back to the archetypal appeal to resentment and revenge.
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| Huffington Post story |
That notion of Trump-the-spoiled-crybaby has always been there under the surface. Trump's complaints about fake news has always had an undertone of this interpretation but it has been suppressed because Trump seemed to be on the attack, the accuser rather than the whiney victim. But Trump has been skating close to the line with this and this might be a meme with real potential--one far more damaging than Trump-the-colluder. It is hard to picture Trump as a Russian puppet, short of there being serious undisclosed financial dealings with Russian oligarchs or really damning things on tape. I consider revelation of these a low probability event.
But Trump-the-accuser, saying he won the popular vote, saying the election count was rigged, saying everyone is picking on him has been susceptible to looking like a cry baby, not an accuser. Trump just went over the line in making the "carry them over the line" description of his GOP supposed allies. He is criticizing his team mates, his supporting cast. Heroes don't do that. Even if the accusation were true, it breaks character to make it. The audience doesn't like it. His GOP team mates wont like it. They perceive themselves as leaders, not supplicants. They won election because they deserved the win. They will resent the notion that they were carried over the line.
Some of them will hit back, subtly or not so subtly. It was a mistake.
Trump can recover. If he returns immediately to accusing. If he immediately messages that he loves and respects his GOP colleagues. If he clearly sounds tough rather than hurt he can paper over this.
But the image of Trump the crybaby is out there now and it will hurt him.
Trump can recover. If he returns immediately to accusing. If he immediately messages that he loves and respects his GOP colleagues. If he clearly sounds tough rather than hurt he can paper over this.
But the image of Trump the crybaby is out there now and it will hurt him.
16 comments:
Politicians are not actors, but the reality show analogy is apt.
Good actors are able to enter personas and become characters in support of a story. Great actors reveal hidden truths in human behavior and can summon empathy or antipathy that gives us insight into ourselves. This is art and should not be confused with giving a good stump speech, which is just telling an audience what they want to hear and already believe.
Trump as victim is a tricky tactic, I agree, and it depends on the shared victimhood he has projected onto his cult. As long as it's "us against them", with "them" being anyone who questions the validity of their grievances it will keep his approval steady. For the those outside the cult, it's just another manifestation of narcissism.
Yes a mistake but a small one, I think. Unless it turns out to be the crack in the dyke, the fateful pebble.
Does anyone know what exactly were the disciplinary problems that led Abu Ivanka to be sent to military school when he was entering into puberty? Pranks? Acting out?
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