Not to me. He’s just a stupid asshole. Obama is charismatic.
I prefer Obama a million times over Trump. Intelligent too. But if Trump wasn’t charismatic, he wouldn’t be in the news everyday. He’s an attention whore. He craves it. It would be great if he could be charged and convicted and we never hear about it, but you know that’s not going to happen. He keeps getting more popular among MAGAts—and there are way too many of them. Even stupid people have a right to vote.
But that’s like saying you prefer cake to being run over by a bus. Ya just can’t compare the two. And they are way more different than apples and oranges.
I don’t think I’ve seen another human being less charismatic to me than Trump. He is a charisma vacuum, a charm black hole.
Cue Eddie Izzard.
“Charisma” is just a word that aggregates a bunch of subjective traits. I think it’s dangerous to dismiss Trump as uncharismatic - he’s clearly got “it” so far as vast swaths of Americans are concerned.
There’s got to be a Terry Pratchett quote somewhere…
According to Wordnik, the first definition of ‘charisma’ is:
A rare personal quality attributed to leaders who arouse fervent popular devotion and enthusiasm.
I don’t know how rare this quality is, but this does accurately describe DJT.
The second definition is:
Personal magnetism or charm.
This is extremely inaccurate, regarding DJT.
I always associated charisma with the latter definition. YMMV.
Yup. Me too. Never really thought about it the way the first definition describes it. There has to be a better word for that first definition.
I’ve read personal accounts from people who are decidedly not fans of Trump that, in person, he is actually charming and funny. Like con men often are. He has real skills and talents - he just never puts them to anyone’s benefit but himself.
And he hides them well I guess.
It could be the whole “I’m a stupid corrupt buffoon” thing is merely an act. But I guess you’d say it’s working for him.
His public rallies speak to MAGANAUTS. Crude, violent, simplistic slogans, slanderous nicknames. Playground bully tactics. He loves the “…common clay of the land, you know, morons”.
If he’s sellig real-estate or smoozing with money, a different beast - still a beast inside.
I can’t help but think that this could be the country’s epitaph.
Trumps should be “Even criminals can be President”
Or,
“You can’t fool all the people all the time but you can fool some of the people all that time and that may be enough.”
He’d try any judge’s patience:
Penn Jillette spent two seasons with Trump on The Celebrity Apprentice. This is what he had to say in 2019:
You have never seen someone who’s never laughed sincerely, and never made a joke. He will laugh in a bully way—‘Haha! You look kind of fat, Joe!’ He’ll do that. But never even a joke.
I’m upset that he’s exceeded the limit of the English language. He’s now twice-impeached and thrice-indicted. But there is no word to follow thrice. I suppose we could make up quadrice but still, it’s amazing that there is no word to describe the number of indictments.
Quadruply? Is that a word?
I would love to see Penn turn the tables on Trump. Penn is quite intelligent, but Trump doesn’t understand that. Penn is big enough to say, that’s it, lets go. Sort of the way that Trump is bullying Federal Judges.