# Is the President having a Good Time? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 11, 2017, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571 "2017-10-11T14:36:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/41 "2017-10-12T13:25:31Z")
> **[“I Hate Everyone”: Trump Seethes as Advisers Fear He Is “Unraveling”](https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/10/donald-trump-is-unraveling-white-house-advisers)** > > Sources describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain the president’s dark moods. One example of what I’m talking about there: > [@](#): > > In recent days, I spoke with a half dozen prominent Republicans and Trump advisers, and they all describe a White House in crisis as advisers struggle to contain a president who seems to be increasingly unfocused and consumed by dark moods. Trump’s ire is being fueled by his stalled legislative agenda and, to a surprising degree, by his decision last month to back the losing candidate Luther Strange in the Alabama Republican primary. “Alabama was a huge blow to his psyche,” a person close to Trump said. “He saw the cult of personality was broken.” On the other hand, the White House denies this. So, we have that. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/42 "2017-10-12T15:46:35Z")
I think everything Rick Jay said is correct. But maybe he should call himself the immoderator. I think Trump is enjoying himself bigly. Making money hand over fist and winning every battle (in his own tiny mind, of course). If he wasn’t, he would quit, since he feels no obligation to stay on (he feels no obligation to anyone). ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/43 "2017-10-12T16:02:43Z")
My experience with a narcissist is that they operate by (1) dismissing or delegitimizing everything negative said about them, and (2) making byzantine explanations for why they’re actually winning when their detractors say they’re losing. Any time something negative comes onto the horizon there’s an excuse. I don’t think narcissists are capable of being truly happy, but I have no doubt that the barrage of attention–both positive and negative–is making Trump feel more alive than ever before. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/44 "2017-10-12T17:23:16Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I think he’s very frustrated that he can’t just snap his fingers and have his will / whim acted upon unquestioningly by the rest of the government. > > I also think that he had no idea that being president involved having to be involved in (and give a damn about) a lot of minutiae. > > I think he loves the title, and the adulation (when he gets it, which is why he does more rallies than press conferences), but he hates the job itself. Yes on all counts. Its not as much fun as he thought it might be but never regrets it. Probably hoping it will get better but wont. I’m waiting on the gray hair that all out going president get. > [@Snarky\_Kong](#): > > To me it’s painfully obvious that he hates the job of being president. He loves his rallies, people cheering his lines, and when/if he can get the press to say he did something not-awful. Actually being a responsible person that doesn’t get everything he wants because he wants it right now damnit?! No, no fun there. I dont think he hates it at all. He just wants to be more dominate and plans to do so. > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Could you give us a hint? Does it involve nuclear weapons? > > Need answer fast. I dont think he will draw that card unless the idiot in N Korea starts it but I doubt it but he will squash the son of a bitch. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/45 "2017-10-12T17:25:50Z")
I can’t see it being fun. It is an incredibly tiring job, stressful, everyone trying to lobby you from every direction, sleep deprivation, constant travel, out of his comfort zone, etc. ---
**Author:** ![hermitcrab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@hermitcrab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hermitcrab)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/46 "2017-10-12T21:41:48Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![hermitcrab](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@hermitcrab](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hermitcrab)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/47 "2017-10-12T21:42:57Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Could you give us a hint? Does it involve nuclear weapons? > > Need answer fast. We’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![wolfman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a8b319/32.png) [@wolfman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfman)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/48 "2017-10-12T22:32:21Z")
I think he is at least smart enough to hang onto the facade of winning while he can. Even he can read people well enough to know that once he isn’t president, the gloves will come off and very few people of any influence will even pretend to defend him anymore, and tell-bestsellers will be coming out by the dozens. Plus the very real possibility of being changed with state/foreign crimes. Even though he knows he fucked, and he knows everybody else knows that he is fucked, he is like a five year old standing next to the broken lamp and soccer ball, stubbornly sticking to his story that ninjas broke it. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/49 "2017-10-12T22:58:46Z")
Hell no! If Trump could just campaign in perpetuity, he might be happy. Instead, he has the first job in his entire life that wasn’t granted him by his father, where he is expected to do a lot of reading and thinking. His Chief of Staff has tied up his office so that he can’t have his friends and confidants come and go throughout the day (something he was probably very used to before the election. My guess is he doesn’t like that he can’t buzz his daughter and have her come to see him whenever he wants to talk). Even his phone calls are screened! The press - who he used to court via his pretend publicist persona - is now obsessed with finding his flaws and nitpicking everything he says and does. And the residence quarters! It’s a small, cramped little place that was presumably fine when it was built, but is hardly up to his standards. It’s really ridiculous that he has to live there. He’s the President. This whole “following instructions” thing must drive him insane! ---
**Author:** ![Critical\_Mass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f1d935/32.png) [@Critical\_Mass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical_Mass)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/50 "2017-10-12T23:25:18Z")
He still has considerable support from the electorate. He bathes in their adoration of him. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2017, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/51 "2017-10-12T23:28:50Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > And the residence quarters! It’s a small, cramped little place that was presumably fine when it was built, but is hardly up to his standards. It’s really ridiculous that he has to live there. He’s the President. This whole “following instructions” thing must drive him insane! [New York Times](http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/06/garden/at-the-white-house-everyone-s-a-guest.html?pagewanted=all) > [@](#): > > Homesteading in a national monument has never been easy. And no one realizes this more acutely than the Presidential occupants themselves, **for whom the 24 rooms (including halls) and 20,000 square feet in the private quarters on the second and third floors,** while hardly cramped, offer the only escape from the public pantomime of Washington life. And I’ll bet there isn’t a square inch of gold in any of that. Such deprivation. I play a tiny fiddle to honor the sacrifice he has made. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/52 "2017-10-13T02:06:23Z")
I am reminded of C S Lewis’s description of Hell (maybe in The Great Divorce?). It is a place where you can have wherever you want, yet none of it brings pleasure. Mansions, meals, money, whatever but none of it seems to bring happiness somehow. Sleep is not refreshing, food is not satisfying, friends betray, power is an illusion. I suspect President Trump might be the example of the saying “Be careful what you wish for.” He got all he ever wanted, and look at the poor slob. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/53 "2017-10-13T03:01:38Z")
He didn’t expect to win. He thought he’d be spending four years saying “If I had won I’d be a much better President than Crooked Hillary” because he thought being President was telling people what to do and then they go away and do it. He has the intellectual capacity of a nine year old boy, and hasn’t any inclination to learn how to do anything. Until now, cheating, lying, and stealing, while spending money on unnecessary gaudy tat, has been his whole life. He thinks money is what makes a person important and gain praise. He doesn’t know how to be anything else. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/54 "2017-10-13T05:13:35Z")
> [@Sattua](#): > > My experience with a narcissist is that they operate by (1) dismissing or delegitimizing everything negative said about them, and (2) making byzantine explanations for why they’re actually winning when their detractors say they’re losing. Any time something negative comes onto the horizon there’s an excuse. > > I don’t think narcissists are capable of being truly happy, but I have no doubt that the barrage of attention–both positive and negative–is making Trump feel more alive than ever before. Yes, but back when he was still just a candidate, I noted that while Trump has been a celebrity for decades he’s never had to endure the level of public attention a President gets. Trump was probably able to drown out the critics when he was just a sleazy business executive. He could build that much of a bubble around himself. But the amount of criticism an incompetent President gets is too much for anyone to ignore. It’s going to break through any kind of bubble Trump tries to build around his ego. Trump must realize that people see him as a failure. And Trump’s going to discover the same thing Grant and Hoover did - failing as the President will outweigh any success you had in life outside of the Presidency. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 2017, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571/55 "2017-10-13T05:26:30Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Trump was probably able to drown out the critics when he was just a sleazy business executive. He could build that much of a bubble around himself. But the amount of criticism an incompetent President gets is too much for anyone to ignore. It’s going to break through any kind of bubble Trump tries to build around his ego. Trump must realize that people see him as a failure. I believe he had NDAs with people who worked for him that kept them from talking about what went on in his companies. You can’t do that in government. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-president-having-a-good-time/798571.md?page=2)