# "Leave Donald Alone!" Pleads His Press Secretary **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 2, 2017, 4:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125 "2017-01-02T04:23:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/61 "2017-01-02T19:26:42Z")
> [@aldiboronti](#): > > I think it’s dumb and also I don’t think Trump gives a flying fuck about mockery, other than criticizing the quality of it. This guy has put up with more mockery than any candidate in electoral history. He still won the Republican nomination and the Presidency. That’s not someone who can’t handle anything that’s thrown at him. Yep, now he’ll find out how much 68,000,000+ people despise him. The dumb SOB can’t even get people to appear at his coronation in 3 weeks. My favorite mocking of Trump to date…[This.](https://localtvwreg.files.wordpress.com/2016/12/rooster.jpg?quality=85&strip=all&w=400&h=225&crop=1) It’s a uuuuuge statue of him. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/62 "2017-01-02T19:29:41Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > The dumb SOB can’t even get people to appear at his coronation in 3 weeks. I understand he wanted Leni Riefenstahl to film it, probably because he heard she’s the only person behind a camera who would come near the event. ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/63 "2017-01-02T19:31:45Z")
This mocking is less personal, but very symbolic. > **[Genius Architect Wants To Hide Trump Tower Sign With Flying Pigs - The...](https://chicagoist.com/2016/12/05/trump_tower_flying_pigs.php)** > > Genius Architect Wants To Hide Trump Tower Sign With Flying Pigs ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/64 "2017-01-02T19:37:43Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > There is always a reason beneficial to Trump as to why he does the things he does. In this case he complains about people mocking him because it: a) delegitimizes his attackers because it presents them as acting out of malice rather than substance; and b) it energizes his base against the mockers. > > I actually laughed out loud when someone called **aldibronti** delusional over his claim that Trump wasn’t bothered by being mocked. Trump has the toughest skin and the least concern over what people think of him as anyone I’ve ever seen. He does what in his mind he needs to do in order to accomplish his goals and he doesn’t give the least flying fuck whether anyone at all approves of it or likes him for it. That goes for those he does business with, his political opponents, his own fans or family, or anyone else. And he’s been that way through his entire career. Those who think Trump is hurt or bothered on a personal level by being mocked are the ones who are delusional. Yep-That’s why he hasn’t said word one about those portrayals of him on SNL. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/65 "2017-01-02T19:42:16Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > There is always a reason beneficial to Trump as to why he does the things he does. Completely agree. Whether it’s personal financial gain, attention seeking, or just gratifying a feeling of vindictive resentment, Trump’s own personal benefit is always the chief and generally only reason for everything Trump does. [QUOTE=Starving Artist] Trump has the toughest skin and the least concern over what people think of him as anyone I’ve ever seen. He does what in his mind he needs to do in order to accomplish his goals and he doesn’t give the least flying fuck whether anyone at all approves of it or likes him for it. [/quote] I agree that the fact that the majority of the US and world population perceives Trump as a whiny, spiteful lightweight is not a significant impediment to Trump’s accomplishing his goals. This is because his chief goals are, as I noted, personal financial gain and popular attention. He’s not a statesman, he’s a real-estate hustler and reality-TV star. Anything, anything whatever, that’s making him money and/or getting him attention is ultimately a positive from his point of view. [QUOTE=Starving Artist] Those who think Trump is hurt or bothered on a personal level by being mocked are the ones who are delusional. [/QUOTE] We will probably never know for certain what Trump’s personal emotions are about the widespread contempt in which he’s held nationally and globally. Perhaps he really doesn’t care but finds it a good attention-getting tactic to pretend to be thin-skinned and vindictive. Perhaps he’s in a state of denial where he believes he’s mostly loved and admired so he has to keep constantly and ostentatiously assigning his mockers to some kind of fringe minority status. Perhaps he just childishly likes the game of perpetually trading personal insults and vituperation. The key issue is that, as you note, **Trump’s continually-reinforced public image as a petty malicious despicable asshole doesn’t actually interfere with his personal goals.** Of course, what future effect it will have on the well-being of the US as a whole, not to mention the rest of the world, remains to be seen. ---
**Author:** ![Me\_Billy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e480ec/32.png) [@Me\_Billy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Me_Billy)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/66 "2017-01-02T19:48:44Z")
Trump needs to learn people are like a mirror. He told McCain to stick it basically and now he is getting a bunch of stick it back in spades. YOU DON’T GO TELLING A PILLAR OF YOUR POLITICAL PARTY TO STICK IT! I find Trump’s behavior “disturbing”. (As in mentally ill.) ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/67 "2017-01-02T19:50:15Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Yep-That’s why he hasn’t said word one about those portrayals of him on SNL. :rolleyes: And it’s why he doesn’t send Graydon Carter, coiner of the phrase “short-fingered vulgarian,” pictures of himself with the hands circled and the comment “not so short!” (I’m not sure if Trump’s failure to protest against “vulgarian” is the result of a glimmer of self-awareness or the difficulty in finding photos in which he’s not being a vulgarian.) ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/68 "2017-01-02T19:50:16Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > Yep-That’s why he hasn’t said word one about those portrayals of him on SNL. :rolleyes: Actually, Trump did whine about it early in December: > [@](#): > > Donald Trump tuned into the latest “Saturday Night Live” episode and was not pleased with Alec Baldwin depicting him as being too busy retweeting teenage boys to take on Commander-in-Chief duties. > > “Just tried watching ‘Saturday Night Live’ — unwatchable,” the President-elect tweeted shortly after leaving a Long Island costume party. “Totally biased, not funny and the Baldwin impersonation just can’t get any worse. Sad.” > … > "Release your tax returns and I’ll stop,” [Baldwin] tweeted at Trump under the Alec Baldwin Foundation account… > [Cite](http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv/trump-rips-alec-baldwin-middle-snl-article-1.2897676) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/69 "2017-01-02T19:52:22Z")
> [@ThelmaLou](#): > > Actually, Trump did whine about it early in December: Whoosh, **Thelma** honey. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/70 "2017-01-02T19:56:54Z")
And the factless, delusional fantasy known as Republicanism continues on its merry way. ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/71 "2017-01-02T20:03:52Z")
The collective mockery is the only thing keeping me from hating America right now. ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/72 "2017-01-02T20:29:01Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Completely agree. Whether it’s personal financial gain, attention seeking, or just gratifying a feeling of vindictive resentment, Trump’s own personal benefit is always the chief and generally only reason for everything Trump does. I didn’t say it was to his own personal benefit, I said it was to benefit the goals he has in mind. > [@Kimstu](#): > > I agree that the fact that the majority of the US and world population perceives Trump as a whiny, spiteful lightweight is not a significant impediment to Trump’s accomplishing his goals. This is because his chief goals are, as I noted, personal financial gain and popular attention. Not only did I not state that the majority of the country and world perceives Trump the way you do, but I disagree completely with the allegation that Trump is in this for the money. If anything, I believe that Trump’s business success and reality show have been stepping stones to the presidency. He’s seventy years old and has plenty of money with no real need of more. I think he’s been truly unhappy with the way the country has been run for decades and has been setting himself up all along to get himself elected and in a position to do something about it. > [@Kimstu](#): > > We will probably never know for certain what Trump’s personal emotions are about the widespread contempt in which he’s held nationally and globally. Perhaps he really doesn’t care but finds it a good attention-getting tactic to pretend to be thin-skinned and vindictive. Perhaps he’s in a state of denial where he believes he’s mostly loved and admired so he has to keep constantly and ostentatiously assigning his mockers to some kind of fringe minority status. Perhaps he just childishly likes the game of perpetually trading personal insults and vituperation. Or perhaps he learned early on that the best way to respond to attacks is to hit back ten times harder. > [@Kimstu](#): > > key issue is that, as you note, **Trump’s continually-reinforced public image as a petty malicious despicable asshole doesn’t actually interfere with his personal goals.** As with almost every other not-so-clever bit of revisionism you’ve attempted to construct in this post, I noted no such thing. Let’s not forget that he was, after all, elected president, so it’s neither fair nor accurate to state that his ‘public image’ as a whole fits the descriptors that you rather than I have chosen to attribute to him. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/73 "2017-01-02T20:41:29Z")
> [@MindsEye\_Watering](#): > > If this Worthless Orange Creep and his “team” are complaining now, what’s will they be doing 6 months from now? > > I think we can get him to cry and quit. By then, his team will be shutting down the cyber, because that is where all the trouble is coming from. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/74 "2017-01-02T20:42:11Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > The **undeserved mocking** now when he hasn’t actually done anything will dilute any - all - the well-deserved mocking later when he does screw up. It will just be dismissed as , “Haters are going to hate.” Really. Undeserved? You took time away from the news for the holidays didn’t you. > [@aldiboronti](#): > > I think it’s dumb and also I don’t think Trump gives a flying fuck about mockery, other than criticizing the quality of it. **This guy has put up with more mockery than any candidate in electoral history**. He still won the Republican nomination and the Presidency. That’s not someone who can’t handle anything that’s thrown at him. It’s like you have your own reality where only Trump has ever been mocked. All other candidates have been treated with kid gloves and deference. A clue may be obtained by viewing SNL from any election season. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/75 "2017-01-02T20:53:40Z")
> [@Aquadementia](#): > > Well, he doesn’t trust computers any more so I guess from now on all his tweets will be delivered by pony express. So it’s going to be hard for anyone to make fun of them unless they live along the old dusty trail. Trump hasn’t announced it yet, but this is part of his economic plan to bring typewriter manufacturing jobs back to the Rust Belt. Make America Great Again! > [@Kimstu](#): > > Completely agree. Whether it’s personal financial gain, attention seeking, or just gratifying a feeling of vindictive resentment, Trump’s own personal benefit is always the chief and generally only reason for everything Trump does. > I agree that the fact that the majority of the US and world population perceives Trump as a whiny, spiteful lightweight is not a significant impediment to Trump’s accomplishing his goals. This is because his chief goals are, as I noted, personal financial gain and popular attention. He’s not a statesman, he’s a real-estate hustler and reality-TV star. Anything, anything whatever, that’s making him money and/or getting him attention is ultimately a positive from his point of view. I saw an interesting article about the “Carbon Bubble”. Trump wants to enrich his Cabinet and Putin and his cronies using their ties to fossil fuel. Make Russia Great Again! (Because all they have is oil for export) ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/76 "2017-01-02T20:54:31Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > I disagree completely with the allegation that Trump is in this for the money. If anything, I believe that Trump’s business success and reality show have been stepping stones to the presidency. He’s seventy years old and has plenty of money with no real need of more. So? He’s had plenty of money with no real need of more ever since he was a teenager. For Trump, being obsessed with making money and actually **needing** any more money have nothing to do with each other. [QUOTE=Starving Artist] I think he’s been truly unhappy with the way the country has been run for decades and has been setting himself up all along to get himself elected and in a position to do something about it. [/quote] How interesting that what he’s chosen to “do about it” is to create an Oval Office team composed primarily of the same Republican crony-capitalist/family-values/anti-science looters who’ve **been** running the country for most of the past several decades. ---
**Author:** ![MindsEye\_Watering](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindseye_watering/32/3619_2.png) [@MindsEye\_Watering](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MindsEye_Watering)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/77 "2017-01-02T21:00:21Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > How interesting that what he’s chosen to “do about it” is to create an Oval Office team composed primarily of the same Republican crony-capitalist/family-values/anti-science looters who’ve **been** running the country for most of the past several decades. That’s what he means by “Draining the Swamp.” Too bad his idiot fans think it means something else entirely. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/78 "2017-01-02T21:07:22Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Not only did I not state that the majority of the country and world perceives Trump the way you do, but I disagree completely with the allegation that Trump is in this for the money. If anything, I believe that Trump’s business success and reality show have been stepping stones to the presidency. He’s seventy years old and has plenty of money with no real need of more. I think he’s been truly unhappy with the way the country has been run for decades and has been setting himself up all along to get himself elected and in a position to do something about it. I’ve read his book, listened to interviews he’s given over the last decade and a half and seen how he has treated others, and either what he has said and done over his lifetime is one big lie…or you are so full of shit your clothing is made from triple-ply Charmin. ---
**Author:** ![purplehearingaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7bcc69/32.png) [@purplehearingaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehearingaid)\ **Post date:** [January 2, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/79 "2017-01-02T21:08:00Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > Yeah, not a fucking chance. You want respect? Be respectable, you chancrous scumbag. Amen to this ! I said to my daughter recently , DT is only going to get respect from me when he start being respectable, and I know damn well that not going to happen ! The guy need to grow up ! ---
**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:** [January 2, 2017, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125/80 "2017-01-02T21:08:31Z")
> [@MindsEye\_Watering](#): > > That’s what he means by “Draining the Swamp.” Too bad his idiot fans think it means something else entirely. He did drain the swamp. Unfortunately, that leaves a giant swamp shaped _hole._ Which is just _begging_ to be filled in. With more swamp. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/leave-donald-alone-pleads-his-press-secretary/776125.md?page=5)