Overthinking.
The other half admires him for saying out loud what they’ve been thinking from birth (mainly racist thoughts, some misogyny and xenophobia) that politicians of both parties have been forbidden to say. (Dems not at all, GOPs only permitted to dogwhistle.) He speaks their truth and they adore him for it.
That’s a very valid point and is certainly part of his attraction to racist imbeciles, but I was making a larger point about how he lies or just totally makes things up with such self-assured bluster that it has the aura of well-informed authenticity. Those lies are often just the things the rabble wants to hear, and yes, it’s often racist, misogynist, and xenophobic.
He’s kind of like Brent Norwalk in The Good Place – inherited a $90-million materials company from his father and in 18 years (presumably 2001 - 2019) proudly expanded it to $94-million.
Of course Trump would have “expanded” it straight into bankruptcy, and publicly called himself “smart” for doing it. Trump casinos, the Trump Shuttle, Trump steaks, Trump vodka, Trump apparel, Trump’s pathetically inept attempt at presidentin’ – all of it failed, without exception. Though he did manage to set an enviable record of being impeached not once, but twice. I haven’t been following the NFTs that were recently the subject of his “exciting announcement”, but I’m pretty sure they’re worthless by now. Even Trump hotel & condominium buildings have been money-losers and some have had the embarrassing Trump name ripped off them. Truth Social is still going but the parent company has admitted to issuing false financial statements so may be in the same (sinking) boat as the Trump Organization, which faces dissolution.
You can’t go wrong following the maxim “everything the man touches turns to shit”.
I keep hoping one of the buyers will do something more dramatic.
I’ve said before that Trump is basically running a pigeon drop. That’s a classic con where two con men work together. One of the con men will approach the target and explain the set-up of a con that’s supposedly directed at some stranger (who’s actually the other con man). The target is aware that the guy he just met is a con man and he knows a con is going on - but he’s okay with all this because he thinks he’s on the inside of the con and somebody else is the target. But of course he’s the guy who ends up losing his money.
That’s what Trump is doing with his followers. They understand he’s a liar and a crook. But they think Trump is targeting the libs and they’re on the inside. They haven’t figured out that Trump is conning them.
Sure, Trump has advantages that in no way came from anything he did. But there are plenty of people as rich as Trump, or richer. And I dare say that a fair number of those rich folk are just as thoroughly amoral as Trump, so it’s not just a matter of being willing to do evil to enrich themselves.
And yet, none of those other folks with the same advantages as Trump managed to get elected President. Trump did. He’s got something in addition to his inherited riches.
Well, really it shows that he’s dumb enough to think that being president isn’t going to bring more scrutiny on his financial crimes. It seems that he was wrong about that. Most people who are rich are satisfied with being rich and know that trying to spin that into directly putting them in a seat of power will just end up with more scrutiny than they’d like.
He doesn’t deserve credit for any of it. His superpower is that somehow he can get people to do these things for him. No one else has succeeded at it like he has and no one can figure out how this worthless piece of shit keeps doing it. I’d say it’s damn near supernatural but it’s really that he is the greatest conman in history.
Something that doesn’t get talked about much and I believe plays a big part in his being a great conman is Trump’s belief in “the power of positive thinking”. As a child he attended Norman Vincent Peale’s church and took those lessons to heart. Peale is the only person Trump has ever said influenced him. You know how when Trump lies, it seems like he actually believes what he is saying? It’s because he does. And he can’t let himself think for a single second about failure.
Unless Rev. Peale managed to work the word “Trump” into every other sentence of his Bible readings, I doubt Donald remembers anything about Christianity more complicated than “Rubba dub dub, thank God for this grub”.
Oh, silly, Trump wasn’t listening to any christian parts. He was sucking up this stuff:
Well, TBF, do MickeyDee offerings really deserve grace be said over it?
Something I read in a profile about him in 2015 or so has stuck with me: starting as a small real estate businessman in Queens, NY, he had a tremendous inferiority complex regarding the big-time real estate moguls in Manhattan. He wanted to be in their circle, and they always looked down at him. Everything he’s done since then has been to prove them wrong. Along with a dollop of seeking Daddy’s approval.
Simplistic, of course, but I think there’s a kernel or two of truth in there. There’s an enormous pool of insecurity at the heart of Trump’s personality. He constantly has to prove to the world – and himself – that he’s bigger and better at everything than anyone else.
At first I read this and immediately thought ‘no, he’s not’. But when I gave it further thought, I guess it depends on what you consider to be a successful demagogue. I googled the definition:
A political leader who seeks support by appealing to the desires and prejudices of ordinary people rather than by using rational argument.
So, is a successful demogogue one who is simply good at being a demogogue, or one who uses their status as a demogogue to accomplish things they want to do?
trump is certainly very good at being a demogogue. But if you go by the second definition of a ‘successful’ demogogue, I’d argue that there have been much more successful demogogues in history than trump. When you look at trump’s political career, he really didn’t accomplished much: a few miles of wall, a lot of conservative Federal judges appointed (but any Pub Pres could have done that). He’s really a big-time loser: he caused the Repubs to do worse than expected in the 2018 and 2022 midterms; he lost the Repubs the House and the Senate; and he lost his second term as President. Few Repubs running for office have benefited from his support. trump’s biggest accomplishment so far is trumpism itself; showing other amoral and unscrupulous politicians that the unwritten (and often, the written) rules of political office can be utterly disregarded with little or no consequence.
trump looms large in our consciousness now, and for good reason, but I sometimes wonder if history will treat him as little more than a footnote, an anomaly, rather than as one of the Big Bad Demogogues of History. Of course the history is still being written, and a lot will depend on whether he gets a second term or not.
In addition to his ability to lie with abandon, his other super power is to just not give a shit about what the people who aren’t voting for him think about what he says. Normal politicians still think in terms of winning over at least a few opposition voters, and so are careful to avoid saying anything that might upset those voters. But with Trump, he doesn’t care, so he only worries about what his loyal supporters think. So he can talk about there being “Very fine” Nazis, and it has no impact on him, because the people who would be repelled by that comment are already voting against him.
He’s got his solid 30-40% support, and he doesn’t care about expanding it. He only cares that they keep sending him money and votes.
Checking for pattern(s):
I called Bill Barr Dumb, Weak, Slow Moving, Lethargic, Gutless, and Lazy, a RINO WHO COULDN’T DO THE JOB. He just didn’t want to be Impeached, which the Radical Left Lunatics were preparing to do. I was tough on him in the White House, for good reason, so now this Moron says about me, to get even, “his verbal skills are limited.” Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before. Tell that to the biggest political crowds in the history of politics, by far. Bill Barr is a LOSER!
And the calculator says?
Results
Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 6.7
Flesch Reading Ease Score: 73.5
Reading Level: 7th grade ( Fairly easy to read )
Average Words per Sentence: 14.7
Average Syllables per Word: 1.4
Sentences: 6
Words: 88
Pattern checks out.
We can all argue all day long about whether this is supply (Trump’s natural speech/writing habits), demand (knowing your audience perfectly) or both, and – if both – whether it’s by design or happenstance, but …
He sings their song. And it hurts the rest of us to our collective cores 
It’s not just his verbal skills. The fact that Trump believes he’s drawing the biggest crowds in the history of politics calls his math skills into question as well.
Well, he had the biggest inauguration crowd, why wouldn’t he have the biggest rallies? /s
Tiny hands. Tiny crowds.
That is a fantastic analogy.