For those who don’t want to read: On The Graham Norton show, Charlie Sheen recounts how Trump gave him an impromptu wedding gift–cuff links that Trump claimed were “platinum diamond”. The cuff links, according to Sheen, turned out to be huuuuuge fakes. Moreover, they were stamped with “TRUMP”. (I think the latter would piss me off a lot more than the former).
Let’s forget for a moment that we’re talking about two characters who leave a lot to be desired in the congeniality department.
Who comes out looking like the bigger asshole? The guy who shits on a wedding present on national TV? Or the guy who gives such a shitty wedding present?
Sheen’s bitchery on national TV shows a lack of class and a certain mean pettiness. Not admirable, but who hasn’t talked bad about somebody sometime? The only thing that makes this especially jerkish is that he did it on TV. So yes, assholish.
On the other hand, assuming the story is true, Trump had to order those cufflinks made, using inferior materials. Presumably, Trump would use a reputable jeweler, in which case, Trump knowingly lied about the quality of the cufflinks.
Also putting your name on gift jewelry, and making a person a walking billboard for your massive ego is beyond egregious. Trump metaphorically pissed on Charlie Sheen like a dog marking his territory.
So, lying and metaphoric spraying of ego. Trump is not only the bigger asshole, he’s the bigger urinary tract as well. I’m sure Trump will find that pleasing.
Presumably Sheen knows Trump is an attention whore who likes both attacking, and being attacked. Sheen didn’t out every bad gift giver he’s ever known, just Trump the public spectacle.
In normal everyday circumstances, Sheen would be the asshole. Be thankful you got any gift at all.
To make sure that it’s not my bias doing all the work, I flipped it around in my head: imagining Donald explaining that Charlie touted a platinum-and-diamond gift with the “CHARLIE SHEEN” name stamped on what’s actually pewter-and-zirconia.
I really doubt he had this made up special for Charlie Sheen. More likely, it’s stuff he buys and gives in bulk. It would be the equivalent of getting a set of coffee mugs labeled “Air Force One” from someone who works in the White House. Corporate tchotchkes or swag.
Or, even more likely, he gave a gift from The Donald J Trump Collection. I think Macy’s sold this stuff until last summer, and some items, like cufflinks, are currently available on Amazon. (Note that the Trump cufflinks there cost thirty or forty bucks. So this was clearly not a high-end gift from one millionaire to another.)
Trump is an ass and a gift like that shows it. He had access to better things in the shop of one of his casinos with a phone call.
“Charlie Sheen?”
“Bath towel”
“Its a wedding present. A bath towel? Really?”
'OK. Cuff links. But I want them for the same price as the bath towel."
“Very good, Sir.”
I wonder if there is any possibility that the cufflinks were a gift to Trump originally, and if so he might be as surprised as anyone else that they are fake. I can’t stand Trump, but just considering the possibility. Anyway, when someone is stingy in gift giving, it makes me feel embarrassed on their behalf that they are so cringeworthy. i would typically see complaining about a gift as more technically rude, and in normal circumstances I would think badly of Sheen for it, but I’m going to file it under “desperate times call for desperate measures”. But if Trump did know they were fake and claimed they were real, I’d have to hand him the “worst” award for lying.
It’s the equivalent of getting coffee mugs labeled “Air Force One” from someone who works in the White House, but who got the mugs at a gas station in Duluth and put a “One” sticker underneath where “Air Force” was printed.
Not because he gave a shitty wedding present. You don’t ‘deserve’ any wedding present at all; any present better than a used sock is a nice thing to do. Trump is the bigger asshole because a) he actually told Sheen they were ‘platinum diamond’, which is an ass thing to do even if they actually are, and b) they had his name on them.
If the links had no name at all on them, or Sheen’s, and if Trump had told Sheen that they were just costume jewelry, then Trump would be merely excessively tacky. But putting your own name on a wedding gift, and misrepresenting a cheap trinket as precious materials, are either one of them beyond just tacky and well into orificial. And both at once!
Sheen, meanwhile, might well be a plenty big sphincter in other regards, but what he did here doesn’t rise beyond the level of slightly impolite, if that.
Did y’all see the “Editor’s Note” at the end of the linked article?
I think the intent of the article was to make Trump come across as the ass, because he deserves it. And I’m inclined to agree. This is, after all, someone who is currently running for President: someone whom lots of people want as the leader of this country. Assuming Sheen’s account is true and accurate, it says something about Trump’s character, honesty, judgment, etc., which is entirely appropriate to do about someone in such a position.