The World According to Donald Trump
A modern Icarus, Trump thinks he’s a butterfly that can cause a hurricane. The problem is he can’t fly
A map from Atlas of Prejudice: The Complete Stereotype Map Collection
You know there must be a video of Hillary Clinton hysterically laughing hidden somewhere in the digital vaults of her campaign headquarters. There’s no other way a leading Democratic candidate could have reacted to the news that Donald Trump wants to ban all Muslims from entering the US. This comment finally disqualified him from the race by insuring a split in the Republican vote. Even though there may be a pundit or two who would just for the sport insist Trump still has a chance, the real estate mogul is a political corpse in a rapid state of decay.
He brought this to himself. Everybody with a brain should have arrived to this conclusion months earlier after Trump, in a fit of exalted insanity, declared that the majority of the Mexican immigrants in the US were rapists. Then again, American society has a high tolerance towards insults to people south of the border. So Trump got away with it and the media continued to use him as clickbait, boosting his popularity to hysterical levels.
If he was truly a savvy politician, he would have recognized this as opportunity, toned down his rhetoric, and let the slowly fading echo of his outrageous past remarks carry him to the finale. Alas, this requires strategic vision that few narcissists are capable of. So it was inevitable that at some point Trump was going to cross the same line that he kept moving further and further.
This moment came when with a single hair flick Trump declared that 1.6 billion Muslim people were a security threat. Each and every one of them! Was he aware of that number? Did he count? Perhaps the pampered mentality of the American rich made him forget that sometimes irresponsible domestic rhetoric can reverberate across the globe? He certainly hinted at such a possibility when he compared his idea to Roosevelt’s Japanese solution. Perhaps Trump’s calendar is still stuck in 1942 when local radio was all the rage? In the meantime, in a less shocking parallel universe, Ann Coulter was running for general secretary of the United Nations.
Finally the media that used Trump so effectively suddenly realized it had created a monster. World leaders gasped in disbelief. Even unapologetic hawks like Dick Cheney and Benjamin Netanyahu felt the urge to openly criticize him. As usual, all kinds of comparisons with Hitler splashed all over the Internet like a viral tsunami.
But the real question is does Trump deserve all the attention he’s been blasted with? He’s no Hitler. Not because he doesn’t have a weird mustache but because America is not Weimar Germany. Yes, some toothless trailer folks are frustrated with the government but that’s hardly a good reason to propel such a dilettante to the front porch of the White House. Trump, like so many other charlatans, is out of sync with the modern era of instant gratification and superficial outrage. There’s a difference between what people protest about and what they are willing to defend. Mark Zuckerberg knows it all too well. Half the planet has been threatening to leave Facebook for good and failed to keep its promise.
It’s time to face things as they really are: Trump, for all his potential as a shrewd businessman, actually possesses the mentality of a rural alcoholic whose only experience with political debate starts and ends at a local pub.
If you’re a bit more sentimental and forgiving, you can picture him as that racist uncle you still care about because deep in his heart he’s a “good person.” Being an idiot excuses you from idiotic actions. Being a clever person acting like an idiot, doesn’t. Whatever the case, Trump is not someone who should spend even a single night at the White House. Not even if he had too much wine after Hillary Clinton’s inauguration party.
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