Trump's Confusion About The Media, Himself and The American People

Donald Trump seems to be somewhat confused about the importance of the press in his political life.  The “enemy of the people” who creates “fake news” and “lies,” reported by “scum,” was the very press that was responsible for his being nominated for and elected to the Presidency. The media, it has been estimated, provided Trump with nearly 2 billion dollars in free media political coverage.  His outrageous words and behaviors, his defying “political correctness,” were consistently the lead stories on such highly regarded media outlets as NPR, each night for the months that led to the nomination process.

Now, Trump is castigating this same media for holding him accountable for his words and actions.  The media assails him when he says things that are not true and when he does something that is not fully thought out and causes confusion and hurt to people, witness his first ban on Muslims and his plan to deport immigrants.  When the media prints something he has said or done that he does not like, he attacks it mercilessly, even to the point of banning those media sources that he takes exception to from news briefings. His response ties in with one of the symptoms of his Narcissistic Personality Disorder. When a narcissist feels attacked, s/he will lash out against those s/he feels is an attacker mercilessly and will not be able to let the issue die a natural death.

In addition, Trump has a pattern of provoking confrontations with others. Trump asserts that Rubio started the “little hand” skirmish, that John McCain is a loser, that no one would vote for a woman with a face like that, that Clinton is crooked and lies, that the fake news media is the enemy of the people.

All of these assertions reflect aspects of what can be said about Trump, himself. Trump lies, feels insecure about his physical and intellectual attributes, is afraid of appearing like a loser and repeatedly says things that are not true.  In essence, he projects onto others what is true about himself.

 On another front, what is amazing about his refusal to reveal his taxes, various world wide business connections and his involvement with Russians is, that it implissedly says he is guilty of something that he doesn’t want the citizens of the United States to find out about.  His statement about his shooting somebody in New York wouldn’t cost him any votes suggests that he has a certain distain for the average American citizen, or really people in general.   He seems as if he has lived his life believing that people are gullible and can be conned and manipulated, and that he can get away with such behavior. Up to now, he has.

It is impossible for any responsible adult to believe anything Trump or his administration says, without fact checking.  And yet, there is a new spokesperson, spin master and enabler on his staff, a Sabastion Gorka who has the audacity to assert “if we say it, it’s true. If the media differs from what we say, they are creating fake news." The problem is that Gorka comes off like an authoritarian who is to be believed, regardless of the fact that he is a spokesperson on a team that is not believable, that has a history with not telling the truth.

In this connection, the notion of alternative facts and that opinions are as important as facts has become more and more ingrained into the Trumpian political culture by the day.  The notion is that if you tell the people a lie often enough, over time people will come to believe the lie to be the truth.  This is a tactic that Trump and his strategist czar, Steve Bannon are counting on to “deconstruct the administrative state.” What this really amounts to is that Trump and Bannon want to dismantle  our governmental structures along with their underlying values, as we know it.   Part of Trump’s delusional system is that he believes that he can actually get away with destroying our American values and way of life.

Trump asserts that he “knows more than the generals” and that “he is the only one what can fix what’s wrong with America.”  Our democratic institutions are designed to protect us from such delusions and delusional people.  Our Free Press, the Fourth Estate, is what assures us of this protection. And, thankfully, the majority of American’s who didn’t vote for him, seem to be difficult to con.

Parenthetically, if I were to create an action plan regarding Donald Trump’s gaining acceptance as the President of the United States, I would suggest the following:

    

·         Reveal your tax returns, unless you have something to hide…

·         Reveal your business connections in other countries to assure that, as President, there will be no conflicts of interest, unless you have something to hide…

·        Reveal your business connections and relationships within Russia, along with times, places and what was discussed in meetings between you, or any of your surrogates, and the Russians, within the past three years. Invite the F.B.I. to investigate this matter, again, unless you have something to hide…

·        Place your financial operation into a blind trust for the duration of your holding office, or resign your office and return to the world of business…

·        Behave like an adult and stop your twitter tantrums, they make you look unhinged and foolish...

·        Stop making false news statements and not telling us the truth...

And finally, it takes more to be Presidential than to read a speech that someone else has written, off of a teleprompter for a little more than an hour. It takes being honest with yourself and with the rest of us. And remember, actions speak louder than words.

farwelljs@yahoo.com