Since the Washington Post is behind a paywall, and since I teased you with Teacher Ken’s brief summary, I thought I would share what Mr. Conway wrote. It was scathing. No matter how low your opinion is of the man who sits in the White House, his is even lower. He sees Trump as the loser and phony that he is. The bottom line is that Trump doesn’t care how many people die. He only cares about himself. He can’t even pretend to care about anyone else.
Americans died from covid-19 at the rate of about one every 42 seconds during the past month. That ought to keep any president awake at night
.
Not Donald Trump.
Just days ago, the president flipped out at a detailed New York Times article that described how he watches television at all hours, obsessed about how he’s covered in the news. As though to prove the story’s thesis, Trump rage-tweeted that it was a “phony story” and that the media would say “Anything to demean!”
And then, as though to prove the point again, at 12:46 a.m. on Tuesday, Trump went ballistic on Twitter — at me.
In a four-tweet screed, he attacked me and my colleagues at the Lincoln Project as “LOSERS,” “loser types,” “crazed” and “a disgrace to Honest Abe.” About me, he said, “I don’t know what Kellyanne did to her deranged loser of a husband, Moonface, but it must have been really bad.” Ten hours later, on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews, Trump was still enraged, ranting about us for nearly two minutes in front of the media.
What triggered his ire was a 60-second online ad we released Monday. Entitled “Mourning in America,” it’s an inversion of President Ronald Reagan’s famous 1984 reelection campaign ad, “Morning in America.” Reagan’s ad took credit for the resurgence of the American economy. Our ad puts the blame for the government’s failures in responding to covid-19 right where it belongs — on Trump. He dithered for 10 weeks, from January to mid-March, misleading the public about the severity of the crisis, pretending that the virus would never take hold here. History will record that each day of delay cost American lives.
It may strike you as deranged that a sitting president facing a pandemic has busied himself attacking journalists, political opponents, television news hosts and late-night comedians — even deriding a former president who merely called for empathy and unity in response to the virus. It may strike you as nuts that Trump bragged about his supposed Facebook ranking in the middle of a virus task-force briefing, asserted that millions would have died were it not for him, boasted that “the ‘Ratings’ of my News Conferences etc.” were driving “the Lamestream Media . . . CRAZY,” and floated bogus miracle cures, including suggesting that scientists consider injecting humans with household disinfectants such as Clorox.
If so, you’re not alone. Tens of thousands of mental-health professionals, testing the bounds of professional ethics, have warned for years about Trump’s unfitness for office.
Some people listened; many, including myself, did not, until it was too late.
Now, it’s more obvious than ever. Trump’s narcissism deadens any ability he might otherwise have had to carry out the duties of a president in the manner the Constitution requires. He’s so self-obsessed, he can only act for himself, not for the nation. It’s why he was impeached, and why he should have been removed from office.
And it’s why he reacts with such rage. He fears the truth. He fears being revealed for what he truly is. Extreme narcissists exaggerate their achievements and talents, and so Trump has spent his life building up a false image of himself — not just for others, but for himself, to protect his deeply fragile ego. He lies endlessly, not just in the way sociopaths do, which is to con others, but also to delude himself. He claims to be a “genius,” even though he apparently can’t spell, can’t punctuate, can’t do math and lacks geographic literacy, and even though his own appointees have privately called him a “moron,” an “idiot,” a “dope,” and “dumb.” Now, God help us, he fancies himself an expert in virology and infectious diseases.
But the jig is up. When Trump lied and claimed credit for “the greatest economy in the history of our country,” even though it wasn’t, and even though he inherited a strong economy, and goosed it up with trillions of dollars in debt, it didn’t matter to most people. The economy was good — so what? The debt? That won’t come due for decades.
When he tried to obstruct the Mueller investigation, that didn’t move them either. The rule of law and the violation of a presidential oath are abstractions; the Dow Jones industrial average and the unemployment rate aren’t. And when he used his presidential power to try to extort a foreign ally into smearing a political opponent, not enough cared then, either.
Now it all matters, painfully and concretely. Trump’s lying, his self-regard, his self-soothing, his lack of empathy, his narcissistic rage, his contempt for norms, rules, laws, facts and simple truths — have all come home to roost. Now he sees his poll numbers fall accordingly, and lashes out with ever-increasing anger. For deep in his psyche he knows the truth. Because he fears being revealed as a fake or deranged, he’ll call others fake or deranged. Because he fears losing, he’ll call them losers instead.
And while Trump’s mind roils in rage, too many Americans are losing their lives. That’s the losing that matters, to everyone but him.
“No matter how low your opinion is of the man who sits in the White House, his is even lower.”
I don’t know, Diane. I have made valiant attempts at plumbing the depths of my loathing for this subhuman in the now Whiter House, and wow, such depths. Trump is a one-man compendium of despicable human traits. He’s a pathological narcissist, a traitorous, vain, sniveling, ranting racist, sexist child-man, a mobster, crazy as they come, instinctively cruel, serially predatory, a phony, a grifter without the usual grifters’ artfulness. He has betrayed almost everyone he has come into contact with, and he has betrayed his country and our allies, again and again. He is very, very dangerous. And I simply don’t know any other adult, nor can think of one I’ve met, as dumb and uneducated as he is. He has the vocabulary and grammar and knowledge of a toddler. He has the moral compunction of wasp larvae.
Trump is PROFOUNDLY ignorant, amoral, and deranged–and by the last of these, I mean actually, clinically, over-the-top, bat_____ crazy. And everyone knows this, except the most ignorant among his hillbilly followers. The Repugnican sycophants and pols around him know this but simply don’t care because having someone this mindless and stupid and inept and oblivious in what he has turned into the Offal Office leaves them free to carry out pillaging of the environment and the public till.
The Loneliness of the Teflon Trumpkin, Film Excerpt
INT. OVAL OFFICE – DAY
Trump sitting behind the Resolute Desk. Camera back to reveal Rod Serling standing D.R.
SERLING
His name, Mr. Little. A man with little education, little taste, little knowledge, little concern for other people. Neglected as a child, he grew into a black hole of neediness. And so he used Daddy’s money to build big, erected his name in Midas-gold letters across the landscape–his every action screaming, “I am worth something.” Everything became a zero-sum game. If someone else failed or was worse off, he was better, a “winner,” and so he cheated and harassed and ridiculed the unfortunate, the stranger, the down and out; appealed to the basest instincts of the basest among us; huffed and puffed and blew himself to gigantic proportions, at least in his own little brain. A twisted, malignant, metastasizing tumor of need and narcissism and knee-jerk nastiness, Mr. Little doesn’t know much, but the biggest thing he doesn’t know is that he just stepped over into a place where everything is bigger than he is, where everything is just beyond the grasp of his little mind and his little hands. He just stepped over into . . . The Twilight Zone.
Copyright 2019, Robert D. Shepherd. All rights reserved. For more pieces on Don the Con, go here: https://bobshepherdonline.wordpress.com/category/trump-don-the-con/
Thanks for the humor, Bob. Very apt, spot-on.
As is Conway’s essay: true enough. But, unlike your humor, it doesn’t help much.
Thank you, Bethree. This means a lot to me.
Actually I do find this essay a tiny bit hopeful.
There have been many pieces along these lines in the last few years. None of them particularly informative to anyone with even your basics in psych. Never found them helpful: there are countless people walking around with functional personality disorders on pretty much the same scale; I grew up with one. Basically, you stay out of the way when you can, & protect your children. Never show fear, don’t take the bait, keep an even keel, engage them when they’re being reasonable and don’t when they’re not. Praise them when they do something good. Maintain a line in the sand, isolate them if they breach it.
All that works more or less if you must live with such a person. It’s about containing them and minimizing their damage to the family unit. You want to give such a person presidential power? God help you. Forget about Article 25: these people are neither psychotic nor senile. DC is full of powerful people who act only in their own self-interest. Many voters know that– and either are or know people like IQ45. Hence the feedback to articles analyzing IQ45’s psyche is likely to be either, stop picking on my guy, or, so what?
The reason I take some hope from Conway’s piece: the climate is better now for ordinary folks to listen. I can tell just by the way it strikes my own ears: not so what, not over the top. This is a crisis that sharply reveals IQ’s instability & lack of concern for public. The need for stable leadership & putting public welfare first are clear even to the densest voters.
The Mourning in America ad is brilliant. Than you Diane for puting the NYTimes commentary on this blog. I am out of steam on adjectives for Trump, but grateful that you and others have an ample supply, including the one and only Bob Shepard.
I’m happy that Conway has the guts to write this essay. Trump is mentally deranged and a con man who has many wrapped up in his private delusions of grandeur.
This country needs more who will speak out about their personal experiences with this ignorant con man.
Yep. it’s definitely time to ‘open up’ the country. Not enough people have died yet. Keep following Trump and enjoy the results./s
Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported each morning this week: Monday, 67,682. Tuesday, 68,934. Wednesday, 71,078. Thursday, 73,431.
Of course, Trump supporters say that the numbers are inflated to make money for the media who report such nonsense.
George Conway, however late he may be to recognizing Trump’s actions as pathology, has been a powerful voice for Never Trumpers, and, more importantly, is walking his talk. The Lincoln Project has produced damaging ads against Trump and other slimy, amoral Republicans who are destroying our democracy, so I applaud Mr. Conway’s work. The Lincoln Project is worth supporting financially.
I don’t know about Kellyanne, but I am wild about George. He recognizes who and what Trump is. He admits he should have seen it sooner. His slings and arrows make Trump wild with rage, because George knows what Trump’s weak spots are.
People starving is just a political game to the GOP. When did this country become so hard and cruel? The Orange Moron has never experienced hunger or poverty and neither have most people in Congress. Money builds hatred for those who are starving. Can’t give food to the ‘greedy poor’. Starvation will make them look for the nonexistent jobs and they’ll feel so much better about themselves.
………………………………………………
The New York Times: GOP balks at long-term expansion of food stamps as U.S. hunger, food shortages grow during economic crisis. Democrats seek to raise benefits by 15 percent for the duration of the emergency. The administration prefers to see food stamp statistics decline on Trump’s watch.
From Inkstone: [Hong Kong]
How canceling debt to China could backfire for the US
byKaren Yeung
As the US and China trade coronavirus slurs, reports suggest White House officials discussed options including refusing to repay the $1.1 trillion US government debt held by China as compensation for the pandemic. But China could escalate things yet further.
…The discussion of China’s financial connection to the US government has come as President Donald Trump and other American officials have increased their criticism of Beijing over the origins and handling of the coronavirus, and threatened new import tariffs to penalize China.
Analysts added that the US was highly unlikely to take the “nuclear option” of canceling – effectively defaulting on – its debt. But the mere fact that the idea has been discussed could prompt Beijing, the biggest holder of US Treasury bonds after Japan, to seek to protect itself by reducing its holdings.
That could spell trouble for the US government bond market at a time when Washington is significantly ramping up new issuance to pay for programs to combat the pandemic and the economic damage it is causing.
“It’s such a crazy idea that anyone who has made it should really have their fitness for office reconsidered,” said Cliff Tan, East Asian head of global markets research at MUFG Bank. “We view this as largely a political ploy for [Trump’s] re-election, and a cynical one because it would destroy the financing of the US federal budget deficit.”…
https://www.inkstonenews.com/politics/how-canceling-debt-china-could-backfire-us/article/3083291?utm_source=email&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=share_button
Putin paid good money to get Trump elected exactly so the latter could ensure that everything in the US would become FUBAR.
George Conway is doing what few have dared to do: take on this president in the public arena, and Conway’s arguments are devastating. But even he has not yet posed the most damning accusation yet: that we Americans are all victims of emotional abuse at the hands of our president.
Those of us who work in schools have gained experience over the years, with the help of our colleagues who are expertly trained, in learning to recognize abuse. We see the effects of abuse on our students, who struggle with focus, learning, self esteem and social relationships. We are witnesses to the daily toll that abuse exacts on students who are in our care. And we advocate for them, in order to save their lives. It’s time to do so again, for the sake of every child whose life and future are being endangered by this president.
Take some time to reflect on what Trump has done. Like an abuser, he has separated America from her friends, like Germany, France, and the entire NATO alliance, even Denmark. He has withdrawn America from every organization of mutual support. We now stand alone, distrusted by our allies and wary of our president’s “friends” like Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin. He has successfully isolated us so that we depend more thoroughly on him. He has said as much: “Only I can fix this!”
We are familiar by now with Trump’s other signs of abuse: gaslighting us, faulting the media, blaming everyone but himself for his failings, threatening those who stand up to him, and punishing those who are disloyal.
But one more aspect has rarely been named: his sadism. We know he takes revenge, but few have gone so far as to acknowledge that he takes delight in the suffering of others when he is the one inflicting the punishment. He enjoys being cruel when he perceives it as “winning”. And this is precisely why he is so dangerous. He has normalized cruelty. We must speak up for the sake of all children. We must name his actions: abuse, cruelty, sadism. We must not tolerate his abuse, but fight back. Whatever anyone’s political stripe, we are all Trump’s victims.
excellent analysis of a sociopath. Thank you!
Extremely well argued.
This one stopped me in my tracks. How perceptive. 45 has isolated the nation and made it dependent upon his whims, mirroring the behavior of a domestic abuser.
But it’s not just about 45 or abusive behavior. That would make the last few years an aberration, reversible by beating him at the polls. “He enjoys being cruel when he perceives it as ‘winning’. And this is precisely why he is so dangerous. He has normalized cruelty.” It is a mistake to pin all that on Trump. It obscures the reality.
Think about carolmalaysia’s NYT cite just above: “GOP balks at long-term expansion of food stamps as U.S. hunger, food shortages grow during economic crisis.” Or Senate’s resistance to short-term fed cash rescue to individuals beyond the puny $1200– if actually recd, already eaten up by April rent. Folks are hung out to dry w/promises of unempl ins unattainable for weeks or months, given predictable failure of overwhelmed state bureaucracies. State govts hung out to dry as well, already cutting Medicaid. Left on their own to outbid each other for PPE, & patch together farm-to-foodline supply chains. The way to this calamity long paved by drown-it-in-a-bathtub libertarians, trickle-up-dereg Reps, & 3rd-way-Dem pub-priv projects.
Cruelty has been abounding for decades.
“We must not tolerate his abuse, but fight back…”
Does the “bring a pen to a sword fight” strategy, depend on penmanship?
Is it the pal of the pen, in this case Geo?
Here’s a thumbnail sketch of some of the menagerie that is the Lincoln Project. One represented Paula Jones. Another orchestrated the hideous Saxby Chambliss campaign to tar Max Cleland as a traitor. Sarah Palin became John McCain’ running mate because of another’s influence. Yet another was a prime cheerleader for voter fraud conspiracy theories that we have all decried on this blog. And one is the well-heeled son with a p.r. firm built on his father’s connections—who was a key player in the Willie Horton ads. And some go as far as saying we should give them our money too? Because they group together to say bad things about the Idiot? And not a peep about the Senate, ALEC, or other Republican shenanigans?
Sure, I think the piece is great, but I am cautious. I was always told that “when you lie down with dogs, you get fleas”. We have a broken 2 party system that isn’t working for “we the people” and one party willing to swing to the right and the other to swing left in order to compromise? It seems a little suspicious that moderate Republicans are all in on the Biden train now? And I hear Dems talking about Pence being a decent replacement for Trump? I think the idea of the ads is to get Trump to have a mental breakdown (like Nixon) on national TV so that he can be carted off to a padded room and given some nice drugs and then everything can go back to the old normal….which wasn’t very good for “we the people” either. This all seems like a bad, teenage dystopian novel or a really bad nightmare that never ends. In the very near future it may be a Pence vs Biden election?
You make a very good point, Lisa. How many “never Idioters” will revert to their usual politically expedient predatory ways if Pence is the nominee? Will everything, in their eyes, be “back to normal?”
There is one very big difference with the Lincoln Project types and the host in this living room. They have not repented nor do they see their complicity as important actors in past evils that were instrumental in getting us to where we are today. They want to cash in and will revert to their past ways immediately whether our form of governing survives the November election or not. See Steve Schmidt’s recent foray of making a lot of money to “advise” the short-lived campaign of Howard Schultz. You don’t see confessions like, to cite the examples I list above, “my role in exploiting Paula Jones to coarsen the political atmosphere was an instrumental episode that helped nurture the current fractures in society and I regret my role in it and will do all I can to make sure it never happens again,” “leading a campaign to smear an honest man who gave so much of himself to this country in body and spirit as a traitor has cause me great shame and I will take all the money I made doing so and will work to establish a movement to make sure future campaigns are held accountable and avoid such poisonous tactics,” “in retrospect, I now realize what a cancer Sarah Palin was to this nation, I regret it and will fight extremism in my party so that we never nominate profit-seeking demagogues to any office,” or “I was foolish to peddle voter fraud charges and I now see that for a democracy to function we must ensure that everyone has the right and opportunity to vote, regardless.” Trust me, should the Idiot be removed from office, they will revert to their past mendacity. And don’t get me started on Nicolle Wallace-types.
Compare this Diane. Most of us are largely here because: a) we have never doubted her sincerity in wanting the right (writ small) thing for students and teachers, even when we disagreed with her, b) she saw the error of her ways when she dispassionately studied evidence and experience that demonstrated to her that her past views were misguided, c) she acted to change the discussion with sincere advocacy based on cogent arguments, d) she has continued to do so nonstop, and e) no single individual since John Dewey has done more to link public education to the realization of the best of American ideals.
Not one of members of the Lincoln Project even comes close to this standard. And on a final note, the expropriation of Lincoln’s name in this ploy would surely, at the very least, cause him to pull a Fauci.
Shorter version of above: I don’t think all past actions should require bad actors to wear a scarlet letter. But if they want to remove it, substantive actions and permanent changes in behavior are required.
Diane, this is the 11th post in one day. This must be a record. You obviously are not about the slow down.
Trump has much in common, of course, with the idiot blowhard uncle in the golf shirt and bermuda shorts, on his third drink, at the family party who embarrasses everyone when he starts pontificating: “They [It’s always an amorphous ‘they’] should just [It’s always a simple solution, something that could ‘just’ be done] build a wall around those neighborhoods [again, the vague attack on the Other] and stop bothering to send police into them.” Trump is constantly being surprised that he can’t simply put into action his worst instincts, as when he yelled at his Director of Homeland Security, addressing her as “honey,” for not simply shooting poor, unarmed refugees at our border. Even trump acknowledges this: “Nobody knew healthcare could be so complicated,” the idiot in chief said.
But, ofc, TRUMP is far worse than that guy at the party because of his lifetime of privilege and of his psychosis. For a time, I was thinking that at some point Trump was going to do something so egregious in public that his own people would have no choice but to remove him. But clearly, Trump was right that he can do ANYTHING. He can abandon our allies to be slaughtered. He can ridicule people with disabilities. He can separate babies from their parents and lock up children in cages. He can escape prosecution for a long, long series of sexual assaults and a long history of money laundering for mobsters. He can misappropriate funds. He can obstruct justice again and again and again. He can ignore a pandemic and suggest injecting disinfectant. He can call for shooting unarmed civilian refugees. He can grovel before dictators and give them whatever they want. At a time of ghastly income and wealth inequality, he can put forward huge tax cuts for the wealthy, sending our deficit soaring, and then go tell his buddies at dinner at Mar-a-lago that he just gave them a huge Christmas present. And he’s still in office. It’s mind blowing.
I put the blame squarely on the far R media that DOES NOT REPORT what Trump is doing. I now get a rag called “Patriotic Times’. It continuously says nasty things about the Left.
What about the Fox, Hannity and Rush L bunch? None of them tell a true story so the Trump supporters keep listening and believing that Trump ‘is the best president this country has ever had’.
Truth is just lies. Fake news, alternative facts never existed until Trump and his unworthy administration made them common words.
Destroy the government and destroy the media that gives false impressions of just how great our president is. It is sickening. What about Facebook and Twitter? I’m not subscribing to either of them but it is a ripe place for Tumptistas to pontificate.
The Epoch Times, for example. Or Not-so-Breitbart. I wish I could read the former regularly without having to subscribe and encourage them, just because those people are so utterly loony. The National Enquirer of Political Reporting. Deep State Conspiracy Revealed! Unborn Baby Sings like Elvis!
The Republican party can’t get rid of him. They are stuck with an unhinged maniac that needs handling. If they get rid of him, their whole ALEC scheme becomes exposed and they will have to face the wrath of the American public and they will likely go down with Trump. Just watch the way his handlers squirm every time that Trump puts on one of his freak show press conferences. They are stuck in a Catch 22 that they never thought they had to worry about.
LOL. So true. Love your posts, btw, LisaM!
Conway is wrong: “When Trump lied …it didn’t matter to most people.”
Maybe not to him and his sick sunshine-democrat Republican friends. Maybe not Susan Collins or Mitch McConnell.
But a solid majority of Americans and the entire rest of the world have been on to this piece of garbage from Day 1. So, as much fun as it is to dump on Wussolini, I blame every one of his supporters, every yellow bellied fascist coward with an AK-47, a MAGA hat or an “Open America Up” sign, and every Republican in the US Senate…including the “brave” Mitt Romney, who waited until the last minute to cast his symbolic vote.
We didn’t have to be here. And George Conway is no hero.
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
George Conway reveals who the real Trump is: “He fears being revealed as a fake or deranged, so he’ll call others fake or deranged. Because he fears losing, he’ll call them losers instead.”
Trump constantly projects. Pelosi, a mother of six, has been. Rey good at diagnosing his tantrums.
Think I’ll throw up.
I feel that inspired by all that President Trump, Mike Pence, Melania Trump and Karen Pence have done to make this day truly memorable. As our Great President has said, “As our Nation heals, our Spirit has never been stronger”.
………………………………….
1600 Daily
The White House • May 7, 2020
President Trump declares a National Day of Prayer
“As our Nation heals, our Spirit has never been Stronger!” President Trump says.
At the White House today, the President joined Vice President Mike Pence, First Lady Melania Trump, and Second Lady Karen Pence in leading a National Day of Prayer. The President’s Proclamation explains why this Day of Prayer is especially meaningful:
Americans of all faiths have risen to this moment to help slow the spread of disease. Soon, our places of worship will be full once more. For now, we pray together for those who are sick, for those who lost loved ones, and for those working hard to keep us safe.
Read President Trump’s Proclamation on the National Day of Prayer.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/proclamation-national-day-prayer-2020/?utm_source=link
“Soon, our places of worship will be full once more.”
If you live in Indiana, the Trump supporters can go to their place of worship and spread COVID-19 this coming Sunday.
Gagable.
As Admiral Ackbar might say, “It’s a schtick!!” So sorry to see so many people I admire fall for it. How much more evidence do you need? You get distracted by the sideshow while this administration and state governments dismantle all that remains of democratic governance. Think about how much virtual ink and attention has been wasted on this sideshow. And not a single word about the real news of the day: the CDC has been muzzled and cannot conduct its mission of protecting public health, state governments are defying common sense, the Justice Department is basically DOA, the Department of Education just had the best week DeBos has yet had, environmental regulations are being dismantled at warp speed, the administration has quashed any House oversight, the stimulus bills are being used to accelerate the transfer of wealth from poor and middle class persons to the wealthiest and corporations, food is being thrown away and the few family farmers that are left will soon be gone rather than having a plan to use emergency powers to allow public and military resources to deliver it to people in need—you know, the people who are waiting for hours to get some free, crappy processed food—and the Senate will consolidate a generational hijacking of the judiciary. But hey, George made the Idiot feel bad for a little while. So there’s that. Lemmings.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kellyanne-george-conway-lincoln-project-anti-trump-ad_n_5eb488c0c5b6a6733540083a
How in the world can the US have states that are reopening when the number of people dying is increasing? [Answer: This is what Trump wants so that he can brag about the booming economy.]
Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported each morning this week: Monday, 67,682. Tuesday, 68,934. Wednesday, 71,078. Thursday, 73,431. Friday, 75,670.
And in a survey released late last month by The Associated Press and NORC, 68 percent of Americans said they had a great deal of trust in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide them with reliable information about the pandemic. That’s three times as much as the dismal 23 percent who said they definitely trusted Mr. Trump’s statements on the virus.
Watch Trump unravel over coronavirus in devastating MSNBC supercut video: ‘What have you got to lose?’
May 8, 2020