The jig is up …
I just watched President Donald Trump on TV — his first public appearance since his reelection loss to Joe Biden — as he attends a Veterans Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. His somber demeanor is fitting for the moment, depending on your view of this American holiday, but the recent loss makes his mood wrapper an easy fit.
Between Saturday — when media outlets projected Biden to win the election — and today, Trump hasn’t spoken about fighting the coronavirus pandemic that’s now raging harder than last spring’s carnage.
Trump has nothing to say about the pandemic-instigated recession that has left millions unemployed and hundreds of thousands of food- and rent-insecure families in Damoclean existences.
He has said nothing about the COVID-19 vaccine — other than he tweeted that a Big Pharma member deliberately held off disclosing news of a vaccine until after Election Day.
And to date, Trump had no conversation with Team Biden regarding a transition plan.
The closest Trump has come to discussing world affairs and America’s defenses arrived in the form of action, rather than thought: he’s actively firing national security leaders.
Why Trump is tweaking the Defense Department at the end of his Presidency will be left for another time. But yeah, his moves appear as a warning shot on my radar …
The main thing Trump wants to talk tweet about is this election he lost, and how he feels cheated out of something that he insists is his. Just look at his twitter feed since Saturday.
This ⬆️ should be a huge reveal for 70 million people — many personally affected by coronavirus or this recession — who voted for Trump: he thinks nothing of you; he’s only focused on staying in the White House.
And this reveal says more: he has to face every American who now owns a lens that views him as someone who has lost.
People can now see him on the street and affix a hand-made “L” to their foreheads, supported by the evidence.
It’s not that Trump hasn’t been a loser before — attacking his first wife and pulling out her hair because the plastic surgeon she recommended performed an unsatisfactory scalp reduction procedure on him — damn sure doesn’t make him a winner.
And we all know about his hocus-pocus finances.
But much of Trump’s existence, and protection from public “loser” status, has been defined by teams of assistants, PR professionals, accountants, media allies, and non-disclosure agreements.
Trump’s made-up world says he can’t lose. But that’s exactly what happened after the election.
On November 3, Trump didn’t have His Father around to gift him the Presidency, assuming that’s even possible.
Substitute test-takers were neither available nor practical that day.
Trump has to face the public as a loser.
And he can’t stand it.
If I were to interpolate a current inside-the-White-House narrative from all the books and articles I’ve read about Trump, he probably spends most of the time moping in his bedroom with his wife, Melania, not in sight; he’s pale, with his hair undone; checking to see if his latest anger surge didn’t precipitate another diaper change; eating McDonald’s burgers and watching Fox News for comfort consumption; cussing at anything on TV he doesn’t agree with; continuing his spontaneous tweet style; severely depressed.
The last thing Trump wants people to see is Trump the Loser.
He fears this new rebel brand can help others navigate around his decades-long Maginot Line that has postured him as a winner in everything he does. And that kind of new, perceptual access by the public could erode the reason how Trump, despite his funny finances, is able to attract any money at this point: his reputation.
And Trump’s singular focus on sourcing unfounded evidence of election theft to vindicate him from wearing a “loser” title is not only failing, but his behavior reveals for others the selfish and uncaring person that millions of people already see.
song currently stuck in my head: “work that” – mary j. blige
mentalunrest.com 