A couple of years back I predicted more books will be written about Trump’s Presidency than those existing for any of his predecessors.
To date the number is approaching 4000, that’s roughly 1000 p.a. which in one sense is quite extraordinary. On the other hand it’s explicable given Trump’s mind-blowingly unsuitability on every count for the role.
Furthermore, they’ll keep coming as post-Presidency, exposure of his financial problems, corruption, psychopathy and insanity come to light, plus almost certain prosecutions for diverse criminal actions, not the least being treason and sedition. But most of all will be a genre of “How was this possible?” books.
I was given one such book by a daughter at Christmas.
Titled “Liar’s Circus” it was written by American journalist Carl Hoffman and I strongly recommend it. Its salient thesis is to explain the major Trump mystery, namely his appeal to so many people.
Hoffman got in thick with the most fanatical Trump fans, namely those attending his rallies, they habitually turning up many days before and camping out near the entrance to ensure seats close to the great one.
While Hoffman’s accounts of these people (all middle-aged male nutters in one way or another) is fascinating, it’s his wider observations which make this such a good read.
Hoffman wrote ostensibly sympathetically of the disruption to the typical Trumpian’s life by fast changing events which had destroyed their previous simple but settled existences.
The small farms no longer economic in an age of mass production, the loss of traditional mining and factory jobs to either low-cost foreign labour or technology, the fast-fading small towns, the Latino migration flood and so many other changes.
Those things are easy to observe and note. What made Hoffman’s book special is while explaining Trump’s supporters’ motives (he didn’t just confine it to Hilary’s aptly described “deplorables”), he did not excuse them.
He makes a great point lost on our own no-hoper classes and their ever rationalising defenders, with their cries of colonialism, racism, poverty etc. specifically, he argues that everyone, once born and regardless of their circumstances, unless retarded, can see plainly that to live successful lives requires some personal effort.
Taking full advantage of free education, being ambitious to enjoy a full life, making sacrifices for the long term pay-off; all obvious actions totally lacking in the no-hoper sector in our varyingly soft western societies. Thus, at the cost to the majority, governments insist on doing for these failures what they make no effort to do for themselves.
Trump’s salient message to them that their plight was not their fault but something inflicted on them by various enemies of society struck a deep chord of religious-like faith that he alone would smite their enemies. The parallels with the rise of Hitler in the 1920s are plain.
Right now Trump is arguably the most unhappiest human on earth as deserted by the fleeing rats he surveys the self-inflected wreckage of his life and the Republican Party, which lap-dog held its nose and looked the other way.
He better get used to it as it’s going to get much worse, hopefully reaching its ultimate culmination of the sound of the clang of a prison cell door.
Trump is a disgrace, not just to the high office he held but most of all to the human race.
He is ignorant, an appalling liar, psychopathic, egotistic and without any redeeming features.
On election day last year I wrote on this blog, having first predicted his loss, “One thing’s certain and that is Trump will cry fraud and refuse to go”.
A fitting denouement for his legacy is not so much the clanging of a prison door but execution for treason, which would be wonderfully ironic given his resurrection of capital punishment for Federal offences.
26 Comments
Nicely done – thank you
Anyone who claims/believes Trump has secured peace in the Middle East does not understand the conflict. The conflict is between the Israelis and the Palestinians. The Palestinians are not part of the agreements struck, so therefore there is no peace agreement. What has happened is that in return for the UAE and Bahrain agreeing to recognise Israel’s right to exist (normalise relations), the Trump administration has agreed to sell them billions of dollars worth of F-35 stealth fighters in the hope they will be used against Iran. That is not a peace agreement, it is an arms deal.
Furthermore, North Korea finalised its nuclear weapons testing in 2018 on Trump’s watch. That is hardly a success given Trump bragged it would never happen on his watch.
SB, your hatred of the man is, always has been, plain for all to see. I can’t despise the man but think as a person he is a stain on humanity. To “trump” (hahaha) your predictions I believe time will show he was indeed right about many things. The extensive list will bore you but I will name 2. The PRC and the Democrats. Both equally dangerous and books will be written about Trumps warnings to the world on those 2 accounts alone. Add Mexico on your doorstep to that warning.
Nearly 50% of the US wanted him back BTW!
I would finish with this question – if you were using a mix of live and postal systems and when the postal count is complete you find almost zero of your supporters used or needed to use the postal vote would you be suspicious????.
That is very interesting but I find that Trump failed because of his inability to intellectually communicate that point. Just rabbiting on that “they stole the election” without presenting any evidence was doomed to failure.
Completely on the money. Trump is a car crash and like when passing a car crash, you simply cannot help but sneak a look at the carnage. This presidency has been Shakespearean.
This is a pretty one-sided and frankly, narrow view of things.
For a start. 75,000,000 + votes are hardly all nutters. And equally there are nutters who also voted Democrats, insisted that the 2016 election was somehow bought by the Russians, and hijacked the BLM movement. The fact that so many protested in Washington DC is an indicator that there are real issues around the vote, not being addressed by mainstream media.
It seems like Covid-19 and the orchestrated chaos around it was necessary prevent Trump’s re-election. Even though the individual Governors had far more power to dictate terms to their States than the Feredral Govt did.
Trump polarised to an extent it became hard to obtain a balanced view not least from the media much of which was on a mission to take him down by any possible means.
Ig you ignored what he said and how he was reported much of what he actually did was sensible and often courageous. Whether that was accomplished because of or despite him in the end doesn’t matter. Whether Biden can do as well is what counts.
Agree
President Trump did things that no other President did, inc the Sainted Obama who got the Nobel Peace Prize for the square root of 3/5th of stuff all.
1 He has bought peace to the Middle East.
2 He told Iran and the PRC and NK where to get off.
3 He bought work back to the US
4 He tried to block the ILLEGAL immigration over the Southern border.
Now 50% of Americans like him.
The 50% that dont live in Democrat run States with sancutary cities that let in illegals and are shitholes like LA SF Seattle. Why are people deserting these cities and moving to Texas and Nevada.
He wasn’t all bad, there WERE achievements:
o employment growth
o increased earnings, for ordinary folk
o he stood up to China
o he cooled tensions with N Korea
o got NATO countries to pay up
o a better trade deal than NAFTA
o energy independence
o numerous peace deals in the Middle East
o defeated ISIS
o Iranian General removed from the battlefield
I’m not judging his pandemic response yet – is herd immunity viable with this thing, will there be no downsides to the vaccines? Too soon to call it.
I dissent on just one point. Trump has a single redeeming feature. He is opposed to war and sees the US Military as bloated and a threat to peace. He has publicly said the Pentagon starts wars to feed the military industrial complex.
Its a single redeeming point, but its a decent one.
Egotistical twit though he is Trump was never boring. Biden has dementia and its a joke he is soon to be president. The postal voting fiasco must surely have been corrupt when looking at the massive democrat numbers. America has problems which are not resolved by Bidens election.
Would be keen to know which red wines you are drinking these days 🙂
Sir Robert
Happy new year ,and best wishes to yourself and family.
Oh what a disaster it has been for this Trump administration as you and many others foretold on the night we saw the vote swing his way ,if only the rest of future could be so easy to predict!
You make a very interesting point indeed and that is that that a great deal of humanity is waiting or looking for some sort of change or Leadership and dare I say it a reason for living and so Trump resonates with these people.
I remember reading Trumps book The Art of The Deal in the late 80thys and thinking he was the man, but a bit full of himself!
Just as an aside I see a piece by the newly Honored Anne Salmond, that great Lefty and very in my opinion pokes her nose in to many issues not befitting a Dame, however she makes a good point and that is that a lot of Americans of Trumps era had a mentality of to succeed you have to win at all costs and you NEVER GIVE IN.
Quite different from today I suppose and might well be remembered as a President that went for broke encountered woke then went up in smoke
Unlike some of my liberal friends, I don’t need Trump’s base to be humiliated. I think many of them are genuinely stupid and one should not be afraid to say that. Nonetheless, I would like them to have health insurance, decent jobs and security. But the point you miss is that not all of Trump’s 70 million voters are paranoid or working class. The doctor down the street from me here in Maine is a Trumpy. And so is my attorney. Neither is paranoid. Both have a college degree. Both are people of means. One grew up poor in New Delhi, the other is of middle-class Irish descent. Trump is not their blunt instrument and he is not, as he is for his stereotypical base, an extension of their id, their culture, their destructive drug of choice. For the doctor and the lawyer and people like them, Trump was a chance for the country to kick over the traces, a chance to jumpstart a country that had gotten itself stuck, even if it meant holding your nose. But after several years of his B.S. and the ugliness at the Capitol last week, holding your nose and looking the other way is not an option anymore. The price has been too high.
Peter,
You say “The price has been too high”.
When defending your home patch the price is never too high. For Trump it is Capitalism vs Socialism and I personally believe his 4 years proved catagorically that encouraging businesses to create jobs and opportunities through low taxes etc works. Capitalism trumps Socialism. Just look how jobs were growing and unemployment dropped. The complete inverse of what dear Cindy wants for this country.
The messages, all of them, were perfect but the delivery and man were all wrong. Trump is a megalomaniac no doubt. Cindy is a devout Communist. It was an opportunity lost which will be lamented in future.
Hear hear.
It sounds like a great book which answers some fairly basic questions about the man.
Its interesting to note the number of your respondents insistent on finding redeeming features in Trump. They all miss the very basic point that the man is clearly and completely disingenuous. Trying to patch together some sort of virtue out of his words and actions is therefore pointless. He’s unprincipled and everything he says and does is designed to maintain and build his support base nothing more nothing less.
I do not seek to extract virtue from his words, but. As a leader Trump had few redeeming qualities, some would argue none. Governance to be successful requires a team that has a clear strategy of what they want to achieve, superb analysis, implementation etc. There were many in Trump’s team that collectively achieved more, highlighted by others in their comments, than Obama achieved in 8 years. It is clear that Biden is an empty shell, and it his team that needs rigorous study, especially his VP, who may well end up as POTUS. Now that has the potenial of a truly dysfunctional govrernance team.
Bob,
I have difficulty liking Trump – always have. But, I wonder if you consider anything he has done during the last four years deserves any merit?
“He is ignorant, an appalling liar, psychopathic, egotistic and without any redeeming feature”
Come on Sir Bob stop mincing your words – tell us how you really feel..
Actually you could, and should, have added “Loser”
Hmmm! But he’s not a Communist. He took it to the PRC, reduced rampant illegal immigration, showed how biased the general press are, told the group voted most likely to blow you up to stay in their own little shit hole, tried to revive dead and ailing US industries, tried to restore jobs, reduced state interference and taxes and 50% of Americans like his message and determination.
Covid (the China Plague) has a lot to answer for. Without it Trump would have won based on the economy alone just like Cindy would be toast here based on economic failures alone.
Different horses, different result. Both countries now headed down the highway to hell.
Bob Jones: “The parallels with the rise of Hitler in the 1920s are plain.”
Sure. Though Hitler once he initially obtained power set about a deliberate programme of public services. The German people initially loved him because of the rise of manufacturing work, child care which allowed women to work… It started to go sideways after that..
I could also say that the Democrats and their allies are also exhibiting behavioural similar to Hitler. They are deciding who are appropriate businesses /people to deal with. They are calling for the public to not enter the shops and businesses of the new “Juden” by way of deplatforming and doxing and mass organisation of online attacks. Not to mention the BLM and antifa are the new Sturmabteilung.
The world is sliding back into those old behaviours, not just Trump
You are so right. The Democrats (Denoms) are as nasty as it comes and have no trouble at all vilifying those who don’t tow their line. Republicans just like Act and National supporters, promote personal responsibility and accountability whilst Cindy and the “Demons” promote State control and following their plan only. i.e. Democracy or Communism. Simple really!
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[…] Taking full advantage of free education, being ambitious to enjoy a full life, making sacrifices for the long term pay-off; all obvious actions totally lacking in the no-hoper sector in our varyingly soft western societies. Thus, at the cost to the majority, governments insist on doing for these failures what they make no effort to do for themselves. – Sir Bob Jones […]
[…] Taking full advantage of free education, being ambitious to enjoy a full life, making sacrifices for the long term pay-off; all obvious actions totally lacking in the no-hoper sector in our varyingly soft western societies. Thus, at the cost to the majority, governments insist on doing for these failures what they make no effort to do for themselves. – Sir Bob Jones […]