That’s something I wrote in November 2005, when I was blogging about the TV show “The Apprentice.”
ADDED: From the comments back in 2005, Pete wrote: “I agree that Trump cares about his image but I find him amazingly tone-deaf about it. Or maybe he truly isn’t bothered by his bizarreness. Or his bizarreness is part of his mad, mad plan to dominate the world.“
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That's Entertainment!
The Comedy genius who made a parody out of the Billionaire lifestyle. The Trump path is "Just win baby, win".
2005 was the year Melania married into his life.
Meanwhile, Li'l Tomahawk just cut her own throat again with another self-own: "I'm just a player in the game."
Terrific lizzie. Slap that on a bumper sticker and roll with it!
I didn't get the hair. I know everything is expensive in Manhattan, and that Donald Trump has had financial ups and downs, but was he ever so poor that he couldn't afford a decent haircut? And if he didn't know what a good haircut was, weren't there people to tell him. I guess it was probably some kind of personal trademark, a Lyle Lovett closet hipster touch or something.
Now I wonder if he would have done well as a contestant on the show. Could he have worked well with other people on a team that he wasn't running? And I don't get why people keep on watching those shows. I watched them when the concept was new - Survivor, The Apprentice, American Idol, America's Got Talent - but once you know the concept, why watch American Idol Season 16, Big Brother Season 20, The Amazing Race Season 32, or Survivor Season 40?
Trump makes a lot of good sense nearly all the time. You just have to listen closely and apply common sense. (Of course, first you have to have common sense.)
An Anne* '05 post,!
I was super into looking for some of the real stars of these threads. This was even a bit before I showed up, so obviously better threads sans me. Presumably plenty to read.
.....
OTOH: after reading it, presumably this post was too early. Still needed time to evolve. Maybe I was their for peak Althouse. I dunno.
*This one time, I don't use the preferred "Althouse." Cause it fit.
At least I misspelled.
And F-ed w/ punctuation.
But, to the point (i.e. delete-proof jabber):
What was the most sensible thing DJT has ever said?
I'd guess it was stuff about draining the swamp and jabber re rich folks rig the system (like carried interest and such).
Swamp drained!!
Grading our recent presidents:
Obama Style A Substance F
Trump Style F Substance A
Trump was quite good on "The Aprrentice". Sadly, I thought his hair was fake. That HAD to be a toupe, I thought. And yes the two sidekicks - George and Carol added a lot to the show. I can't remember when I stopped watching, 4th Season, 5th Season? Anyway, it was the same thing over and over again. Even repetition can get too repetitious.
I never watched any of those shows. I seem to be allergic to prime time.
When I first heard about Survivor I thought if sounded like the old Eco-Challenge team races they used to show on PBS is Discover or something. In fact I'm pretty sure it was a rip off of that, only sexed up and more commercial.
Anyhoo, did I miss anything?
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then you marry a hot model, then you win the Presidency, then they fight you, then you win.
What amazes me is that everybody knows he isn't quite...er...shall we say, normal? But despite the non-stop efforts of the entire nation over years to pin down exactly what the...er...issue is, nobody has successfully called it with any degree of credibility. Whether Trump-haters who pore over the DSM all night to come up with a disabling clinical diagnosis or Trump-lovers who see him as a sublime visionary and master of twelve-dimensional chess, everybody misses the mark, including me. He is sui generis.
Trump simultaneously doesn’t give AF while also giving AF.
The inherent contradiction draws and repels.
He contains multitudes
A benefit of a blog of long standing!
I'm wondering what the hell William wrote in that 2005 comment thread that had to be "removed by a blog administrator."
I only cared about 3 issues:
1) School choice/vouchers
2) China (and all nations) trade fairness with US
3) End Illegal Immigration
And Trump is the only one working on the last two and is doing more than anyone else on the first one. And - he has WON the trade war - it was over when US market went up 35% while China went down 25%. He proved they need us more than we need them.
He's a buffoon-savant.
It is still truly weird that Donald Trump is the US President.
"Even repetition can get too repetitious."
Calling Dr. Mesmer.
Anyway, Althouse, when does it get "too" repetitious?
Focus on his policies as President, Althouse; focus on his policies as President, Althouse; Focus on his policies as President, Althouse; focus on his policies as President, Althouse.
@progressively defensive
Exactly. Ann keeps up this mantra of weird with Trump but never talks about policies. She knows that her party has no winnable policies.
"Blogger Sella Turcica said...
Grading our recent presidents:
Obama Style A Substance F
Trump Style F Substance A"
There was an excellent book on this written about 40 years ago by a brilliant psychologist, Thomas F. Gilbert, a student of B. F. Skinner, if I recall. The book was Human Competence: Engineering Worthy Performance. Gilbert was considered the father of "human performance engineering."
He would have written it out this way:
Obama Behavior A Performance F
Trump Behavior F Performance A
Too many people, especially when it comes to the president, fall into what he called "the cult of behavior." But behavior is not a result. Unless behavior is directed toward a worthy goal it is useless. Even someone who is much less than perfect, but in pursuit of the right goals, will be more valuable than someone who appears to be highly competent, but is directed at the wrong things.
The best example of this I usually think of in our history - and I think this has been mentioned on this blog before - is McClellan and Grant in the Civil War. McClellan had all the appearance and behavior of a great general; Grant looked like someone who probably couldn't command as much as a company and was a part-time drunk. But Grant knew what it would take to win the war, and McClellan didn't.
I do believe he is just trying to Make America Great Again.
https://babalublog.com/2019/11/10/surprise-castrophiliac-evo-morales-gives-up-claim-to-bolivian-presidency-steps-away/
And if he didn't know what a good haircut was, weren't there people to tell him. I guess it was probably some kind of personal trademark, a Lyle Lovett closet hipster touch or something.
I have to think that the awful haircut is a trademark and a statement. He wants to appeal to the common folk, which has to be a tough sell for a NYC billionaire. It's the same thing with him ordering fast food. The statement seems to be working.
You know, in a world where politicians are alternately idolized or demonized beyond all measure, maybe it shouldn't surprise us that the President is a guy who's in the WWE Hall of Fame.
Whether you think he's a Face or a Heel, the man is over like nobody else in politics.
https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Heat
https://prowrestling.fandom.com/wiki/Over
Trump isn't bizarre, you're bizarre.
If only we'd listened to that boy, instead of walling him up in the abandoned coke oven.
Democrats finally find a baby they don’t want cut to pieces
https://mobile.twitter.com/KurtSchlichter/status/1193524735839072257
Trump can make fun of himself.
Confident people can do that.
IOW, no Democrat can do that.
Trump has long been larger than life. I knew who he was when my ex, her brother, and I went to his Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City almost 30 years ago. The brother in law was supposed to be teaching us how to win at Blackjack. He played and lost three straight hands at $25 per hand (of my money), and lost all three, in a matter of minutes. That was it for Blackjack in casinos for me (ditto for other table games, having worked too long on the other side as a patent attorney). He was immediately identifiable as himself, in cameos in movies throughout that time. For example, in Two Weeks Notice, Miss Congeniality, playing a Harvard educated attorney working for one of Trump’s NYC competitors, and Trump offers to hire her away for twice what she was making. No one needed to be told who he was, or that he was the big dog there.
A lot of his larger than life persona was comedic. I don’t think that it was accidental, or real, but carefully crafted over the decades. He would do things, time and time again, that no self respecting middle class businessman would do, because of the resulting loss of dignity. He could do these things because middle class rules of decorum didn’t apply to him, because he wasn’t middle class, but was rich (even when he really wasn’t). Almost like Rodney Dangerfield in Caddy Shack, except almost always in a dark blue suit or tuxedo.
I have been told that the real Donald John Trump is really cold and calculating. Those Apprentice episodes would take most of a week of shooting, each. They would go over and over until he got things right. Yet, that same guy can reach out to some of the worst tyrants on the planet and convince them that he is their best friend. Then turn hard the next minute, when they balk. The Bushes were famous for knowing everyone working for them (which is quite a few people when POTUS). Trump appears to be the same, maybe even better at it. He is always giving common people a shout out in public. I first noticed this side of him when he thanked everyone, many by name, from the carpenters through all the various LEOs, the day after the Republican convention where he was nominated. But we also know that he will turn on someone in an instant, if they sell him out. Except that he will keep giving opponents, like the Chinese, North Korean, Russian etc leaders more chances. Good cop/bad cop all in one person. Which, I think, says that he can turn the warmth on and off in an instant, if needed.
I was watching Don, Jr on Mark Levin’s show on FNC tonight, and he made a great point, that politicians inevitably promise the world to get elected, but once elected blow off those promises. But Trump is the opposite- beneath the bravado, he has done better at keeping his promises than almost any significant politician in this country .in years. He is fighting, daily, a combination of the Democrats, Deep State, and MSM, keeping his promises, and, so far, holding his own. And almost seems to be enjoying it. I don’t think that anyone with a lesser ego could have survived what has been thrown at him.
I believe that our host focuses on the conundra of Trump's (a) character, (b) behavior, and (c) success because they do defy easy explanation. His adherence to political promises doesn't; any pol could do that if he wanted to (most just don't want to).
My question all along has been, "why did he want to be president?" Why would a rich man who's lived his life in the public eye, a good part of it actually on television, let himself in for what had to be the worst of all possible worlds - hard and often boring but very high stakes work, a constant need to be "on," the knowledge that not just you but every member of your family is going to be picked apart mercilessly (especially if Republican), lots of travel and lots of it to places no one with a choice really wants to go, vanishingly little chance of long-term success, and the requirement that you step away from managing the businesses that led to your fortune... Is it a legacy thing? Did he reach his 70s and decide he had nothing to lose?
Does having nothing to lose even *register* with him? It almost seems as if he acts like a man with nothing to lose in *all* circumstances. That doesn't speak well for mature judgment as it's commonly understood, but it might be the best possible thing in a Chief Executive - a person who, with a history of making big decisions and then dealing with the consequences of them, good and bad, doesn't hesitate or hedge. I do think our current scenario would benefit from a stronger Congress to balance that executive's tendency to act precipitously, but not the House we've got.
I'm put vaguely in mind of one of the "I, Robot" stories - was there one about a robot who, since it couldn't die, had no fear of acting, even in deadly circumstances? Probably I'm just cobbling together a bunch of sci-fi there... but that's what Trump reminds me of.
It is still truly weird that Donald Trump is the US President.
I told a liberal friend that Trump being president showed that the US political establishment is completely dysfunctional. She thought that was great at first, but then I pointed out that I was taught in civics class that when a large bloc of voters arise that have issues that need to be addressed then one of the political parties is going to add them to their coalition. And just maybe the fact that wages are being suppressed and jobs are being shipped overseas are rational concerns. And then I pointed out that Bernie Sanders thought so, since he was running on the same issues as Trump.
MountainMan, I think the Grant comparison is interesting, too, as does Conrad Black, who names Grant, Washington and Eisenhower as rare examples of presidents, like Trump, with magnificent accomplishment on their resume before ascending to office. Grant, however, had a lifelong penchant for being deceived by charlatans, a naivete about people that he never overcame. Grant was also a business failure as both a young man and an ex-president, owing in the latter case to being swindled by a craven conman who triggered a Wall St. meltdown (see Grant and Ward). Trump seemed to learn from his business errors, and appears always to have had a cunning about him that made him a tough mark. The weirdness has always been there with Trump, and I think the persona he ultimately rode into office was developed in the World Wrestling Federation (WWE), and honed on the Apprentice. That early commentary was perspicacious, even prophetic. He's been weird on purpose, a borderline "heel" character, because WWE helped him hone his approach to generating "heat."
I'm put vaguely in mind of one of the "I, Robot" stories - was there one about a robot who, since it couldn't die, had no fear of acting, even in deadly circumstances? Probably I'm just cobbling together a bunch of sci-fi there... but that's what Trump reminds me of.
Sounds kind of like Runaround, except the situation is the reverse of what you describe.
Bruce and Ron did a great job of encapsulating Trump, better than anything I've read in the media (although recently Althouse linked to the minister / WWE fan who also did a good job on the links between Trump and wrestling personas).
At my age, I've come to believe -- despite what authors say about their creations -- that our true selves will always come out if you hang around long enough. Trump the persona and Trump the man are pretty closely aligned.
Two points:
1. I remember Ben Stein talking about one of his early efforts, researching a book about wealthy men and how they thought they got that way. He discovered that the majority of them had no ability for self-reflection. They literally could not tell you what drove them, how they thought, or what their internal life was like.
2. Trump is not an outlier. I knew a businessman like him in Baltimore. I worked for him at a game company, and he was combative and using and loyal and rule-bending. If you worked for him, he'd let you do anything, but if you turned on him (like, say, giving him two weeks notice), he'd turn his back on you.
It may be very likely that Trump ran for president as a way to maintain his brand, not expecting to win. But he worked hard to win, and now that he's in office, he's going to make sure we remember him. Let Obama take his victory lap before he's in office; Trump is leaving behind accomplishments. Historians are going to spend generations parsing his administrations (all eight years, god willing).
Ann said “Trump lets himself be a truly weird buffoon (even as he makes a lot of sense a lot of the time). ” That’s something I wrote in November 2005, when I was blogging about the TV show “The Apprentice.
Prescient much.
I don’t think that anyone with a lesser ego could have survived what has been thrown at him.
I agree and the ego, which so many deplore, is probably a key. He makes me think of tightrope walkers.
"crazy like a fox"
part of what makes him successful is being underestimated--
...why would he trade that edge for empty praise?
Remember how Columbo (the TV detective) got people to underestimate him.
Well so did Trump. And they still do.
There's been a change in the way people think of psychological normality and leadership. Whether it was psychiatrists psychoanalyzing and condemning Goldwater or Nixon from afar and condemning them or bloggers attacking Clinton or Obama for narcissism, there was an assumption that leaders who weren't "normal" or "well-adjusted" were a problem.
More recently, people seem to have realized that anybody who runs for president has to be "narcissistic" to a greater degree than other people (if politicians aren't narcissists to begin with, politics makes them that way), and that leaders are distinguished by not being "well-adjusted." A wholly "normal" person wouldn't have seen the US or the UK through WWII. Leaders need buoyancy - they can't be crushed by setbacks and disappointments - and a larger than life ego helps.
I'm not saying Trump is mentally ill, but anybody in politics needs a thick skin, needs to be insensitive to criticism, needs to be a performer who doesn't worry about making a negative impression. You can't be too obliging or people will walk all over you.
Or his bizarreness is part of his mad, mad plan to dominate the world.
It insulates him from mockery and satire.
You can see it every time SNL runs a sketch and it falls flat.
It's not that they aren't trying really hard or had too few chances to get it right.
Hey, are you talking about me? There appears to be two Peters commenting here - I'm the other one. If it's me, thanks for the tag.
(I remember when I made your banner, too - something about how you mocked Tom Coburn's crying during a hearing. Cryin' Tom Coburn, you called him, or something like that. Those were the days.)
Yes she is talking about you, Pete. And if you click on the tag "Pete (the commenter)" you can get to more of those golden days.
Thanks, Meade. I'm basking in the Althouse love!
I only cared about 3 issues:
1) School choice/vouchers
2) China (and all nations) trade fairness with US
3) End Illegal Immigration
Re No. 1, do you realize that means state control and eventual total state control of private schools too? The government should have no interest in or concern about what or how we think, only about what we do. It should have no role whatsoever in education beyond whatever the judiciary does these days. This includes all the novel ways leftists are dreaming up to stomp on the rights of free association and use of one's own property.
It's almost like people have been so brainwashed and lied to, they cannot even identify an alpha male who acts ... like an alpha male. Who thinks he cares at all about what the anklebiters might say or think? Anklebiters.
"Liberals" think that anyone consistently in favor of liberty and a free society is a weord buffoon. Today's New Tories probably thought Thomas Paine was a weird buffoon.
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