******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ********************
#1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message.
#2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived.
#3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern.
*****************************************************************
Washington Post, July 10, 2020
Trump the victim: President complains in private about the pandemic
hurting him
By Ashley Parker, Philip Rucker and Josh Dawsey
Callers on President Trump in recent weeks have come to expect what
several allies and advisers describe as a “woe-is-me” preamble.
The president rants about the deadly coronavirus destroying “the
greatest economy,” one he claims to have personally built. He laments
the unfair “fake news” media, which he vents never gives him any credit.
And he bemoans the “sick, twisted” police officers in Minneapolis, whose
killing of an unarmed black man in their custody provoked the nationwide
racial justice protests that have confounded the president.
Gone, say these advisers and confidants, many speaking on the condition
of anonymity to detail private conversations, are the usual pleasantries
and greetings.
Instead, Trump often launches into a monologue placing himself at the
center of the nation’s turmoil. The president has cast himself in the
starring role of the blameless victim — of a deadly pandemic, of a
stalled economy, of deep-seated racial unrest, all of which happened to
him rather than the country.
Trump put his self-victimization on public display Thursday in response
to a Supreme Court ruling rejecting his claim of absolute immunity and
permitting a New York prosecutor to see the president’s private and
business financial records.
Trump reacted with a social media meltdown, writing on Twitter,
“PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT!” and “POLITICAL WITCH HUNT!” He wrote that
the decision was “Not fair to this Presidency” and claimed that “Courts
in the past have given ’broad deference’. BUT NOT ME!”
Trump has always exhibited a healthy ego and his self-victimization
tendencies are not a new phenomenon, according to those who have known
him over the years. But those characteristics have been especially
pronounced this summer, revealing themselves almost daily in everything
from private conversations to public tweets as the pandemic continues to
upend daily life across America and threaten the president’s political
fortunes.
Barbara Res, a former executive at the Trump Organization, said that
when she worked for Trump, he interpreted nearly everything in deeply
personal terms.
“Whatever bad happened, no matter what it was, it was always against
him, always directed at him,” Res said. “He would say, ‘Why does
everything always happen to me?’ ”
She added: “It was as if the world revolved around him. Everything that
happened had an effect on him, good or bad.”
Now, however, Trump’s sense of victimhood strikes even some allies as
particularly incongruous considering the devastation wrought by the
pandemic and the pain and anguish apparent in Black Lives Matter protests.
More than 130,000 Americans so far have died of the novel coronavirus,
with more than 3 million cases reported. Nearly 43 million Americans —
more than a quarter of the labor force — have filed for unemployment
benefits since the pandemic began. And the nation is riven not just by
protests following the death of George Floyd, the unarmed black man
killed in Minneapolis police custody, but also by a president who has
deliberately stoked racial animus.
Even those in Trump’s orbit are trying to nudge him toward a sunnier,
less egocentric approach to the crises he is facing, fearing that his
sullen demeanor could backfire politically. Among those internally who
have advocated a more optimistic tone are Alyssa Farah, the White House
communications director, and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law
and senior adviser, according to one senior administration official.
Other top White House advisers — including Hope Hicks and Dan Scavino —
have also sought to buttress Trump’s mood with events they thought he
would enjoy, such as celebrating truckers by bringing 18-wheelers onto
the White House South Lawn in mid-April or creating social media videos
that feature throngs of his adoring fans, according to aides.
Advisers also have sought to boost Trump’s mood by presenting him
internal polling that shows him in a better position than public
surveys, which universally show him trailing presumptive Democratic
nominee Joe Biden.
Trump loses ground in polls amid pandemic, George Floyd protests
President Trump’s approval rating peaked in early 2020, but has dropped
after two crises hit the nation. (Monica Akhtar/The Washington Post)
One senior administration official rejected the notion that Trump views
himself as a victim, saying instead that he has repeatedly expressed his
frustration over a virus that seemed to emerge out of nowhere and has
ravaged the country, and that his only concern is for the victims of the
pandemic. A second official said that the president is most frequently
speaking about how the country collectively has been victimized by the
virus.
The first official added that Trump, as a former businessman, is
especially well-suited for this unprecedented moment of crisis, and has
demonstrated his management abilities by making the decision early on to
shut down some travel from China and by waiving regulations to rush
coronavirus therapeutics to the market.
“The United States of America did not ask for this plague and every
American has been affected from the closure of our economy to caring for
the sick and mourning those tragically lost, but under the leadership of
President Trump our Transition to Greatness has already begun, and the
American people are showing tremendous courage to defeat the virus,
responsibly open the economy, and restore law and order to our streets,”
White House spokesman Judd Deere said in an email statement. “The
President’s message has been consistent: resilience, hope, and optimism.”
Jen Psaki, former communications director in the Obama White House,
agreed with private assessments that the president’s complaining could
be costly.
“I don’t think he has many sympathetic ears to his claims that he’s been
mistreated,” Psaki said. “Leadership, as we’ve seen at many moments in
history, is about not only accepting adulation when you do something
great but also accepting responsibility. That lack of accepting
responsibility is seen as a lack of leadership and that doesn’t sit well
with people who might be more open to supporting him again.”
At times, though, Trump can’t seem to help himself, said people who have
spoken with him in recent weeks, describing him as shellshocked and
sullen about his declining fortunes even as he continues to insist he
will ultimately win in November.
“We had the greatest economy in the world,” Trump said in an Oval Office
meeting last month, talking about how good the statistics were before
the coronavirus, said one adviser. An outside adviser in frequent touch
with the White House offered a similar recollection, saying that Trump
simply keeps on repeating, “I had this great economy and they made me
shut it down.”
Another adviser who chatted with Trump about a month ago said the
president opened with a lengthy rant expressing animus toward reporters
— with Trump citing individual names of journalists and specific
stories, particularly those about the coronavirus recovery. This person
added that Trump also railed about pollsters being out to get him and
deliberately sampling the wrong voters, and complained he was being
blamed for protests that he had nothing to do with.
A third outside adviser in frequent touch with the White House said that
in a recent conversation, the president seemed almost “inconsolable” and
summed up Trump’s riff: Gripes about the great economy he built, now
felled by the virus, and also how “some stupid cop in Minneapolis kneels
on someone’s neck and now everyone is protesting.”
The president has also complained to political advisers that the media
blames him for the protests in the wake of Floyd’s death, and that no
matter what he says, “it is not enough.”
To some of his longtime advisers, the president has seemed tired,
low-energy and lacking the passion and energy that defined him when he
was a candidate during the 2016 race. Aides noticed he largely read his
script at Mount Rushmore and did not veer off the teleprompters for
high-energy riffs like he usually does when delivering political speeches.
He has been spending an inordinate amount of time watching television
news and has been scrambling for ways to fire up his base and keep his
loyalists supportive, with little in the way of a set daily schedule.
“Every guy that talks to him, the first half of the conversation is,
‘Woe is me,’ ” said one of the outside operatives, speaking anonymously
to share private details. “They’re all saying, ‘You’ve got to snap out
of it. You’re the president. Presidents are supposed to deal with
crises.’ But he’s fixated.”
Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a history professor at New York University and author of
the forthcoming book, “Strongmen,” a history of authoritarian leaders,
said Trump’s victimization complex fits a pattern of authoritarian
leaders past and present.
“They have no empathy, and they only see the world through how things
affect them personally,” Ben-Ghiat said. “They’re not there to govern.
They’re there to enrich themselves, they’re there to plunder the nation,
and they’re there to be world historical.”
Some officials and advisers, however, say they are encouraged that Trump
in recent days has gotten into a more optimistic mind-set, where he sees
a path to victory and is ready to work toward it. The president just
approved a calendar through the beginning of August that includes
coronavirus-focused events, economic events and, they hope, a return to
regular political events. Trump had planned to hold a campaign rally in
an airport hangar in Portsmouth, N.H., on Saturday night, but it was
postponed due to weather. The White House said it would be rescheduled
for a week or two from now.
June was a tough month for both the country and the president, the
senior official said, but Trump’s celebration in South Dakota in advance
of July 4 represented something of an unofficial turning point, as aides
hope the president will refocus on several top priorities.
The key themes for coming weeks, the official added, are rebuilding the
nation’s economy, continuing to fight the virus and continuing to secure
communities, which will encompass the aftermath of the protests. There
may also be some actions intended to show toughness against China.
Trump ‘white power’ tweet set off a scramble inside the White House —
but no clear condemnation
The president’s mood had also improved as he focused on the fight over
whether to rename or tear down statues named after Confederate generals
and other controversial historical figures. Aides say he believes a
battle over such symbols will help him politically.
Despite his bouts of moroseness, Trump can also exhibit optimism not
entirely grounded in reality. He has continued to tell advisers, for
instance, that he is certain the virus will go away by October and that
there will be a “cure” by then — a word he favors over “vaccine.”
Then, he adds in these tellings, the economy will rebound overnight and
he will win a second term.
_________________________________________________________
Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm
Set your options at:
https://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com