What Trump thinks of his supporters
Maybe you’ve heard the story. In 1947, after ending his program with his usual sign-off, “Goodnight, little friends, good night,” popular children’s radio personality Don Carney thought he was off the air. So he then added, “That ought to hold the little bastards.” It turned out, so the story goes, that his microphone was still live, and his comment was broadcast to the radio audience. His show was immediately cancelled and Carney was fired. You can even listen to a recording of the remark online.
That’s the story. There’s just one problem. It isn’t true. Carney never said any such thing. The “little bastards” recording is a fake. The show did indeed end in 1947 because Carney decided to end it for his own reasons.
I believed the original story for years because I never had any reason not to. A friend of mine had an album of “famous bloopers” back in the 70s and I heard the recording then. When I finally learned the truth many years later, that the whole thing was invented, I admit I was relieved. I didn’t want to think people like that existed, people who had such open contempt for their fans.
Then there’s Donald Trump. Trump’s contempt for his fans and the people who put him in the White House is an established fact. So when Stephanie Grisham, Trump’s former press secretary, excoriated the Republican presidential nominee at the Democratic national convention on Tuesday, no correction was necessary. If what she said isn’t true, it might as well be.
“I wasn’t just a Trump supporter, I was a true believer, I was one of his closest advisers,” Grisham told the crowd. “Trump mocks his supporters. He calls them basement dwellers.”
So take heart my Democratic brothers and sisters, next time you heap contempt on a MAGA troll online, you’re in good company. Donald Trump disdains them just as much as you do. He thinks they’re “suckers and losers,” just like he does men and women who gave their lives for their country in combat. He thinks they’re basement dwellers.
In fact, why don’t you tell them? Next time you see a troll, why not say, “I’m not the only one who thinks you’re a cretin. Donald Trump does too. Here’s what his former press secretary says.” Then quote Stephanie Grisham. Call them basement dwellers, just like Trump does. Be sure to remind them that you’re using Trump’s own special name for them.
Naturally, the troll will call the account “fake news” and Stephanie Grisham a liar. Even if we could produce a video of Trump saying such things they’d call it a fake. Just like the Don Carney audio recording was faked many years ago.
Only this time it isn’t fake. We know who and what Trump is. Trump’s disdain for everyone who isn’t Donald Trump is an established fact. If he praises someone it won’t be for long. Sooner or later — usually sooner — Trump will publicly condemn them. Because that’s Trump. That’s what he is. Loyal to no one, contemptuous of everyone, indifferent to any pain but his own, Trump is a narcissist and a sociopath who thinks everyone else is stupid.
Trump hates people, he hates America, he loves dictators and money and he wishes he had the power to murder anyone who ever says a single word against him. There is no power on earth that will ever convince most of his glassy-eyed followers of this, that he is a thing of evil. They adore him as if he were their deity.
Stephanie Grisham is clearly not among them. She resigned as Trump’s press secretary on January 6, 2021, in protest of the traitorous violence Trump unleashed on the nation. On Tuesday she ended her short speech to the Democratic National Convention with an endorsement of Kamala Harris. She said, “I love my country more than my party. Kamala Harris tells the truth. She respects the American people and she has my vote.” Brava, Ms Grisham, brava. And, as ever, ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, comrades and friends, stay safe.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.