Donald Trump’s pirate ship of thugs
The best analogy I ever heard used to define the Yiddish word “chutzpah” was the guy who crapped on someone’s front porch then rang the doorbell and asked the homeowner for toilet paper. I heard it in 1979. It was applied to the Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini, who ordered the abduction of 53 Americans from the embassy in Tehran in November.
Though “chutzpah” has come to also mean “cojones,” the original usage has a strong negative connotation, and it’s in that sense I use it here. I’m thinking, of course, of Trump and his pirate ship of thugs, criminals, rapists and liars.
Chutzpah is Trump telling more provable lies than any other human being in history, then founding a social media company called “Truth Social,” where he constantly turns out daily posts full of provable lies.
Chutzpah is Trump whining incessantly that the DOJ was “weaponized” against him, even though he was given endless privileges and strict adherence to due process, and found guilty by a jury of his peers. Only for Trump to turn around and weaponize the DOJ against people he doesn’t like — without ANY due process.
Chutzpah is Trump telling us that “if Kamala wins you are 3 days away from a 1929-style economic depression.” Trump won, and he inherited an economy that was the envy of the world. Economists now tell us, thanks to Trump, that America could be facing a 1929-style economic depression.
Chutzpah is the richest man in the world calling empathy a weakness, then whining and asking for pity because his car company, his social media company and his space company are all turning to shit.
Chutzpah is Trump’s billionaire secretary of commerce Howard Lutnick saying only fraudsters will complain if their social security checks are late. Your social security checks probably will be late, thanks to that other billionaire Elon Musk. By the way, Lutnick tweeks our noses with giga-chutzpah by saying that his 94 year old mother-in-law wouldn’t complain if her social security check was late. Of course she wouldn’t, her son-in-law’s net worth is four billion dollars.
You get the idea. You can probably think of a dozen more examples of Trump chutzpah in a dozen seconds. When it comes to chutzpah, with Trump and his fellow cockroaches (and apologies to cockroaches), we have an embarrassment of riches.
Well Trump’s chutzpah is about to meet with a little gerekhtikeyt, which is Yiddish for “justice.” CNN, Fox, Ipsos and Quinnipiac University all show Trump’s approval rating is in the toilet. It appears to still be falling. When social security checks start showing up late, or not at all, watch it fall p even further.
Like I said, chutzpah, in its original sense, is negative. Trump thinks of himself as a strong, bold leader. He is bellicose and proud of his chutzpah. He is going to spend the rest of his miserable life realising that chutzpah has made him the most hated man in American history.
Robert Harrington is an American expat living in Britain. He is a portrait painter.