We’ve reached the tricky part where Donald Trump is figuring out no one thinks he’s any good at this
Donald Trump’s blatant narcissism suggests that he’s incapable of recognizing that he’s a lousy and ineffective president. No matter how much more of a disaster his tenure becomes, he’ll find a way to make it not his fault in his own head. But Trump does appear capable of recognizing when others aren’t impressed with him; that’s when he lashes out at them. Now we’re reaching the tricky part where Trump seems to be figuring out that no one of any consequence thinks he’s any good at this.
Take a look at the past two weeks. Donald Trump took an overseas trip which saw him humiliated from start to finish. The leaders of America’s allies were so thoroughly unimpressed with his inept antics that by the end of it, he had isolated himself in a golf cart while the others all took a stroll together. He surely thinks he’s the only smart one of the NATO bunch. But he can clearly see by now that they all think he’s an idiot.
Then came Trump’s climate change announcement, which resulted in him being slammed by nearly every world leader. His staff tried to boost his spirits by holding a pro-Trump rally outside the White House, but virtually no one showed up for it (link). Then he botched his response to the London attack in confoundingly inept fashion, and he was so frazzled by the backlash that he began blocking his critics on Twitter.
Again, it’s not that Trump is capable of taking criticism for what it’s worth, and figuring out that he’s the worst U.S. president of all time; he’s absolutely not capable of that. But he is capable of figuring out that everyone thinks he’s terrible at this. And that makes this a tricky time, because his instinct will now be to lash out at everyone. He already took out his frustrations on the Mayor of London this weekend. Who’s next? How many more international incidents are we looking at, as Trump’s tantrums grow more uncontrollable?
The good news is that, in accordance with Donald Trump’s utterly warped yet often predictable psyche, at some point he may tell himself that he’s too good for this, that the political world doesn’t deserve his brilliance, and that he doesn’t want to waste any more time on it. Each time Trump has reached the point of realizing that yet another of his businesses is going to fail, he’s declared bankruptcy and convinced himself it was a success, and walked away. Now that Trump is figuring out he’s not going to succeed in office, he just might end up quitting in similar fashion – if he doesn’t start a war with a U.S. ally first.
