Nate White is British, but he certainly understands the essence of Trump better than most voters in Wyoming, the Dakotas, Idaho, Alabama and West Virginia seem to… and on Sunday he shared his sharp and very witty observations about why so many Brits dislike Trump:
Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace— all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing— not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility— for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is— his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults— he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff— the Queensberry rules of basic decency— and he breaks them all. He punches downwards— which a gentleman should, would, could never do— and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless— and he kicks them when they are down.
…[H]is faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws— he would make a Trump.
Obviously, you don’t have to be British to detest Trump and see right through him. You probably do need a 3 digit IQ though. I remember the first time I ever saw him. He was about 14 walking down Avenue Z in Brooklyn with his father and wearing a suit in the sweltering summer. Everyone on my girlfriend’s stoop laughed at him and cat-called them. No one knew for sure what he would turn out to be. But we sensed something was amiss with that little turd. Yesterday NPR’s Dominic Montanaro reported that they counted 162 lies and distortions during last week’s press conference. “A team of NPR reporters and editors reviewed the transcript of his news conference and found at least 162 misstatements, exaggerations and outright lies in 64 minutes. That’s more than two a minute.” His post lists all 162 of them; you can hit the link and read them all. White did mention his lack of credibility but never really delved into the depth of his egregious, compulsive lying.
Watching Kamala’s momentum continue to grow and her polling numbers leave him in the dust, Trump has been reacting with anger and fury. Susie Wiles has been trying— mostly unsuccessfully— to calm him down. “Trump’s anger over Democrats’ resurgence,” reported Joe Raedle, “was first apparent in a Times report on Friday, which noted that Trump repeatedly called Harris a ‘bitch’ in private. He also had an aide text billionaire Miriam Adelson, one of Trump’s wealthiest supporters and the funder of super PAC Preserve America, to complain that the people in charge of the group were ‘RINOs’— Republican in name only— according to the Times. Aides feared that Adelson, who was reportedly stunned by the outburst, may scale back her donations.”
But Trump’s advisers are also aware that they are unlikely to change a 78-year-old man known for his stubbornness. Therefore, they’re focused “not on the need for him to change but on the need to adapt his message to win,” a source told Axios.
“But he has to convince himself to leave the other garbage behind,” the source continued.
The “deeply rattled” advisers are also hoping he’ll take on a new “hard-hitting” stump speech that pushes a winning message, and they’ve invested tens of millions into TV ads in an ad blitz targeting states like Georgia, North Carolina, and Michigan.
The weirdo he picked as a running mate isn’t making anything any better. Yesterday he was on Face the Nation— and he brought the weirdness— and the lies, claiming “Trump delivered rising wages and a secure border.” He made the point that if they lose, it won’t be his fault; it will be because of Trump. When he repeated the idiotic GOP talking point— “you have Democrats who have supported abortion right up to the moment and sometimes even beyond the moment of birth, which is just sick stuff”— Margaret Brennen called Himont for the lie: “That’s not accurate.” He pushed back and lied some more: “It is accurate. In fact, the Born Alive Act, multiple members of the current Democratic administration, including our vice president, supported that legislation [A CBS News fact check finds Harris voted against advancing the Born-Alive Survivors Protection Act twice when she was a senator, and has previously called it extreme and a setback to reproductive rights in America. We have found no evidence that anyone who currently serves in the Biden administration voted for it either.], they have supported taxpayer funded abortions up to the moment of birth. I just think it's bizarre, and you contrast it to Donald Trump, who's trying to find some common ground on this issue, what he's trying to do…”
It's interesting that a brit will, eloquently, tell you all the qualities trump (and vance... and many more) lacks, but it would seem to be easier to just list the qualities he has... he's despicable and pure evil. He's an obscene waste of carbon.
I wonder what he thinks of an entire party, non-nazi category, that serve the few at the expense of the many, lie with impunity about it, somehow cajole as many as 80 million to vote for them and then remorselessly ratfuck all but the richest of them after.
Sure, obamanation had some qualities his brits find amusing. But he also was an utterly corrupt, lying sack of shit and nearly equal in evil. But he d…
His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
An interesting characterization (fractal). I actually love this.
And, yes, there have always been idiots and nazis in the world. But democracies are supposed to prevent the fringe types from becoming mainstream, much less despots. It happened in Germany a bit less than a century ago. It's happening here. Germany had a great depression and a humiliating versaille treaty. We only have voters who are dumber than shit.