In all things
In small things as well is in large, Trump is consistent: he’s a mean, sadistic, bullying asshole who enjoys belittling and shaming people because he likes to see people feeling bad. He insults Merkel and Obama and Warren and Curiel, and he insults people who work for him.
In Trump’s White House, aides serve a president who demands absolute loyalty — but who doesn’t always offer it in return. Trump prefers a management style in which even compliments can come laced with a bite, and where enduring snubs and belittling jokes, even in public, is part of the job.
That right there? That’s an asshole. That’s a 100% brass-plated irredeemable asshole. We’ve all known them, and they suck.
Allies say the president’s quips are simply good-natured teasing, part of an inclusive strategy meant to make even mid-level staff members feel like family.
Fuck that shit. Fuck it up one side and down the other. Families that do that are crap families, and bosses who do it are terrible bosses.
And during the transition, Trump would make a point of noting that Vice President-elect Mike Pence’s crowds paled compared to his, teasing that even his daughter Ivanka and son Eric attracted more attention, said two people familiar with the comments, which they considered demeaning. (Pence offered a similar quip on the campaign trail.)
“Teasing” is a sneak-word. It pretends that sadistic verbal bullying is mere joking, but it isn’t.
Critics say the president often demeans those in his orbit, a tendency they say reflects a broader fragility beneath his bluster.
“Trump is so deeply insecure that not even becoming president of the United States quenched his need to make others feel small to build himself up,” said Tim Miller, a former spokesman for an anti-Trump super PAC. “Choosing to work for him necessitates a willingness to be demeaned in order to assuage his desire to feel like a big, important person.”
That’s that self-esteem thing again. Maybe it’s not that he’s so deeply insecure, maybe it’s that he’s a mean bullying piece of shit. Maybe there’s nothing more to it that that: he’s a mean fucker who likes to make people feel like crap.
During an early call with Australia, one of nation’s staunchest allies, the president got into a testy exchange with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, blasting him over a refugee deal, bragging about the size of his electoral college win and abruptly ending the call.
When news from the conversation emerged, Trump’s team readily confirmed details of the exchange. The president was livid about the leak — but had no problem being viewed as a bully, believing he was simply standing up for his nation’s best interests.
What I’m saying. He likes being a bully, and he thinks it makes him awesome.
Yes, how does arrogance = insecurity? It’s not as if constant praise and reassurance makes Trump less upset when he’s criticized. It obviously only makes him feel more entitled.
I think the main problem with saying that people with an over-inflated sense of self-esteem really suffer from a deeply-diminished sense of self-esteem is that it’s too reassuring. Now it sounds more fixable. He might get better if we just stop picking on him so much. Or wait.
It’s sort of that old thing my mother used to tell me about bullies – they are more afraid of you than you are of them. Right. No they are not, because the amount of fear I felt of many of these bullies (especially in my own family) was such that it would be impossible to feel more fear and still function.
Considering them insecure allows us to feel sorry for them. Assuming they had a bad childhood allows us to feel sympathy and gives them a rationale for what they do. The idea that some people are nasty entitled people because they’ve been told their entire life that they are the best, the grandest, the smartest, the strongest, etc seems to be an idea not even whispered in most circles nowadays.
You know, I begin to wonder if the real riggering reason he “quit” the Paris accord was anger that PM Macron bested him at the ugly handshake gambit, as reported here recently iirc. Trump must have felt bigly humiliated, and he does not do that well at all. (As I recall the reporting, Macron held firm, would not release and increased the pressure to audible creaking and visible blanching. Well played!)
Of course, the global outcome would not have changed anyway, but anything to take him down a peg. Or pull the pin, open the trapdoor, flood the dam — just kick that vile clown off stage!
Actually, Rrr, I suspect the reason he quit the accord is – Obama. After all, this was one of Obama’s things, and he seems to be focused right now on trying to erase Obama policies.
His hatred for the EPA, though? That was a Nixon-era thing, though most Republicans I know don’t seem to realize that.
Yes, iknklast, but that would mean he can keep one idea in his head long-term and imply impulse control. His actions usually seem to imply the opposite, that he is impulse-controlled.
What I meant to write (spelling badly) was that Macron’s handshake may have acted as a trigger to the act of refusal. We could both be right.
He made a monumental, irreparable symbolic mistake.