Trump Dreads Being Laughed At

Created
Mon, 26/08/2024 - 23:00
Updated
Mon, 26/08/2024 - 23:00
Achilles had his heel It doesn’t require and advanced degree in psychology to see it. Donald Trump has grumbled his entire adult life that “the world” is laughing at “us” (meaning the United States). Mr. Bundle of Insecurities harbors deep anxieties about being laughed at himself. He’s not very bright. He’s undereducated. He’s overweight. He’s a “tycoon” who sucks at business and cheats at golf. He got where he is with daddy’s money. Underneath the bluster and bullying in recesses of his psyche he dare not explore (self-examination is for the weak), he knows it. Throughout the sad history of Trumpism, comedians have garnered tons of laughs at Trump’s expense. At the White House Correspondents’ dinner in 2011, Seth Meyers famously quipped, “Trump said he’s running as a Republican. Which is surprising; I just assumed he was running as a joke.” The audience roared. Trump seethed. “That evening of public abasement, rather than sending Mr. Trump away, accelerated his ferocious efforts to gain stature within the political world,” wrote The New York Times’s Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns. “And it captured the degree to which Mr. Trump’s campaign is driven by a deep yearning sometimes obscured by his bluster and bragging: a desire to be taken seriously.” Until recently, the aging Democratic political class, including President Biden, thought it too impolitic to lampoon Trump as a political leader, and thus struggled to land blows that would undercut his support without also mocking his supporters. Call him a serious threat, yes.…