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. Call him an unserious fool, no.
The Harris campaign has less trouble learning new tricks, writes Michael Tomasky at The New Republic:
Harris’s campaign so far has been a work of genius on several levels, but maybe the most ingenious stroke of all has been the decision to mock Trump—to present him not only as someone to fear, but also to ridicule. Harris perfectly encapsulated this two-pronged attack in these memorable lines from her acceptance speech: “In many ways, Donald Trump is an unserious man. But the consequences — but the consequences of putting Donald Trump back in the White House are extremely serious. … Just imagine Donald Trump with no guardrails.”
But the emphasis has been on ridicule (Tim Walz’s “weird” comment, Maryland Governor Wes Moore’s jab at Trump’s bone spurs, Barack Obama’s hilarious hand gesture when he was talking about Trump’s obsession with crowd size). It’s great on three levels. The first is that it must drive Trump nuts, and when he goes nuts, he says especially nutty things. Second, it’s arguably more persuasive to swing voters than calling Trump a fascist. Trump is a fascist, make no mistake. But he’s also ridiculous. Mocking him over his Hannibal Lecter obsession will stick in apolitical people’s minds far more strongly than warning about his plans to wreck the Justice Department, and in its way, it’s just as disqualifying. Do we really want a president who thinks an eater of human flesh, however fictional, was misunderstood?
Trump the Cowardly Bully needs to be respected and feared. Calling him a fascist or an authoritarian empowers him, feeds his ego;. In his mind, it brings him one step closer to admission to the brotherhood of dictators whose acceptance he most desperately desires.
“Sustained ridicule has the potential to reinforce the downward spiral Trump is now in,” Tomasky writes. He fears being laughed at? Pummel him with guffaws.
But, I’d advise, spare his supporters the “deplorables” label. Insults may motivate them. Some are too far gone, yes. But others may yet either stay home in the fall or leave the top race blank.
Tomasky recommends:
Ridicule makes him weaker. Ridicule makes him small. Ridicule makes him desperate. He’ll try to respond with ridicule of his own, but he is not a clever man. He’s a stupid man. He has no wit. He has no sense of mischief. He doesn’t read. He doesn’t think beyond first reactions. These nicknames of his, which the press has made such a big deal of over the years—they’re nothing. They’re dick contests put into words. Little Marco, Sleepy Joe. There’s nothing remotely clever about any of them.
And now he reportedly thinks he’s come up with a great one in “Communist Kamala.” Well, it’s alliterative, I’ll give him that. But I doubt very much that it’ll play beyond the base. First of all, people under 40 barely know what a communist was. Even for older people who do know, is communism the specter it once was?
Exactly. It’s stunning that Republicans think branding an opponent “communist” or “socialist” still bites 35 years after the Berlin Wall fell. I’ve said before, if Republicans expect to lead in the 21st century they might first try living in it.
And after all the flag-waving at the DNC convention (I have mine here), “Communist Kamala” is sauce as weak as Trump’s other schoolyard taunts.
Trump may yet rally. That is, if his decaying mind is not already too far gone. With Trump, what passes for strategy is simply feral instinct. That may survive the decay of what limited higher functions Trump ever had.
Joe Biden’s departure resets the board. Tomasky writes, “Against Joe Biden, Trump looked credible to swing voters, simply because of Biden’s age. Against Harris, he looks old (because he is), confused (because he is), far less intelligent than she (because he is), and less genuinely patriotic (because he is).”
Trump is cut over the eye. Go out and work the eye.
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