Trump Is Not Stupid; He’s A Megalomaniac
And we need to reframe him as such if we want a Democrat to win in 2020.
The insidious thing about the media is that it still has control over how we think about things. Take this recent article on celebrities sharing anecdotes about meeting Donald Trump from The Guardian. Here’s a fabulous quote about an anecdote from Woody Harrelson:
The story is a reminder of what is perhaps Trump’s one saving grace. Before he was president, he was just a common or garden celebrity. And this means that every other celebrity who ever met him has a story about what an idiot he is.
But let’s consider something here. Before Donald Trump became president of the United States, he was a businessman. Sure, some of his businesses flopped, but he seemed successful enough to be part of the high-end social circle of celebrities. You don’t get there by being an idiot. And you certainly don’t get there by being an idiot with little desire for power. Sure, Trump’s not the sharpest tool in the shed, but he’s certainly not the bluntest either, and let me show you why.
As a writer, I can see, hear and feel the power of words. If you’re clever enough, you can weave these words into a narrative that sounds real enough. These narratives have a subtle way of changing the way we see the world around us. But when narratives are based on reality, things can get serious. Especially if you have a strategy in place.
Trump has used his extensive vocabulary to weave a narrative that resonates with many voters. Build the wall, lock her up, make America great again. And the best way to get away with most of his rhetoric is to come across as an idiot. Labelling him as an idiot is a wonderful way of feeling like you have power over him, too. And that’s just the way he likes it. We’re not playing a fool's game, we are being played for fools.
Another way this idiot labelling works wonders for Trump is that it creates a divide between his supporters and his haters. It’s the perfect situation to be in if you’re leading one of the most powerful nations in the world. When you’re base is fighting with each other, they are distracted from all the crazy stuff you do.
Even labelling the media as fake news works wonders, and he does it skilfully by weaving the narrative in a way that makes the news media seem stupid. His administration will throw out bait in a calculated way or he will make calculated tweets on social media to throw them into a cheap game.
But while he does all this crazy stuff, he does a lot of good things too, and this helps him hold onto his supporters while confusing the left side. Things like meeting with Kim Jong Un to progress denuclearisation or sharing his hatred over economic issues:
All this shows the stunning intellect of this man while revealing the dangerous underlay that permeates from it all. He uses all this strategy to fuel his megalomania.
Now, I would like to state that Donald Trump is not another Hitler. I don't think his game is to eradicate populations, and that’s simply because he hasn’t made light of it in any way. Sure he has failed to label white supremacists as such, and there are times when he has failed to stand up against his chanting fans saying “send her back”, but he’s far from another Hitler. For one, he has yet to release a manifesto on his desire to kill particular races or groups.
So no, Trump is not the crazy dangerous guy who’s gonna end the world, but, sorry to say for his fans, he is not an amazing guy either. He’s just a guy with a huge desire for power, with no real agenda on leadership. In fact, he doesn’t really want to lead, he wants to control, and this is why most of the western world doesn’t like him. His base of fans see him as a lone wolf who’s going after the big guys, but with only the desire to control and little care for the bureaucracy in place, he’s just an aimless ferret let loose on the US. The fact that he has no real agenda is what’s scary. A person with no real agenda is hard to deal with. The only real agenda he has held onto for so long is the building of a wall, and that’s just a legacy he’s trying to make happen. He knows that a wall is not the solution to stopping migration from the south. He just wants it so people will remember him. We will remember him, all right, but not for that reason.
On top of this, he’s taking credit for the healthy economy that Obama built in his tenure. Donald Trump could have twiddled his thumbs for the past three years and the economy still would have headed in the same direction. Sure, he has done some good things in regard to certain areas of the economy, and that’s just purely because he has the experience in running a business. But while he has experience in that, he has limited skill in diplomacy. Being a megalomaniac doesn’t help in this instance. Throwing threatening tweets to Iran is not a wonderful way to ease tension in the country. Going on an ad-lib trade war with China is not a great way to build needed trust. And yet he does these things because he loves the power of doing it. And that’s why he is dangerous. Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Trump is a megalomaniac. We saw this in his various adorations of leaders who run fascist regimes and totalitarian states. We saw this when he ordered tanks to drive in the 2019 Independence Day parade in Washington. And we see this every time he calls the media fake news.
Trump is playing the game of politics in a dirty way, and this cannot be allowed.
If we want to get him out of the oval office sooner, we have to face up to the fact that he is not stupid. The media has to accept that he is, in fact, a megalomaniac, and they must treat him as such. More specifically, as a very intellectual megalomaniac. His strongest power is communication and the media must be stronger in not allowing him the airtime. If he doesn’t allow certain journalists to ask a question, they ALL must walk out of the conference. The left side of the media must refrain from lambasting him at every corner. The right side must hold him to account a little more forcefully than it should. The entire media must house tact in their journalistic ways. Whenever he yells out fake news, all sides of the media must stand up in arms, for this is an attack on free speech.
As for his fans, they must realise that he is not there for them, he is there for himself. He might do things that sound like he’s there for certain members of the community, but they are ploys to fuel his strategy for great power.
We must all learn to listen to him intently. We mustn’t lose sight of it. We cannot fall into the dangerous thought of him just being stupid, because he’s not. He’s very clever. And with megalomania running through his mind, there’s little wonder as to what he could do.
As Abraham Lincoln once said: “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”
