What the idea that Donald Trump is *just* an asshole misses
On "irascibility"
Earlier this week, Hugh Hewitt, a conservative talk radio host, wrote a piece for the Washington Post on the race between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
In it, he said that one of main contrasts — and choices — in the general election will be between Trump’s “irascibility” and Biden’s “infirmity.”
While we can debate whether it’s fair — at all — to use the word “infirmity” as it relates to Biden, I want to zero in instead on Hewitt’s description of Trump as “irascible.” Here’s what Hewitt writes by way of explanation:
Some subset of voters are simply not up for another four years of Trump’s trademark combativeness online and in person. But tens of millions of Americans love what they assess to be devil-may-care authenticity, and millions more view it as at best exhausting and at worst the modeling of cruelty as a means of communication.
This is the kernel of an argument that pro-Trump forces have been making for a very long time now. It boils down to the notion that Trump may be, well, an asshole but he’s our asshole. He says and does whatever he wants — and we like that. He’s real.
Or, as Donald Trump Jr. so often puts it, he’d rather have a president who sends mean tweets than one who isn’t up to the job.
The notion that underpins this argument is that Trump’s main flaw as president (and as a candidate for president) is his temperament. That, yes, he is too quick to anger. That, yes, he pops off online more than he should. But that, at root, if you can look beyond that stuff, his results are quite good.
“I mean, he's a jerk. Nobody likes him,” a New Hampshire resident told USA Today last fall, noting that she believed Trump to be one of America’s best presidents. “He’s taken care of everything that he promised he was going to take care of and I felt safe while he was president."
I think that drastically undersells — and underestimates — the danger that Trump poses.
It is undeniably true that Trump is quick to anger. That he says — and writes — things in fits of pique. That he does not measure his words carefully. I mean…
But, that’s not ALL he is.
Consider the 2020 election. Yes, Trump was pissed off that he lost. But, he then spent months, literally, on a campaign to overturn the results — using the powers of the federal bureaucracy to (almost) flip the outcome. This wasn’t him just popping off. It was a concerted and sustained effort to undermine a democratic election.
Or his announced plans if he is elected president — among them to reinstitute the so-called “Muslim ban,” a purge of the civil service to install Trump loyalists and the weaponization of the Justice Department.
As the New York Times, which has done yeoman’s work on Trump’s 2025 plans, concluded:
Since beginning his 2024 presidential campaign, Donald J. Trump has said the “termination” of the Constitution would have been justified to overturn the 2020 election, told followers “I am your retribution” and vowed to use the Justice Department to prosecute his adversaries — starting with President Biden and his family.
Beneath these public threats is a series of plans by Mr. Trump and his allies that would upend core elements of American governance, democracy, foreign policy and the rule of law if he regains the White House.
Some of these themes trace back to the final period of Mr. Trump’s term in office. By that stage, his key advisers had learned how to more effectively wield power and Mr. Trump had fired officials who resisted some of his impulses and replaced them with loyalists. Then he lost the 2020 election and was cast out of power.
Since leaving office, Mr. Trump’s advisers and allies at a network of well-funded groups have advanced policies, created lists of potential personnel and started shaping new legal scaffolding — laying the groundwork for a second Trump presidency they hope will commence on Jan. 20, 2025.
You’ll notice that nowhere in the Times reporting is there a mention of Trump’s temperament. Instead, it’s about his fundamentally radical view of what the government can and should do — namely exact revenge and retribution on the people that he believes have wronged him. And, in the process, change the shape and nature of American democracy.
This isn’t really about whether Trump is a jerk. Or a lovable scamp. Trump’s personality, in short, is a total red herring.
This is about what Trump would DO in office — based on what he did during his first four years and what he as promised to do if he is elected again.
And on that front there can be no debate. As his term went along, Trump pushed boundaries further and further. Hell, he tried to replace the Attorney General after he had already lost the election — attempting to put someone in the job who would throw the weight of the Justice Department behind his false stolen election claims! He said that the Constitution should be suspended so we could hold a re-do election!
Trump is not just irascible. He is utterly unaware — or unconcerned — with the democratic traditions on which our government was founded and has operated for the last, um, several hundred years.
THAT is what really matters here. It’s about much more than Trump being a jerk, personally. It’s about what he would do if, again, he is handed the most powerful job in the world.
Thank you, Chris!!! He's so much more than an asshole. He's a deeply malignant narcissist with sadistic tendencies, who behaves as if he's a psychopath, and is almost certainly a danger to others (and to himself, mental illness left untreated often seems to destroy one's relationships and one's life... This is a man who cannot laugh. This is a man who is a gigantic black hole of endless need...This is a very sick and very dangerous man.
We'll be talking a lot about Trump in the months ahead, so I'd like to take this opportunity to comment on Hugh Hewitt. He seems to be treated as a rational conservative voice whose views are worthy of discussion. In fact, he's merely a politer (more politic?) version of Tucker Carlson and Glenn Beck. He's a far right extremist who presents as sane if you focus on his demeanor rather than what he's actually saying, like calling AOC a "transgendered Joe Biden."