Twenty years after profiling Donald Trump for the New Yorker, the US writer reflects on the tycoon’s presidential election chances
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Do you think Trump can win?
No, I don’t. I was worried about it two or three weeks ago. But he has shot himself in the foot since then. Attacking Gonzalo Curiel [the US district judge who is handling the Trump University lawsuit] was an unforced error, a stupid thing to have done. There are four and a half months to the election, and he will do this kind of thing again and again. He is shameless. People at his rallies seem convinced this guy is going to build this wall [between the US and Mexico]. It’s a metaphor, but they think it’s real. And since he is shameless, he will encourage these illusions. But this notion that anyone can control Trump… He can’t be controlled. It’s obvious. He’s all id. So, he will continue to shoot himself in the foot. Also, Obama is unfettered now because he has endorsed Hillary. This is payback time for him. He is going to be Clinton’s greatest weapon.
But what if he does win?
Well, he is the commander-in-chief so that nixes the coup. But the National Security Agency and the CIA: these people are not going to go along with a Trumpian abnegation of civil liberties. There will be chaos of some sort. People say he’ll get elected and then impeached. That would be no fun, but it might be necessary. He has already done enormous damage to the United States. He has hurt it abroad. Every time he makes these anti-Muslim statements, he feeds the Isis narrative. This man is so self-involved, and now it’s layered with this extra megalomania because he is near real power.
Is the US press up to scrutinising him?
They’re rising to it now but, for a while, it was the most disgraceful performance. When Trump announced [he was running], people thought it would be great comedy, good for satire. I dissented from that. I knew how toxic he was. Given the tenor of the times, I knew he was not going to be good for the country. Anyway, it took a while for the factchecking [by the press] to kick in, and meanwhile he was overwhelming his opponents in debates by insulting them. They had no idea what to do: they were flummoxed, and so they fell one by one. The horse race became the narrative, and that lasted for months. No one was doing the reporting. But they’re doing it now. Trump University [against which there are fraud allegations] has been out there for years; his dealings with women, also. People need to look at his track record. His only real success has been branding himself.
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- Discussion
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Mark Singer: ‘Trump will continue to shoot himself in the foot’ https://t.co/rkEgP4Zg2I
— Jason Johnson (@jasonsjohnson) June 19, 2016
Trump is so out of control that even his sycophants may abandon him by November!
Pray for righteousness to be restored and for the peace of Jerusalem
Trump is so out of control that even his sycophants may abandon him by November!
I’d like to hope so, but judging from what I’ve seen, heard and read on social media and elsewhere, it seems that the more wrong Trump does, the more ferent his supporters become. All you have to do is check out Trump Republic (formerly FR) or Ted Cruz’s Facebook page. As has been said here before, it’s like a cult. No matter what Dear Leader says or does, it’s OK because “he isn’t Hillary.” Even the few who acknowledge Trump’s faults have convinced themselves that they have to support him because they have no other choice. And the rest will either ignore the faults, explain them away or recite Trump campaign propaganda — “he’s going to build a wall!”
I’d like to hope that Trump will fold his tent and go home, or that the convention delegates will revolt and another nominee will be chosen, but as much as I pray for either of these, I have serious doubts either will happen. This election was a farce. Now it’s a nightmare. The next 4 years are going to be hell.
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