Thursday, November 01, 2018

DONALD TRUMP'S VICTIM MENTALITY

We all knew this, of course, but the president of the United States really doesn't believe he's responsible for anything he's challenged on:
President Trump, in an interview with Axios that will premiere Sunday on HBO, says ... his supporters like him more when he cranks up the "enemy of the people" rhetoric.

... Trump ... said Republican election momentum was stopped by "two plots" — the Pittsburgh shooting and the mail bombs.

Trump — despite being the world's most powerful man, with the world's most powerful pulpit — portrayed himself as mismatched against a biased press.

"If they would write accurately about me, I would be the nicest president you've ever seen. It would be much easier."
We've known for a long time that Trump never takes responsibility for his lies, mistakes, and misjudgments, but here he's blaming the media for his continued use of overheated rhetoric and he's also blaming his base and he's blaming the news cycle for possible losses on Election Day.

This is a pattern, of course.



Why is this what Republican voters want?

I think they like to feel sorry for themselves. It's true that some have suffered -- from economic displacement during the financial crisis, from American deindustrialization, from Big Pharma's opioid push -- but some are comfortable retirees who have few reasons for resentment. And yet they enjoy the self-pity. They're jealous of groups with legitimate group grievances -- non-whites, women, LGBT people, immigrants. They want us to feel sorry for them for a change -- and that snever changes, even though they now seem to believe that America under Trump is a paradise on Earth.

Trump fulfills a deep emotional need they have, because he is to self-pity what LeBron James is to basketball.

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