THIS IS WHY DONALD TRUMP IS STILL ALIVE

Donald Trump is an overweight man in his late seventies who eats like a teenager and never exercises. All that should have put his health at serious risk even before his four indictments this year.

But the evil sonofabitch seems vigorous and purposeful. He might collapse on the golf course someday soon, clutching his chest for the last time. But it's amazing that it hasn't happened in all the time he's been a major political figure. Why?

Maybe it's genes. Maybe it's dumb luck. And maybe it's the strong sense of fulfillment he gets from doing his work -- and by work I mean cucking other men who are seen by the world as alphas. Rupert Murdoch, for instance:

On a cool August night on the crowded patio of his private club in New Jersey, former President Donald J. Trump ... was having dinner with a Fox News contributor and columnist, Charlie Hurt, when a call came in from another member of the Fox team. The man on the other end of the line, Mr. Trump was delighted to show his guests, was Bret Baier, one of the two moderators of the first Republican debate on Wednesday....

It was Mr. Trump’s second Fox dinner that week. The night before, he had hosted the Fox News president, Jay Wallace, and the network’s chief executive, Suzanne Scott, who had gone to Bedminster, N.J., hoping to persuade Mr. Trump to attend the debate. Mr. Baier was calling to get a feel for the former president’s latest thinking.

For months, Fox had been working Mr. Trump privately and publicly.... But even as he behaved as if he was listening to entreaties, Mr. Trump was proceeding with a plan for his own counterprogramming to the debate.

The former president has told aides that he has made up his mind not to participate in the debate and has decided to post an online interview with Tucker Carlson that night instead....

Rupert Murdoch is Logan Roy! He's supposed to be the undisputed master of the media universe! Yet here he is asking multiple subordinates to prostrate themselves before Trump and beg him to participate in the upcoming debate. Oh, and one of the dispatched grovelers will be a debate moderator. (Mommy, what were journalistic ethics?) If I were Donald Trump, a man whose principal source of life satisfaction (besides golf, sex, and early badly cooked meat) is humiliating people, I'd consider this a job well done.

Murdoch, The Washington Post tells us, now recognizes that Ron DeSantis won't beat Trump, so he's hoping Glenn Youngkin will enter the presidential race soon.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has repeatedly encouraged Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to run for president in 2024, according to two people familiar with entreaties made in at least two face-to-face meeting

That won't end well either. Youngkin is, as the Post notes, a "former Carlyle Group executive" with a large personal fortune and strong "ties to the donor class." Now remember that Trump and his allies were able to persuade at least a portion of the GOP electorate that DeSantis is an agent of the Deep State, on flimsier evidence:

To some, he is “Ron DeSoros,” a puppet of the Democratic megadonor George Soros. To others ... he is “Ron DePLANTis,” a “plant” of the so-called Deep State....

The demeaning nicknames for Mr. DeSantis have spread widely on conservative social media, growing this year as Mr. Trump’s attacks increased. There were more than 12,000 mentions of “DeSoros” on social media and news sites since January, according to Zignal Labs, a media insights company....

Mike Lindell, the MyPillow executive ... said, falsely, that Florida was spared from widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election because Mr. DeSantis had a close relationship with Dominion Voting Systems, an election software company targeted by election deniers. “Ron DeSantis is a Trojan horse,” Mr. Lindell said in a recent interview with The New York Times....

Kari Lake ... shared a story claiming Mr. DeSantis was endorsed by Mr. Soros, calling it “the kiss of death.” (Mr. Soros had only said that Mr. DeSantis was likely to become the nominee.)

Early this year, many of us thought Trump's attacks on DeSantis were weak and likely to be ineffective. ("Ron DeSanctimonious"?) But they coincided with Trump's indictments, which made Trump a hero again to the base. Trump must be energized by the success of the smear campaign against DeSantis, who was once seen as a likely Trump killer.

And I'm sure Trump also draws spiritual nourishment from how easy it is now to swindle Rudy Giuliani, a guy who used to be the racist, angry alpha dog of New York:

Rudolph W. Giuliani is running out of money and looking to collect from a longtime client who has yet to pay: former President Donald J. Trump.

... for the better part of a year, as Mr. Giuliani has racked up the bills battling an array of criminal investigations, private lawsuits and legal disciplinary proceedings stemming from his bid to keep Mr. Trump in office after the 2020 election, his team has repeatedly sought a lifeline from the former president, according to several people close to him. And even as the bills have pushed Mr. Giuliani close to a financial breaking point, the former president has largely demurred, the people said, despite making a vague promise during their dinner at Mar-a-Lago to pay up.

Mr. Giuliani, 79 ... is currently sitting on what one person familiar with his financial situation says is nearly $3 million in legal expenses. And that is before accounting for any money that Mr. Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, might be owed for his work conducted after Election Day on Mr. Trump’s behalf.

Mr. Trump’s political action committee ... has so far covered only $340,000 for Mr. Giuliani, a payment made in late May.

And the $340K wasn't even paid to Giuliani -- it went to a vendor Giuliani hired to do record searches.

It still pains Trump that he was never accepted as a great man in Manhattan society during his youth. But he compensates by screwing other people over, especially the powerful or formerly powerful.

I think that's what's keeping him alive.