Letter to a friend explaining Donald J. Trump

I recently got back in touch with one of my oldest friends — from junior high school — and in the course of getting reacquainted, I mentioned another old friend, a mutual acquaintance, who supports Donald J. Trump.

How can that be, my friend asked? I don’t understand his appeal and no one has ever been able to explain it to me, said my friend, who is moderately Left — liberal, not progressive.

I took that as a kind of a challenge, and decided maybe I could shed light, especially for the handful of TDS — Trump Derangement Syndrome — subscribers here.

Since 2015, when Trump announced, I have been against him for president.

Why?

I know him.

Not well, but from my time covering Atlantic City, when he was a Big Deal there. I was invited to his Big Events — like the opening of his Taj Mahal casino — and the first time he brought his yacht, the Trump Princess, to dock in A.C. 

In covering that event, I reported that he renamed the  86-meter yacht, Nabila, that he bought for $30 million from billionaire arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi.

I also reported that in maritime circles, renaming a boat is considered to be bad luck.

Sure enough, as soon as the Trump Princess was seen coming over the horizon, a horrible squall came out of nowhere and sent the dignitaries on the dock scrambling for cover.

Trump had ignored custom, as is his custom. Did he really pay $30 million? I don’t know. I do know when he opened the Taj Mahal, he claimed it was 52 stories and the tallest building in New Jersey.

It was neither of those things.

As CNN commentator Fareed Zakaria was to remark many years later, Trump is a “bullshitter.”

Until he came down the elevator to announce he would run, most of the media had scoffed, because he previously hinted he might run, and didn’t.

A bullshitter.

As his run began, I discounted him because I knew him only as a developer who had been in and out of Chapter XI bankruptcies, and a casino mogul.

Since I never watched “The Apprentice,” I had no inkling of what a huge TV star he had become — and that was the biggest key to his election. He was the host of the top-rated show for 14 seasons.

Americans often are drawn to celebrity and The Donald was a major star.

The media covered him with amusement and did not see the tsunami that was building right in front of them.

Pennsylvania reporter Salena Zito explained it best. “The press takes him literally, but not seriously; his supporters take him seriously, but not literally.”

Bingo!

So when his supporters screamed, “Lock her up! Lock her up!!” at rallies, meaning Hilary Clinton, they did not expect that to happen, that was kind of a joke between them and the man they adored. As president, Trump never even thought about actually getting Justice to indict her. He’s a bullshitter.

“Build the wall!” 

That he wanted to do, but Congress wouldn’t let him.

And when Congress didn’t, that aggravated the grievance his supporters felt.

So you thought only minorities had grievances?

Grievance was part of the glue that held his unlikely coalition together.

He captured Christian conservatives, despite his many marriages, his sex talks, his apparent affairs, and his life-long pro-choice record.

The media scoffed that he attracted non-college graduates, and ridiculed them as — remember this one? — deplorables. The media forgot that while they were college graduates,  two-thirds of Americans don’t have college degrees.

He attracted white men, and to many in the progressive press corps, this became a negative in itself. It was somehow white supremacy. They had no such issue with Democrats not just owning, but celebrating ownership of Black females. 

His border enforcement was actually not much worse than President Barack Obama’s — who was condemned as the Great Deporter among Open Border types — but Trump had s genuine knack for expressing it in racist terms that embarrassed people like me, who agreed with the policy, but were horrified by the language. 

The “cages” the migrants were held in were widely covered. That they were built by Obama was not.

Well, Trump was right on the border. If you don’t see that now, you either have TDS, or you are for Open Borders, which will kill America, just as the flood of migrants is set to “destroy” New York, in the words of Democratic Mayor Eric Adams.

In my opinion, Trump also deserves credit for Operation Warp Speed, the Abrahamic accords, the Space Force, record low unemployment,  improved services to veterans, legislation raising penalties for animal cruelty, America becoming an energy exporter, and five openly gay ambassadors.

None of this mitigates the harm he has done. Remember, what I am doing here is explaining why so many are devoted to him. 

When Trump talked about America First, he was striking a chord with the declining, but still substantial, people who cry when they see our Flag. He should have been saying, America First, But Not Alone, but he is not a strategic thinker.

I would love to see  his Wharton transcript. If he were better than a C student, he must have bought off his teachers.

The America First, or Make America Great Again — brilliant branding — slogans appeal to both nationalists and populists.

Nationalism has developed a bad rep in some quarters, but to many people it means love of country and America First.

If populism is so bad, why doesn’t the mainstream media criticize Bernie Sanders for it? He is surely a populist, but he’s a populist from the Left, which is OK, while populism from the Right is fascism. A double standard.

Just my opinions here, right?

So there is his appeal — populism (from a millionaire), patriotism, nationalism, conservatism. 

One other thing: One thing a bullshitter knows, and that is other bullshitters.

So he becomes the bullshitter in the china shop, destroying Political Correctness, in both ideas and language. 

And even more so as Political Correctness has turned into Wokeism, which does exist. It is not a myth.

And while Trumpsters may not have a degree in biology, they can tell you what a woman is.

They like that he is not Politically Correct. They like that he is coarse. They like that he is not a “politician,” so unlike any other leader in their lifetime.

The true Trumpsters buy into the idea that he is defending them when he is called into court for everything from embezzlement to conspiracy to overthrowing the government.

MAGA has all the hallmarks of a cult led by a charismatic leader. It requires belief without facts.

Like Jesus. Or Hitler.