Wednesday, February 06, 2019

The Newest Fans Of Donald Trump


The title of the video from The Guardian is "Trump surprised by response from women in white during State of the Union address."

The odds of that are slim and none, and slim is headed out of town on Amtrak headed south.

Donald Trump is a showman and master manipulator, whose political career was launched when he successfully pulled off the con of the century on "The Apprentice" as the billionaire, self- made businessman. In peak form, the President boasted "No one has benefited more from a thriving economy than women, who have filled 58% of the newly-created jobs last year."

Evidently unaware that the President had just trumpeted his stewardship of the economy, the women jumped up, cheered, and enthusiastically demonstrated their approval.  With perfect timing, Trump went with one of his most successful lies yet: "you weren't supposed to do that."

Of course they were. Donald Trump is the penultimate egotist, the man who is the best at everything, or so he tells us. Deeply egocentric, he understands that the female class of 2018 is not self-absorbed, but nonetheless absorbed in their identity as a group of women who fought the odds and won, usually beating a man, to become members of the United States House of Representatives.

Trump masterfully played to that group identity and in so doing, played the ladies. However, he wasn't done, crowing

Thank you, thank you very much. Don't sit yet- you're going to like this. And exactly one century after Congress passed the constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote, we also have more women serving in Congress than at any time before.  

Smiling and pointing, he was like the snake-oil salesmen of old, who also knew their audience. The women in white responded enthusiastically, roaring their approval with high-fives all around, at least among themselves. The camera panned to Ivanka and other the other women in the Trump entourage, standing, smiling, and applauding, with the implicit message: they're all-in.

As the attendees chanted "USA! USA! USA!", President Trump was understandably gratified that with the assistance of mostly male, Republican members of Congress, he had manipulated numerous and  presumably leftist Democrats to repeat a mantra associated with the GOP.  He graciously responded with a smile and "that's great. Very great. And congratulations, that's great."

No, congratulations to you, Mr. President. These women are arguably your most fervent political enemies and in a matter of moments, you turned them in front of a national audience into an exuberant (albeit temporary) addition to your base.They were played, happily so. And better yet: they probably don't even realize they were exposed and abused for your political advantage.








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