All of our educated elite know that Donald Trump is nothing better than an undisciplined political clown. But suppose it’s all an act? That’s what a commenter to Alex Berenson’s “Unreported Truths” SubStack proposes.
Perhaps - and this is a big but I think justified leap here - perhaps Trump's economic instincts are much more profound, and intellectual, and real, than his circus celebrity approach reveals. And perhaps Vance has come to see this also, which gives deeper justification for a genuine change of worldview[.]
Perhaps there is something serious going on.
Trump has tapped into what some might say is a return to the 19th century American school of political economy, as a reference and name for what seems to be a deeply profound axiomatic shift in American politics.
Good point. Does anyone really know what is going on in Trump’s head and what he really thinks?
JD Vance is probably better understood, especially as he seems to be a project of Peter Thiel. Who is a reader and influenced by René Girard’s mimetic theory.
If we think back to previous presidents, we are much closer to what-you-see-is-what-you-get. It is said, for instance, that Ronald Reagan fooled establishment figures like Clark Clifford into thinking he was an “amiable dunce.” But as far as ordinary Americans were concerned, I’d say that what you saw is what you got.
Whatabout Bill Clinton? Was he really a New Democrat? Sorta, and especially after he lost Congress in 1994’s Contract with America election.
Barack Obama? I guess that the media pushed the idea that he was a moderate. So maybe we hoped he would heal America’s race wounds. But we weren’t surprised when he didn’t.
Fact is that Donald Trump has always been a high-wire artist, and he has always presented himself as being magically suspended in mid-air. And indeed, anyone like him in debt-fueled real estate is always in danger of crashing to Earth.
But does anyone know what Trump really thinks? Does Trump know what he really thinks?
Let us suppose that Trump does know what he is doing. Let us suppose that his clown act is really an act, a strategy that makes the US ruling class regard him a a crude clown that can’t be taken seriously.
Insert reference to Sun Tzu and “if you know yourself and your enemy you will win in a hundred battles.” Especially if you enemy doesn’t know you.
Fooling the entire educated class into thinking you are a clown and a lightweight,, sounds like a great strategy to me. Because if they took him seriously then they would have been more serious about taking him out.
But the point is that Trump is not a lightweight. He took his father’s apartment building business in the outer boroughs and turned it into a Manhattan office and hotel business and then a world-wide hotel franchise. He established a presence on TV with his 15-season “Apprentice” series. The other thing is his epic courage. I don’t know how many people could deal with the non-stop attacks and lawfare that Trump has dealt with for the last 8 years. I know that I could not have handled it, and neither can most of the rest of us.
The reason that conservatives have sneered at Republicans as RINOs and cowards for years and years is that it takes epic courage to stand against the power, to challenge the ruling class and then keep standing while they throw everything in their arsenal against you. So most Republicans — and public figures in general — take the easy way out.
I read a piece about Richard Nixon’s wife, Pat. You think it takes supernatural courage to be a “man in the arena?” What about his wife? Because women are not programmed to be heroes. That’s a guy thing. What is it like to be Melania Trump standing by Trump’s side as the ruling class hurls everything and then some against him? It is known that Michelle Obama really doesn’t like politics, and would never want to be president. Exactly, because women don’t “boldly… outdare / The dangers of the time”. Nor do the vast majority of men.
But Donald Trump has indeed boldly set his face and his body against the powers and the dangers of the time. And as of this moment he is still standing.
Has he worked all this out intellectually and philosophically and strategically? Of course not. We are talking about the experience of a lifetime of risktaking in business and now politics, experiencing the slings and arrows, the successes and failures, and always getting back on his feet after being knocked down. So part of this is conscious, of lessons consciously learned over the years. But part of it is unconscious — muscle memory if you like — the unconsciously learned lessons of a lifetime.
And meanwhile, all our liberal and media friends all think that Donald Trump is a clown.
I suspect that is exactly what Trump wants them to think.
Thank you, Chris. I wonder how much he is complicit in the whole Covid madness that brought him down. Per Jeffrey Tucker of the Brownstone Institute and the Epoch Times- to what degree did he agree or promote the lockdowns during that crucial weekend in March 2020? Will he admit error or being mistaken on Operation Warp Speed and how the vaccine madness has further eroded trust in institutions? The Left has benefited from that, hence their silence and Trump's avoidance means we will not get an accounting of what happened.
Instinctive intelligence? Yes. But this sounds like the old 4D chess trope. He's smarter than people think, and yes, iron willed and courageous in the face of the array of forces against him. But he's also the clown, speaking stream of consciousness saying things directionally true but factually stretched. Opening up too many avenues of attack against him for those aformentioned forces.
He's a boorish narcissist with Narcisstic personality Disorder, IMO. But he loves this country, IMO, and can be, and has been, effective if people can get over the downsides of his NPD.