Blowing his own Trump(et): The megalomania of a president laid bare: Financial Express 1st October 2023

 

Donald Trump is known to be an egotist who believes that he has the right to be the president even if the people do not vote for him.

Donald Trump is known to be an egotist who believes that he has the right to be the president even if the people do not vote for him. His brusque tone when communicating was combined with a lot of prevarication when he was the president of the most powerful country. One gets to know more about the person in the book, The Trump Tapes, written by Bob Woodward, an associate editor of Washington Post. Besides a series of interviews with the then president, there are copies of his letters written to the North Korean despot Kim Jong Un.So what do these transcripts reveal? Nothing really surprises the reader and more often one is convinced about the Machiavellian machinations that went on during his regime. Some of his best friends included Vladmir Putin, Kim Jong and Xi Jinping. One may just conclude that they got along well because they were like-minded. Fortunately, the systems are different in the USA and Trump did not manage what the others did—to remain in power.These 20 interviews were officially recorded and hence are authentic.

He not just liked dictators but also admired them. One example is the Turkish head, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Trump was open when he said that he got along well with him even though no one else could. He seriously believed that he got along well with people who were ‘tougher and meaner’ due to his charisma and straight talk, which reveals his pompousness. He had also declared that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi was his favourite dictator.More absurdly, he was unabashed in saying that he was the only leader Kim Jong Un was willing to speak with and that he was the only person who understood the five nuclear facilities in Korea, not because he studied them but because his uncle worked at MIT!

His conduct of foreign relations was astounding as he wanted to do everything alone and did not take along the CIA or the generals. This made him largely unpopular even within the administration. Staunch allies, who were critical for the US maintaining stability in the region, were treated with disdain. For instance, he openly opined that South Korea should pay the US for defending the nation. At some point, he also said that there was no reason for him to defend this nation as he did not care. This was the treatment to allies while he admired the despots who played to his ego.Interestingly, Woodward likens Trump to the CFO of a company who is always praising the performance of the organisation.

He tended to exaggerate the economic situation and was proud of having created this situation, when it was far from the truth. He was rarely apologetic about the fiscal situation even while his government ran the highest deficits even before the pandemic.Trump publicised the fact that his deal with China was a winner when it was well known to be a bust. His inconsistency in narrative was characteristic of his twisting facts. He had said that China had the worst year in the last 67 years—while the same numbers went as 27, 52, 54 and 35 in a space of a few months.

This showed that he just said what he wanted believing that the people would be convinced and hence never seemed to speak the truth. In a way, it was arrogance which typified his style that worked on the premise that everything he said had to be believed because he was Donald Trump.One of the more preposterous views that he propagated was that there was a cure for Covid which was the use of hydroxychloroquine. The doctors did not agree with this theory but Trump was convinced he knew better and asked for the administration of this medicine to all people, which, in fact, was an anti-malarial drug. When the doctors said with certainty that this was not right, he felt it was the right cure as the president of America. The clinching argument was that because he ‘felt good about it’. The final outbreak and spread was probably the most disastrous in the USA among recorded cases across the world that led to over a million deaths. He was against a lockdown; and even when the vaccine was available, he was not willing to make it mandatory for people to be vaccinated.

Trump’s handling of the infamous George Floyd case, where a coloured American was brutally killed by the cops, again reflected his thinking. He blamed the Democrats for the riots and always said that things were under control when asked to speak on the subject even as they spread across the country. There were no visible signs of him being personally upset by his death and attention was more on the rioting which followed that also led to the burning down of a church. He got defensive by saying that he has done more for the Black community than any other president. When the movement of Black Lives Matter spread, he referred to them as ‘fascists’ and ‘Marxists’.

In short, The Trump Tapes shows the ex-president in his own words. His shortcomings are revealed and it is clear that he is unfit to lead the US. Instead of understanding his responsibilities to the country and the world, he is continuously consumed by the past and unable to let go of his grievances. He loves to combat and is defiant all the time. The presidency is his narcotic and fuels his heroic energy. Yet he has the biggest group of followers and loyalists and has managed to raise more funds than any other candidate. He has managed to exploit the notoriety of his scandals, investigations and political warfare so that he can dominate and keep his grip on American politics. The ending of the book quite summarises the man—Trump aspired to be a colossus like FDR. He lives his own self-inflicted melodrama—“Everything is mine. I do what I want.”