In Trump's mind this played out as: "I'll have a whiskey. Leave the bottle..."
For an id populist like Trump, it is all about the image. His manifest unfitness for office is pretty much a given for any sentient human being. And yet…
His hardcore supporters are rabid in their support. He can do no wrong. He is wealthy. And therefore ‘smart’. He lashes out at his detractors (i.e. ‘enemies’). Therefore, he is ‘strong’. But, the libtards and RINOs plaintively cry, his position on the issues make no sense and seem to change from day-to-day. I am gulping down your tears, snowflakes! Does Donnie know how to push their prissy, chablis-sipping buttons or what! Puts the pathetic losers in their place! Sniveling girly pissants can’t stand how Donnie owns them!
Many political analysts have have commented on the ‘emotional’ dimension of Trump’s support/appeal. But they seem to skip past the corollary political consequence.
In the eyes of his supporters, Trump is not like other living, breathing human beings, subject to the vicissitudes of the world, someone with both strengths and weaknesses. He transcends that. He has NO faults — he is not like his loser enemies, and they can’t stand that about him. He is, in essence, a granite-hard anthropomorphic totem of ‘conservative’ strength and certainty, bravely confronting the squishy, limp-wristed Dem & RINO pussies.
Precisely because of this conceptualization, Trump is not actually damaged by that effete ‘intellectual’ stuff like facts and reality. No. What REALLY hurts him more than anything are glitches in the portrayal. When he grasps at a water bottle and laboriously struggles at unscrewing it, then uses both hands to unsteadily guide it to his pre-pursed lips, he looks unsteady. He looks kind of out-of-it. He looks weak. When the history of this presidency is written, people will remark that the decisive turning point that marked the beginning of the end was not a policy faux pas. It was not an inchoate or untrue policy declaration.
They will say: “remember when President Trump lost his place on the teleprompter, and then couldn’t find his place and panicked and turned away from lectern and then tripped on the American flag? ... “
It seems kind of stupid and gauche, I know, but the absolute best way of damaging Trump is to repost and re-link videos like this. As time goes on, it will become progressively more difficult for the Right to deify a bumbling and sunsetting 70yr old.
