Okay so here’s the thing… The 30 years of the thing…
When I was in college in New York and then living in the city after graduating for several years, Donald Trump was a ubiquitous fixture in NY media. Waking up in the morning and turning on the rock radio station that I used to listen to while getting ready for work would too often include some item (news is deliberately omitted here) about Trump. I’d walk to the subway or walk all the way to work passing news stands on the streets featuring tabloids with Trump’s image on the front cover with outrageous headlines designed to sell them. I’d get to work and part of my job was to read just about every paper of note on the planet on a daily basis and Trump was simply all over the place.
Part of that time was Donald and Ivana together and part of it was Donald and Ivana breaking up. The range of “items” included Donald and Ivana were at a restaurant and ate food; Donald ate alone; who is Marla?; and Donald and Ivana are breaking up.
“The Donald”, as he was known back then, was constantly the subject of media reporting. Around the same time we saw the rise and fall of such notorious types as Leona Helmsley. Far away from us all was some woman who had an obsessively large trove of shoes called, Imelda Marcos. It was the Reagan Era and opulence and faux gold everything was all the rage. Millions tuned in to watch one of the dumbest programs ever conceived called “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous”. In reality, that show should have been viewed as a harbinger of the destruction of our economy and our democracy, but instead it sold in the idea that fat cat rich people were to be envied and revered.
Nightly news broadcasts were dropping important world events from their broadcasts to cover the fluff in order to compete with the ratings of programs like “Entertainment Tonight”. Stark contrasts in “news” items like programming a story announcing that “We invaded Iraq today!” and moving quickly into a story about how “Donald Trump attended the opening of a restaurant without Marla” were all too common. “Ten people killed in a bus crash in Pennsylvania today; and we’ve heard that Marla Maples might have moved out of Trump Towers, but we are still working hard on confirming that. Stay tuned”
Donald Trump’s opinion was regularly solicited on news of the day. The media were always looking for Trump’s “take” on serious news. Like actual news items. You know, like serious stuff about wars and such.
I spent years consuming media rolling my eyes at the ridiculous number of Trump stories as well as the the actual content.
Which brings us to the “Why?” in this diary title…
I was like a seven year old who asks “Why?” everyday for years because Trump.
I wondered the following, but not exclusive to:
Why the fuck do I care about his divorce? Why the fuck do I care about whether or not he attended a restaurant opening? Why the fuck didn’t the reporter say whether or not the food at the new restaurant was good or not? Why the fuck do I care about what Donald Trump thinks about a war with Iraq? Why the fuck does anyone even listen to this guy? Why does anyone think he makes any sense? Why the fuck is anyone asking him any questions at all? Why the fuck do people think that his obsession with faux gold is indicative of anything other than extremely bad taste? Why in the hell do people think Donald Trump has any sense? Why does anyone ask Donald Trump what he thinks about ANYTHING? It is so, so, so, very clear that the man doesn’t actually think! Why is Trump’s opinion important?
Now here we all are and I just want to say that this 2016 election cycle and the stakes are high. This Trump guy could effectively be in line to make a lot of decisions for me as an American citizen and I have to ask, “Why the fuck has this happened?”
I also have to request that no one try to explain “why” to me because, there is absolutely NO good explanation for Trump’s potency. There is NO excuse for it. The man is and always has been a useless git. I would not ask this man for directions to the exit door if we were both standing next to it — because he would get it wrong — much less ask him to make decisions of critical importance about the fate of the United States.
Why has anyone ever sought out this idiot’s opinion?
Trump is an immediate existential threat, but big picture the real existential threat is that so many people in powerful positions — media and political — decided that a character like Trump — a grifter extraordinaire and media maven — was ever relevant in the first place.
To close, my decades of being subjected to Trump “items” is exactly why I believed that we would be right here where we are in September before the Presidential election of 2016. I knew that he would win the GOP primary. I knew that he would present a greater challenge than any professional politicians on either side of the aisle could imagine. I knew that the media were going to fall for his manipulations. I knew that lots of average people around the country would, too. Over the course of three decades, however many divorces, bankruptcies, failed business ventures, scams, ridiculous reality television appearances, and more — the man has managed to keep himself “relevant” to many people who were and are not like me asking, “Why the fuck do we care what Trump thinks?”