Guess who is Trump’s biggest enemy. Go on, take a guess!!
Now, if you guessed it's Hillary or the Democrats, then we don’t quite agree. You see, I think his biggest enemy is, and hat-tip to the ones who guessed correctly — “himself”!!
We have seen this again and again during his campaign and this point was very well illustrated in a piece penned by Josh Marshall of TPM at the following link — "The Fever Inside" and which I think should be used by the Clinton campaign to the maximum effect pre-debate, to get inside the head of the thin-skinned, tiny-handed miserable excuse for a human being.
It’s well worth your read, and I haven’t seen it being diaried here, hence writing this. If it has been, then I will delete this. It is my first diary after lurking and commenting for many many years here and I hope you find it useful… and now back to the article in question...
Josh starts off with a recap of the latest bungle from the orange cheetos.
We've now seen one of those days which has become darkly familiar in the year of Trump. Trump is dominated, put on the receiving end of various perceived insults and assaults. In this case, it was being coerced by campaign aides into finally giving up the birther lie - which had to be addressed after the Washington Post interview and which I suspect they feared might blow up one of the debates. That was followed by a series of attacks from Hillary Clinton, a for once emboldened press corps roundly attacking Trump for the content and manner of his "major announcement", a furious attack from members of the Congressional Black Caucus and a mix of outrage and mockery from everyone from Barack to Michelle….
As mentioned, it is noteworthy that for once, the reaction to Trump’s mockery of the press and the truth faced an immediate and coordinated push back from the media. But the real question I had in my mind and which many other more qualified people asked was, why did Trump do this now? Why, when his numbers had started improving and he seemed to finally be more in control of himself, would he want to re-open the whole Birtherism issue? He could have easily skated through it, continuing to mouth vapid, nonsensical rubbish about the next Hillary Clinton non-troversy and the press would have happily carried water for him and faithfully stuck to his script. Why then did he lose his cool with WaPo? Why did he then have to build up this big non-event, where he fell flat on his face? How come his handlers lost control of The Donald? One possible explanation for this behavior as explained in the article is:
Trump lives in a psychic economy of aggression and domination. There are dominators and the dominated. No in between. Every attack he receives, every ego injury must be answered, rebalanced with some new aggression to reassert dominance. These efforts are often wildly self-destructive. We've seen the pattern again and again. The Khans, Judge Curiel, Ted Cruz, virtually every Republican presidential candidate at one point or another, half the reporters who've covered Trump…..
Ok then! This behavior I would posit is now quite well-documented, at least amongst the DKoS readers and indeed anyone who has spent more than 5 minutes studying the racist, misogynistic rantings of this narcissistic egomaniac. Trump seems incapable of turning the other cheek, even when it clearly makes more sense to let an insult (perceived or real) slide. He will always insist on having the last word irrespective of the damage it might inflict on his candidacy. This is a devastating character default when you are campaigning for the most powerful position on the planet, and should make everyone quake in their boots and work doubly hard to ensure his defeat. As Gandhi once said — “An eye for an eye would only make the whole world blind”. But for his supporters, this is what makes The Donald so irresistible. He will never back down, come what may!! So yay!!
But what was the event that caused his great bloviateness to lose his pea-sized mind? What triggered the counterattack? Well, back to the article for the last paragraph that I will quote:
But reflecting on it, there may be more to the story. Only a few hours before that tarmac interview, Trump was rebuked to his face with cameras rolling by an African-American woman. It may have been the boldest rebuke Trump has received from a 'civilian' (not another candidate in a debate, or a journalist in an interview) in this entire campaign cycle. She even placed her hand on him in calling him to account.
Aha!! So that’s what potentially got his goat and may have caused him to flub his WaPo answer and go off script. There is some more background to the above point and some observations on the timeline of the attack and the publishing of the WaPo report. So do read the post in full as it is quite illuminating. In general I tend to agree with the cause & effect hypothesis put forward in the post ad would really like to see the Democrats work in a coordinated manner to fuel this further.
I hope we see many more personal attacks from the Clinton campaign, her leading surrogates (Elizabeth Warren always seems to get under his skin spectacularly) and herself before the debates, so that Donald Trump continues to bury himself in his own steaming excrement. This is especially important on the day of the debate itself (or one day before) so he doesn't have a chance to blow off steam beforehand and comes into the first debate as furious as possible. It is this unfailing habit of Trump which I feel will lead to his eventual downfall. If played correctly, this would result in a predictably ugly meltdown in public. I am sure this is well known, but it never hurts to re-emphasize the point as many times as possible.
To finish, I leave you with this quote from the master of warfare (emphasis mine):
“If your enemy is secure at all points, be prepared for him. If he is in superior strength, evade him. If your opponent is temperamental, seek to irritate him. Pretend to be weak, that he may grow arrogant. If he is taking his ease, give him no rest. If his forces are united, separate them. If sovereign and subject are in accord, put division between them. Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War