The emperor in The Emperor’s New Clothes, the Hans Christian Andersen story was first published in 1837.
If you do a web search on Google for The Emperor’s New Clothes and Trump you find find the story used frequent , but most of the articles daet back to 2017 and 2018. Add 2019 to your search and you will discover far fewer stories. For example here are the titles which you can ;look up your self but they are self-explanatory
- The Trump coverup no one is talking about: The emperor has no money (Wash.Post)
- Trump’s American Emperor Moment (Politico)
- The Last Word: Trump There emperor has no clothes (Here’s the video)
I’m certain I missed a few. My main point is the this small matter illustrates how inured so many people, in the press, among some politicians (even Democrats like Nancy Pelosi) and the public have become.
Trump’s thumb in the eye to American tradition what with his all about me Fourth of July celebration is merely another proof that he thinks only of himself. Sure his narcissism is discussed frequently, at least on MSNBC, but even there I see outrage fatigue.
Trump is not just a narcissist, he is a dangerous sadist malignant narcissist who makes decisions out of anger or cruelty impulsively and often thinks he knows more than experts — and we see that demonstrated just about every day.
Trump could be a laughing stock like the emperor or he could be like Fielding Mellish in the Woody Allen movie Bananas. He is a New Yorker who was was dumped by his activist girlfriend, and then he travels to San Marcos, a fictional tiny Latin American country. He becomes becomes involved in its latest rebellion. When the revolution succeeds the old president Esposito, the Castro-style leader goes mad, forcing the rebels to place Mellish as their President. Of course there are differences between the crazy story of the ascendance of Trump and the fictional presidency and how Mellish became president, but the end result is like the title Woody Allen choose for the move: absolutely BANANAS. Adapted from Wikipedia
When you’ve exhausted all words of amazement, disgust, outrage, and fear as the later applies to our democracy and the chance Trump will be reelected, it is tempting to shrug your shoulders and say “ho hum, what else is new?”
Afterthought at 3:30 AM Oregon time
Nothing about Trump is the least bit amusing to any of us. We may have thought that Bush one and two didn't have much of a sense of humor and couldn’t even make you emit slight chuckle but their credit, at least as far as I can remember that aside from the Correspondent’s Dinner when the told jokes written for them they didn’t even try.
Bill Clinton at something of a wry sense of humor, again as I recall. Barack Obama had a sense of humor, could tell a joke, and in his self-effacing way could laugh at himself and make us chuckle.
Consider his appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Kimmel (video — alert it will make nostalgic) and his interview with David Letterman on My Next Guest Needs No Introduction (full interview or just highlights).
Now then, Donald Trump is devoid of a sense of humor because to have a sense of humor you have to be self-effacing and Trump can never do this because he thinks he is the greatest and believes he has nothing he cal be self-effacing about.
He has never made me so much as crack a smile let alone chuckle. Okay, perhaps when he boarded Air Force One with toilet paper on his shoe (video) although this was later denied.
Trump and his minions on the other hand excuse many of the things he needs to walk back by saying he meant them as a joke. In “The Week” author Windsor Mann undertook the task of addressing “What All of Trump’s “Jokes” Have In Common,” for example:
.
The day the Mueller report was released, President Trump said he might stay in the Oval Office "at least for 10 or 14 years." Trump, fearing "bedlam" over this remark, said it was a "joke," similar to the one he made last year when he expressed interest in being "president for life."
Trump loves to joke around. His wit is so subtle, so nuanced, that sometimes it takes years to decipher it, along with a spokesperson to clarify it.
Earlier this month, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump "was making a joke during the 2016 campaign" when he said, "I love WikiLeaks." Her clarification came three days after Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, was arrested and three years after Trump made the "joke.”
That’s enough. Happy Independence Day.
PS: It’s 4:00 AM here in Oregon and 7:00 AM for many of you, so I’ll say "Good night, Mrs. Calabash, wherever you are”so I’ll put this online. and try to get some more sleep.