I write a great deal of poetry and fiction. I read various snippets of information from other writers, from Strunk and White’s renowned and comprehensive Elements of Style to casual statements my favorite and most talented authors have written or uttered.
Of course, if you’ve read Stephen King’s memoir On Writing, you’d know that the road to hell is paved with adverbs.
How does Donald Trump write?
Here’s a recent example that is all-inclusive of many faults and concerns I have for Trump’s writing.
here’s another
As I read through Donald Trump’s tweets over the past few months, I began to believe that the road to hell is actually paved with sophomoric exclamation marks, one-word fragments, and a general aura of primitive spartanism.
Let us refer to another great author with words of wisdom, F. Scott Fitzgerald.
At the end of Fitzgerald’s life, he began to mentor Sheila Graham, a columnist who gained fame for writing about Hollywood’s Golden Age. Fitzgerald regularly read through Graham’s manuscripts and offered constructive criticisms that any writer should be unequivocally jealous of receiving.
I will quote a passage from Sheila Graham’s memoir, Beloved Infidel, that describes the relationship of the two authors, both in their writing and romantically. I think it’s a lovely passage, especially when we consider how Sheila Graham found F. Scott Fitzgerald collapsed in their home in Hollywood on December 21st, the last day of his life.
According to a quote investigation, Graham showed Fitzgerald a short script she had penned for a five-minute segment on the radio:
“You don’t mind if I reword it here and there?” he asked. And though tired from his own writing at the studio, he sat down with a stubby pencil and a pack of cigarettes and painstakingly—and completely—rewrote my copy. He worked with the utmost concentration and as he worked he twisted the hair above his forehead so that a tuft stood up, as on a kewpie doll. It gave him a strangely boyish appearance. “Cut out all these exclamation points,” he said. “An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.” He underlined words I should emphasize, corrected my grammar.
“Cut out all these exclamation points. An exclamation point is like laughing at your own joke.”
Now, in this setting, Fitzgerald is talking about being subtle, wry, and intelligent with humor, to maximize its ambiguity and discomfort, therefore I want to be careful and implement the quote’s meaning accordingly.
The quote can be applied to none other than Donald Trump.
We’ve seen the video of Donald Trump dealing with the crying baby and the baby’s mother. Though it has now surfaced that Donald Trump did not actually kick out the pair, and was in fact speaking in (relative) jest, which still is a tad frightening considering that that is Donald quote unquote playing around, he exhibits the signs of down-your-throat “humor” that seems to please him more than anyone else, though a thick and slimy patronizing and rude sarcasm.
I think she really believed me that I love having a baby crying while I'm speaking. That's OK. People don't understand. That's OK.
The irony is ramrodded, the sarcasm is, to quote Donald Trump, “categorical,” and the insincerity is disturbing.
I’m sorry, but I don’t think a president should be this hard to follow. Sincerity is one of the most important qualities for a politician to hold. We need to know what a president wants, says, and believes.
Donald Trump, with help from our friend F. Scott Fitzgerald, has been proven to be deficient in this quality through analyzing his use of humor. At the expense of keeping this diary compact, I’ll skip the part where I was going to compare Trump to Tom Buchanan. Perhaps another time.
There are many more examples of Trump's twisted gags harming others while benefiting him. That is a common phrasing used when discussing Trump: harming others while benefiting him.
The most disgusting is probably when he mocked journalist Serge Kovaleski.
I encourage you to share more instances of Trump's self-serving "humor" in the comments.
Only one more tweet needs to be shared.