Donald Trump's intentions are clear: He sees himself as a dictator who should have absolute authority with zero accountability to The People. It's a completely menacing aspiration tempered only by the fact that he's so bizarrely stupid and undisciplined in every single way.
On Tuesday, Trump followed up on his assertion of supremacy over the U.S. Constitution by declaring war on any states he doesn't view as sufficiently subservient.
"Tell the Democrat Governors that 'Mutiny On The Bounty' was one of my all time favorite movies," Trump tweeted. "A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!"
It's a clear threat, suggesting that governors trying to do right by their constituents are mounting a mutiny against the federal government, but insinuating that they actually need him much more than he needs them.
The only problem is that Trump's rendering of the movie, which has seen several Hollywood iterations, is sheer fantasy. The one thing Trump got right is that he's comparing himself to Captain Bligh, the antagonist of the drama who was universally portrayed as "an arrogant, nasty, paranoid, freakishly OCD and brutal man," as Vanity Fair put it. So pure evil without a single redeeming quality? No wonder Trump loved the film!
Naturally, Trump got everything else wrong. In the film, Bligh’s crew didn't need him at all and, in fact, basically sent him off to sea in a little dinghy before they skipped off to an island paradise where they basically lived happily ever after. Every Hollywood version of the film also cast the key rabble-rouser and chief mutineer, Fletcher Christian, as a dashing swashbuckler played by Clark Gable (1935), Marlon Brando (1962), and Mel Gibson (1994).
So perhaps the only question is, which governor gets to play the Gable-Brando role in today’s unfolding drama? Knowing Hollywood, some director would likely cast a hybrid character to represent Govs. Gavin Newsom of California and Andrew Cuomo of New York. Frankly, either is fine—as long as Trump ultimately gets shipped off to sea in a dinghy.
