Nodding Heads

Spectator

By Stephen Tuttle | Nov. 26, 2022

Have we seen this before?

When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, there were any number of incidents the experts were quite certain would eliminate him or at least damage him so badly he couldn’t possibly be nominated.

It started with previous and truly creepy comments he made about his daughter Ivanka, and there were a lot of them. On The Howard Stern Show in 2003 he said, “She’s got the best body.” On the same show in 2004 he said—and remember this is a father talking about his own daughter—she was a nice “piece of a**.” Then in 2008, on The View, he said, “I’ve said that if Ivanka weren’t my daughter I might be dating her.” Then, just so we didn’t misunderstand, in a 2015 Rolling Stone interview, he said, “If I weren’t her father…”

Then there was the interview when he made his infamous comment about grabbing women in a way that would be considered by most to be sexual assault, but which he found amusing. Yikes. But none of that seemed to dim his supporters. Just “locker room” talk, he said, and the supporters nodded approvingly.

Then there was his candidacy announcement and subsequent pronouncements. Immigrants coming across our southern border aren’t “good people” he said, but rapists and murderers, and he was just getting started. He made fun of a disabled New York Times reporter, made remarkably crude comments about Fox News host Megyn Kelly, and insulted a Gold Star family.

He said “I know more” than the generals while demeaning our military, then systematically belittled our intelligence, justice, and law enforcement communities.

Surely all of that would disqualify him, said the pundits. Not many can win their party’s presidential nomination by attacking, well, everybody and everything. Sure, his supporters said, he’s a bit rough around the edges, but at least he’s a successful businessman and we need that. After all, he got his start with a little million-dollar loan from his father, he said, and has been winning ever since. And the heads kept nodding.

He sort of forgot to include some significant details. Like, according to reporting in The Wall Street Journal, his father established a trust fund that made little Donny Trump a millionaire by the time he was only eight years old. That trust has provided Trump with at least $60 million. Additionally, Trump was able to trade on his father’s substantial line of credit, a jump start not afforded many.

His start wasn’t nearly as humble as he wanted people to believe, and his business acumen was a bit less than he claimed.

He had to seek bankruptcy protection for the Trump Taj Mahal (1991), Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino (1992), Plaza Hotel (1992), Trump Castle Hotel and Casino (1992), Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts (2004), and Trump Entertainment Resorts (2009). That’s not so good, but his fans decided, hey, all businessmen have some setbacks. And when Trump said he “did very well” on those bankruptcies, ignoring the thousands who lost their jobs, his supporters kept right on nodding approvingly. They should have looked at his other business interests.

The Trump failed businesses include Trump Steaks, GoTrump (a travel agency), Trump Airlines, Trump Vodka, Trump Mortgage, Trump The Game, Trump Magazine, Trump University, Trump Ice, the New Jersey Generals (a football team in the old USFL which lasted from 1983-1985), Tour de Trump, Trump Network, and Trumped. As an interesting bonus, The New York Times reported he has defaulted on and been forgiven for loans totaling $287 million since 2010.

Surely all of that—the crudity, the insults, the attack on American institutions and honorable individuals, and the long list of bankruptcies and other business failures—would sour his supporters. Nope. Hardcore supporters would not be deterred. Trump may well have been right when, at a January 2016 campaign rally in Sioux City, Iowa, he said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.”

His candidacy was ably abetted by a squadron of other GOP presidential wannabes who split the votes so dramatically a relatively small plurality won primary elections.

Now, here we go again. Nothing about Trump’s demeanor has changed since that first campaign. He still insults anyone and anything he deems insufficiently loyal and supportive. According to Politifact, 72 percent of the statements he’s made since leaving the White House have been false, including whoppers about the 2022 midterm elections. In his book, The Art of the Deal, he called lying “strategic hyperbole.”

Former supporters are falling by the wayside, even his daughter. And a large group of Republican presidential wannabes are suddenly emboldened Trump critics while positioning themselves to run against him. That will once again reduce the number of votes he will need to win primary elections.

Supporters are still nodding their heads.