I love wrestling with words and sculpting new-uanced meanings. What drew me to cartooning as a kid, the art of clever mind bending 2-dimensional minimalism, now draws me too, writing, righting. With just a few tweaks, or tweets, one can alter perceptions. Take this headline grabbing statement for example, “ my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.” Under careful analysis applying one of President Clinton’s beauts, “it depends on what is, is,” opens up a fascinating plethora as to what one can derive from President Trump’s latest mind bender bark. Here is my attempt.
On the surface, there is qualitative and quantitative evidence to accept Mr. Trump’s self-analysis. Even if you hate this man, he has a legitimate case to be made. He has a rare and impressive resume and life story, and I accept that to have lived this life, one need be mentally stable and be really smart. The amount of luck, support from others, and or just being in the right place at the right time required for this level of “success” is statistically improbable. I would bet on being struck by lightening while golfing as more likely.
However, how about I minimally alter Trump’s quote and then we weigh the probability of its accuracy, and I think we will discover the same level of qualitative and quantitative evidence to support the claim, but the perception changes. For example, “my greatest assets have been mental instability and being, like, really smart-ass.” Doesn’t this get us just as likely to the same outcome? Please, be open, doesn’t this just as likely present a state of being capable of explaining the long, convoluted, chaotic and crass resume that now includes his unexpected rise to occupying seat number 45?
While adversaries of Trump keep forecasting when and under what new revelation, tweet, insult and or unhinged impulsive act will terminate his presidency, the drop out rate around Trump is radioactive, yet the man still reigns. Most everyone I know is suffering from “Trump Vigilance Fatigue.” The guy is wearing out everyone. It’s as though we are in a parallel universe and we suffer from “Stockholm Syndrome” residing in a state of learned helplessness, where we prefer to turn away, shrug, roll eyes, pucker up with a sour scowl, in the moment, and necessarily and smartly return to our little world seeking some mental stability.
Rather than argue whether Trump “is” what he claims, or “is” how I altered the quote, or argue it depends on what is, is, or, when what is, was, we need to be alarmed that Trump “is” the President, and has an impulsive need to growl about his self-assessed two greatest assets, while he has fantasies about who has bigger buttons to push. We are reminded of Nixon’s compelling claim, “I am not a crook.” The opposite was true, he was a master crook.
If Trump remained being a clown, a real-estate mogul, a developer, a businessman, a Reality TV star, and or whatever, then his “is” would matter differently and less, but most essentially, he “is” our President, “is" leader of our government and “is” leading our nation relative to global forces. Let’s be honest. With this latest tweet that tweaks his persona, Trump has again demonstrated a sort of genius he has, his ability to get everyone wrapped up arguing about what he says and what it means, abnormal for sure, and while the debate rages, we get lost from what is actually happening, that he continues to redefine the American experience inching us closer to instability thru his tsunami of hate. He continues to control while we troll his words.
If Trump tweeted, “my greatest ass-bets have seen mentality stable and been, yikes, really tart,” our Republican government would find a way to work with this, shield and insulate him, claiming he was too tired and or pressed the wrong buttons, while the majority of us would immediately build a fallout shelter. Our Democratic leaders would call for an investigation. Most of us need no more, we believe it’s “Time Up” for Trump. Let’s prove it by swarming the polls and proving America’s two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart. It does depend on “what is, is,” and regardless, Trump “is” Trump and belongs in the other circus, the one on the other side of the White House fence. “Time’s Up, Trump.”