Donald Trump always needs a scapegoat because he truly believes he is “perfect” and nothing bad can ever be his fault. The targets of his deflections are often people that his base hates, so they readily accept that Trump is blameless. Trump has heaped a large share of the blame that is rightfully his on several Democrats, former members of his staff, the Federal Reserve, and even congressmen who are members of his own party when they don’t toe his party line. Hillary Clinton has certainly received her share of his abuse.
Yesterday Trump’s 40 minute impromptu rant during a media gaggle on the South lawn of the White House was even more bizarre than usual. He flip-flopped on a payroll tax cut saying it isn’t needed because his economy is “great”. He then flipped back again after a recent flip-flop on background checks saying some additional background checks are needed never uttering the word “universal” and all the while spouting all of the requisite NRA talking points. It just got weirder from there. He called the Danish Prime Minister (yet another woman) “nasty”, again stated that American Jews should show loyalty to Israel (and of course to him), defended his push to get his buddy Putin readmitted to the G7 without conditions, and then while looking up at the heavens said “I am the chosen one” as if he were anointed by God to wage his tariff wars.
It is amazing that we now view this sort of tirade as just unusual instead of flat out insane, but that is the Trump affect. His behavior has always been so far beyond the pale that we have normalized it.
One thing that really drew my interest was the fact that he spent a great deal of time comparing himself favorably to President Obama. He mentioned the former president’s name no less than twenty times during his rant. He said the rest of the world didn’t respect the US when Obama was president, that it was Obama who separated families at the border, that Putin outsmarted Obama, etc., etc.
And think about all of the policies that President Obama established and the initiatives that he introduced which Trump has gone about obliterating or reversing. These are not coincidences. Trump has gone to great lengths to destroy President Obama’s legacy. The standard joke in Washington is that if you want the most assault weapons banned, tell Trump that Obama invented them.
Now political analysists have come up with a number of possible reasons why Trump is obsessed with Barrack Obama. They point to The Donald’s need to always have a foe to attack and Obama is certainly handy. Some speculate that it is because Trump believes he is always being compared unfavorably to Obama in many of the voters minds, so he feels the need to compensate Some people believe that, like his white nationalist allies, he hated having a black man as president, but most don’t say that out loud. Any and all of these reasons may be part of the story, but I believe that everyone is forgetting that due to his world class narcistic personality Trump will never forgive President Obama for publicly humiliating him.
Think back to the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner when, having just released his long form Hawaiian birth certificate, President Obama mocked Donald Trump, who was in the audience, with a series of jokes. Check out this video link: Obama trolls Trump. Trump was not amused. Some present have related that while the President was making fun of him, Trump stared straight ahead with his face set in something between a scowl and a grimace.
The humiliation continued as Seth Meyers, the comedian who was next up at the dais, said how much he admired President Obama and then roasted almost every important person in the audience with a joke or two. However Meyers used an inordinately large number of his jokes to mock Trump. Among the many grenades that Meyers lobbed Trump’s way were, “Donald Trump has been saying he will run for president as a Republican — which is surprising, since I just assumed he was running as a joke” and “Gary Busey said recently that Donald Trump would make a great president. Of course he said the same thing about an old rusty bird cage he found. ” Seth Meyers trolls Trump. During the many barbed comments that followed Trump probably noticed that the entire time President Obama was having a great time laughing at Meyers’ Trump jokes.
If there as anything that narcissists hate it is people making fun of them while others laugh at their expense. And make no mistake, Trump is a true narcissist. Narcissists see themselves as perfect and such mocking cuts them to the fiber of their being. It is something that they will never forget, or forgive. Trump must have been furious inside and he was probably was already planning revenge.
Some speculate it was at that moment that Trump decided to run for president. That may or may not be true. I happen to believe that a run for the presidency was already in his plans when he latched on to the birther issue. However I really believe that it was that night while he was being trolled, that was when he decided that some way, some how he was going to even the score with Obama and try to personally destroy him. It probably also strengthened his resolve to try to gain the power necessary to do so.
Cajun 8/23/2019