It's almost like a hobby for a lot of people nowadays, trying to figure out what Trump's motivations are for the things he does, why and how he got elected in the first place, or, maybe we wonder, what secret does he possess to command the allegiance of nearly half of America? Is it the history of reality TV? The cocksure blustering? The surreal, clown like atmosphere surrounding the Whitehouse, with the flapping flags flanking the big, orange head above the podium?
And why is he continuing to push back at the election results when it has become obvious, many times over, that he lost? He lost the popular vote by a hefty margin, and he will lose the Electoral College vote by the same margin that brought him victory in 2016. The barrage of frivolous lawsuits his team launched has fallen flat. Trump continues this strategy at the risk of squandering what tenuous legitimacy he might have had.
I mean, he's starting to look like an idiot. (Starting . . . ?) What could he possibly be trying to do? What is his motivation? What's the plan, the strategy? Then it hit me.
He's addicted to the attention. During his tenure as president, he has managed to keep himself on the virtual "front page" of the news almost every single day. An incredible feat, actually. And now, quite suddenly, it's over. It's over--at least in a normal, reasonable world--because when you lose an election around here, you concede, you congratulate the winner, and you step back.
There's the rub.
It's all too sudden. It's like your doctor said your lung function is deteriorated and you have to quit smoking, no other option, but on the way home you realize you still have half a pack of Marlboros in the glove box of your car. Hell, yeah, you smoke them. And you tell yourself you'll quit after that. This is where Trump is right now, I reckon.
Oh. And "Whitehouse aides" have related stories that Trump says he intends to make a come-back, and run in 2024. OK, the very term come-back says he has, in his mind, at least, conceded defeat. But 2024 is too hard to resist. The tweets, the media coverage, the rallies!
And the media will feed it--with a sigh of relief at the renewed prospect of all that job security.
That's pretty much it. His particular combination of flaws and genius have gotten him pretty far, but whenever he's faced a setback he dealt with it with bluster and an army of lawyers rather than as an adult. He absolutely needs the attention and is going to do everything he can to keep it. Meanwhile gangs of self-righteous thugs will march around claiming he won and continue to intimidate the GOP into pandering and weaseling rather than display some integrity. I think there's a good chance Trump and his demented ego will cause the Republican Party to implode.
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