This week, GOP Senate candidate Ken Paxton privately admitted that Donald Trump’s midterm convention in Texas was a serious problem for the state’s Republican candidates. Asked about this, Trump unleashed a long, tortured monologue, and it was revealing. He kept returning to the number of viewers that he got at the convention, and kept repeating that he won Texas multiple times. He can only see this in terms of how he fared there, with no regard for GOP candidates. We think that Trump’s inability to clearly…
Well it’s not like he suddenly became a narcissist. He’s managed to be successful in the past.
I don’t think they’re saying his narcissism was a road block to power. But the vast majority of his enterprises were straight up failures or crimes. His wealth was inherited and mostly squandered until others let him in on the grift and be the face of wanton abuse.
Its pretty easy to declare ‘success’ when you lie, cheat, and steal and are never punished for it. ‘Success’ is only accurate if power acquisition is the only metric. And even then, lied and cheated to do it. If someone cheats on a test, we don’t consider them an A student.
I’ve seen studies that indicate that Trump made more or less what he would have earned if he’d just invested his inheritance in an index fund, with some occasional deviations along the way. I wouldn’t call that successful. The two big differences between him and me is that I didn’t start out with a huge pile of cash and I can admit I don’t know enough to invest successfully and would just buy the index funds.
I wasn’t referring to his finances. I was referring to his political successes.
Like which successes?
Like, I dunno, being elected to the highest power in the world? Realizing all of conservatives wet dreams of torturing immigrants and illegalizing abortion and banning trans people and imposing tariffs and and and…