A Terrified Little Boy

Back on September 8, 2018, I wrote a post called 
The Fear Matrix: The Horrors Were Not Unexpected

The premise was that everything that happened by that date in 2018 with Donald Trump as President was not unforseen. Or as Stephen Colbert put it, "There is nothing that has happened since Trump became president that wasn’t in my fear matrix about him."  Like Colbert, everything I was afraid of back on the fateful night in November 2016 has come to fruition.  

Donald Trump has squandered every chance to be better than my worst expectation of him. 

To be blunt, Donald Trump has zero fucks to give about trying to be better than anyone's worst expectation of him. If you didn't vote for him, Trump doesn't give a shit what you think. 

Last week, I delved back into the topic of Trump's inability to do more than the worst we expect of him. Well, That Sounds Like Donnie is the constant refrain in response to every single stupid, selfish, unethical thing he says or does. It speaks not only to the numbness that occurs in response to the constant bombardment of Donald Trump's transgressions but also to Trump's only constant compulsion to commit those transgressions. Trump can't help but be the worst of humanity because he's always been the worst of humanity. 

As Michael Kruse puts it in the title of his July 13th post on Politico, ‘He Is and Always Will Be a Terrified Little Boy’

The title of the post comes from the book Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man. There is a whole cottage industry of people writing books to tell us what we can see for our own eyes, that Donald Trump is a stupid, selfish, unethical person. What makes this book unique is the confluence of qualifications of the book's author. Mary Trump is a trained psychologist AND in the Trump family. Talk about being in the room where it happened. 

Mary Trump paints a portrait of a boy ignored by his mother and doted on by his father to the exclusion of his other children. Fred Trump's attentions towards Donald were to groom a ruthless businessman heir to the Trump fortune, a tycoon devoid of empathy.  Donald's drive not only to win but to see others lose was ingrained in him by his father. 

Mary Trump describes her uncle Donald as “a narcissist” whose “pathologies are so complex and his behaviors so often inexplicable that coming up with an accurate and comprehensive diagnosis would require a full battery of psychological and neuro-psychological tests that he’ll never sit for,” whose “deep-seated insecurities have created in him a black hole of need that constantly requires the light of compliments that disappears as soon as he’s soaked it in.” She says he is “a petty, pathetic, little man.” She says he is “ignorant” and “incapable” and “lost in his own delusional spin.” She says deep down he “knows he has never been loved.” 

I hate to say it but...

Well, that sounds like Donnie. 

Yes, Mary Trump has had a seat at the Trump family table AND she has PH.D that says she knows what the fuck she is talking about. 

Now I, your humble blogger Dave-El, has never had a seat at the Trump family table AND I do not have PH.D that says I know what the fuck I'm talking about. 

But...

The person that Mary Trump describes is and has always been obvious to me since and before that awful night in November 2016. Anyone with eyes and ears and even a modicum of common sense can clearly perceive that Donald Trump is “ignorant” and “incapable” and “lost".  

Early on in my writings on this blog and on Twitter, I have often referred to Donald Trump as Li'l Donnie. Despite his boasts and blusters (or perhaps because of them), Donald Trump is a small man, trapped by the fears and insecurities and ignorance of all small men. The diminutive of "Li'l" fits Donald perfectly. 

For he is and always will be a terrified little boy.