"He liked it, envied it, aped it. He created of it something all his own: He learned to assert white privilege and emulate black power." Nahhhhh. You're imbuing this narcissistic shell of a human with too much racially motivated meaning; Trump is straight up greasy macho Rat Pack, not smokin' Snoop Dogg.
8
Are we *ever* going to leave "He says what he thinks" behind in the dust, where it belongs? Trump - and frankly, many rappers - put me in mind of the joke about the bratty kid who's told to "say something nice for a change" when his mother invites her friends over.
Struggling, he finally comes up with his idea of a "nice" comment regarding a zaftig visitor: "Gee, for a fat lady you sure don't sweat much."
Likewise, Trump's idea of "nice" is telling Brigitte Macron that she's "in such good shape". No "political correctness" from him! Nossir! "Just let it all hang out...", right out of his formative years. Except that those of us close to his age grew out of it!
2
Mr. Blow nails it. Trump isn't a "strong man", he's an incredibly insecure and weak man. That is precisely what makes him so dangerous.
3
The operative word here is “crazy”. Do we want a crazy person in charge of the nuclear launch codes? 25th Amendment Section 4.
3
Mr. Blow. This is getting tiresome. Find a topic other than Trump please.
4
How kind, how so, so KIND and COURTEOUS is to Kanye West and Russell Simmons. What is this -- professional courtesy of some kind?
Mr. Blow, you have about 11 hours to make clear that these loathsome, craven New York pals (vide: Frank Rich on the toxic New York black-slapping club) are worthy only of our contempt.
After that, your legitimacy as a plain-spoken, direct, eloquent and honest commentator on this whole dismaying epoch will be permanently compromised.
2
@Mark Woldin I reallly ought to make a point of carefully rereading my remarks before hitting Send.
First I meant to write, of course, "How kind ... and courteous is Mr. Blow to Kanye West ..."
Secondly, and much more embarrassingly, I wrote, "Frank Rich on the toxic New York black-slapping club..." when I meant to write "...back-slapping club ...". It looks like a ghastly pun, but it was no such thing. It was a typo.
Apologies to Mr. Blow, Mr. Rich and any reader who happens by the remarks.
But: Mr. Blow is still being unapologetically chastised for going so easy on West, Simmons and the whole cruel of black New York pals who never had any business being friends with him. He systematically discriminated against people of color, and he scandalously whipped up a lynching-style hysteria against severel terrified and, as it turned out, erroneously charged youths. Shame on Trump, and shame on Simmons and West et al.
24
Mr. Blow, your getting better and better at pinning this...………..person . I just think of him as a home improvement salesman who "got hot". When the streak stops. It Stops..
1
Rappers are artists, just like actors, film makers and novelists. Their creations are fiction and they take on fictional roles, although based on their life experiences. Most people who enjoy listening to the music and lyrics understand that there is an element of fantasy in the work.
If Mr. Trump is mimicking actors, rappers, professional wrestlers, or action hero’s, one hopes that he understands that he is dealing with the real world and with important consequences.
2
Trump lives his life by the art of obfuscation, misdirection, and sowing the seeds of social division. Those with a pulpit from which to offer public opinion should not, lest they end up in the same hamper as Trump.
Very interesting. When I read the head line I thought "Rapper!? He's more like a Knock Knock joke." Now the gangsta celebs can invent some that fit his persona. Might be a new trend.
Entertaining article but an unprincipled man is expedient, transitional, lacks humor and basic honesty. Whether he finds comfort or convenient to ape or copy the behaviour of others just reflects a man unmoored to anything.
Trump is a combination of P.T. Barnum and Huey Long. A curious mixture of carnival barker and rural demagogue.
1
Trump isn't a wannabe rapper. He is an actual thug, gambler, tax cheat, mob associate, and serial assaulter of women. THOSE are what he has in common, in part or in whole, with people like Mike Tyson, Don King, Russell Simmons, etc.
7
A clown in any circus is still a clown.
6
what a convoluted column! charles blow keeps trying to explain trump and find a source for things he doesn't like -- and this week that source is "black hip hop culture"? really? so black people get the credit for being what charles blow thinks trump wants to be. but meanwhile the black rappers quoted aren't excoriated for thinking trump is yo cool? wow. convoluted!
before all this distraction of being president..... weren't they all just the best and most dazzling tier of promoters and hustlers and reality stars and branding moguls who probably had a piece of each other's action? was mike tyson really the progenitor, or wasn't it don king, bringing paying crowds to trump investments. and who doesn't want to cozy up with kanye & kim. they're rich for doing not too much besides selling her selfies. and her babies' selfies.
"black culture" envy - not really.
maybe blow needs a summer vacation?
7
I think the majority of rappers would find this offensive. Trump is a racist! He is threatened by minorities and wants to build a wall to keep them out. He's probably build a wall above Central Park North is he could too, to keep the blacks in Harlem. Many rappers write lyrics to explain their rough behavior or describe their violent upbringing. I too grew up in NYC during the ascendancy of rap. The guys I remember are like "The Lovebug" Starsky. In The Positive Life he raps:
Gotta happy-happy story, can tell you all
And if you listen to me you'll have a ball
All you people around the nation
All I need is participation
Don't need no segregation
Don't want no revelation
See when I learn, when the world turn
Ain't nobody gets it, just you earn
So take your time but don't hesitate
Brilliant, Mr. Blow. Thank you.
And lest we forget, Donald Trump has been working New York society and media for more than 35 years, as in this NY Times article from the archives.
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/04/08/magazine/the-expanding-empire-of-dona...
The Times has witnessed, and fawned over, Trump as he has had success after success (bankruptcies, payoffs and non-disclosure agreements, etc. notwithstanding) in his ascendancy to the Presidency. As a successful New York businessman, he has consumed and destroyed affordable, livable housing for his own benefit, and as POTUS he is intent on destabilizing civil society and dismantling the infrastructure of our government so that private power can absorb more of the common wealth of tax revenue.
When will we set aside our admiration for the "super-smart" superrich--both the rappers and the corporate-political elite--and realize that they actually are the killers that Trump's dad encouraged? Vote 2018/2020.
2
"I think that if I give him everything I possibly can and ask nothing from him in return, noblesse oblige, he won’t try to annex anything and will work with me for a world of democracy and peace.”
Donald Trump on Vladimir Putin?
No, Franklin Roosevelt on Josef Stalin.
2
I like Charles Blow a lot, but this column is too too for me. He's trying too hard, just like everyone is these days, to find an explanation of Trump. Trump is an elephant that all us blind people are desperately trying to describe. And as long as we're trying to describe him, he's happy.
Trump's mentorship was with Roy Cohn, not Mike Tyson. If there is any relation between Trump and the gangsta culture, it seems to me it's no different than how a lot of people live and survive in New York City. Trump is about the brute dog eat dog laws of Darwin, not the humanism of Da Vinci. (Art openings? Wazzat?) He's an uncivilized man and if he finds pop cultural ways to rationalize it, or to varnish himself with, so much the better. Gangsta culture just happens to be the most evident of the moment.
5
Trump is President, and he is not a rapper. He does not even act like a rapper. He does not act like a performing artist at all. Just a bully.
2
I personally don't care if he's a rapper, an opera singer, or a violin virtuoso. I want him out! He's the most corrupt president the US has ever had in its entire history. He spits on everything that makes America great, like multi-culturalism, or equal-opportunity. No amount of analysis is going to help.
15
Mr. Blow Donald hasn't faked the funk since November 2016. Whether you like it or not Trump is the POTUS with the mostest....at least to his supporters...WORD!
"The problem for America is that men pretending to be strongmen will always yield to stronger men. They will always bow to the men they want to be. In the presence of the real thing their mimicry is made mockery. As we would say in hip-hop, Trump is faking the funk."
That's as brilliant of a paragraph as last week's editorial title, which was "Lie Back and Take It, America."
Both are perfect summaries of this despicable administration.
4
The useful idiot's only focus is money and power, no holds barred to include threatening our democracy's survival and national security. Having asserted that, his 80% approval rating among Republicans only places their imprimatur on his predatory reptilian behavior in general. This is America being great again?
1
It's all Mike Tyson's fault? Hmm.
2
Out of control. Must go now. Immediately.
1
Whoa...adoration...glitz....fame....audience. Charles - you nailed it!
4
I guess the relationship status between Blow and intellectual rigour and integrity should read: “It’s complicated.”
6
The idea is not new. You might want to give a little credit to Roy Wood Jr. and the Daily Show for producing a rap song using only Donald Trump’s own words based on the idea that he is like a rapper.
2
Mr. Blow: Generally your columns are thoughtful and well reasoned, even when I sometimes disagree with them. But this column is a stretch, and that's putting it mildly. Sorry, but this time there is no "there" there.
5
"He is the Elvis Presley of politics, a cultural appropriator who took the coarser side of the black men whose thrall he was in and repackaged their qualities behind a white face."
Best trump description ever.
5
Trump is playing people. If Kanye West or anyone else thinks he is anything but a dangerous sociopath, he will only see he was waiting in line to be thrown under bus when it is too late.
4
"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
-- Iron Mike Tyson
Mr. Trump, poser, get ready. 2018 is coming.
8
Fascinating to anyone who, like me, is engaged in the campaign for the NY-19th Congressional seat. First-term GOP incumbent John Faso is being challenged by Antonio Delgado, a Harvard-trained lawyer who had been a Rhodes Scholar after graduating from Colgate. Early on, he had a brief career in hip-hop, as "AD the Voice." Faso has sought to exploit this fact by holding Delgado accountable for some of the lyrics in the songs he recorded, in a poorly disguised racist attempt to focus voters in the NY-19th on Delgado's being African-American. Trump may yearn to be a rapper, but I'll wager he'll be there publicly to support John Faso, but, of course, only because of Faso's politics. Not because of the racial animus that Trump and Faso appear to share.
4
Gangster is more like it. Mr. Trump is a child of the 60s, hence his fixation with "law and order." He has used Nixon's playbook more than Kanye's.
2
Trump does not like anybody , but himself.He does not have a social intelectual or any capacity to have compassion for a human being. I would like to know a tiny little beat about human brains, to except why people still appreciate him. Nothing about this man is normal. He likes power, but can not hold it, he’s very weak , actually every macho is coward , and disturb . He’s behavior is pure carnage. The world had zero respect for him, and I am glad about that. His cohorts are same. Unfortunately we will pay for all consequences.
2
Mr Blow, if your theory is correct, and Trump respects only success, regardless of race, and consequently despises failure, regardless of race, it doesn't give much hope to his allegedly core following, the unemployed/unemployable white working class in the Rust Belt.
2
To compare Trump to rappers is an insult to the rappers. Trump is old school mafia.
7
So true! Remember when Trump was in the WWF (now WWE). Approval ratings continue to rise....
2
@Chriva
Just to be clear: "Approval ratings continue to rise..."
But that's only among his same targeted old support-base which does NOT represent the majority of Americans....just saying.
4
Enough with the efforts, increasingly labored, to explain the amoral con man who occupies the White House.
Trump admires the financially successful hiphop artists because he respects wealth, plain and simple.
There are other topics worthy of Mr. Blow.
8
One of your best columns to date Mr. Blow--thank you!
3
In 1968 when Dr. Martin Luther King began his Poor Peoples Campaign, he was in effect trying ,in no uncertain terms to alter the economic infrastructure of the United States. Some say that this quest made him even more of a national security risk than his opposition to the War in Vietnam did. Some believe that it is what got him killed.
Now in 2018, 50 years later we have an occupant in the Oval Office who disdains the poor, disregards the rule of law, routinely threatens and insults people like a badly behaved adolescent, and has very likely compromised the national security of the US by his aligning himself to a hostile foreign power, namely Russia.
That this president has in fact become a national security risk and yet continues to hold America hostage, is beyond unacceptable . And while no one wishes Donald Trump any physical harm, it is completely understandable that millions of signatures have been submitted , crying out for his impeachment and removal from office.
Is this what America has become? Are we going to continue to kill our prophets and uphold this president who has become our new national nightmare?
7
I agree with you Mr. Blow,Trump is definitely a rapper.
He is a misogynist,in that he degrades women, more than likely uses the "N" word to describe African Americans.
So yes I concur he is a primetime rapper.
4
IWTH- the "I want to hate" of Trump's quote is the real message of this guy. Should be their next logo on the red caps.
9
Just more delusions to add to Mr. Trump's many personality disorders - narcissistic, histrionic, misogynistic, god complex, etc. A walking version of the Psychiatric version of the PDR.
2
He is the Elvis Presley of politics, a cultural appropriator who took the coarser side of the black men whose thrall he was in and repackaged their qualities behind a white face.
___
"[T]he coarser side of the black men."
Please elaborate/explain?
Trump has been called a racist as evident by his acts and deeds. [I'm NOT attempting to defend his actions or behavior.]
It begs asking if there is a Correlation/Causation? If so, in this context, can a black man be racist?
2
You put a lot of importance on east coast rappers because of the NYC thing for Trump. But I think he's more of a Snoop Dog guy. Let's recall some Snoop lyrics: "this is for the hustlers, this is for the Gs," and of course "got my mind on my money and me money on my mind." Trump is definitely more West Coast when it comes to rap.
Trump is crazy. No surprise. But our country has a BIG problem right now.
Even if Trump was impeached and removed, there's Pence.
After Pence, there are many Congressmen who put their finger in the air, see which way the wind is blowing, and put their eggs in whichever basket suits their own financial and political interests. They don't really care about their constituents and lack the empathy to understand how many Americans are scared and hurting. They are spineless invertebrates calculating when to jump off the Trump train to save their own behinds. Then they will jump onto the next train and spew more meaningless promises in hopes of re-election.
After the spineless Congressmen, there were 62 million people who thought it was a good idea to vote for Trump. Our president, our vice president, our Congressmen are the cumulative manifestation of these voters. It's safe to say we're screwed.
7
Blow's thesis falls very short. Trump isn't trying to emulate rappers, and I find it insulting to say that he's trying to imitate 'black culture' or any aspect of it. Rather, Trump and rappers share a confluence of appetites: Flashy wealth, misogyny, fame, objectification of woman, and the general belief that those enumerated qualities are the measure of a man. They are guided by similar excesses, that's all. Trump's racism is very real.
9
Just read an article in The Atlantic describing children as young as 3 who can already be diagnosed as psychopaths. They fantasize about violence and have every intention of carrying it out. They DEMAND constant attention and want to destroy anyone who one-ups them. While normal children empathize when they see another person hurt, psychopaths smile and say they enjoy it. Those who have killed feel absolutely no guilt or remorse, only enjoyment. They particularly like to prey on the weak, often younger siblings or neighborhood children. In adulthood, they are promiscuous and lie compulsively. One thing they have in common is a low resting pulse rate, and psychologists theorize that the thrill of violence, fighting and destruction gives them some kind of excitement. For parents of psychopaths, the diagnoses is heartbreaking. The only recourse is to seek to minimize the damage these dangerous predators can do over the course of their lives.
4
Ah, Donald and Kanye.
Very different, of course.
One is a megalomaniac with fake hair, is into “models,” seeks attention like a two-year old, a loud mouth, and is overtly racist.
The other is Donald.
7
Please. DJT doesn't even deserve Faking Funk status.
Unless he's getting clowned in lyrics (like 'Pimps') DJT's got no home here.
Trump would love to be Putin. He rolls over like a puppy for Vladimir in blind admiration and obedience, disgracing the American people daily. Along with the stream of lies flowing from Trump hourly since he is always faking the news, we can now say that Trump is also faking the funk. Describes Trump brilliantly.
8
It goes way back. Just yesterday on MSNBC's Politics Nation, Reverend Al told a story from the 80s about Donald Trump calling him on the phone to ask if he could persuade James Brown to play at his Atlantic City casino. So, yeah, how could he be a racist? Thank you, Charles.
2
You lost me with the Elvis allusion. Elvis had heart, and white boy soul.
Long live the King. And Elvis gave away more money to others than Trump have ever spent on anything. Trump spends other people's money AND taxpayer funds for everything OR his " charities " pay the freight. He's a total cheapskate with his own money. Total scam artist. Seriously.
2
While the relationship between Trump and the hip-hop crowd might be complicated, Trump isn't. He's a racist, and he uses racism to garner a following. He's not complicated at all. Why the rappers don't rap him out, however, is a matter for conjecture. Maybe they're as in awe of his power as he is of theirs. Maybe they just like having their picture taken with him. Who knows?
See: RevolutionOfReason.com
2
Sorry Charles— you’re great but I have no idea what you’re trying to say in this column. It’s one of those NYT pieces Trump might actually like in some perverse way!
7
Hey Charles as always you mostly nailed it but I seriously doubt that any of our great and even not so great rappers would ever allow a punk like Putin to diss them so obviously without them knowing it.
3
Another odd, unique take on 45:
Notice how he supposedly responded to Helsinkigate when he returned to the White House: with surprise. What! (He seemed to say.) You're kidding! I didn't do nothing!
Wouldn't a guilty person, a spy with a plan, respond differently? He would expect blowback, wouldn't he?
Definitely and obviously, 45 blew it big-time once again, but his response seems to say that he did not do it intentionally. It just bespeaks who he is: a bull in a china shop, but not a traitor with a plan and a strategy and a convoluted James-Bond escape plan. Then he goes golfing. Nixon, the cunning conniver, would have brooded in the Oval after a massive media attack; he knew his goose was cooking.
45 may just be stupid and naïve, but not nefarious, at least in this case. Is it impossible?
Full disclosure: I would like to see him impeached, but in trying to understand what makes him tick, he defies easy explanation and categorization. Who is this guy, really?
1
trump is a con-man, and he's running a con as president.
Once that's understood, then you know who this guy is.
Everything he does is for enriching himself and cheating the people of this country. He has a con-man mentality, which goes like this: so I lied, and you believed me, that's your problem, you should have figured it out, and if you didn't then more fool you.
9
@wanderer
He is an amazing piece of work, one of a kind. Objectively, he's interesting, like many world leaders. Why would a 71-year-old billionaire, supposedly, still be scamming in the deepest waters there are? He seems to enjoy the drama, the fistfights, the action. I wonder if we'll ever know precisely what motivates him.
@Jim Muncy Money motivates him and not going to jail. He used his casinos to help mobsters by money laundering. Later he money laundered for the Eastern European and Central Asian oligarchs. The Russian bank Alfa Bank had a direct connection to his servers in trump tower. Have you noticed he likes to accuse others of having a server problem. He's a classic case of pointing the finger while 3 are pointing back at him. In the Spring of 2015 he received 2 fines of 10 million dollars each for money laundering in his casinos. He's nothing but a grifting criminal with a patina of wealth.
I don't care what influenced Trump, whether it was his father, rappers, Roy Cohn or Hitler. He's destroying this country and he's dangerous, as his latest tweets to Iran prove. It's one thing (although still un-presidental) to tweet opinions to one's base, but it's quite another to be hostile to a nation like Iran via Tweet.
Trump won't be happy until he starts WWIII. He really seems to be looking for that fight.
When will Republicans wake up and either get rid of Trump or pass appropriate legislation to render him harmless.
Meanwhile, 80+% of Republican voters still support this dangerous fool. What have we come to?
6
Trump the mob boss, the rapper, the reality TV star, the sexual predator, the bully, take your pick. Whatever he is he is sick and infecting the world with his chronic disease. He has infected his entire party and his followers. The cure is to vote Democratic this November in large numbers. Let's rid ourselves of the trump plague or at a minimum cordon it of in a containment zone. Time to clean the swamp.
7
Mr. Trump is a chameleon. He takes on the persona of the persons with whom he happens to be sitting. He is empty, vacuous. These latter qualities are the source of his defensiveness and "outspokenness."
1
You have it wrong Charles. Trump isn't NY rap, he is pure NY gangsta. He's a street punk. I would submit that rappers have a valid social protest component. The sing, or rap about the terrible conditions of the streets in poor neighborhoods and the injustices that people in the "hood" face. Trump has none of that in terms of awareness or conscience; He's just a punk, all gangsta, no rap.
6
Interesting observations and perspectives... but sorry it's a bit on the "light side" which considering what is going on in the world is frankly appalling. Trump may be a wannabe rapper but we live in dangerous times because the man who currently occupies the Oval Office in Washington DC probably suffers from (NPD) Narcissistic Personality Disorder. People with NPD are characterized by their persistent grandiosity, excessive need for admiration, arrogance, compelling need for abusive power and control and worst of all.... a complete lack of empathy for other people. Tyson and Kanye may have been Mr. Trump's buddies for the past couple of decades but take a look at Michael Cohen. Here today... gone tomorrow. It's the existence of human creatures like Donald Trump's that allow one to understand and be less mystified as to why human arrogance has destroyed civilizations throughout time... in Catalhoyuk, Alexandria, the Mayan Culture, the nearly successful attempt during WW2 by Nazi Germany and Japan. Rappers, no matter how small or large their ego are about cultural expression... Trump is something else again and WE THE PEOPLE need to wake up and realize the danger we all are in.
3
Raper maybe, certainly not a "rapper" except how he raps everyone with tweets. Al Sharpton definitely does not consider Donald Trump a friend, but as a combatant, as he said just the other day on MSNBC. The very idea that a bigot, a racist, and a world-class misogynist says "some of my best friends are black" speaks for itself. This is the man whose father was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, who was fined for not renting to blacks, has attacked black NFL professional football players, supported white racist neo-Nazis in Charlottesville rallying in support of Confederates who fought for slavery, and provided cold comfort (aka insensitive insulting behavior) to the Gold Star of a black Green Beret, Sgt. La David Johnson, killed in Niger and then unleashed his equally racist "empty barrel" of a Chief of Staff on the African-American Congresswoman, Rep. Frederica Wilson, who was a friend trying to comfort her. That's the real rap on Donald "Rapper" Trump!
3
Can't varnish the truth that Donald Trump is a racist and bigot, no matter how he practices the "monetized swagger" (great image, Charles Blow!) of rich black rappers like Kanye West, Ja Rules, ex boxer Mike Tyson, etc. Hip-hop is American, but just entertainment during this hinge of history. President Trump is the Archie Rice of entertainers. Archie Rice, portrayed by Sir Laurence Olivier in 1957 in "The Entertainer" by John Osborne, is the epitome of our 45th president. We know what happens to entertainers after the limelight leaves them. Girls,
gangstas and glamour leave them. We Americans don't need a president-cum-rapper who was trained by his father "to act like a killer". Our 45th president was a 3rd rate TV performer. He's now lower than Shinola. Hip-hop royalty will pass like all celebrity passes in America. Gone with the wind like Dixie.
3
Trump as a faux rapper is a brilliant image. His many falsehoods mirror the gangsta rap culture of degradation; without the excuse of telling it like it isnt?
Vote in November and text for Beto to rid us our shame.
2
The charge of appropriating Black culture is just Charles’s precursor to having to somehow spin it as racist that Trump has appropriated large portions of the Black vote.
1
Watch Eminem's freestyle rap regarding the current occupant of the White House: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LunHybOKIjU
Word...
1
How Mike Tyson is like Roy Cohn, revealed (or skirted)?
Unemployment among blacks in USA is lowest in history.
Trump has outdone Obama in helping blacks.
I rest my case.
1
Perfect, Mr. Blow. Thank you.
2
This article pretends bragging, materialism, crassness, and selfish arrogance were invented by rappers. And that Trump then appropriated these "inventions."
Kind of silly.
2
"As we would say in hip-hop"? "We"?
Charles Blow is a thoughtful commentator, a gifted writer, and an important voice in American discourse. He is balanced, yet unsparing when criticism is due. He is all these things and more.
But Mr. Blow is not "in hip-hop". He's not even in the same zip code as hip-hop.
1
@Shawn
Here's something that may surprise you.
Hip-hop may have had (some) roots here in NYC zip codes -- but now it is UNIVERSAL!!
Check it out.
1
So Trump wants to be that tough guy, white rapper. The one with all the power, all the bling. The guy who uses women like discarded tissues, and brags about it. The guy whose "rap" includes saying that the KKK and neo-Nazis are some "very fine people". This is the the essence of white rap, and he owns it.
But understand this: his cult-like supporters stand by him, not in spite of this disgusting behavior, but because of it. They see themselves in him. White men who see their own power slipping away as they must start to compete with their brown skinned neighbors for higher education and good paying jobs. But like Trump, they don't want to do the work to succeed. They want the kind of swagger he has -- the one that has been given to him, without any hard work of his own. They like that he believes he's entitled. And through him, they believe they're just as entitled, without having to work for their success. They want things handed to them, just like Trump has had.
And they expect to be rewarded without any effort, again, just like their savior Trump. They love that he uses some of the most vicious, bigoted language imaginable. They know he'll chant "Jews will not replace us" right along with them. And as long as his rap continues to tell them that "he's one of us", they'll stay by him.
Trump's rap is a toxic combination of racism and entitlement, just the lyrics his rabid supporters want to hear. That's all they want. That's all they've ever wanted.
2
By far Blow’s best, and most insightful commentary on the thug, Trump!
2
Trump is, and always has been a poor man's idea of what a rich man should be. He embodies the vulgarity of the nouveau riche, which is the real reason he is despised by Charles Blow and the journalistic and political establishments.
Yes, he is grossly unqualified to be president, and a terrible narcissist. But his relationship with the Black community never was as bad as Charles Blow claims, nor is it currently. Google the name "Shavod Jones." One of the first images that comes up is one of Jones wearing a "Trump Plaza" baseball cap... not unlike the ones that nowadays say "Make America Great Again."
Jones was a teenager who shot NYPD officer Steven McDonald in 1986, leaving McDonald a quadriplegic. Think Jones was wearing that hat to be ironic? He wasn't. Jones was wearing it because "Trump Plaza" meant gold plated bathroom fixtures- something only a gauche rapper, or Donald Trump would think signified "class."
Trump, in the 1980s, wasn't emulating rappers any more than he was emulating professional wrestlers or self-promoting boxers like Muhammad Ali. Rather, the larger than life persona, and aspiration to luxury were things that the unrefined Trump and many NYC area rappers both aspired to. If Charles Blow could get over the nausea and disgust he feels when writing about Trump maybe he would see that.
Whatever "funk" you attribute to the hateful, pathological liar, Donald Trump, all I can say, in the words of the Brothers Johnson: "Get that funk out of my face..." or in Trump's case, "get that funk out of the White House!"
1
Trump is a racist who is attracted to powerful people, even those of the minority. He is still a racist. He is also totally incompetent and unqualified to serve as president of the United States. Still in all, he has been a boon to those in the media business.
2
Good column! So - no Kanye in 2020?
1
Yeah, Charles, I mean Trump is an hyper-egotistical clown like so many rappers (Kayne case in point) but I think you're clutching at straws with this argument.
2
What about Roy Cohn as a formative force of Trump?
Trump wishes he was like a rapper, or like a self made man. He is neither. Growing up he was just a kid with privilege and every opportunity in the world. He choose to do nothing other than look in the mirror. And now is someone who pathetically accepts notoriety because he can't achieve the fame he craves. Regardless of all this Trump is undeniably a liar and traitor and is unfit to be President.
It's interesting that hip hop also seems to have a place in the Russian gangster world too!
Charles, point taken but as your know well the Rap world is not monolithic. Good Rappers are poets with a heart. Less than ideal Rappers are just in it for the fame, the bling and the gangsterism. Prez Tweetstorm may have the bling and the fame but he is far less of a poet and far more of a gangster. He certainly has no heart despite the con job he has pulled on his naive and indiscerning admirers.
1
Wow! An actual fresh take on Trump
If Strom Thurmond were to walk into the senate today and start dabbing and moonwalking, he could not be more grotesque than Trump. White supremacy has reached the tertiary stage, where it's rotting the body politic at the brain, and the behaviors are so outlandish they are the outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grease, the nation just before it slips into rigor mortis.
2
You forgot to mention both hip-hop and Trump's embrace of cruelty, criminality and their unhealthy lust for money.
“No one respects women more than I do.”
--- Donald J. Trump
Rappers frequently exhibit odds ways of respecting women, as does Trump.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2017/03/08/21-times-donal...
2
I assume you have seen Roy Wood, Jr., as The Black Trump, rapping “They Love Me” with Jordan Klepper. It consists entirely of Trump’s own words.
Mr Blow, your rap playlist is surely whack. What is rap music to you? Why would you simplify and denigrate the most important musical and cultural movement of the last 35 years by reducing it to "bravado" in order to lazily free associate it to Trump? Rappers are GENIUSES when it's done right. The in-your-face gangsta stuff is garbage that has been pushed to us from corporate media which profits on the image of the scary black man. Ain't nothin new. While I'm sure all of our dads are amused reading this article, I'll take my solace in my Black Star, Public Enemy, Tribe, De La, knowing that those cats are gonna be the ones who help bring this fool Trump down.
2
Trump is the skinny kid who insults his family, then takes his allowance across town to stand around the boys who smoke on the corner.
No one yet, has put together the qualitites necessary to take on Trump and defeat him. Gansta rap is street level, Trump is stuck in gear as an elite billionaire. Maybe this country is in search of an even bigger put on and fake, who throws tantrums, where rappers start shooting, get shot at, or get mugged. You failed to give his cabinet rap street names.
I think that Trump and Rappers both worship at the altar of "Bling", and have migrated to their Mecca from opposite sides of the tracks.
He sure likes bling.
Roy Cohn and mobsters seem to have been more of an influence on Trump. Also, his father was a ruthless thug. The apple didn't fall far from the tree. The key to Trump's worship of the rappers and vicious strongmen like Vladimir Putin is insecurity about his manhood.
3
Listening to NPR this morning and it was mentioned that the Ayatollah in Iran has diverted billions of dollars into his own accounts. I keep thinking that there isn't much difference between the Taliban leaders, Iranian leaders, Assad, Putin and our GOP/Trump. Looks like they will take any/all path(s) -- religion, rap, ___-ism-- that enables them to gather power and money. Their supporters use the path that means the most to them. It usually comes down to the money, though. I keep hoping we will hear from Mr. Mueller soon and finally see the financial details to confirm our suspicions about Trump (and eventually his gang of GOP enablers).
4
"The problem for America is that men pretending to be strongmen will always yield to stronger men."
Charles Blow, Trump isn't pretending to be anything. He is a strong Strongman. You, on the other hand, are a weak man with 'nothing to offer but a bit of dialogue (to quote from Annette Benning in 'Bugsy').' Every week you try and squeeze as much hatred as you can from attacking the white man as symbolized by Donald Trump. I guess he, as well as we whites, should take that as a compliment.
1
So now Rachael Maddow, CNN, Bill Mauer, and the rest of Trump's harshest critics are really just racists? If Trump is "acting black" or stealing black, what does that say about liberals?
If Trump is like a rapper, he's Vanilla Ice.
2
Blow's apt metaphor is much more than metaphor: Trump is the world's Mike Tyson without the actual punch, a rapper without the pure poetry, a gangsta without any earned swagger. In short, a genuine fake.
But he's a fake with extraordinary power -- to start a war, bury the living as well as the dead, crush family spirit, reverse care of the earth, and a host of other terrors. His ego is all id, in a drive to become pope, king, monarch, führer, and grand inquisitor. To say nothing of the world's wealthiest billionaire.
Though he may fail at the above, he's already done a good portion of his historical job: setting in motion the likes of Pence, McConnell, the general GOP, and those Americans who want us all nationalized, white, and Christian -- and joining the ranks of those in the world prepared to trigger a 21st C. Crusades, if not a World War.
This is an excellent article and analysis of a man who wears his madness inside out -- and made it an entertaining brand. It's a shame creative and talented rappers find him engaging for telling it like it is -- Trump tells it like he wants others to hear it at the moment; he's a ratings maniac, phobic about failing or falling. If he goes down, it'll make Nixon look like a world champ of class and decorum. When Pence picks up the pieces -- the Christian right will outlaw rap music right after they jail women for using the word 'abortion.' I'm thinking we're doomed with a capital "Oh No!"
1
"He is the Elvis Presley of politics, a cultural appropriator..."
Charles Blow, I admire you greatly, I've written countless comments in your praise.
I consider your voice and your courage unique in the wilderness of the modern political theater.
This column, (especially that sentence), is not worthy of you. This is empty polemics masquerading as deep thought, and I hope you have more time before your next deadline to return to the eloquent, sensitive man that I have come to love.
4
Kanye's love for Trump is exactly the same as Kanye's love for Kim. And exactly like Dennis Rodman's love for Kim.
There are so many smoking guns out there already that show the Trump is a liar, a cheat, a manipulator, a braggart, and a misogynist who willingly cheated on multiple wives. And then there are his political positions which run against everything in our constitution that he swore to uphold protect. If he is stealing from Hip Hop culture on one hand and denigrating it, black people, and almost all other minorities on the other, that makes him even more of a liar and more inappropriate to continue as president. The Cohen tapes, the Porter revelations - why is this inappropriate human disaster still drawing the federal salary as our nation's top executive? To use his own simplistic and puerile phrase, "lock him up" and send the rest of his rancid crew and his notorious congressional and enablers with him. Let's see how long they last in a penitentiary!
Thoughout human history we have always seen people clinging or rejecting group identity depending on when it suits their personal interests.
During the Holocaust Jews were sometimes the ones that betrayed their fellow Jews believing that would save them.
That rich successful African Americans would maintain loyalty to Trump after all he has said and done is par for the course. In the end what matters to people is power or self preservation. The myth of racial superiority is simply an illusory instrument to wield that power.
1
If the partisan blinders are removed, it becomes obvious that US presidents rolling gangster style well pre-dates Trump. Sometimes the gangsters are even on our side. Well, not the people's side, but claiming American citizenship anyways.
I can see that African American males do indeed get to enter into Trump's personal and unhealthy hierarchy of respect if they have money and power. No mention of women here though. There is no respect with any amount of power for a woman. He even walked in front of the Queen of England.
1
I don't believe Trump is faking anything. He is racist, unlearned, misogynistic and a bully.
The elections were hacked in his favor. It appears from his conduct that he colluded with Putin in the hack. The polls and midterms are being hacked daily.
Trump is America. As you rightly surmised, he is simply a mirror of the WORST in us all.
1
It's more than Trump. The Russians have focused their efforts on the GOP because it represents all that is weak about America: crackpot religion, gun worship, homophobia, misogyny, racism, contempt for nature and the environment, adult illiteracy, pathetic public education, wage slavery, consumerism and sleaze. It's one stop shopping for anyone who wishes to undermine us, a ready army of useful fools by the million, cultivated and trained by Fox, the NRA, the Evangelical Church, Putin, Koch and Mercer. Time to stand up for our true selves and wipe away the stain, time to eradicate the Republican Party once and for all as a threat to the nation. America can stand no more of this parade of lunacy and corruption.
4
Please please leave 45 out of hip hop. I don't see anything to connect the two.
I,for one, am sick to death about the Trump phenomenon - the
chaos, the shtick, the indecency, the rash of news revealing his creepiness, his bad behavior, his blind, deaf and dumb fans who see no evil, hear no evil, etc., etc. How much more can we listen to? A lot of us are tired - we want to vote and put some justice in
the pool of lascivious, lecherous and spinelessness we've been
subjected to. This country has been flooded with lies, indecency,
racism, misogyny and all the evils let out of Trump's Pandora box
of tricks. Enough already - let's vote them all out!
6
Trump said he didn't do any thing wrong with having an affair with Karen McDougal.
Isn't having an affair with a playboy bunny when your wife is giving birth to your son wrong?
How does one get to be an Evangelical Christian when adulatory is applauded for?
1
Well then, Mr Blow, in the inimitable words of Public Enemy's Chuck D, we have to "fight the powers that be" and turn the House and Senate blue in November.
Trump is gaudy and brags and money and women conquest. Hip hop is gaudy and brags about money and women conquests. No getting around it.
1
When an uncouth, uncultured person like trump takes his cue from rap, it says as much about rap as it does about trump.
1
What Trump is missing, though, is a morphed name, a portmanteau like all the other celebrities have acquired, that includes the love of his life.
May I suggest Vladdon?
Speaking of Mike Tyson, if you don't believe that Vladimir Putin is holding some devastating information with which he's threatening and controlling Donald Trump, then you would most likely believe that Mike Tyson is blonde and blue-eyed.
1
Trump is faking the funk. The common denominator, racism aside, is the money. The great equalizer. In my view, it's the rappers like Kanye who are the hippocrites.
An apt comparison, but in the mode of how a stereotype (definitely, certainly not all rappers) engages with the world around them. DT has an outsized, hungry and tender ego coupled with no self awareness—or he stifles it with uninformed impulses. Staying on top, at the expense of normal measures of integrity, is goal and incentive. Most of all, he’s quick to ignite and stoke beefs. To quote NYT’s John Caramanica, speaking about another (infamously sensitive!) rapper of our time, everyone in his world is an antagonist.
Fakin the funk=perfect
I want this to be over already. The nation looks ridiculous.
2
Offended by comparison to rappers who do lift up and inspire their audiences. And at least Elvis had some manners.
1
Oh Charles; you've gone deep.
Trump reminds me of the white "Lettermen" in high school (circa 1970's) who tried to mimic black guy's Soul-Brother handshakes and "Right-On's."
Even Donald Trump's Studio 54 excursions didn't fit. The man simply isn't legitimate; the toughness- borrowed from someone else (his father; Roy Cohen, Tyson- Putin). The lack of sophistication; ill-mannered- gauche: The Chameleon without a self.
LeBron had it right. Trump is a "bum."
1
Generally love your columns, and this is an interesting theory, but “the Elvis of politics”?! I don’t think so.
1
Trump & rap both new york ego & chutzpah. Idea of Elvis here is cliche & not really true. All creativity synthesizes.
2
He can't rhyme & he ain't got no rhythm. Enough said!
Why didn’t President Obama use his powers to defend Americans from Russian election interference ?
You are so right Mr. Blow- admiring and “aping” the bullies and “swaggerers” of this world, wherever they spring from, is only natural for a man who never met a “thug” he didn’t want to sidle up to, and who long ago divided his universe into loyal vassals or mortal enemies.
And, like any mafia boss, the first thing Trump will always demand of his electorate, his cabinet, his Supreme Court picks, or FBI director James Comey, is blind loyalty and the promise to “take a bullet” for him whenever necessary. It’s why he surrounds himself with people like Paul Manafort, Corey Lewandowski and Stephen Miller. It’s why he pardons mini-me bullies like Joe Arpaio. It’s why he praises the “take what you want- no apologies” attitude of Vladimir Putin. It’s why he excoriates our allies and rejects outright any attempts at compromise or bipartisanship here or abroad.
Kanye West may admire Donald Trump’s “dragon energy,” but it’s turning this country to ashes.
1
I don't think so. I'll go along with the critique of some rappers who don't get Trump's core racism. But as for Trump himself, he's not looking at any black models of masculinity, or whatever. He's got plenty of toxic models of white male misogyny, racism, and cruelty to draw upon, starting with his father, and including Roy Cohn. And yes, I know Cohn is complicated, but I still think he is a greater influence on the twisted creature in the oval office than anyone else in 1970s NYC.
"...[t]his racist actually believes on some level that he is not a racist."
This pretty much nails what I know about many Trump supporters. They don't know they are racists. They would never admit they are racists.
Yet, they were down with birtherism, think the NFL protests are about disrespect for the flag and the military, support Trump's idiotic wall, aren't bothered by Trump's caging of brown children or his attack on a "Mexican" federal judge, and defended his "very fine people on both sides" comment after Charlottsville.
Maybe not all Trump supporters are racists, but all are OK with his racism. They just can't admit it.
The arc of the universe may bend toward justice but in 2018 America it's bending mighty slow.
2
The way you describe Trump he can't be a racist , but a successfulist. Not sure there is such a word, but I just made it up. But, I think you are right he is obesiant to those he thinks are better than him.
Mr. Blow writes, "“He is the Elvis Presley of politics, a cultural appropriator who took the coarser side of the black men whose thrall he was in and repackaged their qualities behind a white face.” However, Elvis was criticized by the music industry as well as many whites for his adaptation of Black music. The Sweet Inspirations were his back-up singers from 1969-77. They were Black female performers who included Whitney Houston's mother. Peter Guralnic, author of two noted biographies on Elvis, said it best in a 2007 article in The New York Times.
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/opinion/11guralnick.html
Trump has no class but desperately wants to be cool. But he will never be cool and will always be a crass bigoted bully. The fact that Kanye or any of these guys gives Trump a thumbs up makes me cringe. Why would(nt?) they!?
1
I'd venture that he is equally contemptuous of the demographics in his base as he is to non-rich blacks but has to pander to them. Deep inside he'd like to be admired by the Upper East Side white elite but will never be socially accepted by them. Just as many GOP congresspeople don't like him or his policies but kowtow to him because they want to be re-elected, a lot of the "titans of industry" who support him would flee into the night if he were to stop accepting their graft & chose policies at odds w/ theirs. He is anathema to any civilized human being.
1
Charles - you certainly missed your true calling as a clinical psychotherapist.
I don't know your age, but maybe not too late to change professions?
I guess I can add rappers to the long list of American's who absolutely baffle me by their ability to find something, anything, worthwhile in the irredeemable Donald Trump.
But not all rappers:
“I’d never support anyone who has made a career out of hatred, racism and discrimination. I’d never support someone who’d talk about Chicago as if it’s hell on earth and then take steps to make life harder here for the most disenfranchised among us.”
- Chance The Rapper.
1
Your last paragraph says it all - like all playground bullies they will intimidate, humiliate and terrorize until they have to deal with a bigger more powerful adversary. Then, sensing they have met their match, like POTUS with Putin, they wilt and fawn. So predictable this inept, incompetent, unfit grown-up playground bully - would be my greatest pleasure to hear he will all actually agree to be interviewed by special counsel Mueller - wonder what notes he would sing.
1
Nice try trying to find a reason for how Trump got to be Trump. Actually, it's hard to find a reason for crazy. It may be that he has early Alzheimer's; it may be that he's always been slightly mentally unhinged (and as you get older, you just get more of); it may be that he has a brain tumor. Or it just may be a personality disorder he's had all his life. What he should not be is President!
1
Mr. Trump has sometimes expressed an appreciation for brown people who are dead. Living brown people entail too many complications for a white nationalist president. And, as mentioned here, he appreciates brown people who have used their swagger or violence to attain riches or power. In other words, he appreciates the brown people who embody the prejudicial stereotypes that he traffics in. Is it that simple? It represents a gross error of judgment for Rev. Jackson or the rappers to fraternize with a fraud and grifter like Trump.
1
I don't think anyone is baffled at Trump's admiration of the world's strongmen at this point.
He isn't a racist, or misogynist, or homophobic or xenophobic...he isn't anything. He is hollow and shameless and sees only what is in his pile at the end of each day, then asks, what will work for me today?
LP
1
I know, from a lifetime spent living and working with accomplished, well-adjusted men, that if you’re swaggering, you’re faking it.
Interesting analogy. Trump is a part of the uncivil counter culture. Civil, respectful people are “elites”. Civility is a barrier to aggression and hate. Legitimizing hate language gave rise to the Trump phenomenon - no one was immune from his attacks, his crudeness, his rages. People are entertained by his verbal violence - he is like some rappers - without the beat.
God help us all this is a 71 year old man fantasising about being a 20 something rapper disrupting popular music.
He is the leader of the free world my friends, I don't know what scares me more him or his supporters who are quite willing to accept the possibility that he conspired with Putin to get into the White House.
When I think of the world's "strongmen" I do not consider rappers, but admittedly I am not drawn to that musical genre. They are entertainers, that is their personas. If their is a mutual admiration between any of them and Mr. Trump, I believe for whatever reason each is using the other - the rapper for spectacle, for recognition and attention, and Trump to feed his pathological gluttony to be the strong, macho, controlling, rogue, to have a little of their Big Man character rub off on him. That being said his bromance with the likes of a Kanye West should never, ever be considered his embracing of racial equality. On the contrary, down deep he most likely rejects people of color, whether their pigment is brown or black. But that is not to say that these individuals above are alone. They are in the company of the gay, the woman, the Muslim, even children if they are borne of immigrants or refugees. Pure and simply he is attracted to and wants to emulate the bully, the thug, no matter what their moral compasses or lack thereof may be. But he is just a Goliath, nothing more. And it will not take much for a metaphorical David to drop him to his knees. He can not sustain himself. It is impossible.
1
I agree Completely with Charles Blow about the faker President. What happened to the time when it was considered vulgar to throw your weight around and show off, ( as an "entitled" white guy,) your unearned wealth and privilege? But Trump missed the sixties Revolution completely. Daddy's boy, some killer! was seduced by the riches and wallowed in greed - he slept through the love one another part, and went straight to crude sex and money. What a role model! Incomprehensible why any woman would support this misogyny machine, by the way.
1
Trump admires strongmen because he is so weak as evidenced by Helsinki. He plays at being strong, but you can't be truly strong if you have no empathy, no compassion. You can't be strong as a leader if you can't confront the person standing in front of you who ordered cyber warfare against your own country. He has to act so "strong" because he is so weak. I can't help but believe that there is a part of this man who knows he is so completely out of his depth as president and it scares the hell out of him. He's all bluster, dangerously so.
Really interesting column. Is it possible that his legions of followers, though still a significant minority, in the white community share something in common with black rappers and other entertainers who have this odd love and fascination for Trump?
Trump is a rapper without a cause. He also said "I am the least racist" person there is.
But he never tweeted in a single word in defence of the victims of #BarbequeBecky, or #PermitPatty, or #PoolPatrolPaula!
Trump has no cause except to remind us that our "favorite President" has done nothing wrong.
But even that was a clumsy job because many thought that he was referring to President Obama.
Well put (especially by Ja Rule).
This president is a rap album cover design, flaunting attitude, babes and bling.
Give him the Emmy he thinks he should've got, if you have to, but for heaven's sake, get him out of the Oval Office.
2
Trump is no rapper. He comes from the tradition of demagogues who exploit anger and resentments with simplistic slogans, half truths, and lies. He repeats these phrases often. They are full of sound and fury and they signify nothing. But they give him his power over voters willing to be deluded and brainwashed and the feckless
politicians that enable and support him. This act was played out in the 1930s with dire results and unfortunately may repeat itself in the upcoming years.
2
“Like” a rapper is right. I’m sure Kanye is right. Trump is all front. Just a bully who can only emulate real strength by putting on a constant show of mean tweets and brazen behavior. But we Americans like our “reality” so there you have it. And therein lies the really scary stuff.
1
Trump is an amalgamation of the bad side of hip-hop culture: the misogyny, the homophobia, the glorification of violence and the glorification of money and greed.
What he is not is anything resembling the good side, of which there is so much that outweighs the bad and why I've followed the genre for over 30 years.
But that seems to be par for the course with Trump, who seems to be utterly incapable of emulating the good side of anything. He is, however, very talented at appropriating the bad from everything. He's like a magnet that way.
1
DT is oblivious of any moral, ethical and political flaws that inhabit his body. Such a triplet of personal, emotional and psychological infractions would be a dangerous combination for any *one* person to have. That he is the POTUS makes him all the more dangerous as the leader of the Free World, which, under his "leadership," might not be our status and/or standing much longer.
As he continues to pile one disastrous moment upon another in an effortto to distract from his lastest epic failure, we can only hold our breath for so long in anticipation of the next calamity, which, of course, we know is on its way. With each new political monstrodity waiting in the wings, we almost forget that we are a nation governed by laws. In the case of the Current Occupant of the WH, however, no laws exist, only the disturbing whims, spontaneous combustions and follies of a wretched soul who never grew beyond the schoolyard square of his silver-spooned upbringing.
1
It's not surprising that Donald Trump could treat positively musicians and athletes of color. They are ultimately entertainers, producing something for mass consumption. But look how unwilling Trump is to show even basic respect for African-Americans who wield power from their intellect and integrity. Off hand, Trump called President Obama "weak," and Congressman John Lewis "all talk, no action." Those aren't political differences; that's Trump's failure to see black people as equals.
2
"Trump is very entertaining." Uh no he's not. Trump is a narcissist who is needy for attention.
1
So, Trump should have quoted Mike Tyson after his Helsinki Summit with Putin?
“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”
Maybe Putin is born with it. Maybe he owns Trump.
This would be a good time to release your tax returns Mr. Trump.... If you’ve got nothing to hide.
2
While I’m not a fan of rap music, I can acknowledge that the rappers mentioned in this piece do have some talent...They have created something. Trump, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to have created anything other than hatred and divisions.
2
I'm sure the likening Trump to a rapper will tick him off. You go!
C’mon, Mr. Blow! Trump the rapper?
Everyone, including his “base”, continually searches for ways to explain him, ways to make him palatable. The whole thing is getting really tired.
Let’s just distill it down to the root. KISS!
He is just disgraceful.
1
It makes so much sense. From this perspective he is even more pathetic than I might have imagined. But, at the same time he has become predictable even as he careens through this presidency. Once you become predictable, you are dead meat in the political world and for that matter in the business world. The Democrats not unlike the Russians just have to learn how to push the right buttons and Trump will do the rest. His predictability makes him ripe for implosion.
I think it's ironic that Mike Pompeo said today that Iran's leaders are like 'the mafia'. Odd.....that's exactly what many of us think about the Trump Administration.
Yes, Trump loves him some strong men! Always wanting to be what he is not. He can't even fire anybody to their face. He saves his most hateful tweets until he's away from whom he is attacking. He lies about his attacks on allies - eg blasting Teresa May in The Sun and then accusing the press of lying about it while standing next to her. He's a coward, not a 'strong man'.
And he's all ours. Ain't we lucky?
4
Hey Charles, did you have to take a shot at Elvis? He was a talented guy who merely emulated the sound of the blues as invented and perfected by African Americans. You could say the same thing about Mick Jagger and The Rolling Stones, whose start was based on the sound coming out of Chess Records in the late 50s. Elvis may never have mentioned it but the Stones were always clear who they were emulating. In fact, American Rock n’ Roll wouldn’t exist if African Americans hadn’t first invented the blues.
Elvis and the Stones had legitimate purposes, to entertain. Trump, on the other hand, just steals with the only purpose being to serve himself. There’s a difference. I liked Elvis. I love The Rolling Stones. I can’t stand Trump.
7
As a lifelong fan of Elvis Presley's I resent the comparison to Trump.
4
SCOTUS is all that really matters right now.
Who cares what Trump compares to? If this Kavanaugh nomination is confirmed, and it seems painfully likely,
things are gonna get funky indeed.
2
The most interesting point in this interesting article is that weaker strongmen will always bow to stronger strongmen. We certainly see that in Trump’s love of Putin.
Until this article, though, I never understood his affinity for certain people in the African-American community. Now it makes sense. Ironic, considering Trump is an unabashed racist. Equally interesting is that any African-American would find common ground with Trump. But as Charles points out, these are all famous (and/or notorious), wealthy individuals. Trump has no affinity. even to his own racism. He’s simply an immoral opportunist.
4
Having lived in NYC from 1979 through 2012 I could never stand Trump. He appalled me with his tabloid behavior during the 80's and 90's. Later, I couldn't believe people at the office actually watched The Apprentice...I couldn't bring myself to watch one minute. That being said I must be honest and say that the way the media has portrayed Trump now that he is a politician is disgraceful. Sure he is unconventional, but the hysterical reporting is full of hate and bias, half truths and lies...and it is becoming dangerous. The monster the media has created has little to do with the actual man. Trump is trying new approaches, strategies and tactics to solve problems. From what I can see, his heart is in the right place. I still don't like Trump but I refuse to be a part of the hateful mob that is out to destroy him. The hateful mob is a far greater danger to America than Trump will ever be.
1
In the best rap lyrics, reality shines and truth prevails -- that is why it is so successful. Behind the facade of gold chains and bling, the best rap artists show the pain, the struggle. But Trump does not know or listen to that side. Trump just admires the bling side of rap. He doesn't pay attention to the poetry, the truth side. Once someone makes enough money to brag about it, once they flaunt it, once they are at the top, Trump takes notice of that power, that swagger. Maybe Trump makes the mistake of appreciating the surface of things, not the soul of things. He decorates his houses with surface gold-plated this and that, thinking it looks rich, trying to flaunt it, showing his bling, like a hip hop artist who just made his first million. But, unlike the hip hop artist, he has no poetry in any verse of his, no truth revealed behind that facade, just bragging, just bling. Trump is just facade. The worst of rap is just facade; the best of rap is pure poetry. The worst of Trump is just facade; and the best of Trump is just facade -- there seems to be no truth side to Donald Trump, no poetry at all. Just empty, depressing, hallow bling.
1
An interesting point, Mr. Blow. If you take the bravado you describe here and couple it with Trump's ideological training at Norman Vincent Peale's church ("the power of positive thinking"), and we have pretty much the twisted DNA that generates Trump's anti-reality, anti-scientific thinking.
Keep hip hop and art form. It cannot be a political methodology. Keep politics for making laws, maintaining ethics and order and creating broader freedoms for it's people.
With all due respect, the article is very well written and interesting, but it reminds me of Giuliani's defences of Trump. There is not too much left of Trump after his defences.
1
Trump might think he's a rapper but he's not. He's now (regrettably), President of the United States of America. He went from being a failed businessman to the Commander in Chief of one of the most powerful countries in the world. He has taken his failed business practices to new high. It's too bad that what failed then will fail now, particularly with the increasing number of discrepancies coming to light.
People who will not release their tax returns before they run for the presidency should not be allowed to run at all. We need to know that there are no financial conflicts of interest with our enemies, our allies, or any corporations. Trump may have said so but he had, and continues to have, a record of lying that outstrips most die hard politicians records. He makes Chris Christie look like a choirboy.
He's in way over his head when it comes to running America. And the GOP fooled themselves when they thought they could run him. Both need to go sooner rather than later. If they don't we won't have a country left.
13
I have always thought El Trumpo was very much the same kind of man my father was. The similarities of bluster and bluff and refusal to admit to being wrong no matter how glaring the evidence are two common traits. Here is a story about my father that I think most readers will see applies to El Trumpo.
One of my first jobs was as a busboy/dishwasher at a Denny's. Within a few months got myself promoted to cook. another cook who was a "real" (someone who would be a cook no matter what jobs were open) cook not just someone who wanted a job showed me a trick he did with cucumbers that was supposed to stop them from repeating. You cut the end off then rubb it on the cut face until it produced a foam then cut that off. DO this on both ends. YMMV
I showed this to my father he took it in and did not say much. Not very long later a few weeks maybe months he calls me into the kitchen to teach me something about cucumbers and he shows me this thing I taught him as if he had known it all his life and was passing it down to me. By then I had known him for about 6 or 7 years so I knew better than to point out the truth to him and I just nodded. That kind of thing happened a lot with my father.
I think those who know him will recognize this same trait in El Trumpo as well.
5
This is brilliant. It's the first coherent explanation I've seen not only of Trump's actions but more importantly why his supporters enjoy his bellicosity even when they know it will not be followed up with action.
2
While it's helpful to attempt to analyse why Trump does what he does, it's much more important to think about what we are going to do about what he does.
The obvious answer is to vote to throw out his enablers in the Congress in 2016 and then to vote to throw him out in 2020.
There are only 106 days until Election Day. If you haven't registered, do it now. If you haven't asked family and friends if they are registered, do it now. If you can afford it and haven't done it, donate now to the groups trying to preserve voter rights and access. Do whatever you can to to remove this blight on our country.
8
"He speaks very openly and candidly about what he feels. "
Indeed, but what he feels is almost never true. It's truthy, but not true.
9
charels,
After so many columns of crystal clarity and forceful conviction, you have badly let us down with this confused allegory. The timing for such whimsical musings is not now, when there is treason afoot.
4
I respectfully disagree with Mr. Blow’s alignment of Donald Trump’s behavior to rap culture in general and rappers in particular.
Denying homes to Black residents; advocating that a toxic sewage treatment plant be relocated from the Upper West Side in Manhattan to Harlem, so he could build condos are examples of Trump’s disdain for non-white and poor people. His call for the death penalty for five innocent teens of color exemplifies his racist and anti-poor tendencies. Too often, we find ways to analyze and explain white supremacist behavior. There must be reason... a cause...
Trump is a “master” at branding. He is known for slapping his name on things he does not own or even like or appreciate (he owned a vodka line but doesn’t drink alcohol). As witnesses to his unconventional presidency; Trump is also an expert at manufacturing distractions. Maybe associating with rappers was simply a cover for his racism.
Or could the opposite be true: Rappers associated with Trump as a form of distraction. As a way to mask the reality of their lived experiences in America.
Mr. Blow, maybe the player (Mr. Trump) got played?
Mr. Blow, will you please write about Trump's appropriate of the Black Power Movement's raised fist? He made the gesture again in recent days signalling, it seems, vindication that recently released FBI documents about Carter Paige confirm that a spy had been planted in his campaign. Keep the faith, baby! C'mon. This is as insulting as it is misleading.
1
Interesting take, I never thought of his love for the spot light in the venue of hip hop but you might be on to something. Trump as a poor rich boy from Queens during the 70's he was at the clubs and always on the cover of the Daily News, Post or a local tv show he was always there with famous people.
I always thought of him as Roy Cohn extension and his hate for everyone but himself founded on his father's associates with the KKK.
However now that he is in charge he has exposed all of his mental flaws to the entire world. He will always be remembered by the world as a disturbed individual who is a perfect example of the Peter principle. His insulting words about Americans last week will be in speeches for decades to come.
Thank you Mr. Blow for to me a very interesting look at this president.
5
I didn't think much new could be said about Trump, but this is a fascinating observation and thesis.
7
Like every schoolyard bully, Trump attacks and intimidates those who he believes are weaker than him and, out of fear and insecurity, sycophantically praises those he fears, in an attempt to get in their good graces and avoid being bullied by them.
8
Trump basks in the power and approval of strongmen who are better at than he. Trump is a third-rate copy (thus far, thankfully).
The huge irony is that if Trump were just a mediocre President defending the Constitution, he would, by default, have it head and shoulders above the strongmen he wishes to emulate.
2
Perhaps Mr. Trump does most of his on Twitter.
His is warped ---with unhinged, erratic, disruptive, and threatening tweets. So full of repetition day after day, one questions his cognitive wellness.
A bored, attention-seeking president just attacked the Washington Post, Amazon, The Media, The Mueller Investigation, The FBI, The DOJ, Hillary, Obama, promoted Fox News, AND threatened Iran----all in the last 15 hours.
Small wonder he barely gets to the office by noon.
Please everyone, vote Democrat so we can change the channel. The Apprentice Presidency Show has to go.
5
To say this columns a stretch, is an understatement. I'm not buying it. Trump just likes money and power. Trump graduated from high school in the mid sixties- way before rap became popular music, which was in the eighties. He is a misogynist like many rappers, I'll give you that.
1
Don't let yourselves be distracted. Trump is a terrible man, in many ways. But right now, the important thing for our country is whether he is actually in the control of Russia.
3
I have always thought of Trump as a bully and a coward. He loves the strong men, like Putin, because he's a wannabe. He has always had all the protection money can buy. He's never had to face serious consequences because there have never been consequences serious enough to imperil his well-being. America is his new toy. he can play with it at will because there really is no penalty for his narcissism. He can lose in 2020 and laugh at the "rigged" result, and then start "The Trump Network" on Fox.
2
Well stated: " ... men pretending to be strongmen will always yield to stronger men." The prez. yields to Putin. In the natural order of things.
2
Only a fake president would claim that the news from highly reputable sources are fake. This weekend his tweets were in a panic mode as if were being cornered and afraid. He lashes out in a way that exhibits how insecure he is for the simple reason he doesn't know what he is doing or what he is supposed to do. He is so unfit to run our now divided
( thanks to him ) country.
4
Trump emulated black power??? Ok that does not make sense.
Better to say Trump is a kid, a teenager who likes rap. A teen who says the first thing that comes to mind and to whom other teens feel is refreshing.
1
I really don't care what motivates or makes up this ugly, self-interested Trump person. His racism (except toward some rich ones) crudity, rudeness, business theft-by-deceit, name calling, misogyny, disloyalty, and perpetual lying disqualify him as leader on character alone. His inability to read, take notes, and speak clearly and in high school English should have prevented him from receiving a college degree, much less one from Penn. I don't think we owe Trump any treatment other than barely civil. Best thing we can do is continually, loudly and publicly, embarrass him in public for every shortcoming no matter how small, search for criminal and other wrongdoing evidence, and keep him angry and defensive. He shouldn't have one day of peace and should leave office expecting to always be held as the worst American president, and that's saying something. If he burst into flames I wouldn't call 911.
12
@Shillingfarmer. I agree 100% with you
I do fear many things are of one piece here. I often think to myself, what does it say about our culture that we all watched "The Sopranos" and sang hymns to its high artistry?
The Sopranos was a TV series about murderous criminals. And were we not entertained?
Decadent culture is decadent. So sure, Trump is like a rapper. Or, he is like Tony Soprano. Or we can even turn to the decadence of our cartoons and note that he is very much like South Park's Cartman.
What do all these decadent tropes have in common? They all depict violent and stupid authoritarianism as something amusing.
Culture has consequences, my friends. We need to make better cultural choices if we want a better politics, I think.
1
More discussion about a mentally unstable man. A very dangerous and unpredictable man. And he thrives on the unpredictability and on the swagger.
What a scary and dangerous time for America.
1
This is interesting enough, but Charles should step back and ask whether there is anything cultural about Donald Trump at all.
5
It's ridiculous to assert that Donald Trump has taken as a model the likes of Mike Tyson or show biz rappers. They do not rise nearly to the level to be imitated in any way. And they certainly have not contributed to the greatness of our President.
The Rapper analogy is good one. Though labeling him as a funk faker, is not. Though it is possible to see how it would be misunderstood. First, the funk is not faked for fame or wealth. True, the funk of 'better deals for American workers' is not consistent with concentrating wealth into the hands of a few -- like those affording his brands. So in that regard it is inconsistent. Though it s consistent with a genuine concern for middle class America. The transfer of wealth from Walmart to Chinese billionaires (to use another analogy), concentrated the wealth transferred into fewer hands -- that could afford his brands. So you see, his funk aint faked -- for personal gain; because if successful, would lessen concentration of wealth and along with that demand for his brands. So you see --further, his funk for the people is real.
So you see -- even further, even when Blow is right, he's wrong.
Trump is attracted to celebrity. He is apolitical.If celebrities are open to his embrace, then he admires them regardless of their beliefs because he has no beliefs. He is a persona but he is without character.
4
Interesting take on Trump's pose as a rapper. A white grievance rapper. But look beyond the pose to the content of what he wants his base to believe: nothing. Nothing that comes from anyone other than Trump is true, according to him. Apparent disloyalty? Who are you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes? Massive, ongoing Russian interference? Media hoax, says Trump. Etc. At the top of Trump's to-do list, every day, is: undercut he media at every opportunity.
Trump advises all to disregard anything they read in allegedly Fake News, or hear about in the equally fake television news, and accept his word above all. His word is: Nothing. There is no patriotism or ordinary decency that might require him to stand up for his country in the face of attack by a foreign adversary. There is no ideology or set of values, other than his own enrichment, that he could betray because these are all negotiable in Trump world. When it becomes completely clear that Trump is deeply compromised, would it surprise anyone to hear/read on Twitter that Russia may have interfered with our elections, but that was a Good Thing, because it saved the country from the scourge of Hillary Clinton. This idea is already being pitched by the allegedly non-deplorable right wing of the base.
He seems to be saying to his base "don't watch what I'm doing, listen to what I'm saying." This is a good rap for a dealer of 3-card monte, but completely unacceptable from a president.
4
I have always thought of most rap as adolescent. Fronting and demonstration with very little depth. Musically it can be brilliant, lyrically it is usually a far cry from even tolerable. I see Trump and his supporters in the same way, people forever stuck in adolescence, where all the problems of the world can be solved through puffing your chest out and getting your "foes" to back down. You see this same simplistic adolescent world view in everything that Trump does. Tariffs are an easy answer, but what do they solve? Threatening North Korea and Iran to get them to back down, yet they don't. Summits to show of who you are meeting with, toughness by association. All of this is high school and early adulthood reasoning and it is popular because everyone would like the world to be simpler than it really is. The world is not simple and using threats does not work. Just like beating up your rival in high school accomplishes nothing.
For these reasons lots of Trump and GOP supporters in general don't think they are racist but they are - in very profound ways however masked motivations are.
OK I admit I am drawing conclusions anecdotally but my many decades given a variety of settings and exposures forces me to draw them. GOP PR or PC or my lying eyes?
Examples range from pretty vulgar to "just" stand-offish. But ALWAYS - even between to the two ends - lies the notion of white superiority and an aversion to the notion of society helping non-whites.
These closet racists - at least most I've encountered since mid-90s - don't think they are racists because they sometimes fraternize with non-whites superficially or just don't get the vapors when they come in contact with a non-white.
Here is where this "benign" form of racism turns ugly: at the ballot box!
The Ds try to appeal to our higher nature hoping that the concept of bettering society - which takes thought, resources, and is complex - however right to do - will motivate a vote for them.
It probably would if the Ds did better packaging and the Rs weren't so good at gas-lighting, straw-manning, etc. that creates confusion, doubt, and cynicism and suppresses voter turn-out if nothing else.
The GOP plays the fears, theology, and prejudices of their base superbly. Nothing motivates like base primal instincts and issues of "faith".
The GOP wins although they are the minority Party overall - racism is their friend!
2
Hypermasculinity is a boy's compensation for a father's abuse and/or neglect. If physically abused, they internalize the perpetrator by emulating their violence to ingratiate themselves with a caretaker with dominant power in order to survive. If neglected, they don't have a reasonable standard of masculinity so they act it out in the strongest terms so nobody is doubtful of their "manhood". Trump, West, Tyson etc. are all sad examples of the psychological damage done to sons of absent and/or violent fathers.
4
Until he became the Republican nominee, Donald Trump was a blip on my personal radar, and a laughable blip at that. His candidacy was a joke at first; his television shows non-starters in my pop culture lexicon. Now his presidency is a relentless nightmare in which we are being held hostage to what feels like a drug-induced slumber from which we cannot fully awaken. It took standing on the corner of 6th Avenue and 42nd Street on a recent business trip to New York City, waiting for the light to change and glancing at the headlines screaming out from tabloids displayed on an adjacent newsstand for me to comprehend in what seemed like a flash of lightning what New Yorkers have had to witness, absorb, and put up with -- have themselves been held hostage to -- for years and years: the self-promotion/self-aggrandizement of this monstrous, insatiable, dangerously insecure egotist. . . this apricot toddler, as the Brits have begun calling him. Charles M. Blow gets it right again. Knowing nothing about rap music except for my profound admiration of Lin Manuel Miranda's genius-level "Hamilton," and my intense dislike of the values embedded in a lot of rap (violence, misogyny), his analysis here is helpful. Yet another reason to despair this hostile takeover of America -- this being held hostage to an incomprehensible, language-mangling strongman-wannabe who thinks only he can fix what he believes ails us and who was encouraged by his own father to think like and be "a killer."
2
Here's hoping that his Bulworth schtick ends in November 2020!
1
Analysis of #45 is a complete waste of time and energy. It does not matter who he emulates, it does not matter what his tactics, it does not matter what his end game is...
What matters it that he is destroying our Country and destroying DEMOCRACY, one action at a time.
My first exciting visit to a polling place was in 1960. This next visit in November will be the MOST important vote that I have ever cast.
Out with the spineless and complicit Republicans.
9
Never quite got the relevance of this piece. The best I could come up with in response was "so what?"
5
The black rappers, entertainers, etc. that Trump found fascinating can dismiss his racist views since he seemed to “accept” them. That’s how people try to rationalize their complicity when faced with an ugly truth. Trump’s “relationship” with the black men mentioned in this article is a perfect example!
2
Charles, he may be 'faking the funk', but there is no faking the fallout of nuclear war and he is crazy enough to threaten such with Iran. As James Comey is pleading with Democrats, 'don't go too far left', so we have some chance of balancing the 'hip-hop' president with a 'rock and roll' Congress who will stem the tide of him hopping to every hip by autocrats and oligarchs. God save us from ourselves.
1
We had better focus on a democratic message to gain votes in November and 2020. What can we say and do to help the nation get back on track? Mention jobs, infrastructure, education, water, air, parks, technology, protection, safety, allies, purpose...we need a purpose to get voters back.
I always look forward to your columns, Charles, but I'm afraid we will go nowhere with our constant frustration of Trump. Trust me, I wake up sick each morning with the news of some other crazy thing he's said or done, but we must have a strong purpose and message to beat him. Let's beat him!
5
Yes, Trump and his supporters are complicated. That is the larger problem, the rest of us want to simplify both Trump and his supporters down to a sound-byte.
Trump, and his support base, are only the tip of the huge iceberg of problems that We the People have compromised and ignored since the inception of this nation. In many ways Trump was, and is, inevitable.
Our candidates for elective office rarely listen to We the People. They listen to We the Wealthy Donors instead. Hence the real issues of We the People who actually "Ordain the government" are rarely addressed and the anger and rage grow to the point where We the People are so emotional that we are all-too-easy to manipulate by the use of strategic adjectives and adverbs by those used to manipulating others.
We have the government that we deserve, not the one we want and need.
4
Yes, and the only way out of Trump and his supporters attack on our Democracy is to vote this fall.
I am white and do not support Trump and will vote against him and against his GOP enablers whenever and as often as I can.
But why is it that when white people support Trump they are tagged as racists and held responsible for his disaster of a presidency, but when rich, black people support Trump they are not responsible because they couldn't see Trump's racism as it was "muted by their money"? Kanye West and others have given Trump cover whether that was their intention or not. And as with all adults - they should have known better and they should be held responsible.
20
Everybody needs a day off, I guess. Can't take this seriously. Doesn't explain for a second why and how Kanye West, for one, can look past the racism. Except,of course, success in monetary terms can make for strange bedfellows. Trump is way beyond hip-hop. His role models are strongmen: Putin, Orbon, Erdogan, etc. if nothing else, this piece indicts hip-hop, like Trumpism, as a deceptive and manipulative message, articulating grievances, many legitimate, with neither the ability nor the inclination to alleviate them.
2
A fascinating column. When faced with a real strongman in person Trump changes. He is really tough on Twitter, as his tweet toward Iran last night showed. He seems to think he can always make everything better no matter what he says. His childish bullying is insane.
1
Trump probably appreciated North Korea saying that his administration was acting like gangsters. Donald thinks that sounds tough and cool!
Any man who would model his lifestyle after Mike Tyson deals with serious emotional difficulties.
Cus D'Amato, who took the young Brooklyn juvenile delinquent into his stable of fighters, made Tyson a killer. D'Amato looked the other way at Tyson's sexual assaults and other forms of criminal behavior when the young boxer was a resident at the trainer's Catskill gym.
Fred Trump was Donald Trump's Cus D'Amato. He didn't look the other way at his son's depredations; he encouraged them. For young black kids in trouble, boxing could be seen as a way out. Donald Trump had no such pressing financial or social issues; this makes him far more dangerous. He had choices that young black kids don't.
I understand the deep reach and need of hip-hop/rap. Neither is my favorite form of musical release but I fully get "In Da Club" by 50-Cent and "Yeah" by Usher; the anger of Ice-T, Ice Cube and Snoop Dogg. Their daddies weren't real estate dealers. All I know about Kanye West is that his wife isn't black. Perhaps it's because I'm not "really" black; I've heard that one all my life, too.
Black Americans should be in no doubt about the menace that Donald Trump represents to them--and to the rest of us. James Brown once sang "Money Won't Change You." Well, money hasn't changed Donald Trump; he wants us all ghetto-ized. West and the other wealthy musicians who go around in a Trump-induced haze need to understand one thing: he takes from people, and when he's done, so are you.
Dig 'dat.
15
Trump is engaging in a practice with a long and troubled history, a practice symbolized by the trope "Some of my best friends are jews"
I found Brad Pllumer's 2011 review of the history of this defense worth reading
https://newrepublic.com/article/90059/gop-rick-santorum-best-friend-defense
As concerns Trump and his rapper friends or admirers,the question to be asked is always: Exactly which rappers do you admire, Donald, and which rappers admire you?
Thomas Zaslavsky in early comments is careful to note the need for avoiding the generalizations all too common in comment land.
One thing is clear, some rappers have a far better command of the English language than does the President (I wrote that "some" just to remind comment writers, always advisable to use "some" so you do not hear from me about generalizing too often.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen US SE
5
When Blow,along with others with similar political tactics, portrays most Americans as "racists" or "closet racists, the result is increased racial divisiveness.
This may foster a short term political benefit by increasing the "black vote" but it is ultimately damaging to all Americans, especially black Americans.
The political tactic of characterizing black Americans, as a group, as separate and different than all other Americans is part of the problem by strengthening a stereotype.
The goal should be te opposite which is to portray black Americans as similar to all other Americans.
3
Trump's attitudinal hijacking of exclusionary street funk to personally ascend his own "high" rise can only hold cultural "pull" if his isn't void en masse for which any "attraction" is only inversely proportional to the square of the distance between street and penthouse anyway. Raise HIGH the roof beam, carpenters! Save for when the posts can't even "lentil" the stoop.
I have made the observation that his fans, or persistant strong supporters, are enthralled with him because it allows them to similarly project that they are not racists.
2
The problems with Trump are vast and many. But the largest one is that he has no business being President. At all. Why he thought so but even more alarming is why voters thought so is beyond me. Of course Trump is faking it. Every day I am more sickened, saddened, and frightened.
3
Trump is all id.
"Like a child" is something that gets repeated frequently, but think of what level of development he reached before things froze and you come up with id.
Like a temperamental child, he gets attention and people are drawn to the noise. but like a 2-year old yelling "NO!" to everything, it get tiresome pretty quickly and we look to adults to stop the noise and foot-stomping. The adults over in aisle 3 have done nothing to stop the noise, so we will go get ourselves some new adults.
2
What can you say about Trump that hasn’t been said already? He is anathema to most thinking Americans. He has no soul, nor conscience. He lit up a disgruntled portion of America, and they (trump and his followers) are in a committed relationship. But PLEASE remember this is a minority...and we must vote in November to restore the soul of America!!!
8
I always respect Blow's perspective, but I think he's missing the mark on this one. Trump didn't have close ties to the rap community, but he seems to have had close, documented ties to organized crime. In particular, he picked up his "never apologize, just keep lying" philosophy pretty explicitly from Roy Cohn, his mentor and the famous fixer who helped out the New York mafia -- and also helped Joe McCarthy with his "big lie" during the 1950s Red Scare (all while being a closeted gay man, of course.)
It's probably more accurate to see Trump's attitude as reflective of his personal and family history with organized crime, going back to his grandfather who seems to have run a brothel in Canada. Trump may be "gangster" -- but in the very old school 1920s sense of dealing in shady, illegal sources of money. He runs his country, like his business, like an organized crime syndicate. This makes him similar to gangster rappers, but incidentally. The gangster code of respect and loyalty and revenge on your enemies -- that predates hip hop and rap music by a long shot.
To these tinnitus-dimmed ears, rap and hip-hop are impenetrable mumblings, even when delivered at 10 on the volume dial. It's really too bad Trump didn't adopt the '50's, '60's and '70's R&B out of Motown as his black mantra. The world would be the better for it.
4
How do I find the exact number of consecutive Blow articles that revolve around his Trump hate? He owes The Donald a user fee.
4
This seems far-fetched. Trump is a destructive personality, rather transparently paranoid, who would rather lie when it's easier to tell the truth, and is cruel to the point where he thinks it's funny. He's just a twisted personality. If he were born in 18th Century France he might get himself invited to parties with Benjamin Franklin or Madame de Pompadour but he would still be a twisted personality. The fact that he grew up in New York City in no way explains his demented views of the world.
Well thought out and quite likely. However, on this day in which I have to read Mr. Putin’s comments to get any idea of the “agreements” reached at the secret meeting, it feels like a luxury from the good ol’days when a shell-shocked electorate delved into analysis. What matters is what happens, and after the news conference, it strikes me that President Trump’s malformed brain, whatever its oozing genesis, has hit the fan full force. This is another level of abnormal. Was I asleep or distracted when America was conquered? Should I check the Times archives? Are we a vassal nation?
Charles Blow, it should be noted for the record, was dead-center in my opinion in his column just before the news conference, to whit: “Simply put, Trump is a traitor and may well be treasonous.” So what now? I’m going to vote. I haven’t missed an election since becoming eligible to vote. I’m sending small donations to crucial campaigns in other states since, I say proudly, multicultural Hawaii is already one of the most Democratic states in the nation. But I can’t shake the unease of a corner turned, the battle upon us, and an urgency to fight to stem the damage until November.
I live on the island where the volcano is erupting. We are here, in the moment.
2
I am not really sure where you were trying to go with this, Mr. Blow.
There is nothing new in the idea that Trump likes to hang with the winners, and mock the losers. To Trump anyone on TV, or on a magazine cover is a winner. Anyone struggling to pay rent is a loser. Strongmen dictators are winners by definition. They can have their competition tossed in jail, or fed to dogs.
I don't think that makes him a rapper; maybe a raptor. He likes Kanye and Kim because they are popular, not for any intrinsic values that they hold.
Trump is shallow and a showman. Scratch the surface of Trump and you'll find more surface. The depth of character is just not there. In his own world, he'd just be a successful blowhard. Leading our nation? He is a blank slate for those that would use him, and a toxic brew of ego, bravado, vanity, braggadocio,wrapped up in a fundamental need to be seen as a winner.
Does that really make him a rapper?
14
Trump's Twitter courage was on full display with his tweet threatening Iran. Empty and useless, Trump plays at being strong but wilts when in the company of real strength as we saw in Helsinki. His cult eats it up. They are as shallow and corrupt as he. Putin swallows Trump up and even Gowdy is alarmed by it.
Where does that leave us? Wandering in the wilderness? Looking for an Obama like leader to guide us out of Egypt so to speak?
A blue wave may end the immediate threat but the GOP, as ruthless as Putin and Kim, will continue their assault on our democracy.
4
I do not follow "hip-hop", so I have to take the information Charles presents here as the starting point. If I understand Charles, it appears to me that "rappers" are ego driven and self serving. That is certainly true of Trump. Not caring about others is his forte. His psychology is well suited to committing treason and other crimes.
PROSECUTE RUSSIAGATE!
1
Thank you for reinforcing my complete disdain and contempt for rappers. Knowing that several of them think Trump's a great guy just makes me loathe them more than I already did because of their talentless music.
As a registered Democrat, I always believed in the two party system, but never thought it would end up with the Democrats and the Communists.
2
“He is the Elvis Presley of politics, a cultural appropriator who took the coarser side of the black men whose thrall he was in and repackaged their qualities behind a white face.”
Except Elvis Presley loved the music and brought joy to people with his interpretations of those wonderful songs. Trump is no Elvis Presley!
5
Trump couldn't make it in the big leagues of culture, intellectualism or celebrity. Too uncouth, too unlearned, a braggart who couldn't keep the lies straight, untrustworthy, a man who played nasty games and thought nobody could see what he was doing. His Daddy's money and gold-plated toilettes weren't sufficient to cover too long for the many deficiencies of Trump. So, naturally, he went where little boys raised to be "killers" go: the dark side of everything, whether it's hip hop or the fake and violent world of wrestling, and, of course, beauty pageants.
I think Trump was born too late. The world he really wanted to star in was the world of Sinatra and Martin, the Rat Pack world. I can easily picture him as a teen dreaming big dreams of that kind of celebrity as he poured over the pages of his National Enquirer, the rag he thinks deserves many Pulitzer Prizes.
3
Donald Trump always has been attracted to anyone who holds the promise of getting him public attention, as long as it was free. Once he became a presidential candidate, reporters provided the free coverage, and Trump’s only obligation was to say something controversial.
His attraction to famous black rappers and athletes is part of the old Trump habit of seeking a spotlight wherever and whenever he can find it. It may just be the same as Trump’s pathetic need for acceptance by celebrities.
The fascination with tough guys also may have a psychological context. As a bully and a physical coward – this large man has spent a lifetime hiding when he needed to behind other men who are braver – Donald Trump is enthralled by men who project strength. If those strongmen also strike a public pose as outlaws, so much the better. It apparently is comforting to him to be around them.
Now that Donald Trump has found Vladimir, there probably won't be any rappers hanging around.
1
You're usually right, Mr. Blow, but this is just the tip of the Trumpian iceberg. It goes much deeper than "like a rapper." Trump admires abusers. He is one. If you read Lundy Bancroft's book "Why Does He Do That?" you'd see a pristine Trumpian blueprint.
Trump is not interested in anything except having "power over" others. That's in quotes because it's a very important phrase in domestic abuse — abusers use any tactic that gives them power over others. If denied power over something/somebody they feel entitled to, they charm or rage until their anger overpowers everything.
This is why, the closer Mueller gets to indictments, the more I fear Trump will start a war. (Or five!) Violent chaos gives him power.
8
Many years ago I was introduced to new neighbors in my neighborhood as the "token Catholic" in a Mormon heavy neighborhood.
That is what Trump is doing-engaging, selectively, with people of color who are merely tokens to him in order to lessen any semblance, that Trump is a racist. Those actions fail to sway many, I hope.
4
We need neither rhythm or rhyme to understand that Trump gives his own country a bad rap - especially when dealing with Russia.
1
"That’s why I think this racist actually believes on some level that he is not a racist."
Maybe I travel in small circles, but, while I have met many racists, I have never once met one who KNEW he was a racist.
Even those who say things like, "People should stick to their own kind, and stand up for their own kind, and calling for WHITE POWER is no more racist than calling for BLACK POWER." Even THEY don't believe that they are racists.
This is why simply calling them out for their racism is so futile. They think it an untrue and unfair accusation. The battle has to be fought by other means.
1
This is an interesting take on Trump. The author has had the integrity to present his views on rich self made rappers. I am sure a number of people will say that he betrayed his own people etc. I have to applaud his professionalism for taking on a Trump phenomenon that some of us missed. Kudos Mr. Blow
1
Charles I don't have a problem with the gist of your argument here, or its conclusion, but I object very strongly to the following sentence:
"He is the Elvis Presley of politics, a cultural appropriator who took the coarser side of the black men whose thrall he was in and repackaged their qualities behind a white face."
As far as I am concerned, you have utterly revealed the moral and intellectual bankruptcy of "identity politics" (as far as it applies to combating racism) with this statement. With it - to me - you have as good as said that all African-Americans should return to Africa and turn their back on the rest of the world; that all social interaction between people of different "races" is wrong and should be avoided - lest they influence or "contaminate" each other; or disturb the "purity" of the distinct culture of their respective peoples or "volks".
In short: if not a racist statement - it's certainly a "racialist" one.
Elvis Presley was someone who did not enjoy much "white privilege" in his childhood and youth; who was inclined to regard similarly poor African-Americans as his fellow human beings and to call adults of their number "Mam'" and "Sir" like he did those of his own; and who, if he ever said anything racist to anyone in his entire life, I'd certainly like to know about it.
You've written of something that speaks of our common humanity, of homage, and of love; as if it was something ugly, corrupt and despicable.
You can't put out a fire with fire.
3
An interesting take and once with some merit. Trump to me tries to ape the swagger of the alpha male but deep down he knows he comes up short on some of the things that an actual alpha male does. Still it's a good enough imitation to intimidate nearly everyone around him--including his political opponents.
Poor JEB!, poor little Marco, poor lying Ted even though it pains me to say it, poor Hillary. She had her chance to take him down during that debate when he deliberately walked into her space. A quick spin, an icy stare, "Excuse me Donald, do you have a problem?" would have made him a laughing stock and cut his ego down to size. Instead she froze. Ignoring a bully only encourages him. If you can't stand up to Trump how do you stand up to Putin?
Speaking of Putin, contrast Trump's contemptuous treatment of his opponents with his slavering deference to a brutal man who is everything that Trump longs to be but isn't.
In politics strong and wrong nearly always beats weak and right. Anyone taking on Trump must be both strong AND right. By strong I mean someone who is absolutely genuine in his or her core beliefs, someone who is quick witted and not easily intimidated. Being physically imposing can't hurt but is not essential--one of our strongest presidents was a crippled guy in a wheelchair. Military service is a plus but relying on that alone for manly street cred is a mistake--ask John Kerry.
Democrats, choose your champion, and choose carefully.
4
I think that you can also add the black boxing promoter Don King, Charles, to the list of edgy, notorious, and powerful black men whose company Trump seeks. It is revealing that no black women have a place within his celebrity orbit. Given Trump's established pattern of racial discrimination in past business practices, in addition to his outrageous accommodation of white supremacy in his presidency, his embrace of these countercultural figures, like everything else in his impoverished life, is purely transactional. It merely makes him "feel good" in the moment, like the guy who likes to hang around cops for a boost to his ego. A lasting friendship based upon sacrifice, empathy, and love? Never with this raging narcissist!
1
Hip hop, hipsters, and anything else emulated or touched by Trump suffers.
With Trump in the White House America has lost its dignity along with its sanity.
Even considering Trump a serious candidate tarnished America.
But the Republican Party is what delivered Trump to office and Americans should hold its leadership and members responsible for that traitorous act.
3
Trump appears to be someone who thrives on the belief that one has to constantly be on guard because there is always a threat around the corner. He is not someone who holds a loving view towards life, others and/or the world. He seems to see everything as a war of some kind.
Rap music is similar in that sense. It is intended to reflect the harsh realities of the world as they have experienced it. So Trump and rappers share a similar worldview.
That said, neither rap or Trump reflect reality for the majority of humanity. Yes, life can be tough. Yes, there are bad people. Yes, bad things do happen to good people. That is life. None of us are immune from suffering.
However, there is a lot of good in the world too. Good and bad simultaneously exist in our world. The key in dealing with suffering is either it will close one's heart or make one more compassionate.
Sadly, Trump is not a compassionate person and his policies reflect that. He must have a lot of pain to be so cruel. On some level, I do feel sorry for the man. It must be hard to have such little love in one's heart. God help him and help us all. Hopefully, the midterms will turn the boat around and we can go back to seeing the glass half full than empty.
1
Trump is worthy of your excoriation.
But Trump is not the issue with America, the problem is that 40% of us see nothing wrong with him.
Many rappers extol a culture of guns, misogyny and drugs but rappers would not be popular if their message did not resonate with consumers beguiled by their message.
Silencing the rapper doesn't solve the problem.
9
And, what he's doing is working. Latest polls show Trump's approval rating at the highest level of his presidency and higher than President Obama's approval rating at the same point in his first term.
12
Incorrect.
Trump's poll numbers show that he has a close to 98% approval rating AMONG REPUBLICAN VOTERS.
In addition, among 88 polls released this year, Rasmussen has the highest approval rating for Trump, according to Real Clear Politics. Three other recent polls have Trump’s latest approval as low as 39 percent: Gallup, NBC News/Wall Street Journal and Reuters/Ipsos. All three polls were taken this month.
If you look at Real Clear Politics’ average of polling data, Trump’s latest approval rating is 42.1 percent, a bit below the average of 44.3 percent on Jan. 27, 2017, a week after he took the oath of office.
Obama, meanwhile, had an average approval of 63.3 percent on Jan. 27, 2009, and an average of 47.7 percent on April 17, 2010, according to RCP.
39
@Robert I suppose there is many like-minded individuals that align with Trump-you know, white supremacists. That many side with Trump and his racist policies is disconcerting and provides reminders of the time when another avowed racist ran for president-and lost his race-to the good of the country.
Also, according to Gallup Trump trails Obama's rating by 3 points at this point in time.
5
Be clear! Those poll numbers reflect his status among Republicans ONLY.
4
Simple solutions to complex problems, bumper sticker sayings, rap songs simple lyrics, none of these offer solutions to our problems or a motto to live by.
Whether white or black or in between, Trump adores those who acquire money and power. His racism is shown when it comes to the poor or less fortunate in health. It fits perfect with the 1% that Trump wants to be a part.
He has no ideals only an appreciation of success measured by money.
We can and must do better or he will drag us into a society that also only worships success oin terms of money and all others can go to h---.
37
@tom: You don't live in New York, because if you did, you would be aware of a mayor who is more concerned with illegal immigrants and being seen at the s.w. border than he is with the welfare of the "citadins"of the 5 boroughs. Conflagration in that building in the Bronx in Jan. need not have happened if Housing Authority had been doing its job to insure a safe place to live for the most vulnerable among us. Things have gotten worse under De Blasio and under the governor , both of whom r more concerned with staying on the good side of the permanent government of landlords than with serving the populace! If you think that Trump incarnates the worst of the political system, then come to New York which would be a real eye opener!Among the political riff raff we have governing us, only 1 stands apart as the epitomy of philanthropy and civic mindedness, State Senator LIZ KRUEGER,who helped me out when I really needed it. See my video, "Krueger and my dog!"
1
Putin’s rapper perhaps...but Putin’s game is quite clear.
He very well may have told Trump that either Trump can break up NATO peacefully or Russia will take matters into its own hands and use force to achieve that goal.
Trump behaves as if this were the case. . He mimics Putin’s anti-Montenegro position. That says a lot.
This is an extreme emergency.
8
Thanks for the column. It's got to be so wearysome to write about that fool. I can feel the weight of the fatigue. But the more it's done and the more his sickness is kept out there front and center, the harder it will be to dismiss it. In my circle of friends, one of the biggest trump supports caved after the Helsinki debacle. I am so quietly proud of her, she had such faith in the fool. But the Putin thing and disparaging of our intelligence community was too much. Please continue with your good work.
11
Sorry, Mr. Blow, I can't completely go along with this one. While I agree that Trump admires successful rappers, and even likes being described in similar terms, I doubt very much that he has appropriated the traits that brought them to the top. New Yorkers know Trump from before the Disco days and know that he was acting like a rapper long before rap. Most early rappers who are not dead have mellowed or simply shifted to monetizing their celebrity brand. In that respect, monetizing his brand, he is still very much like them, but so was Zsa Zsa Gabor. Tyson, after having served time in prison, a brief comeback, followed by bankruptcy, can best be described as a has-been. Mike Tyson is 52. Most of the initial rap stars are in their mid-40's. Trump is 72.
2
@syfredrick
Yeah, I think you're right. I think that the cause of their apparent similarity is in the opposite direction. Rappers' first role model was Gil Scott-Heron, a man who couldn't have been any more different from Trump.
I know that young, talented kids aren't likely to take advice from an old, geeky twit like me, but I would highly advise young rappers to sort of do a Sankofa, and travel back to the ancestral land of GSH for inspiration.
1
@syfredrick
While you may be correct that many early rappers have mellowed, you are off by ten years or more on their ages. Perhaps you just aren't thinking back far enough. But the members of Public Enemy, Run-DMC, Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, NWA, the Beastie Boys and others are all in their mid 50s or close to 60. Ice T is 60. Even The Fresh Prince, Will Smith is 49. And I'm sure a more knowledgeable hip-hop historian can push that back even further. And since NYC was a hip-hop incubator, once of the formative cities for hip-hop culture, it makes total sense that Trump would be aware of those early artists.
Charles,
On the subject of Trump's insecurities, I wish someone would write a column about his body language.
It seems that every time he's in a meeting with top advisors he wraps his arms around himself so tightly he's appears to fear he's about to explode.
What up with that?
53
@two cents - I did research on body language because I was thinking the same thing you are. A person who crosses his arms closely to his chest is in the "defensive position." And Trump has a lot to be defensive about.
1
@two cents Defensive and frightened. Any teacher has seen adolescent males assume this posture when reprimanded or called out for lying.
@two cents
I've noticed that as well.
Overall well said, but the one point that I take issue with is denigrating Trump for admiring successful people over the poor. There is nothing wrong with admiring success and appreciating their accomplishments and in some rare cases brilliance and ingenuity.
1
Trump is a reality star, not a rapper. His "saying like it is" is a product of his own fantasy, and not introspection of how he got to where he is in his life, except when it is denial of the greater processes that actually afforded him the election instead of his own merit.
1
I find the concerning thing about both trump and the rappers he emulates is the example this provides for our youth. While hip hop has certainly been able to put black culture into the mainstream of American consciousness, I’m afraid it has probably done just as much to stifle black socioeconomic advancement.
A couple of the most celebrated rappers of this past generation include JayZ and lil Wayne. Both are extremely talented in terms of musical flow and wordplay. However both their lyrical catalogs are littered with money and brand worship, womanizing, and drug dealing or using. As a modern black mogul JayZ has done very little to use his immense resources to uplift his fellow black Americans (save a weak oped in this same paper a while back trying to free Meek Mill).
Their success may have something to do with the corporate decision makers, as equally talented artists such as Common and Mos Def have not gained as much commercial attention while focusing more on social issues. Kendrick Lamar is probably the modern exception.
Unless we want our kids to value greediness, violence, profligate spending and sexual exploitation, then perhaps we need to offer some alternative role models in society. In our consumer culture it seems that our corporate overlords have chosen the perfect president and musical acts to preserve their bottom lines, at the expense of a caring society. I will wait with bated breath for the next rap single extolling the virtues of monogamy and frugality.
9
Another good example of what Mr. Blow notes is Trump's silence about Stormy Daniels. Ms. Daniel's must know something about Trump he wants to keep hidden, and she works in a profession, pornography, that appeals to Trump's disruptive instincts. Thus hw is strangely silent, almost timid, when addressing her charges.
2
Trump is OK. He wants to have a relationship with powerful Russia - for at least two reasons: Iran and NK and nuke capability in general. He needs Russia to go back to sanctions on NK - he needs to develop leverage over Russia to get them to do this. He is working on that. He also needs Russia when he gets in to leverage over Iran, in order to stop fully their nuke program and their terror exporting. Russia matters there, too.
Trump develops these relationships with NK and Putin even as he ratchets up painful leverage over them. Smart.
1
Trump has no ability to obtain any leverage over Putin. The evidence points to Putin having leverage on him.
4
@tbs
But historically the way countries have defeated their foes was by forming strong alliances and making the aggressor back off.
Aren't you giving Trump a lot of credit which he has not earned? My fear is that he and Putin, who is a very cunning saboteur, can manipulate by engaging in clever ruses, e.g., if his long term goals are worth it, he could pull out of Syria, back off his usual schick, give Trump credit for being such a good friend of Russia.... then the West lets him move back into the house where he can disable NATO or some such thing.
His pattern seems to be to create chaos, then mollify it is some way and claim credit for fixing it.
Don't you worry we're being played by.... somebody??
2
Of course "strongmen" like Trump and the bulk of the GOP are not "strong men." They are deeply fearful and insecure. This is why I am increasingly worried that waiting to vote them out (well, not Trump unfortunately) in November will be too late. People appalled by this administration are putting all their hopes in something--the election process--that has already been seriously hobbled by gerrymandering, Citizens United, voter roll purges, the lack of a paper trail with electronic voting machines, and of course, Russian interference. It is clear that the GOP will stop at nothing to achieve power. They are hardly going to give up that power by allowing a vote at this crucial tipping point between democracy and fascism. Maybe it sounds crazy, but who would have thought the last 2 years could have brought such erosion to ordinary people's lives, the planet, and the notion of truth itself? I think those with a conscience and a brain are putting off until November what they need to do now: demand that these rich but morally bankrupt individuals resign for dereliction of duty by a general countrywide strike. I would bet if they don't, these strongmen-but-not-strong-men will manufacture some crisis to prevent a "normal" election.
11
Mr. Blow is right to trace some of Trump's cultural signals back to hip-hop. But I'm less taken by the "appropriation" theme. After all, rappers have to spend half their time proving their credentials and authenticity, often by fabricating compelling backstories. Appropriation is part of the game.
What Trump does show is the general descent of the culture as a whole, both inside of hip-hop and out. Over the years, rap has found a place to accommodate humor, altruism, and even witty self-deprecation. But the richest rappers are those who stick to disrespect and irrational boasting as their trade.
Hate sells. And it sells best when the epicenter of the hate gets off on calling everyone else haters. It sounds like an accusation. It's really an acceptance letter: welcome to the fold.
11
@James
I tire also of this tired "cultural appropriation" saw.
If we want to get as petty as some of those charges are,
whites could call "cultural appropriation" on every Black person who uses hair straightener. Let's all grow up a bit.
I am sorry to see an intellectual of the caliber of Charles Blow sinking to the level of these silly "appropriation" charges. American is a melting pot. If your are going to "wear it in public", somebody is going to copy it. It is said, after all, that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.
2
@James63 million people who voted for Trump would reaed Blow's articles and think the hate is coming from this writer, not this president.
Faking the funk--and fanning the flames.
Trump is "like a rapper" only insofar as it's an act. Yes, he likes to hang out with wealthy New York rappers as well as murderous dictators: It's all the same to him. But it's not to the rest of us. It's the difference between playing violent video games (which I can't stand, but that's beside the point) and carrying out a mass school shooting. From a distance, they look pretty much the same if you divorce yourself from reality ...which is exactly what Trump does. He lives in a dream world where anything and everything is possible if you just want it bad enough. And he wants it real, real bad. And if a few people (or a lot of people) die along the way, well, it's just a reality show, right? Or is it?
I honestly don't think DJT has the sinister element of a Kim Jong-un or Vladimir Putin to pull off an execution-style murder of his foes, but don't doubt that he's enthralled to the spectacle that he sees in them as well as Kanye West or Mike Tyson. That's what makes him truly dangerous: He doesn't see the dividing line between entertainment and savagery.
Coincidentally, a few years ago I happened to ride in the same elevator with Mike Tyson at the Venetian in Las Vegas. He didn't speak a word; by all appearances he was pretty stoned at the time. Not quite the on-stage, in-the-ring macho image DJT fawns over.
6
Sorry, Mr. Blow, this one's a real reach. I grew up in New York and most landlords were pirates, frequently sued for discriminating against people of color. Fred Trump taught his sons to discriminate, and Donald learned that lesson well. Any attraction to black rappers or athletes has only to do with their celebrity, not an interest in their experiences or challenges as black men. The man is completely without empathy.
37
"He admired the men who learned how to monetize swagger."
The swagger projected by Donald Trump exists to mask his deep insecurities. He knows he is a fraud, and lives in perpetual fear of exposure, seeking affirmation from others he perceives as strong.
I take great comfort in that.
9
Tired of trying to figure him out. Now figuring out how to get him out of office, that's worthwhile.
66
A lot has been written in an attempt define Donald Trump and to explain the motivations behind Trump’s action.
I concluded long ago that Trump is an amoral man who is unprinciplable in his dealings. Why anyone can still be surprised by Trump’s debasement of everything he touches is inexplicable to me.
There are a number of types Trump can be compared to, none of them complimentary.
21
Gangsta rap has often been been criticized for its messages of materialism, misogyny and violence and its adverse effect on impressionable youth. But who ever imagined the extent of the adverse effect it would have on the Presidency? It’s also kind of funny since Trump and his supporters are always complaining that he’s getting a bad rap.
9
Really helpful and insightful comparison to Mike Tyson. Another character who thought they could get away with absolutely anything. But also another person deluded about almost everything about themselves and who would be really pretty pathetic if they were not utterly deplorable.
1
Agree, as usual, with Mr. Blow, but not with describing Trump or the dictators he admires as "strong" people. Strength is the ability to absorb punishment, not to dish it out. Any coward and weakling can do that.
When Trump has to "take" it, he immediately begins whining about how "very unfair!" it is. He expects his subordinates to take the fall for him and never accepts responsibility for any kind of wrongdoing or failure. Not strong at all.
16
Trump is only interested in power, fame and money. He admires those that have it. He doesn't care about race or religion in this regard.
On the other hand, being black or Latino and poor, powerless and obscure make his perfect target.
16
This analysis of the psyche of Trump is way too convoluted. What about occam's razor?
2
This is a superb essay, one of those you read and then think: a curtain has been unveiled by the writer and brought the reader to a whole new level of understanding -- and perhaps with major possibilties. . . .
Such is this column. Thank you.
5
It is easy for rich rappers to ignore the bad and still admire Trump. But what about the millions whose lives are ruined or compromised? Are they expected to be as gracious?
1
Trump certainly didn't look like a strong man alongside Putin. He looked like someone who knows he's been compromised.
7
If you think about it Charles Manson was also a product of this hip hop age and all that implied.
In mimicking someone like Mike Tyson you leave the need for ethical choices behind, the things we do everyday, things like paying taxes, not shouting fire in a theater without cause. telling the truth as best we can.
Those without a conscience are called sociopaths who soon learn to pray upon the ethical choices of normal people.
Mostly our presidents try to do the right thing considering consequences, prose and cons, the opinions of others. It hasn't always turned out well,but we always had the sense that we had a human being with a conscience at the helm. Donald Trump is not this way.
But why do people choose to follow a con man or sociopath? Usually its because they want something, perhaps economic or social cause and to it they are willing to sacrifice something like ethics. Or perhaps they just find it thrilling to do the outrageous, most dangerous thing because their lives are empty and Donald Trump fills the void.
In anycase our system faces its greatest threat with the sociopath Trump pretending to be president.
14
@just Robert
It is impossible for Charles Manson to be a "product" of
a phenomenon that was not even *in the world during his
formative years, or during the execution of the crimes that
kept Chuckie in prison until he died.
If you may have been born *into a world that *had Hip Hop, please do not fall victim to the mistaken idea that everyone else was born into a *similar world !
1
Something terribly aberrant must have occured after Trump's birth and during his early childhood, teenage years and young adulthood enabling him to become a full blown malignant narcissist. None of his siblings are known to be narcissistic and the pressure that Fred jnr was placed under effectively killed him. It's a sad family. And it's even sadder that such a dysfunctional member of their family should become what is supposed to be the leader of the free world
9
Enough of this, Mr. Blow. What we need is a rejuvenated Democratic Party that listens to the disenchanted voters whom Trump was able to con into voting for him in 2016. What we need to know and hear is what that rejuvenated Democratic Party intends to offer to the new voters which it must win in now Red districts and states. They are not going to come out and vote Democratic because you hate Trump. Let's hear some postive and inspiring talk, promise of a better future. Negativism will accomplish nothing.
35
@Penseur
In your quest for good-news-only, you seem to forget that thanks to this administration, "Negativism" is the new reality -- And we will accomplish nothing by forgetting that.
@Penseur -- I think Bernie Sanders going to Red states like Nebraska and Kansas is what we need, what Democrats need. They need to stop being Republican lite. Who would choose lite beer when you can have the unadulterated product? Kansas is a failed experiment in what Republican policies bring. Most people support the policies Democrats put forth the problem is the lack of conviction they show by trying to please the right. They also run from the label of liberal or socialist. The Republicans are not conservatives they are deconstructionists, they want to do away with government and its protections for minorities and the less fortunate. Listening to the disenchanted Trump voters is not the problem getting them to listen anyone else outside the bubble is.
@Penseur - Hear, hear! I've been trying to say as much.
1
Will our never ending obsession with everything Trump ever wane? Trump a guy who loves to see his name on building he doesn't own has to be overdosing on all of the attention.People have become numb with the daily machinations of Trump. Trump's opposition is playing into The Rights hand with daily dose of What has Donald done today? Last night Donald threatened Iran with destruction like the world has never seen.Wasn't it not to long ago Trump made similar threats to the leader of North Korea? From NFL Players to meetings with Strongmen Trump loves the spotlight that he gets no matter if its positive or negative. The constant barrage of The Perils of Trump is like Crying Wolf.A few days without Trump in the headlines would make Donald go into withdrawal. I suggest we stop feeding Trump's addiction for the spotlight.
30
@Steven McCain
I suggest that we spell out in black and white and in capital letters all the changes the GOP are making to legislation that protects the environment, protects vulnerable US citizens and women, protects the rights of refugee immigrants.
Another list would include GOP attacks on the media and the rule of law, on science, and their support for rapacious financial institutions and corporations. And the support of rapacious financial institutions and corporations for members of the GOP. Write about the consequences of GOP policies over and over and over, with Trump as a footnote.
List them daily. Beside them list the ways Trump is using the presidency for unprecedented personal gain. Over and over and over, just print the facts, again and again. Trump is a nothing-burger. The Republicans are the true traitors in America.
2
@Steven McCain AMEN
2
Did somebody suggest Trump in the ring with Tyson?
Do a Pay-per-View and erase the national debt.
12
I am oh so tired of hearing about this man every single moment of every single day. What a complete waste of time, newsprint, bandwidth and storage space. Can't the media please focus on real things, real facts, something actually important. Yes the man is as horrible as all the criticisms, and it isn't going to change. I realize it is like a car wreck that the passing traffic just can't take their eyes off, but please, let's get on with life and focus on getting out of this mess.
12
@Trump Treason: The car wreck is in the White House. We can't ignore it.
1
I have little use or respect for Trump or Hip-Hop. Both have long since exceeded their 15 minutes and cannot fade away fast enough.
Both are overhyped and past their shelf date.
19
Men who want to swagger and impose themselves on come from all backgrounds. Doesn't mean we have to like it. Women, in particular, have a very strong negative reaction to men who carry on that way.
7
Sadly I don’t think so. Money is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
"...I’m not shocked by anything that comes out of his mouth at all. He’s like a rapper.”"
It doesn't make Trump unique in the way that he holds rich, successful minorities in a close embrace. This allows him (so he thinks) to shield himself from accusations of racism, and is actually a very common tactic. However, Trump does take that a step beyond most other millionaires, billionaires and moguls.
Somewhat paradoxically, that embrace, however calculated, is sincere in some sense. Anybody that's "made it into the club", i.e. accumulated massive amounts of power, status or wealth is welcomed with open arms by Trump, regardless of race. Trump recognizes and respects "kindred spirits" and is happy to invite them to the party and bask in their glow.
But as far as Trump having "co-opted" the black culture of rappers, I'm very skeptical. Whatever made Trump "Trump" was always inside him, he did not need the ascendance or existence of hip-hop to become what he is.
If there is anybody who never needed somebody else to teach him swagger, it's Trump. And to assert that Trump "fetishizes" black culture is a stretch if not downright ridiculous. His "flamboyance" is all his own, that is the one thing I will give him credit for.
Not that any of this matters at all, wasting our time talking about it is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, to coin a phrase.
5
Those who appreciate music in all its forms all over the world know its importance to self identity. The fact that rap is now infiltrating cultures on every continent with its rhythm of divisive aggression means its admirers are increasingly glorifying alienation.
Trump is indeed the political face of this worldwide poisoning alienation. Humanities accomplishments in overcoming the prejudices that separate mankind in illusions of superiority are mocked by all who are not faking the feeling of hate.
2
Trump is hollow as a log.
The minute he comes up against anyone substantial,
he runs away, or walks back, if you will.
This is not to say he's not dangerous,
he is indeed dangerous.
5
With these words Mr. Blow clearly explains everything we need to know about Trump's racism and the viewpoint of those who share it:
"Trump practiced the racism of exceptions: He disdained poor minorities — those who wanted to rent his property; criminal suspects like the Central Park Five, of whom he wrote, “I want to hate,” and whom he wanted to have executed. But he marveled at the exceptional, those who amassed money and power while projecting a counterculture aesthetic and ethos."
For some, Trump's admiring regard for rich rapper culture succeeds in masking what is his deep-seated bigotry and pernicious dehumanization of most African-Americans.
8
Their's a flow to American culture that evolves out of African-American life, I've noticed over the past 75 years. This perspective of Trump favoring rappers is another example of that flow, and a delightful read. Thank you.
5
There are endless explanations for Trump's behavior..the problem for me is that throughout school and in my job I always run across someone with the social-emotional intelligence and intellect of a Trump---which rises just above zero. Now, my strategies for dealing with individuals like this is asking the teacher to move my seat or making every effort hide/ignore/ these types of individuals in the office. These individuals are who they are, there is no changing their behavior, best move as far away as possible. Now, however, as a citizen in this country, I am being forced not only to sit next to this individual, but, must suffer the daily consequences of his bad behavior.
10
@ACJ. I really agree with your explanation. I fell exactly the same, why we have to deal with sick individuals, narcissistic personality, zero empathy. I tried do many times to understand what about this buffoon president , that made so many people voted for him. His brain was watched with bleach. Nothing else
What about the cost and consequences of Trump-the sickness and death because of losing health insurance,the environmental damage, the destruction of (the remaining) safety net? Is this always going to be "cool"?Will anybody care about the coarsening of our humanity,or will we "adjust "?
9
Mr. Blow,
According to a friend of decades, my godson who is a young Orpheus rapper does not care about money. He also has a full-time job, affordable health insurance and lives at home. Tell him to find a place of his own and then revert back to you on the subject of 'money', causing his parent to laugh.
Singular, but she and I had an exchange in 2016 where she sensed that it would be Hillary Clinton versus Trump in the political boxing ring. Trump? But who would vote for him, I replied.
Cry Beloved Country, but We did. More than half the country is still licking its chops over this knockout punch, and while we are carrying on about this unfortunate blustering canary, some Americans are now on high alert. Something is not right in this historical picture and we have moved beyond politics.
For those of us who have not lost our wits in this New Order of America, we are going to have to leave the forgotten and downtrodden in the dust behind in a fake cloud of euphoria, and fight to save our country.
We are on our way to becoming a State Police Nation; there is a growing sense of mistrust to be detected in the air, along with a toxic fume of defiant shame.
Doomed, wrote an acquaintance. Not yet, but some of us are running here and there, trying to contain the latest hole in our nation, and we need more than strong men to help in not sacrificing our country. We need strong Americans, bold and bright.
6
Dissecting the personality of Trump has been a preeminent obsession for columnists and liberals ever since he arrived on the scene. This may be cathartic, but really, is there anything new to say?
Trump is just the tip of the iceberg: He is the emergence of an outright demagogue after 40 years of descent into autocracy brought to you mainly by the Republican Party and it's deep and nefarious web of covert allies.
Fighting to save Democracy must be our main focus now. Whether it will succeed at this late date is unknown. But it is worth a good fight .
Columnists can help us in this struggle by shining an objective and evidence based light on the prolific number of crimes and cover ups committed by many parties that have led us to this sorry state.
9
Integrity - as in an integral, or the integrity of a hull - connotes wholeness. Trump's fractured personality and character represent the antithesis of integrity. Attempts to understand him are likely doomed to fail because his mental and emotional parts simply can't form a synthesized, healthy adult. The constant need for attention wrapped around a disruptive set of norms echoes some of the worst "leaders" of modern times. Combined with an echo chamber of sycophants, he is the very model of a walking disaster.
9
This is not a new thought. The Daily Show's Roy Woods Jr . did the very hysterical "They Love Me" rap video in which he used only words actually said by Trump as the lyrics. One thing that many rappers, Trump and a lot of conservative radio hosts have in common is swagger/confidence. Just listen to the lead in to the Mark Levin show and you realize that truly no one on the corner has swagger like that.
1
I don't think this phenomena is unique to Trump, he's just carried it to new heights of boorishness. Isn't it just possible that once someone, of any race, has accumulated sufficient wealth in the US, they are members of the club, and it is to the club that their allegiances lie? Despite Obama's unusual upbringing, having gone to Columbia and Harvard Law, he was now a fully-fledged member of the club, best exemplified in how he managed the financial crisis, bailing out his fellow club members, lest they reject him and to the neglect of everyone else,. He was not out of office two weeks before he was cavorting with billionaires, shamelessly snapping selfies; he never looked more at home. This was the same guy who loved to pose as Teddy Roosevelt every time campaign season swung around, and then go back to governing like Richard Nixon once it was over.
4
Would the country be better off if Mr. Obama had allowed General Motors and several large financial institutions to collapse?
@BH
Quite possibly, yes. But Mr. Continople's point, I believe, is not specific policy, but the nature of capitulation to the system. The system is Mother.
You may be right in your description of a number of rappers. I think, however, most are out to make their own type of musical entertainment to a directed audience. They dress up in the garb, get on stage and the acting begins - often freelance. Unfortunately our president should run our country with a support group (band) that has direction and the audience should be the entire nation. Trumps tough talk and in your face day to day routine is growing very old. We need a new musician.
23
As a native New Yorker, I not only know all I need to know about Donald Trump and his formative years -- but I tried to warn everyone else during his 2016 campaign, because there was no doubt as to what kind of president he would be: namely Vain, Hateful. Vindictive -- and that's just the beginning.
At least in this regard, he hasn't disappointed.
116
The skating rink episode remains quite notable.
Perhaps he was brash, vain, spoke negatively of politicians and their waste and ineptitude.
Then he fixed the skating rink.
1
@Ken
Big deal -- a skating rink. New York City needs more than just a skating rink.
And too bad if that's the only thing you can come up with.
1
@N. Smith
Big deal. It was only a skating rink, you say.
Yet, the entrenched establishment politicians had somehow spent years and years and millions and millions and accomplished less than nothing, having gleefully wasted away any monies they got their hands on.
Just a skating rink.
We've always thought His Unhinged Unraveling Unfitness was just voguing for the klieg lights when he hung around with rappers - just a softer version of shoving aside Montenegro's president at a photo op.
But this is definitely a different take.
Though we still think the Orange Jabberwock's main adult influence was his long-time lawyer Roy Cohn.
But in the final analysis, searching his motivations and chronicling his Tweet-storms are just distractions from the real business of toting up his daily wreckage from immigration changes, tariffs, and his horrible economic performance in terms of GDP growth, looking back over the POTUSes since Eisenhower.
44
Funny … I was in Manhattan in the 1970s, I remember the rise of hip-hop, and I remember the rise of Donald Trump; but derned if I remember the Donald in a lime-green leisure suit with cracked white patent leather boots sporting four-inch heels and being driven around in a matching lime-green Rolls. Ivana was around then, and was flashy enough to qualify with the bling, but the Donald was still in his suits.
How do you “fetishize black culture” while being, as he’s charged with being by the left, the most volubly racist president since Andy Jackson? Oh … I get it. Any port in a #NeverTrump storm. Besides, it’s getting hard to find new clubs with which to beat Donald Trump. Gotta keep the marks entertained. But attacking Mike Tyson seems a little … over the top.
Trump didn’t go after Kanye or the Champ, or Roseanne and others, of any complexion, for any reason other than they went after him first, and he likes those who like him. Some of them happened to be black rappers, people whose behavior was as in-your-face as his always has been, and whose moxy he admired because they came from nothing (not precisely as he did) and made something pretty serious of themselves by their own efforts. Yet remember that he also “fetishized” Roy Cohn.
Charles is “faking the relevancy”. But if you’re constantly challenged in a role as the über #NeverTrumper, you constantly need to be farther and farther out there. There’s always a hotshot kid looking to build his own cred by taking you out.
18
Trump was photographed in the 70’s in a maroon suit and white shoes and belt. More the outer-borough white uber cool guy on his way to Studio 54; the Mecca, the Nirvana, the pinnacle of wannabe New York at the time.
He may or may not have gotten into the VIP room, but eventually created his own.
3
@Richard Luettgen There is no possible "farther out there" when it comes to NeverTrumping, because there is no limit to Trump's toxicity. The most extreme negatives are not nearly enough to capture Trump's evil soullessness and poisonous aggression.
That some admire and enjoy the poison he brings to our culture and even waste their energy defending him here is disheartening; in their celebration of the evil they find useful to themselves -- or at least perversely entertaining -- vacant lives of shallow covetousness are revealed. Birds of a feather, I guess.
12
Bottom Line: trump is the worst thing for America. No one can justify support for him when he disrespects the First Amendment or supports Putin over his own country. Nothing else trump does or says matters after that shameful behavior.
Great phrase: "monetize swagger." Isn't that the basis of much of American life, particularly in "sport" as entertainment. Even rugby now uses video playback to decide who gets the reward. But once again: Trump may be a self-made (??) man with all sorts of inputs to his persona, but where would he be without the support and complicity of Paul Ryan and a host of other misguided miscreants?
72
@Des Johnson: You really don't get the point of the article, and fail to try to plumb the "arrieres pensees" of the author, which , "a mon avis, "are as follows: Mr. Blow seeks a 1 on 1, a sit down interview with the C-in C who would surely grant it to him "a coeur joie!"Author reasons that if ikons in the African American community like Simmons, Tyson Sharpton and West find The Donald to be "the joint,"expression of approval which I recall from my tenure as dean at Brandeis High, Trump can't be all that bad. So and "enfin," we who read the author's columns faithfully see the possibility of a detente, an effort to reach out by Mr. Blow to someone he has been highly critical of."On verra!
1
@Alexander Harrison: No. Charles writes well, and of late, all Trump. He does well to find a new way each time to shade his criticism. I usually agree, but add that Trump cannot do as he does without a whole band of 40+ thieves. We need to see a skewering of Paul Ryan, based on research that cannot be done without the kind of resources available to Charles. I insist on thinking outside the box delineated by a columnist. I encourage the young around me to do the same.
I always appreciate your columns Mr. Blow, because by far, you are the most direct columnist that uses the most bare language. Quite frankly, we needed more like you BEFORE the election and BEFORE the primaries. - it might have made the difference.
That difference of course, was only 77,000 extra votes over just 3 states. (with direct help by a foreign power and a conspiracy/treason yet to be determined)
I say all this because like all strongmen, they ride that populist wave as long as it will carry them. Unlike other countries, the United States has much more of a foundation to push back on such people. (elections every 2 years)
There have been the tax theft (meager to the 17% at the bottom that will sunset and the lion's share to the rich and corporations) There have been the SCOTUS nominees. There have been all sorts of roll backs to anything a Democrat ever proposed or initiated. There is the ''diplomacy'' with most of the world that has alienated long standing allies)
That wave of populism and ''tell it like it is'' is slowing down and reversing. The lies (3000+ and counting) are catching up and the effects to everyday people (the base) are very harsh.
That base is working harder and longer for less (that is if they have a job and their company has not moved out of the country) They are losing their health care and everything is costing more. (tariffs) The promises are not being kept.
The late night tweets may satiate some, but are of little comfort to most.
203
"I'm on, ridin' with my 12 gauge pump/Been a boss from the jump, go getta like Trump."
35
this rings true for someone who came of age in the era of Mike Tyson, Public Enemy, and Donald Trump...but I was left with a desire for something more--like what do I do with this information? Does this also say something about the late-1980s/early-90s, the key time period eluded to here? I don't have an answer, but it's food for thought.
14
@Dan Groth
Add in some Wall Street, War of The Roses and Putin as Lou Cyphre in the movie Angel Heart.
22
@Rima Regas Nice examples.
I always thought Trump was more of a hair metal kind of guy.
I feel like Brian Bosworth is a fellow traveler, too.
Your last paragraph captures trump completely. He insults groups of people all the time whether it's the Mexicans, or the Chinese, or NATO, or the EU, or the MeToo movement, or asylum seekers. He'll insult individuals when addressing his rallies, or from his twitter account, or from the safe distance of Air Force One before or after meeting with them, but never to their face - as with Prime ministers Trudeau and May.
In short, he's a coward.
427
Trumps like a rapper, and has a big head,
With supposedly lots and lots of bread.
He thinks he's one person who is so great,
But for myself, he's a person with hate.
He talks and talks, but lies to the beat,
Because he's so used to being a cheat.
So rap a long, rap a long, Mr. Trump the man,
Cuz all ya just is, is one one big fat ham!
145
If a celebrity gives Trump attention, adulation, praise, etc. then Trump loves that person whether he's heard their music or seen their film or whatever.
It starts and ends right there.
173
This op-ed was a really bad idea. to somehow say that a this president's "success" comes in any concrete way from emulating African-American artists creating an entirely new music, again, ( remember jazz, the blues, ragtime ) well, it's a really flawed comparison. Because of a couple of quotes and one photo, you're making connections which deny the fundamental difference. Hip-hop is beautiful. That's the difference.
38
@Landon not all hip hop is "beautiful," Landon! Some of it is pretty raw, pretty rough, pretty tough.
74
@Landon
I get your objection, but I don't think it's valid, because Charles never denies that fundamental difference you speak of. His final words are "Faking the Funk". You've also inverted the jazz and music analogy...... Charles doesn't say Trump is emulating those who created jazz, blues, and ragtime.... he compares Trump to the whites who mimicked those creators.
Charles is criticizing Trump, not the black artists.
@tbs I don't mean to be disrespectful of your knowledge, but all great art is defined by the raw, the rough, the tough. These are the defining ingredients of beauty. I stand by what I said. Charles Blow is making an argument of convenience.
Love, security, food, self-worth, under this government.
Love. Hate and bias crimes and complaints increasing; gender identity restricted in military, silence on domestic violence (endorses denials!), eliminated many women's health benefits.
Security. Full family separation “zero-tolerance” raids on immigrant families seeking asylum for non-state violence. Cancelled Pacific coordinated naval drills. 2017 set record for arm sales, $76 billion. Voting rights being cut in states.
Food. Agricultural bill still not passed. Midwest towns and farmers income/capital/cash flow hit by tariffs. Are we rejecting a world class food hub labor force?
Self-worth. Trump/Government; parades, walls, mass speeches; filthy language, hate and blame. Where's Kelly?
No compassion for urban victims killed unarmed, no sorrow for Claudia Patricia Gomez Gonzalez, shot in the head by a border agent; silence greeted crying children.
Scots resisted Trump's white supremacy: “No Trump! No KKK! No Racist USA!” “No Trump! No KKK! No Racist USA!”
Self-worth. The People; grassroots organizing growing. Alexandra Ocasio-Cortex identified 3 broad working class issues: housing, healthcare, and education. Her Bronx/Queens district has Citi-park, the US Open, and LaGuardia and river fronts. She, Pramila Jayapal, Kamala Harris, Stacey Abrams; London Breed, Keisha Lance Buttoms, Annise Parker are not extreme but mainstream. They are the middle! What others ridicule as “free,” they see as shared.
97
@Walter Rhett
The self-worth part is the best part. But, as you know, best always clashes with some interest and, in this case, a plot is being hatched to foil progressives.
"Democratic politicians and operatives with the notorious think-tank Third Way used an invite-only event in Columbus, Ohio on Friday to tout an alternative agenda that centers on "opportunity" and access rather than equality—a platform that explicitly avoids alienating the ultra-wealthy."
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/sanders-wing-party-terrifies-...
Common Dreams reported on this, including the reactions of progressive luminaries. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/07/22/terrified-progressive-enthu...
This, of course, goes on as Trump does an awful lot while we aren't looking.
https://www.rimaregas.com/2018/01/07/politicos-running-list-of-what-trum...
Dangers abound...
19
Two to add, to security/self-worth.
Trump is rearming local police with excess military gear of all kinds, including vehicles.
In the number one event of the year, Ocasio-Cortez's refusal to accept corporate or PAC money is a major breakthrough for progressives. It shows corporate money can be turned on itself and made into a liability. And that not accepting corporate/PAC money is a statement of values and binding loyalty to a constituency. This is huge!
16
Equality is a right granted through the Constitution but opportunity is aspirational. However, without opportunity, equality is meaningless.
So, to criticize the Dem mainstream for seeing their role as providing opportunity is to hand the Reps a talking point. Healthcare, education, housing is about allowing all people to maximize their future. In doing that, they can defend their right of equality.
1
Trump is a fraud and his administration is a fraud. He is a fraud who has also fooled himself into thinking he is among the richest and smartest and most deserving of people. He has succeeded thus far for two reasons. First he is doing the bidding of people who are far richer and smarter than he is. Second he has mastered the media as a demagogue to disguise from his working and middle class fans his support for policies that will only hurt them.
304
Most rappers create music, videos, even dance numbers. Trump only knows how to tear things apart. The only thing Trump builds up are the egos of men like Kim and Putin.
180
It's my own impression that even Al Jolson had a more sincere appreciation of black culture than does Donald Trump. Except for one thing- those rap lyrics about women as bitches and ho's surely have The Donald nodding in affirmation. Money and misogyny win out over racism any time.
156
Bottom Line on TRump, he has no authentic relationships... everything in his life, the people in his life, the days, hours, minutes and moments in his life are a test for him--a challenge to effectively control, to "raise the roof," to make himself feel powerful. If there were an ounce of sincere human compassion and concern, he could never manipulate and effectively out maneuver every one, and in so doing erode the very foundation of our democracy. His "moral gears are stripped."
217
"The problem for America is that men pretending to be strongmen will always yield to stronger men. They will always bow to the men they want to be."
Trump's genius is to co-opt the power of a more powerful figure and try to make it his own. This is exactly what we saw in Helsinki. Trump basking in the glow of Putin.
However, Trump's complete and almost slavish deference to Putin on every issue signaled something far worse than mere infatuation. It was a sign, "a red light" going off that Trump's past transgressions are known by Putin and will be used against him unless he delivers what Russia wants.
Trump is all in for Russia. Putin will get what Putin wants.
Trump, 'He's like a . . . traitor."
213
@Mary Scott,
Before long Putin will remove Trump and why wouldn't he? Trump is only a buffoon, a dotard of no use to anyone but himself. Putin will take credit for having installed and removed America's president. A master stroke and an easy game of chess.
1
This is consistent with the ideas that Mr. Trump had been influenced by time at a military-style school and experience working in the entertainment industry. Further it ties them together as another influence reenforcing their lessons.
It's just as important to understand the origins of bad behavior as to disavow it. Thanks to Mr. Blow for the insight.
54
Excellent insights, as always, from Mr. Blow.
Trump will certainly succeed as the "killer" his daddy wanted him to be, in so many ways but above all, from his environmental policies from climate change denial to coal ash ignorance.
But an important question remains, why did a substantial minority of voters think that the well known bundle of horrible traits that we knew as The Donald would make a good President.
Sure, his out-there, in-your-face racism, misogyny and xenophobia were bracing to some tired of hiding their real views on the same.
Sure, the voice he gave to resentments of voters who believed that the global economy was leaving them behind dovetailed nicely with the above, especially the growing presence of women and non-whites in the global workforce.
All of this might make a good Trump rap song but still not explain their view that Trump would make a good President, especially when there was ample evidence of treating white people badly through unpaid contractors, Trump University, guest worker visas, self dealing charities, not to mention other Trump international crimes strongly hinted at but yet to be revealed.
But I fear a part of America has become entranced by the Prosperity Gospel, that wealth makes divine right, and they want a piece of it. Apparently his base also wants a piece of the laundered exodus of Russian cash, based on their support of the indefensible acts of Putin.
154
@Look Ahead
Have you seen this on CNN?
Trump voters react to President's summit with Putin
https://youtu.be/6lMcOWLuArQ
They are the same kind of voter The Guardian interviewed in the video I include here, and in the same area in Wisconsin.
https://www.rimaregas.com/2016/12/26/progressives-liberals-arent-into-yo...
2
@Look Ahead
The transactional voting of consumers.
When a man is hollow at the core (a man without "an external reference point" as James Comey put it) he is bound to present himself as a chameleon. His presentation can be reminiscent of all manners of people and things, but what is constant is that he is a man without any substance or principles.
292
@Partha Neogy
He has no external reference point because he gravely lacks an internal reference point.
3
The Donald is no rapper he,
A model of hypocrisy
An intellect bare
perfused with self-care,
Paragon of immodesty.
Donald Trump is a rake and a cad
His affaires de coeur are so bad,
But Cohen the Fixer
Publicity nixer
To pay off his lovers is glad.
The Fixer records conversations
Resulting in some complications
The Feds got their mitts
On these juicy bits,
Electoral crime implications?
As POTUS, the Donald is tense
Charged with a colluding offense,
Impeachment or Jail
May come without fail,
His tsouris is becoming dense!
(tsouris- aggravated trouble)
353
@Larry Eisenberg
Oh, I can start appreciating rap after this.
And "after impeachment of jail" I can start appreciating Trump as well.
I think the article comparison makes sense, though. Each dictator has the sound track he deserves.
1
Another good one Larry!@Larry Eisenberg
4
Thank you, Mr. Eisenberg. I enjoy your clever limericks so much.
3
Trump's inner self is a strange, twisted mix of Jim Crow and Napoleon. He's attracted to tose who have achieved power and status, hence his long association and mentorship with Roy Cohn, a Jew and a homosexual.
Trump takes from those he recognizes a talent or value, not out of admiration, but out of greedy self-interest. That includes a need for affirmation and adulation. It includes his partnership with David Duke during the election cycle Hence his odd relationship with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian now. In a way, these three take advantage of each other to further their agendas.
Trump has no loyalty to anyone but his inner Napoleon. Whether it is engaging in white supremacy, tax fraud, consumer fraud, or probably his biggest concern is ever, treason, as long as it serves, he's all in.
Trump the authoritarian oligarch is the extreme mirror image of American greed and the consequence of centuries of not facing our original sin.
Our chickens are almost home. They'll be roosting soon at the House of Mueller, provided we keep Republicans on the defensive over their allegiance to our nation, rather than the Traitor-In-Chief.
--
https://www.rimaregas.com/2018/07/19/facing-treason-trump-appointees-sho...
243
Trump is attracted to people who exude both brute physical strength and brutal leadership. Hence his affinity for the Philippines' Rodrigo Duterte and North Korea's Kim Jung Un. But Charles is right about Trump "faking the funk" when it comes to his own strengths, Trump's seem to disappear when in the company of other strong men. Hence his capitulation in Singapore.
There is something that Charles didn't bring up and it is Trump's obsession with Barack Obama. In an op-ed that was not open to comments, Natan Sharansky made a false equivalence between Trump and Obama.
Barack Obama wasn’t perfect, but he is committed to human rights and, unlike his successor, informed by a rectitude borne out of deeply held principle. There is no comparing or mentioning him in the same breath as Trump. Trump is to progress what water is to fire. Trump is a philistine. He wouldn’t ever follow Obama’s lead. He is hard at work trying to obliterate Obama out of a jealous, racist rage.
There is a connection between racism, authoritarianism and the right. Trump took it to a whole new level and kicked up a whole lot unhealthy traits that have been hiding under a thin layer of dirt.
Strongmen like Putin know how to manipulate a puerile braggart like Trump. Lots of ego stroking, to be sure, and a little kompromat, just to be sure.
https://www.rimaregas.com/2018/07/21/sharanskys-farcical-nyt-op-ed-on-sa...
416
And one last thing...
Trump needs so much adulation that, in the absence of it, those he picked to serve him feel compelled to lie for him. Who among you doesn't remember the hoopla over the size of his inauguration crowd? It was so ridiculous, I had this mental image of Trump.
https://www.rimaregas.com/2017/01/21/does-trumps-inner-napoleon-explain-...
102
@Rima Regas: A good one, even better than other images I've seen (except Merkel staring at him while he sits in the baby chair).
12
It seems like a stretch to argue Trump appropriated his demeanor from rappers. One could easily argue the opposite. Rappers have been fetishizing Donald Trump for decades. I didn't even know who Trump was until Ice Cube and Cypress Hill and many others rapped about his wealth and bravado almost thirty years ago. Rappers wanted to be like Trump as much as he like them.
Trump and the rap industry for much of the 90s and early 2000s drew on the norms of chauvinistic males in a society that worships wealth and celebrity. They are cut from the same cloth.
142
Agree.
For the most part, both rappers and trump consistently portray their worlds in a cartoonish style. For creative people this style can take on real meaning when the irony provides insight. And, the audience 'gets it'. Unfortunately, for many performers/celebrities, they often lose sight of their earlier creative message and take themselves too seriously. (re: the fictional Lonesome Rhodes)
What we're seeing here are the negative side of rappers who have lost their vision, viewing the audience as little more than a cash register, and a pathetic white wannabe, worshipping each other for all the wrong, and cartoonish reasons.
If only the result weren't so damaging to the rest of us.
2
The worst rap song I’ve ever heard was more articulate, moving and clever than the president’s most ardent speech. But the way he lights up around ganstas, like Putin, is pretty clear evidence that he admires and wants to emulate them.
To play the game he’d have to acquire some street smarts, which is hard to imagine, because any kind of smarts seems to have eluded him. He knows how to cheat, default, defraud, finagle, conceal, philander and lie, but those skills haven’t congealed into a fully developed personality. They’re just sad, lonely flaws that he’s festooned himself with, but they’re not part of a larger whole.
It’s sad when the president has to bath himself in the reflected glory of murderers, warmongers and global terrorists. But he lights up in the presence of the Kim Jong-uns and the Putins of the world, while he scowls and makes angry tweets at desperate people in Puerto Rico if they don’t thank him sufficiently for his lack of interest.
Personally, I think the president would gain some credibility if he went a few rounds with Mike Tyson. I’m going to think about that for a minute….
OK, that was exciting. Now our problem is how to handle President Pence.
695
@gemli
Pence, since joining as Trump's VP pick, has participated in everything and wholly managed the transition.
That's a lot. Let's hope that when Trump goes down, he takes Pence and half of Congress with him.
The rot is that deep.
639
"Now our problem is how to handle President Pence."
Oh that's simple. He's in on all the Treason, Bribery, and other High Crimes and Misdemeanors of "covfefe", takes advantage of them to further the GOP agenda and his own career, and should be impeached just as quickly.
It'd be just as easy too. The projectionist GOP does every wrong they accuse others for, so finding Pence's private mail server and side intern are a matter of time.
Same with every member of their cabinet.
@Rima Regas There are at the very least 5 instances of Pence obstructing justice. Moreover, they will certainly find him involved with the treason.
"He is the Elvis Presley of politics, a cultural appropriator who took the coarser side of the black men whose thrall he was in and repackaged their qualities behind a white face."
What an image. What a sentence. And what an insight.
When it comes to skin color, Trump has a love-hate relationship with African Americans--loving the rich black celebrities (even better if they display a hint of danger or swagger) but just garden variety racism towards poor blacks.
As you point out, Trump uses his "friendships" (read envy of) rich black rappers as proof he couldn't possibly be racist. It's a form of double exploitation if you will, and so typical Trump.
The other thing that strikes me about the president's proclivities is how malicious they are--kick the weak and vulnerable (especially when they're down), fear the strong.
Like most bullies, Trump surely knows what a coward he is inside, fearing his persona will be exposed. His body language radiated fear, folding like cheap suit next to a smirking Putin clearly lording it over the president whose victory he helped orchestrate.
I think Trump was so shocked that his critics called him for cowardice that he decided to face Putin again in DC, a mulligan if you will.
But isn't the definition of insanity trying something over and over expecting different results?
593
@Christine
I think when you live in a bubble ( like almost all republicans do), then you are impervious to the criticism, in the sense that you just keep on projecting the image you want to see. I think anyone that looks at all the characteristics that this President portrays can easily come to the conclusion for him, of the result of doing the same thing over and over again.
I am sure every psychologist would agree.
27
Well said, Christine. I'm always focused on DT's body language during his speeches. It just screams discomfort, fear, lying and rage.
3
Excellent overview !!!
1
I've had to think hard about this op-ed, mostly because I'm not a big fan of rap. But then I started thinking about why I don't like rap - its undercurrents of violence, its vulgarity, its overall all atrocious treatment of women, its depiction of a world about which I know little - and realized these are the same reasons I don't like Trump. So, yeah, I can see Mr. Blow's point.
There is, though, a big difference between Trump and rap. The latter tries to make us look at the harsh, uncomfortable reality of the world from which rap has come; it is based on reality. The former tries to create a harsh, uncomfortable world that exists only in Trump's tortured mind. One, its way, ultimately seeks to liberate. The other seeks to enslave.
235
I am so glad that you took the time and energy to thoroughly analyze this Op-Ed. It left me feeling unsettled and a little confused. Thank you for pointing in the right direction.
1
Ja Rule declares of Trump, “He is entertaining.”
There’s the whole problem with American culture: a vast percentage of voters insist that politicians be entertainers first, and competence at governing is a non-issue.
Trump is the apotheosis of a frivolous consumer culture addicted to sensationalism at any cost, even the cost of national survival.
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@Jonathan Baker I'm reminded of Chappelle's bit: "Where is Ja?!"
An equal problem is that people seem to give weight to the opinions of people who actually have nothing to add to the conversation. Why is anyone asking Ja Rule what he thinks about politics? Why is anyone forming their own opinion on politics based on what Ja Rule says? When I need some advice about hosting a fraudulent music festival, Ja Rule is my guy! But otherwise this is pure noise and shame on anyone for listening in.
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If Trump has a thing for black culture, I commend to him the below lyrics from Gil Scott-Heron's (whom some regard as the father of hip hop) Watergate Blues:
"Just how blind will America be?
The world is on the edge of its seat
Defeat on the horizon. very surprisin'
That we all could see the plot and still could not...
-- let me do that part again.
Just how blind will America be?
The world is on the edge of its seat
Defeat on the horizon. very surprisin'
That we all could see the plot
And claimed that we could not."
If he likes that, I highly recommend Scott-Heron's "We Beg Your Pardon" to him. And if he digs that, he should check out, "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised."
I imagine that Gil Scott-Heron is throwing up in his grave as I type this.
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@ToddTsch
Don't forget "Home is Where the Hatred Is".
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This column gives rappers a bad name.
Misogyny and violence are real problems in rap. But rappers also demonstrate real creative talent, have social insights, and sometimes true commercial success. That’s nothing like empty shirt Donald.
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@Sarah
It took me until I was well over 50 to "get" what good rap is all about (stumbling upon Gil Scott-Heron helped immensely in this regard). You're absolutely right. It can be and often is an inspiring, thought-provoking, and gorgeous art form.
It makes me recoil in horror when Donald Trump's name is mentioned in connection with the large corpus of truly priceless and timeless rap/hip hop.
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Plumbing the depths of what passes for a mind in this man is like trying to unravel the Gordian Knot. Charles Blow offers his keen insight into the cultural influences that motivate the swagger and combativeness we see almost constantly.
If he were only posturing and not affecting so destructively our American system, I would be able to feel some compassion for someone so deeply insecure and overwhelmed by the entire world outside of him. Enemies lurk everywhere and he must always be on guard.
It’s a crying shame that he did not have the ability to recognize the value of emulating the one black man who would have been able to show him how to handle the trust placed in him when he became his successor. I think President Obama would have been kind to him, putting aside personal reservations.
It seems impossible for Donald Trump to rise above his base instincts and learn new ways to behave. Sadly, he must have been irreparably damaged at a young age and his values reflect that. No wonder he flees to the course at every opportunity, the real world is too hard to handle.
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So Donald Trump is a rapper. I would have said he was a crooner but with a bit more punch. He reminds me of a Frank Sinatra type with a booming voice.
No matter his singing style, he has been excellent for our country. The economy is booming, employment is at an all time high and the people are confident and satisfied once again with their situation in life. He promised he would make America great again and that is exactly what he has been doing. Many of us could not be happier with the results we are seeing today.
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@WPLMMT
Vladimir, just remember to send every child in the country a bill for $32,000 to pay off the deficit that Trump's tax cuts created. No matter much that the average return to the middle class tax payer is about $1k per year, its the thought that counts with republicans.
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@WPLMMT The economic recovery that began in 2008 with Barack Obama's election has continued. That's great; smart people don't argue with success. But the dissolution of the EU, the wacky behavior of the stock market, the separation of families at our border, and the legitimization of Putin's regime are not success.
7
@WPLMMT - I'm glad you're so pleased. Many of us could not be more unhappy with the damage the betrayer-in-chief is doing. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts in a year or two, once the economy has crashed amidst an unnecessary trade war, and with the exception of Russia, North Korea, and the Philipines, no country wants anything to do with us.
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Well, hard to know what to think of this, other than a sign of the deterioration of anything of value.
Most hip-hop and rap is coarse entertainment with costume jewelry. I recognize the genuine roots, which makes hip-hop socially relevant, but we can do better than hip-hop just as we can do better than Trump. And it's not about race.
Trump and his heroes of color are poseurs. They don the garb of celebrity without having the chops. Tyson is a sad little boy in a very strong man's body. There are many women and men of color a white president might emulate or seek to associate with for vicarious purposes. Marian Anderson. Ralph Baldwin. Toni Morrison. Alice Walker. W.E.B Du Bois. Langston Hughes. Otis Redding (can't ever leave out Otis Redding). Oscar Peterson. Ella Fitzgerald. Duke Ellington. James P. Johnson. Miles Davis. Or, if a little crazy helps, skip Tyson and pick Richard Pryor.
As with white folks of consequence, these true "artists" wouldn't give Trump the time of day. To write that Trump likes some contemporary entertainers, or they like him, is just a waste of column inches.
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@Barking Doggerel
Did you mean the writer James Baldwin?
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@Barking Doggerel
You're probably right. Successful entertainers recognize a bad act when they see it. Compare Barack Obama's first appearance at New York's Al Smith Memorial dinner in 2007 with Trump's only appearance there. Trump's "Catholic" insult of Hillary Clinton, with her right there at the head table? A flake of falling dandruff would've made an audible thud. I just wish that were his only failing.
Interesting perspective, but the comparison to Elvis is way out of line. Pressley didn't appropriate black culture. He absorbed it, and had a deep appreciation for the culture and the people who created it. And championed it, as per soul-music's Jackie Wilson: "A lot of people have accused Elvis of stealing the black man's music, when in fact, almost every black solo entertainer copied his stage mannerisms from Elvis."
He also championed racial equality. Per Wiki: The Memphis World, an African American newspaper, reported that Presley, "the rock 'n' roll phenomenon", "cracked Memphis's segregation laws" by attending the local amusement park on what was designated as its "colored night". Such statements and actions led Presley to be generally hailed in the black community.
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