"Let those of you without sin cast the first stone"........I find it hard to believe the level of civil discourse in this country.......not from one person or one side, but many people and all sides.....I think it was my Greatgrandfather who told me at six years of age..."Hoss, if you can't say anything nice then don't say anything at all"....that was fifty years ago.....he is still right.....How about "Two wrongs do not make a right"?......your incessant desire to inform us of why you don't like Trump is well noted.....the people who voted for him probably don't like him either....but that is not why they voted for him....And your hysteria about losing an election two years ago is becoming ridiculous.....what you are doing is not beneficial for this country, or the fine people who inhabit it.....All you see is the bad....you don't live out there where they see through every word you say and thing you do....they think you are fake and trying to pull one over on them.....they may just be right....
2
One thing will be the Trump's white house legacy in our history.
Degeneration in every level-aspect of values.
6
Don't sweat about how to get rid of these people. They will take care of that themselves. A common denominator among all these creatures who are pulled into Trump's orbit is that they seem to be genetically encoded to self destruct. Manafort is the poster child. He seemed to be on fast forward to blow himself up financially and get on his way to prison. They are all sick.
8
Three words regarding this article -
On
the
money.
11
"You can muddle through whom to believe or you can marvel — and shudder — at the intersection of these three at the apex of American government."
Cohen. Omarosa. Trump.
Shudder, indeed.
I quake.
9
At this juncture, those of us who know how to reason, how to gather and sift through evidence, know full well that the Trump Administration and the Republican Party, headed by our incompetent, destructive president, is our nation's public enemy number one. That system of power, connections, and influence has fast taken our country far down a road from which our nation is now viewed as an international scourge.
Yet, no endless crowds of ordinary citizens marching ceasely through the halls of Congress. No strikes. No banging pots and pans together in front of the homes of Republican leaders. No large, sustained outcry.
Our citizenry is complicit.
The Democratic Party is welded to policies and practices that recognize the existence of a middle/upper class and imposes a conventionality that profits current corporate and private stakeholders but does nothing to address very real and desperate needs of a working class automated and outsourced out of jobs that once now a long time ago provided good, solid wages. Neither party has broached the issue of compensation for their enormous losses. Yet Corporations have more capital than ever and make historically high profits.
Our country will never heal, never be able to claim to be the world's shining beacon on a hill, the gold standard for education and health, for satisfaction with life, for democracy if we continue to ignore the dire straits of 30% of our nation's population.
We seem doomed to devolve. God help the Common Man.
14
For your comparison of Trump and Avenatti to be accurate, you owe it to yourself and readers to watch his whole Iowa speech. There you see his actual believes versus just combative news clips or tweets.
http://songs-tube.net/162177-Aretha%20Franklin-%28you%20Make%20Me%20Feel...
thinking about Aretha the golden voice of my generation and watching this 2009 KC honors, it struck me that part of my angst from the daily surreal of this subpar president is the loss of a cultural soul. tears fell as i watched this video and the first couple. the absence of dignity, wisdom, calm sightings of our former president compared to our tortured and daily surreal administration was gut wrenching. we have no grace, no joy from this white house. no first lady. the latest insults we can only brand as loathsome, hateful, self serving, this is trump life. we are overwhelmed by each daily deluge to numbness. this cannot happen. we must not forgot there was a time before trump. yet as voters knew what they were getting, will there be a time after trump? the silence of his party is deafening and insulting to most of our citizens. only you can prevent forest fires and only you can prevent more trump. will we forget what graciousness is?
5
I think what we need now is a news day free of Trump and The Kardashians. I will blame the press for not holding itself to a higher standard.
1
The photo accompanying Frank Bruni's piece is superb. Having all those sleazy hypocrites in one prayer meeting: Pence, Cohen, 45, Omarosa & Don King's hair is just too perfect. Whoever picked that photo has a great eye for history!
7
Another crime boss said "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer." The problem with trump is that they are one and the same.
3
Can't we please just hit "re-set" and start the game over? We aren't in Kansas anymore, Toto.
2
I do not think the description of Michael Avenatti is appropriate. Avenatti has been calm, logical, accurate in his predictions, and effective in setting legal traps for the opposition. That he is effective in his use of media and has occasionally overexposed himself are hardly character defects in 2018, and certainly not similar in timbre to the President.
7
You're making a soap opera of Donald Trump's presidency. Of course he gives you plenty of material to do that with. But so does every president. I remember when Jimmy Carter was president. Even he gave plenty of things to mock. But focusing on that kind of things is short-sighted and silly.
Because meanwhile, things are happening. Good things, in a lot of ways. Take North Korea, for example. Some criticize Donald Trump for not having made an enforceable deal already, but that's expecting too much. There's still a long way to go, but North Korea has come a long way already. America is no longer vilified there, and that's a big change. Donald Trump has even become a non-dotard.
Iran is still a problem, where they still chant "Death to America". But the pressure is back on, and Donald Trump has left the door open there. There will be no war, and there will be no nuclear weapons. Whether there will be peace or not is Iran's choice. Give us peace and we'll help you gain prosperity. Your choice.
At home, the economy is booming. It's hard to credit Donald Trump for that. No president can do much about the economy. But cheerleading and boosting seems to help, and Donald Trump is doing a lot of that. Cutting regulations and taxes helps spiritually too.
If you want to look at the lowlifes on the scene, feel free. I look at more meaningful sights, and I like what I see.
3
@John Smithson
I agree with your points, except there is strong empirical evidence that when corporate and individual taxes are cut economic growth improves. President Trump did that and he deserves credit. Everyone knows that it happens, most president's are just afraid to lower taxes.
During '17 & '18 year over year we already have more tax revenue than the previous years. This is another thing people do not understand. Even when you lower taxes, tax revenue increases due to increased income, and increased productivity.
This site leans far to the left, so no one is going to understand these facts, or they just choose to ignore them. It is easier to call Trump silly names.
2
Economy is booming? Maybe for the top 10 %. Meanwhile, the great majority of people aren't better off because of it. Salaries are flat; housing, college, healthcare all rising. Stock buybacks going through the roof, just as predicted. When the middle class is asked if they are better off financially than in 2016, what do you think their answer will be? Yes, they have vicariously given the finger to minorities, immigrants, and elites (defined by being educated) through Agent Orange in the White House, but does that release of resentment put food on their tables?
13
There is really nothing in Omarosa’s book that is fresh about Trump. So Trump lies. So Trump is racist. So Trump puts down women. So Trump is the master at the personal insult. Trump’s millions of devoted supporters know all this. And love him and celebrate his dark side. In their mind not so dark. Trump an authentic American. What will it take to shake this mindless support? The answer is frightening. A market crash. Or a nuclear strike.
3
Continued support for this bunch is approval of:
Bread and Circuses ( Congress )
All ham and no eggs ( Trump )
Gaslighting ( Huckabee )
Racism and Xenophobia ( Stephen Miller )
Deconstruction of the American State ( Bannon )
How can anyone with any sense agree to this?
7
@Kate Parina
Wow.... you really have it all figured out.
.... I'll take the soaring economy and low unemployment anyway, even with all that deep and scary stuff you mentioned.
LOL..... c'mom Kate, you can do better.
Trump has great instincts, to recognize people who will help him enrich himself and get elected President. Unfortunately, that instinct doesn't help with recognizing people who will help him run a country.
4
@Who am I
If he was interested in continuing to enrich himself he would have stayed in the private sector.
He is doing a great job running the country. I am loving the soaring economy and low unemployment.
Obama could not get out of his own to help the economy and continually told us we had to be satisfied with 2% growth, that it was the new normal.
Wake up, and see what is going on around you
It's both sad and funny when you think about it.
President Obama went out of his way to try to be honest, professional, intellectually sound, presidential.
Trump, on the other hand, is none of these and folks like that.
Someone noted that President Obama represented what we should aspire to be as a nation.
Trump represents what and who we really are.
Trump reminds me of how a how a comedy president is portrayed.
Indeed, he showed his supporter he knows how to 'act' presidential and they laughed at the show.
But being president, especially of a country, is no act.
America got what it wanted.
And who knows, we might end up having to impeach AND convict our first president in history on charges of not only violations of laws that Trump swore to protect for our country but treason and being a traitor to boot.
That might make for an interesting TV or movie program, but from where I sit, historians are going to have a field day with us.
ALL OF 'US'
14
@marriea
"errr... if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor"
"uhmmm... your premiums will never increase"
Obama used IRS and EPA against political enemies
Jailed D'nesh D'Souza for making an anti obama movie
Used the NSA to spy on reporters like James Rosen who wrote some negative stories about obama.
wake up
1
Another day, another newspaper article on DJT. I wonder if people realize that if DJT doesn't get constant exposure, he'll dry up and blow away? I mean, once he's not POTUS any more.
3
Politicians are just gladiators. To keep the hoi polloi distracted with bread and circus. The real power lies in the hands of oligarchs all over the world. They pull the strings and call the shots. Here is an article about Pentagon moving it's data to Amazon cloud. In this day and age when everyone is so concerned about sensitive data being vulnerable to hackers!!!
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/08/has-bezos-become-more-powerful-i...
4
The United States and it's President...brought to you by Mad Magazine.
7
I am constantly astonished at the attitudes from the Dems about presidential behavior. It is they who taught us all to get down on all fours with Bill Clinton and his dispicable treatment of women. The current occupants of the Dem Party wear blinkers when it comes to Dem Party behavior. Besides, this overdone and fake outrage about the "dog" is phony baloney.
3
It takes one to know one. Say what you want about Omarosa, but she is the best response to Trump's vile and corrupt behavior that we have seen so far. I have observed her recent interviews and found her to be in command, calm, extremely articulate, confident, and stunningly beautiful as she consistently frames and owns the discussion. No interviewer has successfully challenged or derailed her as of yet. She's nobody's victim, and apparently she isn't interested in taking prisoners.
2
One criminal won his case pleading insanity as suggested by his lawyer. After the case, when the lawyer asked his fees , the criminal pleaded insanity as taught by his lawyer. Now Omarosa , Michael Cohen will give the same treatment to Trump as taught by him. Omarosa, Flynn, Michael Cohen, Rick Gates , Papadoulous and many more Trumpists will be singing same songs as Trump has been singing. Trump has been digging his own hole. Anti-Trump people have to wait a little longer for more fun . What goes around that comes around. Trump and his gang have been torturing a lot of people for long time.
3
I fear the unearthing of corruption and disease in this administration is only beginning. The swamp creatures being dug up are minor to the behemoths about to be exposed.
5
Kobach wins in Kansas. Le Page is lionized by the NTY.
What Trump and his legions prove is a determined group, with a unified, coherent message can succeed in controlling larger groups, i.e., a nation. The KKK has survived by such coherence and tenacity. I'd love to live in your fantasy world that the imitators and operators will be defeated; so far, they have been winning. It would behoove those of us who are depressed by this to figure out how and why.
1
Manafort's and Gate's troubles date back to years before the election and were looked out years before the 2016 election and had already been looked at then by Justice with no charges brought. Omarosa will make some money from he book. But who would go into business with or hire someone who caries a secret recording device to every meeting. Just about every name has been called at Trump by Mr. Bruni and his pals. So now another approach is devised. Call others names and say the are Trump imitators Creative but the end result is achieved. This adds nothing new except coffee break gosip by those who already don't like Trump. Gosip is never something meant to inform or improve. It is just meant to harm. Which is what this article is trying to achieve.
1
Avenatti is the farthest thing from Trump. He is using the law in any way he can to take Trump down. Now there is not much difference between lawyers and sophists: they abide by a set of rules, and use the laws of logic (yes, they are laws) to make their argument, but the one giant loophole available to lawyers and not to, say, mathematicians, is that practically every word in the English language has multiple definitions, and a lawyer is absolutely free to choose the definition most helpful to his case, so long as he can demonstrate some context for it, which he always can do otherwise he's not a lawyer.
This is the difference between the mathematician and the lawyer: mathematicians must also abide by a set of rules and the laws of logic, but they must also state their definitions very clearly and unambiguously, and there is no mistaking their meaning (otherwise the paper he writes proving his theorem is rejected by the editor of the math journal he submits the article to).
Now Michael Avenatti is a good lawyer, and Trump is no lawyer at all. So they are diametrically opposed along that axis. On the other hand, both Michael Avenatti and Trump use and manipulate the media to throw darts at their opponents, and on that axis, Michael Avenatti and Trump are facing the same direction.
I would say that the similarities between Avenatti and Trump are vastly outweighed by their differences, and now this mathematician has a giant headache.
3
Frank Bruni, one of your best opinion pieces, and funny too. Well done, in case no one has told you recently - you are a good writer.
8
Comparing Michael Avenatti with Trump is ridiculous. Mr. Avenatti is compassionate, competent, and smart. Trump is not.
7
Nearly all of the comments to Frank Bruni’s excellent column demonstrate that the reader’s really get it – some, perhaps, even better than Mr. Bruni.
The remaining comments seem to be by apologists for Donald Trump who see him unfairly persecuted by people he generously helped.
These commenters think that while Trump has personal faults, things would have worked out if his staff had not been goaded by the mainstream media to turn on him.
These Trump apologists still like him very much. They do not accept that differentiating between Donald Trump and his administration is like saying that the problem is the people who follow Trump’s orders. It’s an argument which makes no sense.
Donald Trump never admits that any plan or policy of his has failed, but when he cannot deny a defeat like the refusal of Congress to repeal Obamacare, he has a long list of culprits. The list starts with the Democrats and includes the network news shows and the leading newspapers.
America, for the most part, is tired of Donald Trump. If his acolytes are now taking verbal shots at him, he deserves it. But, please don’t expect all of us to get enthused.
4
Two questions. The more theoretical one is: how do people get like that?
The more practical one is: how do we get rid of them?
14
@ss: US public policy is applied cognitive dissonance.
3
People can scoff at Astrology all they want. However, it is significant that the best ones to take down Trump are his fellow Air signs. In this case, we're in the Age of Aquarius; which Avenatti and Omarosa are. They'll be alike in many significant ways, but Omarosa and Avanetti will wield the most power in this fight.
2
A poetically pointed column, Frank.
Your own columnist prose brings a flavor of Fitzgerald's poetic descriptions of not just Gatsby's grasping flaws for love, but of the cruder characters who grasped selfishly:
"They were careless people --- Tom and Daisy — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made…"
Fitzgerald, Francis Scott. The Great Gatsby Kindle Edition.
While Emperor Trump's leitmotif is Empire, fueled by 'Empire-thinking', as George Lakoff might describe it, my own leitmotif is non-violent "Revolution Against Empire", by simply 'exposing' it.
3
Pretty chilling words. Yet it all makes sense. In the end, all of these people know no loyalty to anyone but themselves. They're all spectacle. In the meantime, regulations protecting public lands, wild and domestic animals, water and air are being jettisoned left and right. Wildfires, drought, hot hot heat, and excessive rain all dismissed as weather patterns, not climate change. Where's the outrage? Oh, we're too busy parsing the words of our orangutan-in-chief and his present (SHS, Giuliani et al) and past (Cohen, Manigault Newman) enablers. Enough!! Trump and his minions are a threat!! And we don't even have Congress to protect us! Get out and vote in November, people!! VOTE!! And hope that's a good first step on putting some brakes on this disaster!!
14
Nice summary, Frank!
Interesting to observe: There are only two things in my (long!) lifetime that actually exceeded expectations. Ordinarily, anticipation is slightly more thrilling than reality. Like holidays or vacations. They are eagerly anticipated, but invariably fall a bit short of the advance fantasies.
But here are the two things:
1. Grand-parenting gets lots of anticipatory hype. And it turns out to be even better than the advance notices!
2. During the campaign I feared the worst from a Trump presidency. And it turns out he is actually worse than I thought possible.
22
Producers of reality television everywhere are just wishing and hoping that a genie will appear and grant them the rights to this national soap opera. If it were to happen, they would be rich beyond their wildest dreams. But they'd lose their soul as, I'm afraid, we are all.
3
First off, I don't really think that Trump was being racist when he called a woman a dog. He was being his usual clever pig, and typed "dog," rather than the obvious word for female dog, which I'll bet is what he meant.
Second off, well yeah, Mr. Bruni. We've got a Prez who's a bad guy, who got elected partly because of bad guys, and who is now happily encouraging more crummy behavior. The braying loudmouths, the clowns trailing a flag from their massive trucks, the screaming racists, the violent types, will be with us for a while.
But third. The worse prob is that Trump's lazy, lying, greedy--and incompetent. That's a dangerous combo; it gets you Puerto Rico, it gets you kids blown up on a school bus or in a basement (yes, both of these happened: airstrikes), it gets you the DPRK continuing to build missiles and process uranium, it gets you a collapsing economy in Turkey while our President screams nonsense.
16
"Trump stares into every mirror he passes." But the vanity has passed replaced by furtive glances in hope the Dorian Gray destruction is not continuing.
8
Amorasa learned everything she needed to know from Trump.
He wanted a black women near him for photo ops, thereby showing his all inclusive team. Amarosa wanted the step ladder up to wherever. Both used each other. The student is out-trumping Trump. That is the way the game is played. No surprise here.
17
This is frighteningly well crafted. The absence of basic human decency? The lack of ability to think or speak or write intelligently? The disdain for government and the people it defends and represents? How does this appeal to almost half of Americans?
16
What a suitably vicious column. Thank you!
12
Many comments on Decent people standing up to this horrific administration. When and Who will stand tall enough that Decent people will follow? We all seem to have our heads up our own behinds so far that we cannot see a path out of this 45 mess. It looks like more and more are showing themselves to be as bad or worse than 45 in "The Polls". Polls be damned. We have been led down the rabbit hole one too many times by polls.
"Get up, Stand up, Stand up for your Rights!". Bob Marley.
Do we even know what our rights are anymore?
7
Yeah, we do. They include the right to vote in November, and to insult nihilism.
14
Mr. Trump's persona is itself derived & imitative of the right wing bullies of Talk Radio. Part Borscht Belt insult comic, part Boastful Soldier like in Plautus, it is the "Bad Boy" alpha male persona, aggressive, arrogant & full of self praise, the deliberately "outrageous" remarks, designed to gain attention . . . .
If Rush Limbaugh were not an idiot, he would sue Trump for stealing his schtik!
16
This article should remind us that socialism, no matter how beneficial for the majority of people, will never work because it does not account for, provide a way to control, the sociopaths among us.
3
At the risk of mentioning reality, socialist countries actually have rules about decency, laws, and jails.
15
Trump did not clean the swamp, he is the swamp and the progenitor of its creatures whether they are members of his family enriching themselves unethically, his cabinet members mimicking his cupidity, like cheap grifters with taxpayers' money and antithetically to the brief of their departments, his staff of liars and sycophants, his amoral supporters in Congress and the Senate willing to glass over anything he says or does to be in power, and his supporters who feast on his venomous speeches at his rallies as he plays to their resentments and bitterness with racism, sexism, xenophobia, appealing to and confirming their worst instincts. And finally we have the worst of all, Trump's perfidy and treachery alienating and disrespecting allies while cozying up to dictators, undermining decades old relationships, capped off by his smarmy admiration of Putin, his puppetmaster.
There is no bottom to this swamp. Every time we think they can go no lower they do. It will take years to undo the damage of Trump and his administration to the country and international relations and thousands of gallons of disinfectant. One can only hope that there will be numerous indictments coming out the the Mueller probe and that these people will get their just deserts in prison.
16
Excellent column as usual. What all these people have in common with Trump is that they do not care about others but are all about themselves and grabbing all the money and power they can while they can.
They are as arrogant as Trump because they believe there is no law they cannot break as the laws are for all others and not themselves.
They are indeed the spawn of Trump and there is no-one with a shred of decency, a working moral compass, or the ability to rise above themselves for the good of their country among them. They have no souls. They have no conscience. They are almost more creature-like than human, and they all scurried out from under the rocks they were hiding under as soon as Trump called them and started his bid for our presidency. The scurrilous heard and responded.
12
What Frank Bruni is describing is something that occurs in many families where there are brothers and sisters. The older ones often annoy or tease the younger ones. What they don't realize is that they are setting an example for the younger ones to imitate, on them of course.
Trump is giving Americans free lessons in lying, cheating, being selfish and narcissistic, and being racist. The GOP is thrilled because this means that they can carry out their agenda unimpeded by small considerations like what the public might think. Trump provides them with cover.
By electing Trump this nation decided that incompetence has a place in politics at the top. Even the worst of our modern presidents had some experience in politics or government or both. Trump is a failed businessman. He has run his own businesses into the ground. He lies without thinking about it. He treats others like garbage and then becomes enraged when they return the favor. He is not fit to serve in any office. But the GOP will not rein him in using the legislative branch. Maybe it's because Trump makes them look good.
I do hope that before Trump is attempting to run for re-election, one of the people he's tutored in how to be vengeful does have something on Trump that he can be prosecuted and impeached for; him and his entire administration. Why? Trump, Pence, Kushner, and the rest are a danger to Americans and America.
18
There is only one apt comparison to Trump and his minions, to compare them to dogs is an insult to canines world wide and to compare them to science fiction is an insult to not yet know aliens, they are Dante's Inferno incarnate.
13
JimmyKimmel has a great story about Ms. Newman on the Daily Beast today. If she ever gets a handle of her emotional reactions - which is about as likely as Pres. Trump getting a handle on his Tweeting habit -
- she would turn into a real entertainment industry highlight.
When you imagine Trump without that debilitating Tweeting habit, you have to wonder if the US economy could eclipse Red China's to the point that they gave up their colonization of Africa, their global fishing and net-losing enterprise, and even their waste of billions in the Spratley Islands foofaraw.
1
Naw. After all, Trump's been giving Xi rave reviews, then yanking us out of TPP, ranting about abandoning Asia, and pulling aid from Africa so China can waltz on in. Oh, and pulling the environmental protections that regulate such minor matters as ocean fishing, not to mention threatening the international regulatory agencies.
Really, one would have thought the Shakespearean types would have a bit better grasp of the scene.
3
what is the reasoning or justification for allowing subjects of articles to get special reserved spaces within articles, where they may publish their own rebuttals using NY Times space and the time and space of the readers , very many of whom are also subscribers and who are not being "paid" by the agents or by the president, to make such often baseless , but personally gratifying comments?
I recall in the newspapers before the "internet era" that subjects were often "asked" to comment on particular issues but never were they given what amounted to reserved spaces, in which they could print advertisements for themselves. Why does the nespaper do this without severe cropping and questioning of the denials , justifications by article subjects? Does the papaer aklso read articles to their subjects and get their permission and ideas how to clarify them?
This practice makes the Times and it's writers seem like 6th grade school reporters who must obtain permission from subjects to write about them and give them "equal time". When I was young, if you wanted to deny news reports, you were told to go and print your own newspaper!
This is not a news article, it is an opinion piece.
3
This is who we are folks. We have turned our government over to lowlife criminals, to con men and hustlers. This goes beyond being just intellectually unqualified; these people are scrapings from the bottom of the moral barrel.
And what does that make us if we simply shrug it all off as the new normal?
Get out and vote.
23
Insightful and right on.
1
According to a Los Angeles lawyer, Avenatti "actually sees the world just like Trump does." To know that, one would have to have an intimate knowledge of the psychological makeup of both figures. It seems fortunate that the author was able to find a lawyer-therapist who has treated them both. Now he can share the insights with us.
There is a lot of loose talk floating around about Trump. There are enough real complexities in our current situation that we could do without wasting our time on that.
1
@ERP
You are so right about people wasting their energy in long-distance psychonalaysis.
But our panisked progressive news media environment leads some people looking for real answers to engage in mind-reading, if onlyy to migure Trump out.
What would benefit the progressive political movement and especially the Dem Party is for people to answer one question that the pundits refuse to consider:
Why did hundreds of solidly Obama counties from 2008 go solidly Trump in 2016? We are talking about the SAME VOTERS. But our screen-obsessed people don't have - the patience? - to attack that question.
1
Oh, it's pretty simple. Racist backlash, plus drinking the kool-aid, plus endless screaming lies from FOX, plus Russian meddling, plus fear of the future, plus anger at capitalism, plus anger at politicians, plus Hillary Clinton screwing up.
Basically, guys like Trump seek out fear, hatred and hope, promise the moon, and count on being way down the road before the bills come due.
Not complex at all, really.
6
@Robert...well, one of your eight reasons for Obama voters switching to Trump was spot on - Hillary did screw up big time. But, what could you expect from someone who opposed Obama's TPP? In fact, the Socialist, the Centrist and the Trump all opposed Obama's TPP.
I’m giving you the call, here, Mr. Brunei, you are 100% accurate in this column, even about Avenatti. Reading the comments is something else entirely. Most of the commenters are in a state of...can’t call it glee, so maybe frottage would be more accurate. The delight, the Springeresque frothing, about yet another scandal from the Horror-in-Chief astonishes me. The suggestions that a mirror-trump like Avenatti might be a good candidate for our next prez are genuinely scary. It’s taken trump and his burlesque a year and 7 months to apparently make Americans forget that we had a man who was respected worldwide, grounded, intelligent, humourous, knew our Constituion because he taught it, and spent 8 scandal-free years in our White House until the anomaly that is trump came along. Now even people who say they despise trump are tittilated and deeply excited to drool over the antics of a woman whose presence most of us were flabbergasted at. I have zero appreciation for the treachery of Ms. Manigault, just like I have no appreciation for the treachery of a Russian stooge living under the roof of our most important building. None of this is acceptable. It’s not even good theater. I’m sad for the commenters who are enjoying this show. They’ve forgotten what we’re standing against. Let’s all hope it’s a temporary fugue state, and we can return to some dignity in government, and quickly.
14
The great advertising innovator, David Ogilvy, once told me that “first rate people hire first rate people, but second rate people hire third rate people.” Nuff said.
13
@Barbara Mehlman
I guess he forgot to tell you it is third-rate to name drop? And that he was quoting Leo Rosten?
2
I have never watched "The Walking Dead", but from ads it looks like a bunch of soulless zombies devouring stuff. And that's today's metaphor for the Trump administration. Only now they are eating each other. When will it all end. And do we have to keep enduring season after season of this horror. As many folks in this space have said, our only weapon to destroy these mutants is to vote in the midterms!
10
Almost none of the people talked about here has even an ounce of what we might have called "class" just a few years ago. They mostly come across immediately as sleaze, almost all of them. Why does a third of the country find "Celebrity Apprentice" and it's totally negative, gutter vibe even worth one view?
It will not end good. Gutter all the way....
10
Well done, Mr. Bruno, well done. Yes we are moving away from understanding our national political scene as the traditional Republican/Democratic dichotomy. This column contributes to that discussion and adds an implied sense of urgency. The outcome hard to predict but the call to action unmistakable. And yes to the insights on Michael Avenatti!
2
Who would have thought that Trump's mirror image would be a Black Woman???
8
To quote Rodney Dangerfield from Caddyshack: "Now I know why tigers eat their young".
6
Remember the phrase about draining the swamp? We have been so innundated with the rising tide of ooze and slime that few bother anymore to speak about draining it. We're all awash in a foul maelstrom of crud. Everyday one feels more soiled and besmirched. One feels a constant need to shower or bath. Couldn't we just take a fire hose to this presidency and its gang of misfits and give it a serious power washing? Will we ever get the stench out of The White House? Can it ever be adequately fumigated and deloused? There is something very rotten and it's not in the state of Denmark.
7
Beautifully written opinion. Thank you.
2
When, during the 2016 campaign, Trump talked about draining the swamp in D.C. no one realized that he meant draining it all into the West Wing of the White House.
5
The arc of the Frankenstein story: Victor Frankenstein creates a monster which he then spends his whole life trying to escape.
4
Best line: "Like Trump, he (Avenatti) views media ubiquity as a credential in its own right."
It's funny how "journalists" refer to everyone else as "the media." Never themselves.
Ironically or not, the media bestow those credentials. Every absurd or obscene tweet or statement, every outlandish comment, every fumble and foible gets covered literally to death.
You, Mr. Bruni, are part of the same media that created Trump. You're now creating Avenatti and the other versions of Avenatti.
You in the media are no longer capable of real journalism. You have become lazy. Rather than report on news you report on carefully placed tweets. Trump figured out how to easily manipulate you. Avenatti and others like him are now imitating Trump. Once again, Trump wins.
Politics has become reality TV because of the autistic flapping by "journalists" and commentators made it so.
You created the Trump monster, you'll create the Avenatti monster. You'll then complain that politics has been reduced to a vulgar display of celebrity with no dignity, intelligence or tact.
We've all seen the videos of idiots getting gored by bison and mauled by bears this summer. We should learn something from them. Don't feed the animals!
10
The irony is that the aliens truly have landed here on earth and are finally making themselves seen and heard.
The spectacular spectacle is a real-life version of a scary motion picture that I wish were an unavoidable viewing option.
1
There it is, so splendidly worded: "...with hucksters in whom he sees himself or through whom he sees himself."
I was trying to understand why Trump has had so many dubious people around him during his campaign and his disastrous presidency, and this piece explains it well. It's the narcissism. And his narcissism also requires him to not only repudiate his rejected employees but to destroy them, as he would destroy any perceived faults within himself.
3
@trump basher: Trump is far from the only purported billionaire in the US to corruption-test his inner circle. People like Trump use blackmail as a management tool.
3
At least Trump has shown us who the real low lifes and bad actors are in America today. Beyond that, I can think of nothing good to say about him and his administration. But I lay the fault for its continuation at the feet of Republicans in Congress, the only group who could take meaningful action to rein in this herd of swamp rats or, better, rid the country of them. That they do not do so, to me, is dereliction of their duty and is the most imperative reason for all of them to be replaced in the next election. This does not mean that there are not bad players on the other side, but equating the degree of negative effect upon the country smacks of false equivalency. Evil lives in the White House and is enabled by the Republicans in Congress. All must be removed from power by every legal means possible - and soon - if America is to survive in any form that we know.
4
@CP- the GOP promised a massive tax cut to the corporate donors, no matter the cost to the rest of us in real dollars or future deficits. DONE. The GOP promised their rabid evangelical christian base a makeover of the justice department at the judicial level. IN PROGRESS. The GOP promised the fossil fuel industry-- which runs our foreign policy and holds our precarious future in their hands-- that they would roll back all reasonable fossil regulations and kill off climate change as an issue. DONE. They ignore majority citizen concerns about gun-mania, a woman's right to choose, public education, gay rights, and the future of our social safety net. They will patiently wait to kill off all of that. There is no "dereliction of duty" at play: they are evil and this was a coup.
6
Donald Trump's administration has developed a form of government that l call an idiotocracy.
5
@PaulM
Exactly! The 4% growth, soaring economy, low unemployment..... scary
3
@Good - There are those of us who care about honor, decency, truth and the heart and soul of America more than money. Trump inherited a good economy and that’s one thing from Obama that he hasn’t destroyed yet.
3
@Jean
Obama had stagnant economic growth for his entire term. It is silly to give him credit for Trump's economy.
I care about decency and truth, and some of the things Trump says make me cringe, but his results are more important.
It is easy for you to ignore the lies obama told the American people in order to get obamacare passed. That was not decent or truthful. Obama used the intelligence agencies, the IRS and the EPA against his political enemies. That is so much more damaging to the soul of America than anything Trump will ever do. Obama spied on reporters who disagreed with him (James Rosen) and jailed people who pointed out his failings (D'nesh D'Souza). Obama was / is a true Leftist who would not tolerate dissent.
Trump is attacked by the media 24/7, and just gives it back with some tweets. He does not engage in the illegal use of government agencies the way obama did.
So you might want to re-think who is decent, and truthful, and cares about the heart and soul of America.
We elect a president to grow the economy, and protect America, and that is what Trump is focused on doing.
The trump presidency is the most dysfunctional administration in the history of this nation. Many of us knew that it would turn out that way. Not to credit us with detailed knowledge of presidential history, it's just common sense. Look at who and what trump is.
Right, you've got trump and Manigault Newman, two lightning rods, each vying for strikes. Manigault Newman is a creation of reality TV as is the media-reincarnated trump. And trump inspires all of his glassy-eyed follower wannabes like Manigault Newman. If she is now against him, she once revered trump. It's somewhat *her* fault.
The horrible news, is, of course, he inspired the idiot trumpkins to vote for him in the 2016 primary; trump, the least qualified candidate of seventeen. Trump supporters are sooo dumb. But it is they who fuel (reinforce, as they'd say in psychology) the trump idiocy.
The trump presidency is indeed a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
4
@Charles
I like the soaring economy, and the low unemployment. But that's just me....
4
@Good The economy soared under Bill Clinton and unemployment was also low then; Obama turned the economy completely around from a disaster to a pretty nice one Trump inherited, and one actually with better numbers than Trump's, if you read them correctly. I don't recall conservatives, et al, believing that was enough for them then. I do recall them spending seven years going after Clinton - no mulligans for him! And saying Obama destroyed the economy. But no, it isn't just you, unfortunately. We have seen plenty of Americans willing to put up with and sully and hack away at our democracy because of a "soaring economy and low unemployment", no matter that the economy is only soaring for the wealthy and inflation is rising faster than wages. My suggestion would be to consider the whole picture and look at the details. Would you put up with an abusive, horrible spouse who keeps your family humiliated, in fear, and destroys the foundation of a civilized household just because he/she brings home a lot of money? That is unfortunate.
2
Degradation of our public discourse, worldwide embarrassment, X rated language by a president, increase in hate crimes, conspiracy with a foreign adversary to interfere with the 2016 election (fact), all to be disregarded for what? An already great economy under the previous administration, that is falsely ascribed to trump? Selling your soul to the devil for the almighty buck allows one to ignore the stench that reeks over our country, courtesy of trump and his cabinet of fools and grifters.
9
I absolutely love your column, Mr. Bruni, and your past efforts at the NYT and at least one of your books. This morning I find myself wondering what you will write about when TrumpCom passes. What WILL you do? As for this latest news item, I am rooting for the Trump clones, of course.
1
Even still, I wake up everyday happy that obama is no longer president, and Hillary will never be president. Eight years of listening to obama's condescending lectures about what a terrible country America was, wore me down. Listening to the shrill shrieks from calling everyone who disagreed with her some kind of a "phobe", was just too much to handle.
My day becomes even brighter when I once again realize that most of what obama tried to inflict on this country is rapidly being washed away. The feckless executive orders, the wasted stimulus package, the nefarious use of agencies like the EPA and IRS against political opponents. The directives to use the FBI and CIA to spy on presidential campaigns... all of this now being systematically cleansed and removed.
True, with President Trump we just get the boring things like a soaring economy, low unemployment, respect from leaders around the world... you know the boring stuff.
I will take it though.
6
@Good
Thank you for describing my feelings exactly. Most commentators on this blog have no idea that at least half of all Americans feel this way.
3
@Ian
I always admitted that obama was very smart, and a great politician. Sadly he used these skills to our detriment. His only legacy will be that he used our intelligence agencies against his political foes, and we are still trying to clean up that mess. He admitted to being lazy, and he was, but he surrounded himself with extreme Leftists hell bent on "fundamentally changing" America from all the things that made us great. Obama was the worst mistake we ever made as a country. He reinvigorated the hard left, and we see that now with Antifa and BLM with their violence, and efforts to shut down speech they oppose.
@Ian
Less than 40% approval rating and almost 60% disapproval rating does not jive with your numbers.
3
The focus should not be on trump and his lesser selves. The focus should be on the crowds who hang on his every word, who time and time again support policies that hurt them, who support initiatives that make billionaires even richer, that deregulate corporations that poison the environment, that Poison us all. The problem is not trump and his cronies because they would be nothing without the base that republicans and even some democrats are terrified of. I know about trump and I really don’t want to know any more. What I do want to know about is the masses who support him and what fears or what passions drive them to this self destructive path.
2
@LoveNOtWar
The crowds who hang on his every word are just happy to have a president who cares about their daily lives, and does not treat them with disdain, saying they are bitter as they cling to their guns and religion, as the previous president did. After 8 years they became hungry for a president who actually loves America, and what it stands for.
They don't see low unemployment and a soaring economy as a destructive path. Why do you?
4
@Good
Thanks so much for your response.Your words throw some light on what motivates so many to support Trump and his administration. I'd love to know more. If you have a chance, I hope you will elaborate on what you have said.
Cares about their daily lives? This grifter spends hours everyday watching Fox News and tweeting. Occasionally, he goes out for an ego boost and rants at rallies, where many attendees are recruited and paid to yell and scream in approval, largely bragging about himself and insulting every past living president. He is a con man and malignant narcissist, who would sell own family down the river if they displeased him. Cares about this country? Are you kidding me?
9
I am waiting for a tape of Trump making fun of all his supporters as gullible chumps who will believe anything he says. You know he thinks it and says it. Now, they just need to hear it.
9
There is an actual Trump quote from years ago about running for President as a republican because he thought they were plain stupid and “would believe anything”. I guess they thought he was talking about someone else.
7
@J.
You really do not understand anything about President Trump. He is a flawed billionaire, who actually loves the country who gave him the opportunity to succeed.
1
@J.Fox News will never play it - the Trumpanzees will never hear it.
4
Frank Bruni forgets to "list" the other "me-too"s: the people who voted for Trump and the preening they're still doing . . .
3
Message from the mainstream media :
Ok, Avenetti was just fine as long as he was attracting readers and viewers, which we convert into money for us. But if Avenetti is going to try to change the political formula in America, well then the guy is a scoundrel ! We groom WEAK Democrats, politicians who take the corporate handout and then conveniently forget to fight for the non-corporate voters they said they would fight for during their campaigns. America's corporate owned media prefers the system we have established: STRONG Republicans, WEAK Democrats. Anybody upsetting the apple cart will be attacked nonstop......remember how we shut out Bernie from coverage, and then only covered him when we needed to attack him, well the same goes for Avenetti !.
1
@KilgourTrout First of all, Sanders was never shut out from coverage. Second, while Sanders caucuses with the Democrats, he only became one to run for President (thereby giving us Trump) and gave it up as soon as the primary was over. Third, the whining from Sanders supporters is getting old.
6
@Virginia
Well, maybe since there are more registered Independents in the U.S. than registered Dems, maybe the Dems should drop their silly "he's not a Democrat" unless they want to keep on losing.
As Trump's own pollster has said, Sanders would have easily beat Trump. Sanders was systematically alienated in the mainstream media, either not covered or attacked nonstop, such as the Washington Post's infamous 20 attack stories in a twelve hour period before one primary. It's all documented. Corporate media always prefers the weak Democratic candidate who will never effect their bottom line, with taxation or regulations.
@KilgourTrout
The arrogance of the DNC and the HRC campaign gave us Trump. When the polling was universal in Aug 2016, pointing out a 10 point win for Sanders over Trump, and a dead heat tie for HRC vs Trump, the DNC and HRC did not choose the Dem landslide Sanders would have provided, instead looking out for their own precious careers, and gambling instead on winning by 1 or 2 percent. That is the definition of arrogance.
Yes, Omarosa taped conversations + broke with protocols.
But President Trump had a private meeting in the Oval Office with Russian officials on May 10, 2017--2 days after he fired FBI's James Comey--and 8 days after Trump + Putin were on the phone together where Putin had a request.
The American press was barred from that meeting, which was filmed only by Russia's press and later broadcast on Russia Television. This is how everyone learned what was discussed and what happened. Russian TV!!!!
During the meeting on May 10th, Trump disclosed classified information to the Russians. Here's the thing:
Officials in the White House weren't angered then, but they sure are now with Omarosa, aren't they.....
9
Trump Gives Crazed Lowlife a White House Job Because She Needed a Break! What a great guy. And not a job at the switchboard, or in the mail room, but as Special Assistant to The President. $180k per. Nothing unethical about that.
At the risk of appearing churlish about Trump's kindness and generosity, I feel the need to point out that this Manhattan multi-millionaire is the owner of a very large and successful business who could have bestowed his largess on this laughably unqualified "lowlife dog" by giving her a six-figure job in The Trump Organization. But that way, the cost of his beneficence would be imposed on Trump pockets.
Better he should steal the money from the American taxpayer, including the farmers and coal miners he holds so dear, and bestow it on his dear old reality TV friend. Who could be more deserving? Please don't say coal miners and farmers, and their children. Those people are losers. Most of them have never even been on television. Losers!
But, at least he's got our backs.
12
It is now clear why Trump surrounds himself with these lowlifes, and lying is a must-have on the resume for serving in the Trump govt. All these folks have credibility problems. When they speak of what they've seen, who can believe them? They can also be blackmailed, as many have engaged in various illegal or potentially embarrassing acts. As witnesses to crime, they can all be treated like a Rick Gates. Unbelievable set of swamp creatures the American voter has brought into the oval office! They hate the American govt while pretending to be "patriotic" - the truly shocking angle on the American Republican.
4
I disagree about the danger of blackmail for something embarrassing. They are inoculated. The base does not care and even applauds bad behavior. The president may even be inoculated from criminal acts. Until Fox News dredges up a modicum of moral decency, the situation with this crew will be grim.
5
This is a really creepy picture. Looks like the deep state itself.
6
Avenatti may be the one who can oust Trump, either by exposing him through the Stormy Daniels suit, or running against him in 2020. Many seem to think an Avenatti's run is preposterous. I don't. He says the Democratic mantra of "when they go low, we go high" won't work against Trump, and he's right. Avenatti is not afraid to match Trump tit for tat.
11
Many of us don't have a dog in this fight between Trump and Omarosa.
2
He's on Twitter again this morning, blathering on about GOP winners having his "total endorsement." Given his poor record of discernment, I'm thinking none of those elected should consider it a compliment.
5
That photograph sends shivers down my spine. Trump is the Craigslist president: There really is a buyer for everything. But that photograph...it only affirms why I and many others believe Trumpworld and the Trump GOP really is a cult now (although the GOP has had the traits of a cult for a couple of decades now, at least, thanks to Gingrich and DeLay).
11
I see poetic justice in a black woman, Omarosa, with a name resembling Obama - rattling him.
These daily minor distractions take our eyes off the big, very disturbing, picture, clearly illuminated by former Times writer Frank Rich in the current issue of New York Magazine -
"But in a way these legal issues are beside the point in understanding Trump’s modus operandi. He doesn’t mind making himself vulnerable to punishment under the law because he doesn’t believe the law is legitimate or as powerful as he is. To him, jurisprudence is just another adversary to be bullied and mowed down like Little Marco or Crooked Hillary. That’s why the possibility of implicating himself in an obstruction case doesn’t really concern him. His plan is to destroy the rule of law before any case gets far enough to put him in legal jeopardy. His goal is not to prove his innocence in a court of law but to discredit the Justice Department, the FBI, the intelligence agencies, and, of course, the special counsel before he ever gets to court. On a parallel track he’s out to destroy the news media that report on his flagrant lawlessness. He’s even persuaded 43 percent of Republicans, according to an Ipsos poll provided to the Daily Beast, that he should have the power to “close down news outlets” if he chooses.
This time the system is being burned down before our eyes by its own chief executive."
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/frank-rich-why-trump-incrim...
Vote 11/9
13
@Paul Shindlerm, thank you for this post. The NYT did a disservice to its readers when they moved Frank Rich out of the mainstream to a publication that most of us rarely read. Meanwhile, men like Bruni inserted the adjective "flawed" in front of the noun "Hillary" every step of the way in 2016. The complicity of seemingly normal members of the media in undermining a decent candidate who would have been a decent president has brought us to the point where a complete nut (and whomever it is that supports his devil's workshop) truly is burning down the house. And I do not see anything on the par of Cal Fire coming in to shut this down. Not now, not in November. Not ever.
4
@karen
Thank you for your absolutely frightening, but unfortunately, probably accurate, assessment of our horrific dilemma. That more people aren't totally apoplectic over the Trump regime is mind numbing to me. All I see with Trump is steady march to a police state, as Mr. Rich clearly described.
I don't know what the circumstances were when Frank left the NYT. He's always been one of my favorite writers.
When you lie down with dogs, you wake up with fleas. America is going to need a strong flea and tick treatment after this administration.
15
Our big lab used to roll around in an animal carcass on the trail. The stench of the Trump administration is to high heavens.
3
There have always been hordes of Trumps in the world, greedy, selfish, morally bankrupt individuals for whom their ends justify any means. Those who voted for Trump will be judged harshly as they so deserve for their adulation of a Machiavellian prince. Historians write that in times of transition and uncertainty, Americans find male anger reassuring and they view it as strength. We are paying the ultimate price for their misjudgment, biases and insecurities. I will not forgive them.
Trump is the Caligula-like emperor setting his staff against each other like piranhas in a feeding frenzy, like the Romans who watched Christians being fed to the lions. It is a distraction for him because he does not have the mental or emotional fortitude to stay focused or to have any moral vision other than to nourish his own narcissistic needs.
Pruitt, Manafort, Gates, Sanders, Omarosa, Flynn, Sessions, Cohen, Guiliani, the list of Trump clones is endless.
But we fiddle while Rome burns, while Trump distracts us with tweets, he has changed the face of the Supreme Court for decades to come, he has turned back the clock on our goal to fight climate change, voter rights are being destroyed, inhumane immigration policies abound, tax cuts to benefit the richest among us, turning against our strongest allies and cozying up to our foreign enemies, undermining the free press and democratic institutions.
He may indeed be a madman but there is a method to the madness. Stop fiddling. VOTE.
11
I’ll give the pastor and other clergy a pass, but the lead picture is revealing: A fake president pretending to be faithful, surrounded by people whose own holier than thou attitudes make them frauds as well.
11
@HJS, why give the clergy a pass? they are complicit in this disaster, their flocks of sheep are who voted for this monster, who continue to support him. In my book that is called being an accessory to a crime.
7
@karen
There is a wonderful line in The Devil’s Disciple which perfectly describes my feeling about your comment: “I stand rebuked!”
Well said...
Time to cut through it all with a simple plan. I'm not voting for a single Republican at any level of government until the corrupt Trump White House is gone -- period! And, I'm going to let them and their avatars know it, loud and clear, at every town meeting and debate and individual meeting -- of which we have many here in First-in-the-Nation Live Free or Die New Hampshire. We need to rebuild both parties from the ground up, and let inexperienced moderates get some experience at the local and state levels so they will be competent to staff he greatest office in the land.
10
There was a time in the not so distant past that I was proud of the man who sat in the president's seat in the White House. Since our new president came on the scene with his odious band of sycophants I find myself reluctant to admit my allegiance to this country. I found myself cheering on the Brits for flying a derisive balloon over London when our leader came to visit. Will there come a time when the leaders of the Republican party in congress will stand up to this man?
11
I have to disagree on some points. M. #Basta is not like trump as much as you seem to think, Yes he is a Showman, But he has more Heart than Trump. I am like Trump. I would play trump in the stage play, but I hate looking at myself in mirrors, I stand in a totally dark room and loo at the Mirror and stare deeply into the space to seek the mental image with my eyes wide open hunting for the faintest light source. I use the mirror as a tool, but the same self reflection, I see things in a different light than Trump does. When I heard him talk about God and then that he'd be running, I started disliking the direction I saw the flow going in and started asking God (the Living God) what was up with this shift in the world. History is His Story...
So as the strategist that I am, I started hunting for the edges to battle Trump at the game of wits, of what and how and why. what is the path moving forward, where was the next landing rock in my rock jumping life style montage.
Trump is a sign of our broken world, the edges of the collapse people have been worried about since before Y2K and the general doom and gloom, looming in the wings.
Trump would never have taken that boy back to his mom like Mr. A did these last few days. Trump hates other people they are all outside his self so not worth much, though he likes some females a lot more than he should say, But he does not like many other people.
Mr. A likes people he will engage in dialogue and he is learned,Trump is not
1
Does anyone see the collusion angle? No, not Russia, but Trump-Omarosa. She’s supplanted Russia for the time being having gone from crackpot to reliable source interviewed on Meet the Press. She’s getting rich from her book deal and Trump gets a break from Mueller. Trump sounds empathetic on tape of their post firing conversation. Look for Omarosa to be rehired next term.
1
Unfortunately it was not only the "lesser Trumps" who lied to the public again and again.
Even those in his orbit with a former stellar reputation, have joined the ranks of liars and bullies and joined the other swamp bottom feeders.
None other than the supposed adult in the WH, Gen. Kelly, attacked a black woman, Rep. Frederica Wilson of Florida and publicly accused her of grandstanding and lying at an event. When tapes came out later that contradicted his version, he never had the grace to apologize.
A few months later he fired Omarosa, one of the "lesser Trumps", by threatening if she were not going quietly her reputation - whatever it is and was - would suffer. That is called blackmail, at least in my vocabulary.
Kelly, the great military strategist, was outsmarted by Omarosa who entered the Sit Room weaponized with a recording device, as she obviously also did in calls with the very stable genius.
Oh Lordy, I just hope she has tapes about all of Trumps other dirt, namely about her claim that the indeed unhinged man knew ahead of time about the dumpster fire of Wikileaks Clinton-Campaign hacked e-mails.
9
Ah the turn of a phrase - limber ethics - we are running out of descriptive's for people who wallow in alternative facts. Even Colbert's truthiness fails to describe the limber ethics of this cult. The Trump triumvirate does not compare that well to Washington, Jefferson and Adams. How about Moe, Larry and Curley?
The Trump stain on America's soul will take generations to fade.
6
Mr. Bruni, this is more of the same old kvetching. We've heard it. The comments are the same people saying the same thing.
Could you please start using your privileged NYT megaphone to call attention to the people who give us hope, and for whom we should be mortgaging our homes to support their opportunity to win elections and pull the rug out from under this corrupt and embarrassing non-leader?
It's time to look forward. We have 12 weeks to get some traction for the only ones who can effect the changes we all know must be made. Help out, please.
6
@JohnH
Stop looking for someone else to save you. If all of the regular folks who oppose our so-called President were prepared to go into the streets today we could end this abomination of an Administration and begin to restore our Democracy by direct action, following the example of our Founders. The People hold the power in this country, not politicians or the corporations who buy them. It's time we remembered that.
4
Well, look at all of those nice judicial appointments he's made......
If this country is ever cured of this cancer, it will be a long time coming, long after Trump becomes another very bad chapter in our national history.
Elections have consequences. Let's start the cure this fall.
10
The emperor's new clothes are slowly disappearing -- but disappearing they are doing - even if bit by bit.
Eventually, he will be totally naked, and everyone will see all the warts.
Even this, however, will not convince some people that he is a total non-being.
7
@Tom Cotner
Oh dear, don't put ideas into my head. Having to see a naked Trump would give me a heart attack.
4
@Sarah I suspect it would to many of us.
1
How’s that go? “As you sow, so shall you reap”. Happily, he’s getting a bumper crop...
3
Some concepts worth pondering:
He (or she) who lives by narcissism will be undone by others who live by narcissism, as said person, being a narcissist, will never see it coming.
Evil has a purpose--it can be weaponized to destroy other evils.
If you don't know what you don't know, you are truly vulnerable to anyone who knows the slightest thing about anything at all.
3
Avenatti and to some degree Omarosa are doing what I believed the other Republican candidates shoulda been doing during the campaign, but were too scared,cowardly, stupid, or some other thing to do it.
This president 'ranked out' and insulted his way to the presidency.
My initial reaction to his tactics was to 'go lower.' To call him out on every nonsense thought and sentence (if he ever completed one) and to insult him with the most base language possible. The object being to make a complete fool of him even if one (me) made a complete fool of one's self. This thin skinned man couldn't have taken it. And looking back, what did we or anyone have to lose! And that's not even a rhetorical question or statement. What would he have done? Sue? Ha.
P.S.- The nerve of putting this guy center stage at the debates, along with massive 'wall-to-wall' coverage. Mission Accomplished, Media.
6
This looks like one of those Dutch Renaissance paintings where the characters are all pick-pocketing each other while seemingly pious and proper.
12
Rather than science fiction, the Trump literary genre might better be described as Bruce Jay Friedman has a love child with Vincent Price who is raised by Hunter S. Thompson.
1
Yes, just as mesmerizing as when she played her real self while on The Apprentice. She was not so mesmerizing back then, just bigoted and polarizing. In the extreme. You could clearly see exactly what she was made of. Complete crazy. Clearly, she is trying to contain herself while travelling the talk show circuit and all legitimate shows too. She seems to be angling for a spot. I hope they don't give it to her just because or for ratings. She is sure to revert to type soon.
@A Citizen
Having obvious watched "The Apprentice" is, at least in my opinion, not a good reference either.
When channel flicking and coming to that show and trying to find our what all that hoopla was about, 5 minutes were the max I could endure.
3
In 230 years, we have gone from George Washington, who refused to become king, to Donald Trump, who would trash the constitution and the country to be king. And it's not just his minions in the White House that would sit him upon the thrown if they could, but 60 million God fearing Americans as well. It's easy to see the flaws in Trump's closest allies, but not so easy to observe these traits in ourselves and our neighbors. Mao Tse Tung said that an insurgent without the support of the people is like a fish out of water. The same can be said of a bigoted, racist president. Pogo was right, we have met the enemy and it is us. See: RevolutionOfReason.com
15
@RLBExcellent comment.I have just reread David McCullough's book ( 1776 ) and realized again the bravery and grit it took to free our union from The King of England.Our ancestors were willing to suffer and die for the right to a free country.Too many have no knowledge of this history and/or do not care enough to honor it.
6
Lovely writings, thank-you.
I feel that .......,
What a sorry mess we endure each day. The problems both national and international still remain, messed with, disturbed but never with a logical thought in sight.
We are distracted and reluctantly drawn back into the tornado of venality and lies. Each day our engeries, thoughts and spirit are wasted on wanton law breaking and crass incompetence and lawlessness.
Now the spawn of the monster turns to devour its own. The imitators are emboldened and what was considered the abberation becomes the norm.
Vote this hell hole of nihilism, racism and cruelty and disgusting people OUT! Out of the White House, out of Congress, out of our daily lexicon. Chase them from our lives. And insist we are the people who will endure. Who will uphold human dignity. Who will care for ALL and every American and prospective Americans.
And, who may be a more careful in the future to read the candidates for the presidencey resumes!
11
New book just in on our "beloved leader" and his extensive connection to Russian mafia going back all the way to 1986...
House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia
by Craig Unger.
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_2_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&f...
5
Nixon was brought down, at least in part, by his mini-me John Dean (architect of the Enemies List), and by the sort of people who would comply with a request to install secret listening devices. Bush 43 appointed someone much like himself to head FEMA and paid the predictable price. Etc. etc. Sometimes incompetence is its own reward.
1
Even the Times cannot find any redeeming value to Omarosa Manigault. Hence it is left with nothing to say other than that she is a reflection of the man who hired and fired her. Perhaps one should wonder at why Mr Trump hired her. But surely he had every justification for firing her. Yet the Times must use this, like every other basic news story, as an opportunity to spin its agenda.
1
@JJ Gross, sometimes the enemy of my enemy is my friend. This is such a time. Whatever it takes to contain the trumpist menace is something I am in favor of.
2
I am not sure what the background picture showing a cross have to do with this story
Frank, many of the lesser evils who came in front of Trump has caved in to his desires of making thousands of his alter egos or mini-Trump or "mini-me" from one of the movies.
They sucked in whatever low esteemed and low-energy Trump exhaled through his extreme levels of nastiness that he acquired by virtue of being born to a racist father who taught him at a very young age that to be a successful businessman, "Use your real estate talent by only pandering to the White Jews and White Christians."
Trump did just that.
He placed clear instructions to his managers of his high rise apartments in Queens, NY and elsewhere and said,"Do not rent my apartments to any Black or minority renters."
And after being asked for further clarification, he said, "Just show the 'vacancy' signs only to the Whites. And change that sign to 'No Vacancy' anytime you see a Black or minority person coming in to your rental office. Am I clear ?"
No wonder, in later years upon arriving for inspections with his wife Ivana at his casinos in Atlantic City, NJ if trump saw any Black bookkeeper or any minority person at the cash registers he kind of got them yanked out of their jobs by yelling at his managers,"I want only White Jewish people wearing yarmulke counting my money." He also said in the same breath , "Black people are lazy. I don't want them here."
So if any Black or minority people is still working in his administration after what he did to Omarosa Newman, then shame on those "Lesser Trumps".
1
While he distracts, his thugs rape and steal from this country reducing us to a side show on the world stage. Putin is probably only using 10 year olds to finish the job with his cyberwar.
Wake up America! Your country is becoming but a footnote and you are just the first victims of this war.
3
There are plenty of administrations that have staff with no previous experience except working on a campaign. Omarosa is no different than George Stephanopoulos in that regard. It is curious that no one seems to have had a problem with Hope Hicks lack of experience or the many others but suddenly for many, Omarosas' "lack of experience" is now such a big issue.
What Omarosa is proving to be is a great strategist. She baits and they bite, then she delivers the punch. She is systematically moping the floor with the lot of them. Is she likeable, not much, is she effective, who are we reading about?
2
As Megan Kelly told Trump: "You've called women you don't like fat pigs, dogs, slobs, and disgusting animals."
It looks like old dog Trump just can't change his tricks.
I say we send him back to whatever barnyard he came from.
10
I ask a question which I already know the answer to.
Did Omarosa Manigault Newman have a security clearance?
If she did then that should be the end of the discussion by the editorialist writing this column. She violated security regulations. Those regulations required her immediate dismissal. She received a security briefing when she was given that security clearance. She knew better than to make surreptitious recordings in the White House and especially in a SCIF. There is no excuse. None.
And there is no excuse for the FAKE NEWS story being perpetrated by the various reporters and opinionated columnists of the NYT. If you want the president to stop criticizing the media then the media can simply stop publishing fake news. This entire story about Manigault Newman is just one example of a carefully crafted, manipulative, false, FAKE news narrative perpetrated by the newspaper of record, The New York Times.
You need proof? Read executive order 12968, signed by Bill Clinton, and executive order 13526, signed by Barack Obama. It's public information. Google the titles. The NYT can't claim ignorance.
@Aristotle Gluteus Maximus This story is not fake, just as Trump’s tweets are not fake.
6
@Aristotle Gluteus Maximus
At the end of November 2017, several dozens of high level Administration members did not have a permanent security clearing, among them Jared, Ivanka, and even White House Counsel - or Council as Trump sometimes spelled it - McGann.
And your think the WH at that time was occupied to get Omarosa of all people a clearance?
2
@Sarah
If you were to read the cited executive orders you would see that interim clearances in such situations are completely normal and accepted practice. It's spelled out in the regulations. It took two years for me to get my top secret clearance and I had no complicating factors. That was the standard time for that level of clearance, but I wasn't hired until the investigation was completed. New administrations don't have the luxury of waiting two years. The hysterical reporting on this is one more example of a misinformed, deliberately ignorant liberal media making FAKE news. If want examples, this is one of them. Read the proof. Read the executive orders.
TL;DR
Just take a look at that photo of a bunch of charlatans bowing before the chief charlatan. Truly hilarious. Tells you all you need to know.
9
Trump represents everything I dislike: conspicuous consumption, greed, lack of concern for the environment, stupidity, duplicity, bullying, cruelty to poor and refugees, lack of empathy for the unfortunate . . . and now I realize he is a dog hater. That caps it all! If one hates dogs it shows a deplorable lack of humanity!
6
Manigaults, Omarosas and Trumps are not created overnight. Their skills at storytelling, empty threats, posturing and self promotion have been honed for decades. No one seriously assigns the label of stupid to any of these folk. They all regard themselves as smarter than their next target. Omarosa is one of the many walls that Trump has encountered. A bombastic 70 year old, however, is no match for a scheming, savvy, go for broke sister about half his age. Trump has his Racist Benevolent Association. Giuliani appears to be the current spokesman. These are all career liars only one of which has had his stories examined in a Court and it's not looking good.
If nothing else, this engaging story shows the value of careful study. They could start with Aesop's writings which have survived for eons. Aristotle, MLK and Angelou could be next. Sensible debate may ensue many floors above this diatribe.
These are the best people he knows
7
Does it at all seem out of place that such low life characters would not be attached to our unhinged treasonous Russian Nazi president? Our nation will NEVER be the same. So glad I am old and can relive in my mind the greatness that was once America.
2
I want to live in a country where "if they go low, we go high" is still seen as the virtuous path. Sadly, these past two years have convinced me that Michelle's dictum is as obsolete as the laws chivalry, an ancient historical artifact. Avenatti's "subterranean" meme rules the day now.
1
That picture of the faith healers pawing him is classic. He's famously germophobic, it's a wonder he let them touch him. But the most fervent evangelicals have certainly grabbed him by his presidency, if you get my drift. What hypocrisy on both their parts. He no more cares about God and religion than they care about his three wives and serial philandering.
Then there's three-faced Pence in the background alongside the other Trumpettes. Waiting, waiting, waiting for God's fickle finger to point his way. Yes, Pence will humbly accept the presidency when the lying, cheating, bullying Big Man falls. Et tu Pence? Indeed.
4
I would have laughed out loud at almost every paragraph of this column if I weren't so numb by the ever-increasing misery spewing daily from the WH. The column read like a stand up comedy routine...a really good one. my favorite: "Will birds of a feather become jailbird together."
2
Please don't equate Avenatti with Trump, Frank. Just because you don't want to get down in the dirt and soil your clothing while gardening through our politics, don't disparage people who will. As far as I or you know, Avenatti isn't lying like Trump does, daily. He's not a weird sexual stalker like Trump admits to being.
Whatever happened to statesmen like FDR, who said of his opponents, "I welcome your scorn"?
5
You definitely forgot the morally loose Pence. He preaches but never practices. He’s a henchman for an adulterer, cheat, liar, and traitor to his country.
The Trump Trump sees in Pence is the self loathing and fear of women. Let’s not forget he can’t be around women without his “Mother” in tow. Keeping him in line? Keeping the evil temptresses away? Sounds very ISISy of him. Except he’s cutting out half of the population he’s supposed to be representing. And ladies, you’re not off the hook. He’s not YOUR husband who you’d love to possibly rain in and not have private wine dinners to talk shop. He’s the VP and if a meeting entails food or a social aspect, I doubt most women are jacaked up to work late with him. It wasn’t a sign of chivalry. It was a sign of exclusion. I was ashamed at the defenders of this.
Both clearly have Mommy issues and fear/Hatred of women.
Birds of a feather flock together.
I’m especially concerned with the “where are they now” aspect of the Trumpers. Which companies are now in bed or paying the likes of Pruitt, Spicer, all the cut baggage? They can work but we have a right to know where. And act accordingly the only way Americans can these days....with our wallets.
5
A very interesting view, thank you. What is quite amazing, aactually shocking, here is how many strange people are flocking together to run tbe country, most of them with seamingly no proper qualifications but abundance of flattery for the boss. It is surprising that things are not even worse in and around th WH.
Good work Frank. Psychopaths like Trump (and Manafort) have one fatal flaw. They are so sure of themselves, that they never believe they will be caught. Because they have no fear, they engage in ever more outrageous conduct. We ordinary mortals usually do nothing about these people figuring they will eventually be caught by someone. So they continue to wreak destruction, which only proves to them that they are invincible. When someone finally does something (Robert Mueller) it’s long past overdue, and it’s takes us decades to repair— if we can.
3
Great column.
1
Even the photo fits, we are experiencing Elia Kazan’s “A Face in the Crowd.” https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Face_in_the_Crowd_(film), https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0050371/
I don't know about a Michael Avenatti Presidency (yet) but I do know one thing..if I were ever in any terrible legal trouble I'd want Michael Avenatti as my lawyer.
4
We can discuss and debate Omarosa credibility until we're all blue in the face, but as of now we lost any moral authority to criticize and censure any other countries that have lawless regime, since we're on a fast track to becoming one of them.
Add to this: Catholic Church Sexual Abuse Scandal that unfolding in Pennsylvania, the complete chaos and erosion of the highest office in the land, and voilà we have: the fete accompli.
What's next!
3
You eventually reap what you sow.
1
In the end, the spawn will turn against the Caesar when they smell enough weakness.
Trump will belch, “Et tu, Pence?”
I'm tired of the reality show known as the Trump presidency. I think that part of the reason GOP Senators and Congressmen don't want to stand up to Trump and his minions is that they don't want to become part of the theater. They just hope to survive the next two years and not deal with this again. Unfortunately for them, they are paid to protect American citizens and they need to do something to stop this mayhem.
Look at them all in that picture....looking holy and sincere. I wonder who has a tape running right there and then. Trump praying?! Omarosa/Cohen taping.
2
Seth Meyers had a lot of fun yesterday with these three amigos. But seeing them praying together almost made me sick. But then today’s election returns started coming in. Hallelujah, sweet Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, and your Mamma!
1
Precis - people create their own monsters.
1
And the world was shocked, shocked I tell you, when Hillary called some of the voters "deplorables." She got close but the real deplorables now walk the halls of Congress and the grounds of the White House. Oh, for the calm, of no-drama Obama. Class vs. crass.
8
Is Trump on one of those paper-cotton ball diets for the sake of his girlish figure?
3
Difficult to underestimate the "mechancete"of Mr. Bruni, his zeal in undermining legitimacy of the institution of the presidency. Every column seems intended to denigrate the c-in-c and those of us who support him! If we don't have Trump, we have whom?Am reminded of a neighbor , Summa cum laude in mathematics from Yale University when Yale had stricter standards for admission than it does not have today. He would do anything for you, but when it came to Trump, became irrational. Submitted several opinions on ur columnist's cattiness, in my view, pettiness, and lack of focus on what should have been main topic of the day, allegations of domestic abuse against Congressman Ellison, who appeared to be everything the left sought in a candidate: a person of color, advocate of open borders, Muslim, but none were published, Yet Ellison apparently abused his girlfriend, and usually such charges, if true, r tip of the iceberg, that what he is alleged to have done to her, mistreating her, he did to others Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander:If Franken's pol. career is in ruin because of accusations of sexual misconduct, some going back a generation, why should same standard not apply to the congressman? He has become a liability to his party, yet was chairman of the DNC?More evenhandedness, objectivity is needed in Opinion section,and less suppression of dissenting opinions, like those of Alexander Harrison, an aficionado of Descartes!Thanks!
Or, Mr. Bruni, you could have just written this: "birds of a feather, flock together."
1
Welcome to Moscow-on the Potomac, realm of Mad-King-Don.
5
Again, not enough is being written about malignant narcissism personality disorder, the symptoms and what it means for the victim and those in his/her orbit.
2
Should we care that theives and liars are having a falling out? It distracts our attention from all the policy horrors being inflicted on the common American. Get back to the point Frank! They are making America a disaster. MAD!
I shutter, stutter, and mutter that these utter nutters, these guttersnipes, with Trump at the wheel, have plunged governance, self-respect, ethics, and good old human kindness into the murky mire of oblivion: the anti-Nirvana, America’s Apocalypse.
3
How dare you put Avenatti in this group. It undermines your whole piece.
5
Frank, that one sentence When you grease the walls.......should get you a Pulitzer. It was great.My jaw dropped.
1
My question: if Omarosa is such a "lowlife", what does that say about Trump's ability to judge character, or, if he knew, his choice to include her in the White House?
1
Every king needs his court and jesters,.....lots of them.
1
Don't forget all the mini-trump wannabes that paid trump lots of money to learn how to be a trump at trump U. I wonder what they are all up to?
Omarosa certainly won The Apprentice by successfully learning the most from her apprenticeship under trump's guidance than any one else.
When he insults Omarosa, is trump insulting the image he sees of himself in her or because she became too much like him?
Well done Frank. You could call them Grifter Zombies. Oh and don't forget Stephen Calk the newest member of the team who has brought us a new pastry recipe, Perspective Rolls; they look tasty but when eaten have an ashy taste and no nutritive value.
2
“Manafort’s trial proves this is no ‘witch hunt’”.
On the contrary, since the trial has zero to do with Trump, it reinforces the fact that it is a ‘witch hunt’.
1
The special counsel’s assignment was not to pursue Trump. It was to investigate Russian interference in the election and possible involvement by Americans. Prosecuting a Russia-linked campaign chair is a natural outgrowth of that. Manafort’s long and appalling roster of apparent felonies makes it clear that this is not a witch hunt in any way.
2
@Ian. Bull. The Manafort indictments were about squeezing him to get to Trump. Main justice had 15 years to indict him and chose not to. Manafort is not "Russia-linked". At worst he is "Ukraine-linked" and, again, nothing relating to 2016.
Excellent piece! The 'prayer' photo at the top is chillingly priceless. What happens when all of these miscreants are pardoned? Fasten your seat belt.
1
Trump and Omarosa are just two television characters having a scripted fight. It isn't hurting Trump in any way, just distracting the masses from his administration's war against America.
1
Just one note Frank...don't forget to honor the the 63,000,000 American voters who put this deranged man in office, and the 40%+ who actually still support him despite (or because) of the poison, divisiveness and hatred he has given them license to unleash. Association with Trump has given many people a boost up their own selfish ladders -- Bannon, Lewandowski, Spicer, Omarosa, David Duke, Roger Stone, Kushner, the Trump Boys, Ivanka (Tiffany is lucky she is in the shadows) Pruitt, Trump's whole Cabinet, and yes, Avenatti. As well as a boost in ratings for those FauxNEWS celebrities.
I am still hopeful (by reading ALL the comments on all articles and columns that have them) that there enough Americans left who are immune to the horrific virus that is plaguing our nation who might be able to wipe out most of the damage done to our democratic body.
1
Remember Trump is the head of the Republican Party. He uses and is totally supported by the apparatus of the Party. His agenda, his tweets, his speeches, everything, are a team effort. Senate and House Republicans could have stopped this long ago. But quite the opposite they support and protect him. Why? Because he is who they are. A white Christian nationalist agenda defines the Republican Party. If it did not, they would not be enacted it. The birth of trumpism is the fulfillment of the Republican Party agenda for the past twenty five plus years. Conspiracy with Russia is welcomed as a defining strategy in electoral politics. Who would have thought? Anyone who had eyes to see.
The media obsession with the unthinkably ridiculous conduct of White House personnel, including Trump and apparently anyone with whom he has chosen to associate, is like Three Card Monte. It is a distraction from the substance of government that should be addressing healthcare, immigration, trade, infrastructure, climate change and other vital interests of America. Yes, the drama of the moment draws attention of viewers and I understand the competitive nature of media, mass or otherwise, and sunlight is the best disinfectant, but there are far more important matters that impact our lives daily that are being either ignored or minimized by media coverage.
If editors focused on only the policy substance of whatever issues from the White House, I suggest that we would all benefit. Start by omitting video coverage of the press secretary, who has no credibility and lies as easily as her boss. Stop replaying Trump's rally speeches and start asking why the American people should be paying for his purely political grandstanding to retain support of his angry and fearful supporters. How much does each such rally cost? Focus instead on actual legislative and executive accomplishments that will sink him and his political cohorts when the videos could be played repeatedly in campaign advertisements by their opponents. Focus on his broken promises and the pain he has inflicted on American businesses recently with his haphazard tariffs that have cut employment and closed factories here.
Yes gemli, Trump people have fallen very low, but if the rest of us vote they may be vanquishedf at least for a while. If you believe in fairy tales; forever.
You see America this is what happens when Evil, true evil, ascends to the apex of Power. It's legion of minions gather beneath it and proceed to run amok among all the rest. They do so without fear, and in blatant disregard for any moral sensibility.
These are the beginnings of the days of tribulation, and they will proceed apace so long as good people stand by and do nothing. Evil counts on them doing so. Vote in November, folks. VOTE! It's time to put this genie back in his bottle.
John~
American Net'Zen
I like Seth Meyers' analogy. When Trump is forced to leave the White House we can ignore his rants because he's just another publicity hound and "disgruntled ex-employee."
3
The assumption by everyone is that Trump is as bad as it will get, and once Trump is gone, both parties will reassume their pre-Trump "normalcy".
I do not see this happening, as we are most likely in the first few innings of what will be a steady march of cranks and charlatans that will unfold over the next 10 to 20 years. Cult of personality as exemplified by reality television is the reality for today. Trump is virtual reality personified.
We will see virtual reality take the place of reality for a time not because we do not recognize the difference, but because we will for a time anyway, prefer the former over the latter. And, 41% of the American people are already there.
Oh yes, he has "the best people" around him alright! And let's not forget Wilbur Ross, who somehow still has a job, and spewer of daily lies, Sarah Sanders.
There is not an ounce of decency or grace in this swamp creature now called president. I do hope the Times and other mainstream media stop covering his lunatic rallies altogether, since there is nothing in them that resembles news. Frank has it right; science fiction indeed!
I look forward to the day when we have another boring administration, one where there are no headlines like these, one where the president is shown reading to a group of children, or vising a country or city or any other place, signing a peace treaty, just boring stuff. And I think most of us would like to go back to having a family man, with adoring wife and children, and a pet, in the white house. Like Obama, and i dare say, Bush.
Does anyone else yearn for a relatively boring discussion about how we can improve our infrastructure, combat climate change, care for and educate our poor children, adjust the outrageous wealth inequity....such a long list of dull, unentertaining issues?
Perhaps the real crime of this presidency is that for every hour spent tweeting about personalities and paranoias, there is an hour not dedicated to doing the people's business. The Earth's business. Pathetic is a generous description of "Trumpism" and his imitators. Gross criminal negligence gets a little closer.
A President of The USA has the unique opportunity and obligation to lead his/her country and the world by setting a mature, well researched, well reasoned set of policies that can be win win. The chant could be "Earth First". Or what about "Make Earth Great Again"? POTUS has a shot at being a world leader.
Instead, little Don has decided to act as if he is the sherrif of a tiny podunk town that's trying to keep the "others" out. He has no imagination. Leadership is not part of his lexicon and his presidency is just one elaborate con.
Is the audit over yet? Is there no patriot in the IRS?
How dare he ?
A Woman in one of the highest position in trump`s cabinet by his invitation who was fired by Kelly just like several others is called by Donald j. trump a " Dog ".
As we all see now Omarosa Manigault Newman is smart, articulate , poised under pressure, is a cool cat.
I have seen the lengthy interview by Judy Woodruff in PBS news, Ms. Omarosa remained poises and respectful.
Oh also Omarosa Manigault Newman is black and beautiful !
2
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. They all deserve each other.
2
Keep going, Frank: The lack of qualifications for the job became Betsy DeVos; the inability to speak coherently became Ben Carson; the inflated sense of one's intelligence became Stephen Miller...and on and on.
4
Where, oh where, are the likes of Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan?
They were right in there at Trump's side, nodding their heads and cheering him on, when he was giving tax breaks to the wealthy, snatching healthcare coverage from the poor, and disenfranchising 'undesirable' voters. Why aren't they supporting their hero in his time of need?
I guess there's no profit in poking a stick into a pack of spiteful grifters. Or at one angry black woman.
2
Trump's rotten apples do not fall far from the tree, and when they hit the ground, there will be a lot of unsweetened apple sauce to go around.
Trump sends so much negative vibes out at his closest people, and appears to abuse them as well. This sometimes does not work out so well if any of these people snap.
Its simple, but the Democrats have no guts:
1.never vote Republican again until every last White House and Congressional criminal is in prison or resigned in disgrace
2.Campaign finance reform
3.Repeal Citizens United
4.Re-enact regulation of banks and corporations
5.Make the tax code equitable again and punish those who hide their income in off shore accounts...
6.End the influence of lobbyists
3
“And they’re on the march” gave me goosebumps. The zombie trump apocalypse
1
Anyone who thinks about such matters has long ago realized that Trump has no real game. His entire life is a cardboard front with no depth. He is devoid of intellect. He is consumed by his own ego and need of constant instant gratification. He kept Omarosa around only because she praised him daily. He is deaf to his (non-family) advisers entreaties to act responsibly and tone deaf to America to understand what is really important to the people.
Trump is a sham, a fraud, a user. Everyone around him knows that. Moreover his inability and lack of desire to understand policy and important issues is dangerous to the safety of America and the free world. Has he even read the constitution that he took an oath to defend? There is doubt even that basic tenet of public service.
Americans need to think carefully about who and what they vote for in November and in 2020.
2
What I do not understand is why Twitter shut down Alex Jones' account (even if it was too short) but not Trump? Yes Jones is more obvious in his call to violence but all those tweets about attacking the media by the Liar in Chief don't count? No one is above the law.
You should also include the 62 million Americans that now believe lying, sexual abuse, racism, bigotry, mysogeny and above all total lack of knowledge are acceptable attributes for the President of the United States, and any other elected or appointed official provided they are Republican. Let us not forget or even minimize the contributions that Mitch Mcconnell and Paul Ryan have made to this catastrophe.
2
Despite some superficial similarities, Avenatti has a relationship with truth, facts, values and integrity that Trump will never have
3
The best thing about all these taped conversations is that maybe trump will get paranoid and stop talking.
Capitavitated by Frank Bruni's writing, along with the AP photo by Evan Vucci. We are watching as Trump is being brought down by the shallow state comprised of his own chosen people.
2
Despite the WH Trumpettes claiming that the Donald is incensed over Omarosa's vindictive tell-all, he's be more livid if he were ignored. That's the very definition of a narcissist.
Beautifully written piece that sums up Trumpworld! Bravo, Bruni!
3
We surely need a clean sweep in this country - top down, and let fresh air in. Trump and his minions have infected us and filled a swamp with the worst people, representing the darkest of our beings. The fish rots from the head has never been truer in this Presidency and the offense to our country is paramount. Each day we are assailed with the filth , the rot of this Trump phenomenon and it stinks to high heaven. The silent men and women of congress should pay heavily for their quiet enabling of this man.
Decent people will stand for just so much and then a revolt will
come. , and not soon enough.
446
@pkay Alas with the GOP playbook in place since Nixon, there are too many nefarious characters ready and willing to take their place. Democracy, according to their beliefs, is for losers.
1
@pkay Well said. Thank you.
1
Others have observed. Jobs, jobs, and growth heal most ils.Crime,infrastructure,opioids,dependence and birth rate once hope returns. all but envy and our feet of clay, and envy of him. He' s Andrew Jackson, term limiting everything,Parties,politicians,institutions,establishments,even parents binding their children,and future presidents,.Welcome to the new world, Binding NDAs.wWe've brought it on ourselves by destroying trust and civil society,What doesn't kill him makes him stronger you fools. See you in November.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: YOUR VOTE MATTERS.
Not voting means, in effect, voting for *this*.
14
"Not voting means, in effect, voting for *this*".
Indeed, and voting for a third party candidate is as well voting for *this*, as the nation painfully learned in the general election in 2000.
6
Tabloid warfare between the Real and Lesser Trumps is essential if the Trump cult is to be diminished and eventually destroyed. Hopefully, the Establishment Media will provide visibility to the Lessers’ messages to and about Trump. Sunshine really is a great political disinfectant.
1
I, like many of my fellow Democrats, am hungry for a candidate who has the courage and depth to take on Donald Trump at his own game and win.
The "when they go low, we go high" maxim sounds wonderful on paper, but I prefer Avenatti's take - when they go we hit back harder. Hillary repressed her instincts during the debate to stand Trump back when he was stalking her on the stage. We all saw that.
I was yelling to her through my television to stop talking and stair him back into his chair. But she took the "high road." And now he's president.
Sometimes you have to sting them to let them know you are there. Avenatti has the right idea in my opinion.
2
As you sow you shall reap. I am enjoying the spectacle of
Omarosa turning on Trump. Such a delicious stew of malicious behavior. It does seem that the student has surpassed the teacher. If a group of writers sitting in a room in Hollywood created an evening soap opera like this and put it on TV viewers would think that they were smoking something very strong. Unfortunately this soap opera is reality and it is no joke. Trump has diminished the prestige and dignity of the presidency . I do not know if that can be fully restored. Trump stated that he would hire the very best .
Omarosa is the best at making sure that she can master
the same game as Trump and beat him.
2
The greatest tragedies of the Bush era were the Gulf Wars and subsequent economic collapse of an insidiously unregulated financial sector. Far from being a brace of chastening experiences, they laid the foundation of later Republican opportunism that allowed the rise of the Trump phenomenon. Obama’s greatest tragedy was that he failed to capitalise on the “audacity of hope” that he preached. He did not erase the previous administration’s missteps which should have consigned the GOP to ignominy for the foreseeable future. Instead, through a complex process, he helped polarise America into a nation of effete liberalism countered by radical far right hate.
Trump’s greatest tragedy, given that he has yet to start a war or an economic maelstrom, is that he establishes a new normal for how disgraceful government can be. Terrifyingly, he allows the dull but necessary staidness of state affairs to become tawdry reality television, a form of largesse dispensed in the bread and circuses vogue. Now, others emulate him as a new, dark and creepy, wormhole appears in human psyche which allows more exploitation of the masses, mostly by consent.
Leadership has long been obsolete, replaced by the most loathsome of frailties like greed and ambition. Evil prospers while good people do nothing, it is said. If I could, I’d vote for Bernie Sanders: his is the only example I can admire because of its quaintness and old fashioned forthrightness.
1
You missed the fact that she has evidence that DJT had advance notice that hacked HRC emails were to be released by Wikileaks.
The rest may be interesting....
3
Thanks again to Frank Bruni for an insightful article about our continuing national nightmare centered around the current occupant of the Oval Office. All of the “lesser Trumps” that Bruni points out , with the possible exception of Avenatti are actually students of a nefarious and twisted teacher. And while these outrageous tactics may appear clever to some, they almost always have their karmic backlash . In this way they’re not clever enough, because they are never sustainable.
As Gandhi once pointed out, tyrants and autocrats may seem invincible for a period of time, but they always fall, and they do so by doing themselves in inadvertently .
2
Oh great, now I have to worry about all the lesser Trumps who haven't been revealed yet but will show up for 2020.
5
Don’t worry. They’ll reveal themselves clearly in order to attract the deplorables.
2
The success of Donald Trump’s masquerade as a real president and the ability of Trump’s hand-picked imitators to capture so much attention by their antics should tell us more about ourselves than about them.
2
At least Avenatti is using the law, not abusing it, as Trump, Cohen, Mannafort, Pruitt and Gage have.
False equivalencies seem to apply here. Avenatti is not in the same league as these other chumps.
"As ye shall sow, so you shall reap" seems to apply to Mannafort, Cohen Pruitt, Gage and hopefully the same will happen to Trump.
5
I’ve taken to shutting everything off at 10pm and taking a sleeping potion. Still having nightmares.
2
The accompanying photograph is well-chosen, on so many levels. I don't know which of them is more shameless standing before that simple wooden cross that millions of Christians hold dear -- Cohen, Omarosa, Pence and Trump, or the Christian clergy. I abhor the politicization of Christianity. All those who engage in it are also Trump imitators and operators.
5
Can anyone tell us who is actually running the store? If you add up all the time Trump spends watching TV, doing his hair, acquiring his neon orange glow, traveling to and from golf courses, playing golf, tweeting inflammatory nonsense, replacing the people in his administration who have either had to or chosen to get out of town, and traveling to and from and performing at self-aggrandizing, poisonous “rallies” in his favorite states, how much time is there left to do any actual executive branch-related work? He can’t possibly be doing more than an hour or two of work per day, if that.
I deeply resent having my hard-earned tax money go to pay for a sham administration that it is going to cost US taxpayers trillions of dollars and unimaginable pain to recover from, if that is even possible. I also deeply resent having my peace of mind during the retirement I worked so hard to achieve co-opted and completely undermined by someone who has never been worthy of five minutes of attention by rational, civilized people. I want my country and my life back, and I know I’m not alone.
32
Does anyone suspect that our guy in the Oval Office feeds off these sideshows? They keep him on the front page and constitute the usual "breaking news" on TV, whether Fox or any of the other so-called mainstream networks. Try to detach yourself from the 24/7 pounding of all things Trump and think about how we've become saturated by this foul-smelling rot. In the long run, someone is benefitting. Could that actually be our beloved leader?
1
They could be characters from an Elmore Leonard novel. Trump included.
4
There is a old adage: be careful what and who you step on as you climb the ladder. You will have to pass them on the way down.
It will not be pretty as 45 descends into the inevitable abyss.
5
The GOP should recognize and accept that Trump is a disaster and a problem best solved by forcing his RESIGNATION.
GOP leaders can end Trump's deceptive, dangerous, and damaging actions.
He has a low approval rating, is a continual embarrassment, and he deserves to be impeached.
Is the GOP ready for its closeup.
Can the GOP look down the road and focus on the 2020 election.
Call it having 20/20 eyesight.
Consider the following:
Do not become an enabler of the Trump dictatorial juggernaut.
Fall on your sword - with grace, decency, dignity, and sincerity. You and we will be the better for it.
By your patriotic action you will save the GOP and the country as well.
Make this necessary sacrifice. Prepare for a worthwhile and reasonable campaign in 2020 with a decent and honest candidate the Party can support with dignity.
Be wise and practical - follow this course of action in a timely manner.
The behavior of Trump and Trump himself are NOT acceptable.
His erratic, chaotic, senseless, and damaging behavior is NOT acceptable.
His coterie of similar bedfellows is disgusting.
Avoid applying this same label to the GOP leadership and to the GOP party as a political entity
You owe it to our country and to yourselves as well.
4
The only thing they THINK they owe, is favors to their donors. They don’t care about you or me.
1
The White House and its minions have become a Reality Show. The ringleader is Donald Trump. This is what our country has become. Many of Trump's fans are also members of this cult. They don't think through reality, they just applaud and think he's funny and his policies are right. No ethics, no morals.
Many may call themselves "Christians" but true Christians would never support this immorality and the Reality Show that they have also become. Time for some Americans to wake up and realize how ridiculous and out of touch with reality they have become.
2
And then there's Stephen Miller who represents the more quiet and exceedingly cruel side of Trump. The defender or maybe architect of Trump's immigration disaster.
8
We got the 'leaders' we deserved. The world is - and always will be - chock full of little Trumps just waiting (and scheming for) their turn.
3
There had been a significant increase in hostility by middle age white man and women towards minorities. They think it’s open season to act like Trump. Many have been caught on social media and will pay dearly for a long time. Some have lashed out and got charged with assault, resulting in job losses. PSA, you are not Trump, stop acting like him, you don’t have lawyers in speed-dial to defend you.
1
Frank, during this week I do not read primary Trump articles and do not comment on Trump. But reading just a few words of your imitator column led to this thought about the record each of us now leaves, me for example one whom your colleague Douthat sees as a Lefty Liberal. Me, only comments that cannot be tracked.
Is a new field of psychology developing in which the analysts have at their disposal the complete public Tweet record year after year of public figures, a record that can be used to follow descents into madness or megalomania?
Historians traced the thinking of our founding fathers by reading their letters, private documents made public in part.
I wonder, do lesser Trumps follow their master in devoting their daily mental activity to composing Tweets, leaving a record that their children may find difficult to explain away and not be able to erase.
A first draft of a question that a new category of academic researchers have already developed, as yet unknown to me.
Only-NeverInSweden.blogspot.com
Citizen - US SE
1
Am I missing something? I don't understand the inclusion of Michael Avenatti in so many of the comments regarding those who emulate Trump. For one thing, Avenatti never kissed up to Trump; quite the opposite. I am grateful to Michael Avenatti for being a professional willing to take on a client who, in most circles, would be deemed undesirable and a social pariah, and even perhaps a very high risk for himself. (As the daughter of a (real) minister, I'm reminded of the story of Mary Magdalene). All I've seen in Avenatti's television appearances has been a professional who has respected his client, acted with attorney ethics (unlike Giuliani), and who in fact has a lot to do with the noose tightening around Trump's neck, at last. Just because someone goes on TV to discuss highly publicized cases does not make that person a grandstander. Putting Avenatti in with the likes of Trump and Giuliani is like putting Bugliosi in the same category as Charles Manson. Crazy.
6
@Virginia I agree with you completely but your comments point out that there are many people who are just never satisfied. They hate The Donald but when someone comes along who will take on The Donald then that person is called is a grandstander.
When I have seen Michael Avenatti on television he has, as you say, been cool and professional. Lets face it. The Donald has been in the flimflam and con business for many, many years. There are not many people who have the guts to take him on. Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels, and Omarosa Manigault Newman look like they do.
1
Trump reflects the real estate world - regardless of political leanings.
2
How can Trump remain politically strong? Is there that large part of our population that admires a liar, misogynist, racist and uninformed politician? Or do they think this is the way to success? How do women supporters rationalize that he has their interest at heart when he nominates a judge?
A friend of mine has been saying for months that Avenatti is thje only person that can defeat Trump in 2020.
I certainly hope we can return to a time that we vote for the person we believe is capable, honest, and above all else truthful./
7
@tom In answer to your question "Is there that large part …….admires a liar,...politician? " I am embarrassed to say so, but the answer is yes. About 30-40% of the population apparently likes The Donald and what he stands for.
The thing that makes The Donald so difficult for most normal people to deal with is his sheer shamelessness and brazenness. The Donald can lie then contradict his lie, deny what he just said on video, but nothing fazes him. It is absolutely impossible to embarrass The Donald or to throw him off stride.
Michael Avenatti always seems cool and professional when I see him on television (which is not often) but he and Stormy Daniels are not intimidated by The Donald. Ormarosa Manigault Newman isn't intimidated either. We have a new crop of people who are learning to deal with The Donald's flimflam. And they are learning from the Master.
1
If free will exists then this speaks volumes about the place of my employment. Personally, I find the name of the beer to be sacriligious, respecting the rights of my employer and other peoples' right to choose.
I am grateful to Bruni for this straightforward piece about karma. What we sow, we reap.
Lately I am seeing the tide turning with our national attention span, from the daily incredulity caused by "naughty Donald", to caring about real issues that matter. These include 'good news' stories that uplift and beckon us toward being our better selves, shouldering our duties to be good citizens.
I believe many of us aspire to being thoughtful, inclusive and having a hunger for being informed. We care about our country. We realize that intellectual laziness and apathy to action are not acceptable. While the past 18 months of chaos, distraction and disruption have been entertaining, I believe most of us are now bored with it. And we are realizing that the wreckage caused by this administration will take years to repair. But it is a task we can accomplish.
The true spirit of American democracy resides in the hearts of it's people. It is manifest by decency and empathy for others. We will not be defeated by these disappointing times. A free press and the voice of good people who care, matters.
9
Ms Goldberg, another NYT columnist, was overjoyed in her column when Omarosa is turning on her former mentor. That is misguided. Sometimes, the enemy of your enemy is still not your friend.
Indeed, there is no moral against unethical thieves. Trump attracts and employs people like Cohen and Omarosa because they are his mini-me. To each of them, people are usable until they are not.
Does Trump have die-hard followers? Sure, those are sheep. The foot soldiers. They march at the drumbeat until they are wiped out. Like them farmers in the MidWest right now. If they think China and Mexico will cave before the farmer foreclosure proceedings, they are greatly mistaken!
3
This was really good. An excellent aperitif for a main meal we all are looking forward to consuming.
5
60 million of us still think he's awesome. What was our first clue this won't end well?
8
@Davis
Of 350 million of us, your 60 million is a minority that does not represent the will of the majority. We share the same needs for health, education, income and opportunities. We need to be thoughtful and caring about all citizens of our nation.
4
And that still makes you a minority.
When 45 was born.
"When you grease the walls of your sanctum with lies and put fun-house mirrors everywhere, is it any wonder that the dazed people inside try to protect themselves with a lifeline like proof?"
Frank Bruni, you are simply brilliant, the best NYT writers of modern ways and mores I be ever read. Kudos for this gem of a column.
The only thing I might add to your portraits of these Trumpian copycats such as Amorosa, Avanatti, Cohen and Manafort is this: for all their Trumpian preening, self absorption, and desire for attention, they lack his "killer" drive to inflict real damage on his opponents.
Yes they play the media and elevate themselves at the expense of others, but they aren't intrinsically mean.
Unlike Trump their vanity isn't based on vindictiveness, cruelty, and the need to punish opponents long after political battles have been won.
Given that, I relish the drubbling and the payback they're inflicting on this nastiest of presidents.
They say fight fire with fire: these characters in today's tabloid presidency could be the trick to help bring this "killer" president down.
32
@ChristineMcM: All of life is a zero sum game to Trump. For him to win, someone else must be humiliated.
1
The headline in WAPO reads:
With little fanfare, Trump and McConnell reshape the nation’s circuit courts.
"As the Senate moves toward confirming Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh, President Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are leading a lower-key yet deeply consequential charge to remake the entire federal judiciary."
This what terrifies me the most, as it should all of us.
We will not recognize this country in a very foreseeable future.
48
"We won't recognize this country in the near future"? That future is already here.
Yes it will get worse, but Trump and his congressional cronies have already done more damage to the founders' vision-- that all men (and women) are created equal under the law with the "right to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness"--than any foreign adversary could have accomplished by conquering America on the battlefield.
35
@ChristineMcM; Laws are supposed to apply to people equally. They must take into account that each individual is unique.
So a nation of 300million versions of each law?
We are also a society that must learn to live with each other, and compromise
It’s one of the reasons city dwellers often have an advantage looking into what the future brings
For accuracy, Frank, please take a deeper look into Manafort's past. Manafort has made a career of representing some of the world's worst dictators along with "political dirty trickster" Roger Stone, Trump's longtime friend, at BMSK. When Manfort was hired by Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, he promised he would “influence politics, business dealings, and news coverage inside the United States, Europe, and former Soviet Republics to benefit President Vladimir Putin’s government." Manafort was in debt to pro-Russia interests by as much as $17 million before he joined Donald J. Trump’s presidential campaign in March 2016. Also worth noting that Roger Stone has known Trump for over 40 years and had recommended Manafort. It's highly unlikely that Trump didn't know Manafort before he hired him. https://apnews.com/122ae0b5848345faa88108a03de40c5a/manaforts-plan-great...
Manafort Under Scrutiny For $40 Million In “Suspicious” Transactions https://www.buzzfeed.com/jasonleopold/manafort-under-scrutiny-for-40-mil...
11
The hunger for attention also can be seen in the 40th Senate District which encompasses Northern Westchester & Putnam. We have a Trump supporting NY State Senator Terrence Murphy who refuses to host public forums, lies about his opponents, didn't pay his taxes and filled out his ethics forms incorrectly. People wake-up when it comes to WHO is representing you.
49
DJT will campaign for him and in that corner of NYS it will propel the guy into office.
Mr. Bruni's comment, "you can marvel — and shudder — at the intersection of these three at the apex of American government" worries me more than any particular perspective on Trump, Cohen, OMN, Manafort or Avenatti.
What concerns me is that the behavior depicted is becoming the standard method of operation in the highest reaches of American governance. This is rule by grifting, lying, bloviating, abusing and bullying.
If such behavior becomes standard operating practice in the White House and beyond, we should start preparing the funeral for our beloved country.
52
Reframing things for a moment. We notice and react ( and we indeed react) to this culture in charge now....and know that it is not what the majority of us either voted for or desire.
That is why we comment, why the noise and the unrelenting criticism of the only true grifter put ( illegally) inside our WH in modern times. Keep it up
Vote straight Democratic Nov 6th. And if and when those rascals start behaving unacceptably, throw THEM out .
1
Please, Mr. President, tell us you didn't use the "n" word!: 60% of America
Please, Mr. President, tell us you DID use the "n" word!!: 40% of America.
I've never used the "n" word. The word "negro" is just not in my personal vocabulary.
#realdonaldtrumpfakepresident
16
Now, I think, it really is a matter of time. I vividly recall the late summer 1974 and the TV in my house and my grandarents house seemed to be glued to Cronkite. We watched a lot of the important Watergate hearings live. Riveting stuff. I get the feeling we're in that time between when it started to look really bad for Nixon and his live resignation in the Oval Office. I bet Mueller will finalize his findings and he'll send a little note over to the White House. And soon thereafter we will see the greatest, the best resignation America has ever seen.
38
Wishful thinking about a resignation - more likely DJT will order the invasion of a country, like financially-strapped Turkey, to deflect our attention.
1
The Trump Administration is a reality show that has "jumped the shark" and should not be renewed for another season.
41
Trump says he drained the swamp but he filled it with sewer rats.
21
Dr. Trumpenstein, behold your monsters!
22
@USexpat "It's ALIVE!"... (Dr Frankenstein)
This commentary by Mr. Bruni is a provocative read - so poignant while pathetically amusing. Trump has met his shameless match in Omarosa.
12
A swamp.
3
Not science fiction. Horror/slasher/snuff. Poorly-written & -acted too.
13
The lead photo of a smarmy bunch of cons faking faith for the gullible is perfect.
70
“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” as the saying goes. Trashy Trump and his “White” House minions obviously underrated the smarts of an African-American woman, who is giving them as good as she got. The Reality TV presidency is living up to its tabloid expectations with tweets, lies and audiotape!
Wake up, America – this accidental president has turned the most powerful office in the world into a joke. The world is laughing at us as they see a president, who spends more time on Twitter picking petty quarrels with ex-staffers than running the country. It’s way past Mueller time – when responsible Republican leaders go to Trump and tell him to call it quits before the ugly truth forces him out.
54
Hard to resist stating the obvious, that what goes around comes around. No one will bring down Mr. Trump; he may love the drama now but as the myriad nooses continue to tighten he will implode on himself, a metaphorical Sta-Puff marshmallow from Ghostbusters. Ka-boom.
Omarosa may be the first from inside to turn but how many are willing to be the second?
11
A traditional barn yard full of animals. Trump in his own pen.
9
Trump, his cronies and this shameful administration make
me want to throw up. Nicer words are not deserved..
16
I know who I'd like to see dropping a few recorded conversations, but it would be for the future of their own children, not revenge.
When Trump announced that he was moving the US embassy to Jerusalem my first thought was, somebody's getting paid off, and it isn't in precious Trump dollars.
Here's a guy who has bragged about how he uses nothing but Jewish accountants to manage his money. Jewish accountants who no doubt know where every dime in the Trump coffers came from, and likely where a lot of it is hiding.
All it would take is one person with a conscience —just one — to end this nightmare.
23
According to an American Jewish Congress poll, only 16% of American Jews supported moving our embassy to Jerusalem immediately. The vast majority felt it either should not be done or it should only be done in conjunction with a peace accord.
No, this was a gift to Bibi Netanyahu probably because he, like Omarosa, says nice things about DJT, and he dislikes President Obama as well. It's also a gift to Jared who wants something to show for his time in the White House.
In a way, his use of Jewish accountants and the way he views them is racism, too. But I do agree that one man with a conscience could break Trumpworld apart.
1
This is a horror story NOT science fiction! Trump's election exposed America's dark underbelly of racism, greed and fringe thinking. Once these malevolent undercurrents were allowed to surface, the half-life of this insanity will take years to go away. The worst part is with the creation of all these "little Trumps" the rise of another one, worse than this one, may soon be in the offing. Truly an American horror story!
23
I'm going to bed, please wake me when this nightmare is over.
20
@LindaP: Make sure to wake up in time to VOTE!
@Anna
Thank you Anna.. I'm on it! I can't count the days fast enough!
I still am completely flabbergasted and appalled that we could've elected trump as POTUS. Regardless of how much you could've hated Hilary, or how Republican you were, or how much the Russians interfered in the election. How could we as a nation have elected someone so disgusting, so base, so unintelligent, so indecent as a human being as our leader? I just don't understand.
102
@tony, BINGO, That is the question. How could we, choose him, to represent us? Are we that weak, that stupid or that compromised? Either way, look at the mess he's made of America, Democracy and Decency. Those three words used to be synonymous.
1
Agreed... DJT also shows us just how much the Republican party is compromised. How the party could make him their nominee is beyond me.
@tony We got Trump courtesy of the antiquated Electoral College. We can try to put the blame on Comey, HRC being a poor candidate, Bernie Bros, Jill Stein, and on and on, but HRC still got almost 3 million more votes than Trump - and still she lost, thanks to the EC!
Interesting choice of picture.
5
The problem is that we are now being overwhelmed by this idiotic sideshow and losing sight of real issues if importance.
A large bridge collapsed today in Italy with dozens dead foreshadowing the future of American infrastructure that we refused to finance in favor of borrowing $2Trillion to give to already very wealthy people, and there was a terror action in London. What is on CNN and so many newspaper headlines.... Amarosa.
This nation, this government (and the people that continue to support this goveran entire) have become a very unfunny joke that will be making us cry for a generation.
Vote against it in November to start to contain the idiocy.
56
It can't get much clearer that the Trump administration is nothing but a gangster show. With the world watching. Everyone around him is an enabler, and a destroyer. There are some empires that lasted many centuries, but the U.S.A. won't make it to 300. These bozos are making sure of that.
16
The President of the United States actually, publically refers to a fired employee as a dog?
He goes lower and lower every tweet, every day.
26
Every living former President must cringe to know they worked so hard to uphold the safety and meaning of America, and now a scoundrel is wrecking havoc on the Untied States.
17
On a scale of 0 to -10, Donald Trump is -10. The lesser Trumps are lesser, I hope, with the addition of some redeeming personal qualities.
4
Most of them are political animals, nothing more. Don't anyone remember Romney?
Amoroso might have had a change of heart. What would have happened to Troy if Cassandra would have had tapes?
Well said Mr Bruni. Trump is being thrown under the bus by a disloyal, vicious, unethical staffer. Mini-mes are learning their lessons well, lurking around corners, flaking off, scrambling for their own day in the sun. Avenatti, indeed.
Long story short: Trump is being out-trumped. I wonder if any of it sounds familiar to him.
3
There is no doubt that Trump sets the tune for his entourage; i.e. do like I do, all compulsion, no compunction.
What a sad burlesque show of a presidency and an even sadder parody of the human condition!
6
Well-written, Mr. Bruni!
I hope the next chapter for Trump and his TrumpWorld acolytes is a a Reckoning and a Humbling of historic proportions.
Character is destiny and these people are just gross.
Make America Decent Again.
7
@MaryP I hope that Trump and his acolytes are made accountable for the debasing of our country. So far it's as if water rolling off a duck, he seems to get away with his despicable behavior despite the outrage of many of us.
1
No news here. We all know Trump surrounds himself with grifters and scoundrels like himself. The problem is, that kind turns on one another in a heart beat. The writer may be correct, that this behavior may have serious repercussions down the road.
3
I am reading 'It Can't Happen Here' by the great Sinclair Lewis. Set in 1936, it is a satirical fiction of Fascism coming to America. Reading on my Kindle (the paperback font is tiny), I find myself highlighting all the descriptions that could be Trump.
example: 'But [Sen. Windrip] was the Common Man, twenty times magnified by his oratory, so that while the other Commoners could understand his every purpose, which was exactly the same as their own, they saw him towering among them, and they raised hands to him in worship.'
One more:
'The Senator was vulgar, almost illiterate, a public liar easily detected, and in his "ideas" almost idiotic, while his celebrated piety was that of a traveling salesman for church furniture, and his yet more celebrated humor the sly cynicism of a country store.'
Oh ye gods, there is nothing new under the sun.
30
I too am reading “it Can’t Happen Here” and it is terrifying. It reads like a roadmap to a fascist dictatorship, not in some fictional dystopian future, but right here in modern America. It shows how easily a rogue president with autocratic intent and no moral compass, supported by a loyal mob of discontented citizens, could simply sweep aside the institutions and conventions of American government and install himself as “Chief.” Game over.
VOTE (before it’s too late)!
I live in a small town in Ohio, where the politics are vicious because the stakes are so small. And I worked in DC in government for many years and have never seen the like. I have watched the mayor (I refuse to capitalize the title, he’s such a small man) clearly tear a page out of the Trump playbook. I have seen others in this small slice of America say things publicly that they would have never uttered outdoors before November 2016. Trump has enabled the worst instincts within many. I am deeply saddened. It reinforces my desire to live elsewhere in the world.
53
Great article !!! Pithy, exacting, brilliant.
7
Our nation has dipped into the surreal. Even journalists have to report on our country's new leadership with marginal equanimity. And all the while, what most Americans really want is a visionary, farsighted leader displaying even a hint of dignity and a fair dose of reality. But we get Trump and company tap-dancing on democracy. Thugs.
17
Spelunking, I love it! It would be even funnier if Trump knew what that was. Avenatti is quite capable I’m sure , just has to be careful he doesn’t get down to those circles Dante wrote about, that’s going too far.
3
So who will turn on the President next? The folks who worked for Trump likely have no future in normal politics or respectable media. Cashing out for many of them will mean writing scathing tell-alls, supported by recordings surreptitiously taken.
Meanwhile, Omarosa is more and more seeming the perfect subject of an opera. Who needs Salome when we can have Ms. O.?
6
As a person who has long eschewed TV, I cannot understand the reality-TV attraction of the present administration as it destroys education, our national parks and monuments, international trade, our health, our wealth, our security both social and fiscal, and even long-standing societal mores that enabled us to tolerate one another.
16
Mr. Bruni,
An insightful editorial as always, but I’m not sure I’d say that Michael Avenatti is analogous to the disgraceful and offensive collection of amoral grifters, mountebanks, thieves and outright fools that slither around Trump in his particular odious swamp. Anenatti’s no angel, but he at least seems to be in possession of a good-sized set of brass ones and hence doesn’t quake in his loafers about being called names on Trump’s stupid Twitter account when he speaks the truth (or hurls an insult), unlike a lot of Democrats. We could use a lot more of that when dealing with this grotesque, criminal operation of an “administration.” Sometimes fire has to be fought with fire, and personally I hope Avenatti makes good on his boast to run for president. He won’t win but the debates will probably be legendary.
16
So very on the mark and well-written. When I wonder if something is possible, I remember that Donald Trump is the President of the United States and quickly remember ANYTHING is possible. I feel the media need to stop promoting what these trump-imitators, offspring and trump himself "say" (their self promoting books, tweets, appearances) and report on what is actually happening in the world the rest of us live in.
6
@penelope
People love to watch train wrecks. As long as they are watching this, they won't notice that Mitch McConnell is breaking records for judicial confirmations. He's quite happy to keep the focus on Trump.
20
@Rick
Yep - Playing the electorate like a fiddle.....
Trump of course has his distinctive personal quirks. He has no moral compass, no appreciation of culture other than whatever is printed on banknotes, and he has no sense of good manners. And yes, FB, he has spawned imitators to the extent that I dread what happens when the current disciples race away from the White House to work in corporate America and blight that landscape further. But it would be utterly wrong to think that the GOP and corporate America have been paragons of virtue anytime recently. It's comforting in a way to see old fashioned GOPers turn away from Trump. But what took them so long? Were someone to collect all the grotesque garbage unleashed by Republicans all around America and aimed at the Obama family, such a collector would need a long recovery time and the help and understanding of the decent people of America.
11
Yes, this cast of shady characters are definitely "on the march!" Let us wish upon every little star that they "march" directly into a cage. The thousands of tormented & separated border families can lock those cages & throw away the keys.
LOCK THEM UP!
7
Gosh, what a creepy photo.
20
Frank, this analysis is your most insightful, incisive piece in memory. Thank you, and keep that razor eye focused.
12
I guess the old maxims "you reap what you sow" and "what goes round comes round" has never been truer than in this ongoing Trump saga that is disgracing American leadership around the world. Surely the American electoral system will be adjusted after the Trump briaglio subsides to ensure that no such insanity is ever allowed to despoil the position of POTUS ever again. Representation by population in Congress may be a good start! Not being a nosy neighbour but rather a sympathetic supporter of common sense and decency in leadership and democracy for all. Making America Gag Again on a daily basis seems to be Donald's goal! Good Luck!
7
@RJF regarding the electoral system, no it won't. It hasn't yet and there have been many reason to alter it, and short of some sort of calamity, it won't.
1
Hey Frank, let me say this: My dog objects to being debauched by association with anything that is "Trump". Let's have some compassion for the dogs.
10
@MTDougC –
Agreed! My guess is that there are many times more dog lovers than DT supporters.
5
Trump and Omarosa
were two peas in a pod.
They had no honor and no shame,
and money was their god.
Trump and Omarosa
were such a pair-in-hand!
He knew that Kelly blew it
from the way he had her canned;
he knew that she'd cause trouble
because he'd do the same,
talking endless rubbish
how her boss was so so lame.
But Omarosa had a "trump"
held deep inside her sleeve:
Trump couldn't keep himself from telling
lies none would believe;
so even though she would lie too
(who'd lied so much before),
when their stories were at odds,
folks would trust her more.
Here's to Omarosa!
The symbol of the age!
Everyone's a mark or chump
to folks like Manigault and Trump,
and every hoop through which they'd jump
would only set the stage
for stealing of the limelight
or serving Number One,
and though their methods were the rage,
no good from them would come!
7
"You can muddle through whom to believe or you can marvel — and shudder — at the intersection of these three at the apex of American government."
This sentence neatly summarizes the horror and the danger of the Trump administration.
14
The news each is dominated each day by an incessant chewing over by the media of the latest outrage disgorged by the WH. it would drive Trump mad if the media agreed (colluded) to ignore his idiocy, if only for one day. A total news blackout. Not one word reported. Can't you see Sarah standing before a podium in an empty room. Call it what you like. I call it sweet revenge.
22
Would be great if one time Trump actually addressed an accusation instead of calling the accuser/critic names. I don't see that ever happening. Just call berate and ridicule people. Growing up in the 70's and 80's calling a girl a "dog" was fighting words. I don't consider the term racist, just simply vile and utterly atrocious that the leader of this country communicates in such a way...it will only get worse.
10
Add Bolton in foreign affairs to that army on the march.
5
Earth to Trump supporters: "This is reality. Not a 'reality show'"!
6
Trump, Omarosa and Michael Cohen feigning piety at a ‘Pastors Leadership Conference’? Priceless!
12
62 million people voted to knowingly put this band of misfit toys in the White House. Absolutely inexplicable. Thankfully we can at least begin the very long, arduous process of repairing the incredible damage in November.
23
@Frank Roseavelt: Right. And Sarah Sanders says "the American people voted overwhelmingly" for Trump. In catechism class I used to hear stuff like that called "invincible ignorance."
7
Donald Trump has no tolerance at all for being on the receiving end of the treatment he has doled out to others throughout his life . Poor baby.
25
An American President calling a woman who was in his cabinet by his invitation a “dog” !
That saying enough.
26
Time to bring WASTREL back into the vernacular.
7
If there was ever two people in the world who were made for each other Omarosa and Donald are them. If someone can be more detestable than Omarosa it is Trump. How dare Omarosa bite the hand that fed her? How dare rich black foootball players bite the hand that pays for their luxury cars and mansions. Trump wants to be treated like the benevolent master who takes special care of his special servants and get bent out of shape when hey don't show their appreciation. Trouble with Trump is that he believes he is living in the Anthebelum South sitting on the porch sipping mint julip tea and looking out over his plantation.
16
Disagree about Avenatti. He is a telegenic articulate fighter — just what Trump needs.
20
@Ralph
Agreed. Avenatti grandstands, but with substance.
7
Does anyone else recall the scene in an episode of the old TV series, "The Untouchables," where Frank Nitti (right hand man of Al Capone) was confronted by the Feds in a raid and Nitti ate a piece of paper that documented evidence of his liquor smuggling? I know I did not dream this or make it up.
5
@Peggy- I've wondered about the eating paper thing too because over the years I've known 2 absent-minded scientists that each ate paper while working.
If Trump does chew paper readily, it may be compensating for poor nutrition, it may be a psychological condition called Pica, or it may be just weird and nasty, poor social skills.
From the first article that suggested that Avenatti might run for President, all I could think was that if Avenatti is the answer, we are asking the wrong questions. Now here it is again. Of course we need Trump defeated, but do we absolutely have to engage a monster of our own to do the job?
I, personally, still hold to my belief that we don't have to go that low. I am not a starry-eyed idealist. I understand the rules of this terrible game of American politics, but still. If we muddy ourselves too badly in our efforts to be rid of Donald Trump (who is, after all, just a symptom, not the cause) there will be little chance of washing all that mud off when we decide it's time.
12
Oops Frank Bruni is becoming a formidable force of comedic writing. Gail Colin watch out!!!
4
I am counting on there being some quiet around here once Trump is gone. Please don't tell me that I must also out-live a claque of Trump imitators
9
Gee, Trump must really be hurt, though he and Omarosa deserve one another. And we're all slummin' for gaping at their train wreck.
4
An old adage applies to this rogue’s gallery: “ when you lie down w dogs you’re bound to get fleas.” Apologies to dogs and fleas
10
This is Frank Bruni at his best.
But one important question remains unanswered:
Why do the Republicans in Congress not only tolerate, but flatter and bow to this vile excuse for a man and his stable of cretins?
Is it possible that they are also staring in the mirror?
50
Because,America be damned, they are getting everything they want.
14
They live only to be re-elected...Republican voters are as much to blame for congressional inaction as any thing else. Rational thought has disappeared.
1
Delightfully and deliciously written!
Perhaps the worm is finally turning--I sure hope so.
Trump has done all kinds of dastardly "sowing" in his 571 days, 6 hrs., and 21 minutes in office as President of the United States.
Of course for 1 out of 3 of those days in office, he visited a Trump property, with each trip to Mar-a-Logo costing taxpayers around $3,000,000.
By July 31, 2018, in his 558th day in office, Trump managed to make 4,229 false or misleading claims--and still counting.
And now it is time for the "reaping" to begin, with Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti, Michael Cohen, Manafort and his sidekick Rick Gates, and the ever so much smarter beat-Trump-at-his-own-game Omarosa.
Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy. Maybe Trump's mom never told him "what goes around comes around."
In case you can't get enough of Trump's Terribleness, see website: http://www.allthetrumpfacts.com/#facts
15
Not all--Omorosa had deeper evil and better timing, expert mechanics, she tapes Trump and Kelly!--she makes Trump look one dimensional.
We all know what he wanted to say! His substitution is clear. The day has come; the President of the United States did something slave-owning Presidents never did, did what Southern Presidents didn't do—what white supremacists in public have not done—a real American first—Trump reached a historic racial low when he publically called a black woman a “dog.”
The stench of his fear guides his journey: fear of small numbers, better to lie; fear of immigrants, better to blame; fear of ignorance, better to generate confusion; an narcissistic oppositional-defiance in which others iare blamed and no one has responsibility, he leads the vandals smashing the storehouses; his stories legends of disbelief. M-13? Lost children? Space? Jobs for China's XTE? No-bid contracts for Putin's security cronies? Meetings in the Seychelles? Firing Soviet FBI specialists? No tariffs on Russian aluminum?
How does the money flow to New York City/Mexico/DC/the clubs/the PACs? Who benefits?
9
There is something profoundly creepy about the photo that accompanies this column.
20
It feels like we are caught in an endless loop of the worse segment of the Jerry Springer Show. There is growling, pushing, threatening, and gnashing of teeth. The audience howls with glee as Jerry eggs them on. I never understood the appeal, but I guess I am doomed to watch it play out day-by-day in the WH and at Trump's endless rallys. When will this ever end? It feels like it has been going on for twenty years already!
11
@nora m
I hear you. Painful indeed.
3
Great point, "You can muddle through whom to believe or you can marvel — and shudder — at the intersection of these three at the apex of American government."
3
Bring back Barack .... 4 more years!!!
18
Meanwhile, songbirds will soon be dying unnecessarily (see the rollback of requirements for companies to put nets over toxic waste pits) and the planet is burning.
Wake up, everyone. It's not merely about the circus.
35
Sit back, Americans, and enjoy these piranhas feverishly devouring each other. Then we can sweep up the remains and toss this remaining detritus into the dustbin of history.
13
Great piece, Mr. Bruni, except you're much too hard on Avenatti. He uses his intellect and agressiveness for good, and he knows when to shut up.
14
I wonder if the meeting notes allegedly consumed by Trump were on the back of a McDonald's wrapper...
23
Looks like Trump is the one who's a dog. Was that someone's homework that he ate?
6
Thanks a bunch for following WH Cult's activities for us, Frank!
Whatever one thinks of Ms. Manigault Newman, our president called her a "Dog" this morning.
Actual dogs - loyal canine companions to millions - are among the most beloved of all creatures.
However, given his explosively negative context, Trump's intent was almost certainly either or both of the following:
"Something worthless or of extremely poor quality"
A "very insulting term for an ugly girl/woman"
In America now, a man calling a woman "a dog" in a work situation would be disciplined and likely fired. A boy calling a girl "a dog" in a public conversation in school would be disciplined or suspended - and if he persisted, would be transferred or expelled.
So, President Trump's congressional defenders have that to think about when they look at themselves in a mirror.
The racial element is even more troubling. Ms. Manigault-Newman was ubiquitous in presidential photo ops during her tenure at 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue, but aids grumbled that she had no other discernible job duties.
Pure and simple, this was classic tokenism to mask classic racism.
44
I am always disgusted with those pictures of Trump getting 'hands' laid on him by the fake pious church leaders. I am amazed they all didn't turn to pillars of salt after each genuflection.
51
@PS Give God time. She is not mocked.
There is a big difference between MIchael Avenatti, Donald Trump, and MIchael Cohen. Avenatti is smart, unlike Cohen, and I think he has been principled. On the famous disc, maybe it had the recorded conversations? He was not obligated to release it. His predictions have been accurate. He has been a good foil for trump and I think it is unfair to conflate him and characterize him the same as Trump. There have been no lies that I know, and Avenatti has vowed to tell the truth, always, in public. I have not seen any lies by Avenatti. He might be great in battling Trump, but that is not a crime
28
Trump is and always has been a fraud. A mentally challenged individual who has a talent to "Touch" people where their fears intersect with their reality. Scary
12
Absolutely right on!
3
Great article! Thank you!!!
4
Too clever by half, Frank. The point your forgot to make is the name of the end game. Tumpets are venal and mendacious creatures, obvious in their intentions once the curtain is pulled back. Avenati is a self-marketeer extraordinaire, of course, but IMHO he's not chasing the rainbows of power and glory. I genuinely suspect he wants to right wrongs and do good in the world, to use talented people and the machinery of government to put the pieces of democracy back into its eggshell. We all deserve our fair share of criticism, but cynicism deserves a much longer timeline.
7
The scariest thing about the ascendancy of Trump is the fact that he’s not even particularly good at manipulation.
In a world full of Bugatti dealerships, Trump is operating a used car lot.
12
When was the last real policy debate or discussion?
Not the tax cut. That was a hand out.
I mean a real genuine review and weighing of the facts to determine a substantial policy that would better our nation.
It was a long time ago.
Instead our nation and media chase this incompetent child around the WH and read his tweets.
Let’s have 48 hours of no coverage of DJT. None!
Let’s no dial it back, let’s turn him off. No coverage . No headlines. No responses.
It’s amazing what happens to children that misbehave when you take away their audience.
It’s a sad commentary when your behavior plan for the POTUS is similar to that of an elementary school child.
Vote 11/6!
14
Frank Bruni, you are the most delectable writer. Thank you for keeping us entertained through this nightmare.
7
Really, aside from politics, I just look forward to the day when there is an actually mentally mature adult as head of the
Executive branch of the United States government.
There is a gigantic void at present, and the fate of civilization hangs in the balance.
15
Please, Mr. Bruni, try to think of something positive to say about Donald Trump, it would be so refreshing. Mr. Trump must have done something you can praise; Think!
When I think of Trump & his sometimes amusing, sometimes not funny antics, one basic fact has been haunting me. While I concede, half of people everywhere are below average, this does explain folks going deaf.
That's a fact of strife, but what's pulling me back & forth over the civil unrest in our country is how that's being abused. Some say, we're being played. I love America being for all Americans: a haven, just like the Statue of Liberty says. We used to be a warm & giving people.
Now, I have strong feelings that we re seeing an abuse of power. Astounded, I am even hearing that countries like Russia are trusted over the USA. We re being told not to trust OUR government by leaders IN our government. And when did this start to become Public Policy? When it became useful to achieve changes that we have never heard until recently. When in Helsinki, our POTUS even spoke of Russia coming over to investigate us, Russians interviewing our people. Well, I guess that would have helped tell him what our investigators know.
Imagine that For Real. What goes here?
And yet supporters don't question that. Or we see it as nothing to get excited about. And why get excited? Little by little, the frog gets used to the nice water heating up.
I hope you see who's in the hot water. I am an Evangelical and I note our spreading silence, not our moral fiber.
14
@Sky Guy.
Amen! Now, please help other Evangelicals see how they're being conned. God is not spelled GOP.
What was it about this era that created this toxic brew of people with such distorted realities? We can I suppose, begin with the Trump base that is in no way discerning. Trump was elected based on raw emotions, as truly rational human beings could very easily see through a carnaval barker like the Donald. He represents a guttural anger that is also grounded in anxiety over a loss of status and future. Trying to reclaim the past (MAGA) was the goal, Trump would reset the needle and deal with those pesky minorities and global economy types. He would give them back the days when those who desired could be racist or misogynistic with nary a thought about its propriety. But the world has changed and the cast of characters Trump brought to the his campaign, the White House and his administration could not deliver. Manafort, Cohen, Omarosa, Pruitt, Miller, Bannon, Jared and Ivanka, Donald Jr. and DJT himself were never up to the task of governing. Because true governing is inclusive, it's us not them. Trump and his legions make poor foot soldiers in a world that is increasingly diverse, one that requires the ability to connect across cultures, religions and even ideologies. They were all too corrupt and self centered to ever be up to the task of governing in the United States of America.
12
Good point. But you left out DeVos.
3
Let’s say everything Frank wrote is true (and I think it is)
However, Trump is the most popular president of voters of his own party since Truman
So with all this mess, the question becomes do Republican voters love him despite or because of his behavior?
It’s hard to believe “despite” because he is so overwhelmingly beloved by the male and female Republican voters. They all can’t love all this drama, could they?
But..the Republican party is also of course overwhelmingly non-hispanic white.
So maybe it is “despite”.
As long as he supports white supremacy, overtly makes or dog whistles racist remarks, is xenophobic then I guess anything can be stomached.
Or worst of all worlds. Maybe they love him for his behavior and his racism.
10
What a strange world we live in. Everybody refers to the genius of Donald Trump, even most of the columnists in this paper. I guess if somebody poisoned everybody And remains the only person left alive, they are a genius.
I find it a sad state of affairs that somebody with no decency Is allowed to feel that it’s an advantage. He does things that most of us wouldn’t dream of doing, because we are decent human beings.
I will never reward this behavior with any mention of “genius.”
10
Trump flooded the swamp with Trump likes. The problem is that Trump is sitting on the drain, clogging it, plugging it. There's a stench coming out of the swamp. Where is Joe The Plumber? Can he fix this damaged sewer?
11
Shall we say, the walking dead? Dumbo-in-chief tries to kill them but they just won’t stay dead. I think there’s a whole army of them (disgruntled or betrayed souls) coming for him!
6
Mr. Bruni- can you please post a copy of that Omarosa campaign video where she glared into the camera and promised that 'every knee shall bow" to Donald Trump and woe to those who had crossed him.
At the time I thought she had totally lost her mind. Maybe she was just getting herself inside the palace with that little pocket recorder.
8
With lunacy like this going on in The White House, one can’t help but wonder if the office of the presidency will EVER recover from this Trumpian farce of an administration...
18
Mr. Bruni, I sometimes agree with you, and sometimes not. But kudos for the phrase "shady ties, bendy rules, and shady ethics." Poetry.
4
Trump has created these mini monsters in his own image and Omarosa is using Trump's playbook against him. This pairing was not like some random assortment of chromosomes ...they were magnetically drawn to each other . She the willing tabula rasa...he the Svengali mentor. Lie like me. Embellish like me. Cheat like me. Be rich like me. But sign this NDA so you'll never spill the beans on me. Omarosa deserves all the ridicule and second guessing she gets. She stayed and that says everything about her personal integrity we need to know. But...to her credit she is spilling the beans.
So, if there is any redemption after her willing complicity this is where she may get a little. I'm sure she is already shopping her resume around. Maybe an Oprah like spot will open up. Or a spot on MSNBC as the insider gone outsider. But having said that, I would never want her teaching my kids ethics class.
4
It appears these people are psychologically stuck in the lunchroom at grade school. Their antics do not even make the high school bully report. And they are running (ruining) the country. I do not believe in God, but God Help Us.
I refuse to watch them. Doing so only stamps their antics with effect. For sanity's, decency's and maturity's sakes, not to mention our economy, show up in November and vote them back home.
7
Trump was damaged goods the day he was born. He's so intellectually, ethically and morally challenged he shouldn't be allowed out unless he's on a leash. He attracts the slimiest people into his circle who will eventually pull the covers off him. He's headed for a big downfall in the future. I just hope it's sooner than later.
7
It is amazing how the gall of underhanded people actually shields them from what would otherwise be glaringly apparent flaws and admissions of culpability and incompetence. For example, when Donald Trump tweeted, "When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and give her a job at the White House..." what in heaven's name was he thinking? He was the one that hired her! His tweet is an admission that he, Donald Trump, is either a poor manager who doesn't take his job seriously enough, or an incompetent one who is incapable of doing it, or both.
7
The President ate my homework!
9
That photo! Ugh! Such hypocrisy! Trying too hard to be good doesn't look very good.
5
Its hard to think of anyone except perhaps General Mattis in Trump's orbit that does not inherit trump's slime. Ms. Newman and especially Michael Cohen have been around trump for at least fifteen years and Trump has praised them for almost that whole time. Perhaps Trump saw them as useful friends, but Trump has no friends only those he can manipulate until they turn on him.
But what really concerns me is that Trump's fear inducing attitudes will permeate our society, perhaps already having done so in the form of our kowtowing GOP, as well as everyone around the world he touches.
3
This is an absolutely brilliant piece. Future historians will hardly get any better than this contemporary analysis of the Trump character and its manifestation in those intimates he invited into government. The word that comes to mind when I think president and Donald Trump together is called cognitive dissonance. These two things just do not go together. And yet that is what we have. It is truly frightening.
7
This phenomenon of the emergence of "Lesser Trumps" should not come as a surprise. Just like a Hindu god, Trump has many faces. Unlike a god though, each of his faces symbolizes a vile characteristic of Trump. And just like his racism was a bait for neo-Nazis and alt-Right to appear by crawling from the bottom of moldy rocks!
However, ultimately Trump or his ilk survive and even thrive because they all have enablers. The enablers may be different, but they are like-minded.
A substantial portion of Americans is their enablers.
Time will tell the extent of damage Trump - and by extension, the "Lesser Trumps" - will cause to the US. But make no mistake, there will be significant damage.
Also, it is not just the amount of damage. There is also the kind of damage that makes a difference. Chances are a number of them - if not many - will be irreparable.
WIll this lead to the decline of the US from its pre-eminent position that it enjoys today? There are some indications, a roaring Bull market notwithstanding.
If the enablers DON'T come to their senses, things will get far worse. The decline of the US will be a certainty.
4
If Trump’s “talent for duplicity” helped to create an Omarosa—as Frank Bruni muses—he shouldn’t have omitted that just as certainly Trump’s love of alternative facts wed him politically to Kellyanne Conway—as fine a cut from the Trump cloth as any in the aforementioned rogues’ gallery, and the best spinner in the business.
6
All the people around Trump, including his supporters, share one main characteristic, the ability, like Donald, to live in a fantasy world of their own imagining and despite everything they see, believing it is real. Trump supporters believe that a man who dedicated his life to getting rich and supporting the lifestyles of the rich and famous would care about working people, they believe that everything said about Trump is a lie (unless it is on Fox News), Trump believes that most people in this country love him except for 'fake news', and that his 'business acumen' is real. The people around him really believe they are special people and have Donald's mandate to do 'what they want', they really live in a fantasy world..and of course the ultimate fantasy world of Trump nation, that he can snap his fingers and bring back the 1950's (or at least their illusion of it). It makes me shudder to think what will happen if Trump nation ever wakes up to reality, how far they can go before they realize the good times aren't rolling again, and what they will do.
12
Can we leave the dogs out of this?
Dogs are loyal, playful, protective and nicer than any of these humans.
17
It's like a bad movie, but it's our government. Very scary. I keep on thinking on Manigault bringing a recording device to the situation room. What did those Russians alone with Trump at the Oval Office might habrought in?
12
I think describing Trump's presidency as science fiction debases that genre. Short of creating an entirely new classification for this administration, I would label it pulp fiction.
4
I think trump is being introduced to the concept of karma.
8
Trump’s biggest role model as a young man, other than his father, was Roy Cohn. After Cohn died, Trump often had lamented not having a Roy Cohn-type to represent him.
Well, he does now. Several, as a matter of fact. And they’re not all lawyers. But they represent him well. In fact, so well that they are just like him.
Karma’s finally knocking on the door of the Trump Tower.
9
What an awful photo. All those phony hypocrites pretending to pray. Disgusting. Trump looks so fake - the creep never prayed a day in his worthless life. And what’s with those people’s hands all over Trump?
22
@Kan
They are trying to jump-start him....doesn't appear to be working.
5
What may be most damning is not whether allegations, such as paper eating, may be true. It's that we don't immediately see them as absurd.
8
@Bradley Bleck Oh but we do. Since the day Trump "won" the election, he's put me in mind of Ubu Roi.
1
The tapes are reveling how bad the Trump regime really is - as Trump abuses a woman by calling her a "dog".
Trump is a stupid old man who really needs to go.
8
Just imagine how Avenatti can expand his world if he takes Omarosa as a client in response to the Trump campaign's suit. Not only will he have the 'best' trump adversaries in his line-up, he will have tapes out the wazoo! Think about that--how they may mesh and how they may exponentially expand the hidden life of trump. Lordy!
9
In 1992 John Ralston Saul a noted Canadian historian, writer, former COO of PetroCan, philosopher and free speech advocate published Voltaire's Bastards (The Dictatorship of Reason in the West) was a NYT non-fiction best seller.
Saul is an historian but Voltaire's Bastard's flows from the 1960's and the Vietnam war into 2018 and Donald J Trump. Saul is still writing lecturing and now producing some of the finest oil in the world from the olive groves of France.
I am a Canadian with most of my family living south of our border my wife, my link with reality and my endless font of wisdom is here with me in Canada.
Like most of you my wife loves her country more than herself and is in despair seeing a madman at its helm. For myself 50 became an age where schooling became something other than torture and unusual punishment.
Saul was correct in 1992 The Dictatorship of Reason is over in the west and a Donald Trump is in charge.
When I lived on the South Side of Chicago one of my friends was a brilliant retired African American teacher with whom I could discuss English Romantic poetry. I cannot think of anything that defies reason more than a Montreal Jew brought up on Leonard Cohen and Irving Layton and an African American teacher whose love was Keats, Coleridge and Shelly discussing their souls belonging to a totally alien society except for the world's richest most powerful nation choosing as its leaders men whose greatest concerns ranged from the insignificant to the petty.
16
trump chewing up and digesting his notes is an apt metaphor for his policy making process.
4
Omarosa, Cohen, Manafort, Gates, Flynn, Papadopoulos, Rudy?
Sheesh! what kind of fool would hire such people?
12
I really want to believe you, Mr. Bruni, when you say that Trump's sadistic, parasitical spawn will "devour" him "in the end." But, depressingly, I'm beginning to believe that it will not be so. Here we are, coming up on the halfway mark of the most spectacularly incompetent, traitorous, and immoral Presidency of all time and we don't even have an indictment directly related to Trump's many malfeasances, much less a court-date. Have you forgotten Michael Wolff's damning tell-all? Karen McDougal's expose? How about Boy-Scout Comey? And the Bannon commentaries which no one even bothered to deny? Trump has weathered them all. Now, as Avenatti and Stormy are fading away, content to cash in on the gawk-show circuit along with Scaramucci and Spicey, we have Omarosa getting her 15 minutes, too. Forgive me, but I think we have roughly 60 million people out there who can no longer discern entertainment from reality. And I wouldn't be surprised if all of these parasites had a reunion after Trump's eight years in office to celebrate how much money they all made off of the naivety and ignorance of all the Americans they've suckered.
15
The only thing that maintains DJT is his money - he has nothing else. Think about where this person would be had he not had his inheritance. He’d still be a narcissistic grifter attempting to use (and abuse) some poor, low esteem, uneducated woman. A low-income DJT probably wouldn’t ever become a mob boss - he doesn’t have the leadership skills or ability to wield power. But he could be the thug, ready to rap on your knees with a metal pipe if you didn’t pay up. And of course, as a young man he would have been drafted... And if low-income DJT survived Vietnam, would he be in prison today? My guess is very much so.
2
Crazycakes Donald is on a wild tear this morning. Makes one wonder just who and what Omarosa has on tape and how many years worth of conversations she has. It’s kind of analogous to his own situation with the tweets—no matter the topic, you can unearth one that addresses the subject.
What a cage match between these two.
2
scha·den·freu·de
[ˈSHädənˌfroidə]
NOUN
pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.
I'll admit to enjoy watching when the terrible tot-like tyrant receives his comeuppance. When the braying braggart bully chokes on his own filth spewing forth from his gob.
I'm still patiently waiting for the coup de grâce, of Mueller putting the little cuffs on Trumps hoofs and frog marching him out of our White House.
Until then...VOTE~!!~!
Bring a friend. Register a new voter.
Nov. is coming!!!!
9
Best description ever of Trumpworld. The only ones you left out are the people like John Kellly, who once was a respected man and now is nothing but a debased sycophant scurrying around insulting people like Congresswoman Wilson and acting as the mob enforcer firing and threatening Manigault Newman. Trump brings out the trash in everything he touches with those filthy fingers and his filthy brain.
10
Message to Omarosa: Hire Avenatti as your counsel now that you’ve been sued. Eating my popcorn.
9
Trump loved, revelled in Omarosa and her backstabbing ways so to now claim she is a lowlife is more a reflection on his own lack of judgment than on her.
6
What a vile picture.
He’s probably thinking about his next cheeseburger and coke there.
10
Great photo!
Trump to himself: "Please God may these people get their grubby hands off of me and go away soon."
Cohen to himself: "Why am I praying? OK ten more seconds."
Omarosa out loud: " Oh yes Jesus!"
Pence to himself: "Please merciful lord Jesus may the president stop swearing in my presence and taking your name in vain."
4
What will it take for the US to get out of the grip of these lowlifes? Who knows? But a guilty on all counts verdict for Manafort would make for a good beginning.
3
My grandson is just a little guy, 16 months old. When he is in school, learning about American history, the Trump presidency will make him ask the same questions I asked in the 1950s, when studying Nazi Germany. "How could they have let this happen? Why didn't they try and stop him? How could they do such terrible things to little children?"
13
Those pastors in the picture are laying their hands on SATAN
according to the Church Lady.
4
...c'mon Bruni, why drag Avenatti into all these Trump's nonsense?
- it is cheap and low.
- Avenatti is not a soulless, corrupt, lying human being like Trump and other miscreants in his orbit.
-
9
@Sgt Lucifer I agree. Michael Avenatti is fighting fire with fire.
As far as I can see, he's the only one besides Mueller who's stood up to Trump.
6
If revenge is being unemployed and proving yourself to be a criminal and liar, that is pathetic.
Trump is the top troll in a rancid collection of swamp creatures. The odor of his fetid pool washes over them all including his republican enablers in congress, unpatriotic and feckless as they are. It will take a long time for this country to shed their stench.
3
Trump-Omarosa-Avenatti ...
As I read through these comments, day after day, so many hours, I wonder if I would be doing this had Hillary been elected.
1
Evidently POTUS has a swamp within the White House that needed draining ....
How long our country will be rolling in a mud because of illegitimate, deplorable thing occupying the West Wing, is there any line that this indecent, repulsive creature didn't cross. Every day we're forced to live in the sleaziest tabloid universe, how long this could go on???
It's unbearable...
While we waiting for Robert Mueller report, this psychopath should be locked up in undisclosed location and denied any right to nominate anyone for any position of power, especially SCOTUS.
Also, Mike Pence with his creepy face definitely should be investigated...let's hope that Mueller will clean up this place and fumigate the stanch of overflowing swamp, before we all drown in it.
BTW, just read this...
Brett Kavanaugh Is Encountering Surprisingly Little Resistance on His Way to the Supreme Court.
Scary!
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/08/kavanaugh-supreme-court-lit...
2
What a photo! Trump amidst Don King, Omarosa, Michael Cohen, Mike Pence. He really does surround himself with the "best" people. SAD!
6
Was just watching the AHC channel's HITLER, the first episode where Adolph's rise to power in the 1920's & 30's is chronicled.
The similarities (in personality, not in genocidal tendencies) between 'the donald' and 'the fuhrer' are astounding.
As a registered Democrat, I had to hold my nose to vote for Hillary so I understand how people might have gone for Trump out of frustration. But for so many Amerikans (sic) to continue to support or believe in that guy is just amazing to me. Aren't they at least embarrassed by this administration, the republicans, and this "president".
Shameful.
2
@John Paul Esposito I'm sorry you had to hold your nose to vote for Hillary. But your comment says far more about you than Hillary. So much of what we know about her is manufactured. No, she is not perfect. But being the only was to make the choice between her and Trump? Please spare me your predicament.
3
Great picture born again hypocrites. Evangelical greed has twisted christ to a second death.
4
"[Trump's] hunger for attention became Rudy Giuliani; his thirst for pomp, Scott Pruitt; his taste for provocation, Avenatti; his talent for duplicity, Manigault Newman. They’re an army of emulators, adding up to Trump. And they’re on the march."
Let us hope they soon march out of our lives and off the public stage. It is past time for decent, honorable people to be in charge of our country.
853
@Barbara ... They also are the Un-Freedom Brigade, so we need to be boosters for truth-seeking skills and a campaign against income inequality
@Barbara, let's hope that like Don Giovanni they pull each other down a trapdoor to the literal underworld, and soon.
@Barbara
Or march off a cliff. Lemmings, anyone?
One of your best, Frank!
8
Frank Bruni, Charles Blow, Maureen Dowd, Paul Krugman, etc., I am pleased to read the insights of NY Times writers. Add good writing to keen insights, ya got a winner.
However . . . . I have just seen Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman which demonstrates convincingly that champions of liberal democracy are losing the contest v. violent authoritarians.
How does this happen & what can we do?
I think Capitalism is the problem. Will a newspaper devoted to growth (the essence of Capitalism) help or hurt? Time will tell.
Some years ago I heard Bob Edgar (United Methodist clergy, US Congressperson, & National Council of Churches leader) state, "One day Christians need to look at Capitalism . . . to see how far it strays from Christian values."
Rick Howe
4
Trump, Manigault Newman, Cohen, Manafort, Ryan, McConnell, Crazy Rudy . . . and now we are adding Avenatti to the mix (and he absolutely belongs there). Oh my, I forgot to include His Holiness, Pence.
Is that not a true rogue's gallery?! Avenatti is nothing more than another Trump in waiting. America doesn't need more big-mouthed crassness.
Give as some quiet, some peace . . . please.
488
@Cone, you forgot Miller.
@Cone You forgot Wilbur Ross.
@Cone Please add Sarah Huckabee Sanders to the mix!
The level of “dotardness” oozing from the Trump swamp is astounding.
3
So Trump gave a "crazed, crying lowlife" a break and knowingly put her on the Federal payroll. Since "it takes one to know one"- it's way past time to get our "chief" crazed, crying lowlife off the Federal payroll too and into a Federal penitentiary.
Frank you outdid yourself with this column!
7
“As democracy is perfected, the office represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
H.L. Mencken, 1920
Prescience...
6
For entertainment purposes, check out Omarosa coverage on Fox. Everything they say about her applies triply -- or should I say 'bigly'? -- to her former boss. They just don't say so.
4
Have you ever hear the story of Darth Plagueis the wise?
This is seriously disturbing: to the outside observer it looks like the US is being run by an endless number of crooks and mafia like individuals. The bastion of democracy and freedom has been taken over by a myriad of unscrupulous selfish immoral people. Wake up America!! This is not good for you and the rest of the world!!!
7
The revenge of the clones!
5
The young wreak revenge on their sow.
2
Trump and Avenatti may have a few characteristics in common like using publicity for personal aggrandizement but, where it matters, Avenatti is smart and industrious and Trump is dumb and lazy.
18
Technically Obama can run again for the office! #BringObamaBack2WH
2
With apologies to Homer Simpson: "Eating paper while tweeting racist insults. Ummmmm!"
3
As horrible as Trump's administration is, it was still shocking when he gave Omarosa a White House job with zero qualifications and after the nation watched her openly lie during that first season of The Apprentice. She is a chronic troublemaker every place she goes, yet Trump gave her a pass into the upper levels of the federal gov't. and here we are a year later with more negative headlines and a tell all book claiming Trump's a racist. Surprise, surprise. But what would be the best piece of trouble she could expose would be tapes of Trump using the N word on Democrtic campaign ads around a week or 2 before the Nov. 2020 election. Oh Happy Day !
375
@c-c-g The Apprentice is a scripted, fake reality show. Omarosa knows the role she is playing as the feisty take no nothing from anyone but it is a role. It is Trump who keeps trying to remake his idiotic show into the presidency. She was willing to do anything for a dollar on his show and doesn't want to stop the gravy train yet but Trump is the engine on this track.
1
@c-c-g,
She was no bigger a liar and no less qualified for her position than Trump himself.
2
@c-c-g, Look into Sec'y Wilbur Ross's lying and stealing, for a much bigger example.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2018/08/06/new-details-about-w...
1
Still, his loyal lapdogs in the administration, and Congress, will sit in a meeting with him following horrendous, despicable tweets describing an ex staffers as “that dog” , laugh at his jokes and and promise complete loyalty to this monster.
8
In some ways I can't help thinking that it's a good thing that Trump is encouraging these people to come out of the woodwork. Would we have found out about Paul Manafort's tax fraud without Trump? Would Scott Pruitt still be every bit as sleazy but still happily ensconced as Ohio attorney general? Would Trump himself still be setting up fraudulent universities and shafting contractors? How many more of these characters are there hiding out in the 'elite' that haven't been found yet?
Maybe, just maybe, by inviting the swamp in with open arms, Trump might be able to trigger the draining that it does sorely need.
434
But at what costs to our country and our environment? That is the question.
2
@Alan while I agree with your point, I need to remind that Scott Pruitt was the Oklahoma AG.
1
@Alan, thousands. Most billionaires, for starters.
1
Will it take a narcissist on the left to win against Trump the narcissist on the right? Honestly I don't know. It feels like humility and honesty automatically loses to authoritarianism and mendacity.
2
Had I not already given up on Christianity, the caption of Trump and his enablers at the Pastors Leadership Conference would have done it.
5
So the photo of the 2016 Pastors Leaderhip Conference shows the "laying on of hands" among Pence, Trump, Manigault-Newman, and Don King (I don't recognize the three others).
Pence is still a loyalist, Cohen and Managault-Newman have turned against him, and Don King dropped an N-bomb in his speech at this event.
Yes, these people have been imitating Trump, but Avenatti doesn't belong among them. Alan Dershowitz, maybe, who's been all over cable TV calling Rudy an excellent lawyer.
All Avenatti did was defend his client Stephanie Clifford by standing up to Trump's fixer Michael Cohen and their non-disclosure agreements, thereby exposing their lies for possibly the first time. I'm not voting for him for president, but I admire his persistence in sticking it to blowhards like Cohen, Giuliani and Trump.
I searched on "Brian Kabateck," high-powered LA lawyer, and got a smorgasbord of his net worth, his purchase of a hotel in the Hamptons, and his lawsuit against his more famous (and taller) "business venture partner" Mark Geragos -- something about a plane they co-own -- but I'm not interested in his opinion of Avenatt.
4
So, is that Cohen behind Trump, to the right of Pence, in a seance with the evangelicals? Is God speaking to Pence? What are they all looking so intense about? Scheming about their next con act?
5
I wasn’t going to mention this until I that last paragraph, so thanks Mr. Bruni. This column reminded me vividly of one of Science Fiction’s great works: “The Demon Princes,” by Jack Vance (NYT has a terrific interview with the astounding Mr. Vance from some years ago). I won’t belabor readers with a lengthy description of this tetralogy of short novels, each linked and each contributing to a page-turning future epic, but will list the names of the villains our hero pits himself against, and ask readers to determine which one most resembles Trump: Malagate The Woe, an avaricious beast bent on galactic domination; Kokkor Hekkus, master of terror and cruelty; Viole Falusche; sybarite and misogynist; Lens Larque, cosmic egomaniac; Howard Allen Treesong, psychopath and chaotisist. Actually, wow, I didn’t know that even so prodigious an imagination as that possessed by Mr. Vance could have dreamt that all five of these personalities could manifest in one individual, but I stand corrected. Now, if you have not, and I envy you, read these marvelous books.
1
We’re witnessing fictional caricatures of fantasy stereotypes.
Who calls women dogs? Who points fingers at reporters calling them bad people, enemies, disgusting? And who can abide lie after lie, ruining of career servants of the law, denigrating black men, ripping children from parents to show how tough you are? This has to stop.
The Ryan’s and McConnell’s of the cynical congress have had their no comment shrugs long enough. America’s protection of its institutions and people nears complete collapse.
I propose something radical: Russia, if you are listening, bring him home now! Save your adversary from further ignominy. His work is done here. The chaos he foolishly looses will turn on you too. It is inevitable. Save him, us, and yourself quickly. I’m sure there is a very large Dacha that will content him.
We will welcome him back, after his rehabilitation, with huge speaking fees and enormous advances for memoirs once we repair the damaged pride of a chastened nation.
7
"Revenge is a dish best served cold" someone once said. Vote and slam trump and his ilk straight into an eternal snow bank.
8
Oh, Frank, you almost made me spit out my wine...”when they go low, he’ll go subterranean. He’ll tunnel. He’ll spelunk.”
Funny, to say the least.
1
That photo is incredibly disturbing.
9
So, you say, Stormy had "communions with Trump." No wonder he's so popular among evangelicals and Catholics.
4
omarosa is a perfect mirror held up to the trump administration. every bad thing that the trump administration and its supporters say about omarosa is equally true of trump and his minions.
1
Well, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Getting a taste of his own medicine, is he?
I bet more books are coming...and more tapes.
And, by the way, I'd vote for Avenatti for the next POTUS, if he runs.
3
Is that the former advisor, now known as “the dog”, standing behind American Carnage?
3
So much print dedicated to this insanity to no real effect. He's a lowlife- this is no longer news - So now we learn that the President of the United States is engaging in 3rd grade name calling to a former employee--- calling her a lowlife, a wacko, a dog (my utmost apology, canines). And no matter that we also have contrary evidence in his taped conversation with the women: the one feigning total shock that Kelly fired her--and more signifcantly sounding like he was powerless to stop the departure of one of his favorites. I'm tired of this Enquirer-style news. What's Mueller doing and will it amount to anything?
3
I am so sick of writing that feeds the vacant celebrity culture.
This column describes uninteresting, boring, people, without redeeming qualities. They offer nothing of value to the world. And yet here, they are made into mythologies. What do you think? That this moment is entertaining? Funny? And not nauseating?
The entire media will never answer the question of why they promoted Donald Trump to the White House.
That laughably tiny man, should have met with apathy and derision when he preposterously glided down his escalator in his tasteless lobby, with his vacant wife, to be greeted by a paid crowd. The media treated him exactly as the illusion he wanted to them to see. As though such a little man was important.
He wouldn't be here if they had not invented him.
We should stop glamorizing awful people for a spell.
Or even, dare I say it, stop glamourizing anyone. It's an irresponsible habit that pervades our culture.
15
Amen brother...
1
Somehow - there's always a "both sides" angle, and Mr. Bruni found it.
2
I just could not stop laughing reading your descriptions of Trump clones. Great piece!
4
What can we say besides "eat the rich"? I think we'd get indigestion from this mob, but we definitely need to knock them down and take all their stuff. Mug the rich?
2
Omarosa Manigault Newman is not Trump's mini-me.
She would be more accurately described as a strong candidate for the star role in the sequel to MEG.
1
What? No civility lecture for the President of the United States calling a black woman "that dog"? Are scoldings for civility reserved only for entertainers? Who should be held to a higher standard - the President or an entertainer?
They deserve each other and maybe Trump will hire Omarosa again so he can fire her again. In the meantime, the one who comes out looking smart is Scott Pruitt, who spent $25,000 of our tax money on a cone of silence.
3
We have all been gaslighted to a fare-thee-well by this president and his foul vituperations against everyone but himself and his truly "unhinged" base. No matter what Trump tweets or says or does between now and 2020, the Trump loyalists (all the best people, NOT) will vote him back into office. Unless there are major upsets, changes and the virtual fires this time that will extinguish his presidency before then. Anything is possible in the insanity of life in America today. Can anyone imagine a president of the greatest country on earth -- the leader of the free world -- tweeting that a former employee of his in the White House (and before that, in his Grade Z TV reality show) is "crazed" and a "dog"? Not that I believe a word Amorosa Manigault swore in her book published today, but it's really dementedly funny that she saw him swallow a piece of paper in Mickey Cohen's office. Teehee. America is in the Trump sewer.
285
@Nan Socolow Great comment. But is this truly the "greatest country on earth"? Young people are in debt for education up to their eyeballs; one dare not be sick with anything chronic because one cannot pay for adequate care such as the lupus drug that costs $35,000 a year; one sees vituperation, hatred, and unleashed ids everywhere from the subway to Little League; I don't know what greatness is any more, but this doesn't seem like it. And it is sad to have to say so.
2
@Nan SocolowTrump will be the big loser in the history of presidential elections. Aside from all of the faults here, the economy will have tanked, an absolute mass of debt with only the wealthy not helping.
@Nan Socolow, you make good points but “greatest country in the world”....that hubris is part of your country’s problem.
3
Like attracts like, its really that simple. Our blackhole twitter in chief makes a lot of noise when reprobate insiders self preserve, rather than extinguish, when escaping from his vortex. So much drama, so much commotion, meanwhile he still has the power and authority to inflect daily harm to our country and our world. At some point we have to look away from the daily intrigues and more diligently stifle this mans authoritarian stranglehold.
273
Just be glad that the US Constitution exists. Sometimes we're frustrated by the gridlock it leads to, something that has ramped up steadily as partisanship has grown in the country. However...
With the Constitution: the chance; no, the more than not likelihood that we can ride out the assault on our democracy and get through it, scathed but unbroken.
Without the Constitution: Germany's political stumbles circa 1933.
Checks and balances, particularly the judicial branch of government, has slowed things up enough for us to have avoided a horrible end game of the Trump phenomenon. Especially given the craven enabling of the legislative branch under Republican control. It probably prevents the US from devolving into the Germany Nazism end game. That end game was the triumph of the mini-Hitlers securing the power of their mentor in a system without checks and balances.
The Constitution has flaws, reflective of the flaws of its crafters, but its strengths are working even despite some of the flaws built in by those crafters. Trump and the Trump effect noted in this article is just the workings of entropy, the natural tendency of disorder to push out order in any system. It's inevitable, and insidious, and it takes hard work to counter it. Let's do the work.
4
From I can tell the very big difference between Avenatti and the rest is that Avenatti is basically honest.
Not so for the rest.
There are no Avenatti lies.
There are too many Trump / Giuliani lies to count. And they change every couple of days.
5
That picture pretty much says it all, good visual and doesn't even need a narrative. I imagine Trump and his players going back stage when the photo shoot was completed and busting out in laughter.
3
By now a vast majority of Americans have come to the conclusion that Trump is the biggest low life to ever occupy the oval office. SAD. So SAD. That is a FACT. It is not as Trump and Huckabee would like us to believe is FAKE NEWS.
But what is even sadder is that he has surrounded himself with a cadre of carpetbaggers and grifters who are as evil as him AND who behind the scenes are implementing regulations that benefit themselves, as well as rescinding regulations that harm the rest of us. They're taking taxi payer funded honeymoons, flying first class, getting submarket rate deals on housing, preferential loans, etc.
We need to call out the Trumpsters (including members of Congress) not only for their unethical character, but for what they are doing that will have negative impacts on our everyday lives for years to come.
9
So funny. So true. So sad.
A twist on Morrisey's song 'November spawned a Monster " could easily be "Trump has spawned many monsters and they're all eventually coming to eat him "
Of course the complete opposite of Lady Gaga's affectionate and loving , Little Monsters.
1
It's preposterous to call Avenatti the same as Trump. He is savvy and unafraid to bring a gun to a gun fight, but he is basically on the side of right and truth.
That alone makes him about as un-Trumpian as it is possible to be.
7
Spot on! As a footnote- General Kelly left his stars at the door - the threats and coercion are unbecoming. He’s just another toady - an none of them are very bright if they don’t think they are being taped!
7
Mr. Bruni,
This is truly one of the best columns you have ever written. It was thoroughly enjoyable, highly accurate, and elegantly written. Bravo!
-KS
1
It pays to look into Trump's past when Roy Cohen was his mentor and showed him how to be a big cheese based on nothing.. False claims, allegations, innuendos, threats, name dropping, etc. Please how is this is any different from the Joe McCarthy-Roy Cohen side shows of the 1950's. Unchallenged lies backed by partisan politics and publicly accepted falsehoods. Accuse Federal agencies, the military, corporations, media outlets of communist connections, but never prove a thing. By accepting Trump's and McCarthy's claims, main stream media solidified their lies. But not challenging statements, demanding proof, main stream media then and now were co-conspirators. While a 21st century twist gives the charlatans their own propaganda organs, in the 1950s highly partisan radio and news paper columnists did the same thing. How long did it take for the GOP to finally challenge Joe McCarthy? Who were the heroes of the media. Roy Cohen continued to use the NY press to game his plans until he died. This is all a repeat.
5
It's all diversionary, reality show nonsense.
Meanwhile Trump's minions are doing the maximum amount of damage they can, in every direction they can.
I just read this morning in the Washington Post about how Trump is backing away from American commitments in the Balkans -- one of Putin's longstanding goals:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2018/08/13/the-rep...
This traitorous behavior is only one of thousands of initiatives Trump has undertaken to undermine longstanding U.S. policy around the world -- and rule-of-law at home.
Let's re-focus on that -- who cares what Omarosa has to say, or sell?
5
Donald Trump is the best argument that I know against cloning.
3
A long-time fan of yours, but this summer ... your greatest fan! Keep telling us exactly how you see this horror-show. Thank you!
1
To paraphrase Elvis Costello: Two little Trumps will fight it out till, one little Trump does the other one's will.
1
“The genre usually invoked to describe his presidency is reality television. Science fiction is more apt.”
While that comparison may very well be true and accurate, I cannot help but take exception to the Sci Fi crack. Folks like Rod Serling and Gene Roddenberry and Steven Spielberg were/are imagination geniuses and knew/know how to entertain the television masses. Comparing their skill and craft to the dangerous, reckless and hurtful antics of Trump and his minions is utterly insulting to these men. At the end of every story Serling and Roddenberry and Spielberg wove, there was always a sense of WOW and being totally entertained. At the end of every embarrassing and deplorable episode of Trump and his “spiritual spawn” lies a continuation of dragging this country down with their vile, hateful and hurtful words and ways.
4
We Americans are funding this government, this presidency. And we all know if any of us acted like Donald Trump on the job, we would be discharged post-haste. His behavior would be totally unacceptable in just about any setting. And yet, he is our president; his behavior is excused or ignored. Donald Trump, you are not remotely worthy of the presidency, and Congress is asleep at the wheel.
9
Had I not already given up on Christianity, the picture of Trump and his enablers at the Pastors Leadership Conference would have done it.
6
There is more spawn coming. Much more. I think of the children at his rallies that will run for office in 20 years and make Stephen Miller seem refreshing.
2
Someone with way more clout than I possess should Trump Trump. We know he wrote his own doctor’s note in 2016 - claiming he’d be the healthiest president ever. That opens the door for a logical, serious concern about him. If he wrote his own doctor’s note for his presidential campaign, did he similarly write his “bone spur” note in the 60’s to get his 4F draft exemption? Since it’s crucial to concentrate on whether our president was born in the USA, we also need to know if our Commander in Chief is a draft dodger, no? Can we please see the note?
3
The NY Big Apple, does not far from the tree.
NY has been gentrified and is a great place, but
Trump brought the NY Swamp and added it to the Washington D.C. Swamp.
3
The problem is that there are many other clones of Trump, in fact many of the 41% of Americans that still support him. I have read their comments in this newspaper and it is obvious to me that they love bullies who talk down and insult others, whether they be women, liberals or the heads of other countries. They prefer simple answers to complex issues that relieve them from any responsiblity for the negative impact that they may have. And in the end, they are only interested in the money and a narrow perspective that concerns just their interests. Sounds just like Trump! These are American patriots?
817
Frank, I miss your food writing, but found this editorial especially delicious! please keep at it. -Barnaby
@Barry Lane Hillary was so spot on...deplorables are what they all are. The problem is that they are taking the non-deplorables down with them.
And we should include the Cabinet and the Congress who could end this debacle by using the 25th Amendment to remove an unfit for office President.
They are complicit in this mess and McConnell and Ryan should be added to the list of Trumpettes.
I believe it might be called "dreadful fascination", such as the impulse that causes a freeway driver to suddenly slow down so as to catch a sight of the gore and bodies of a back wreck.
In so doing, the driver may - and often does - create a wreck of his own as cars pile up behind him. And so the gore spreads and the body count mounts.
In like manner, we all run the risk of being so mesmerized by "all things Trump" that the damage he does to our country, to us individually and to all around us escapes our notice.
"If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
- Nietzsche -
Nietzsche
2
Years ago, as Obama dedicated his stimulus to saving public sector jobs that were lost anyway when the money run out, and when our labor participation rate plummeted, causing millions of the dispirited to just give up trying to find work, concerns were expressed that the Great Recession would leave permanent scars on millions of careers as people out of work too long would lose the skills that made them valuable in the labor marketplace. My own concern today is somewhat similar but … different.
I wonder what will happen to pundits who cease analyzing and writing about social issues to merely write Trump take-down pieces, because they attract a lot of clicks but merely add to a body of work that became saturated long ago. This stuff is not Pulitzer material.
Maybe this is not the best material ever, but it reiterates that Trump is not presidential material and never will be. Obama tried mightily against a racist GOP regime determined to undermine the country to keep him from succeeding. It eventually worked. With Trump, the GOP has found the greatest underminer to America yet. What have the R's done in 2 years but cut their own taxes? Comparisons to Obama fail by orders of magnitude. Keep drinking the Kool-Aid, Trump swamp denizens. It will eventually drown us all.
10
@Richard Luettgen
That you've led off with a whatabouttist attack speaks volumes of the bankruptcy of the administration you've committed yourself to defending.
It's not only tu quoque but wrong. The extension of unemployment benefits had nothing to do with public sector jobs but help the whole economy. The same could tax write-offs and other items aimed at small business.
The statement about the pundits is pure concern-trolling. The subject of Trump's mendacity, nastiness and incompetence won't get saturated any time soon because Trump and his cohorts keep providing so much new material on a regular basis.
12
@Richard Luettgen
With a mix of tax cuts, extended unemployment benefits, and the allocation of billions in federal contracts, job-creationgrants, and loans, the stimulus did exactly what it was designed to do: it spurred consumer spending in the midst of the worst economic crisis in decades. And Donald Trump is the beneficiary.
8
Both O.M.N. and Trump are amoral people who view themselves as brands, and view everyone and everything around them through the filter of whether or not it can hurt or help the brand. Eric Trump said the only color his father sees is green - and that's true wrt ethics as well as people. Both of them are narcissists who feel hugely entitled, but Trump gets away with it because his supporters feel he has earned it due to his wealth and success. Like many very rich people, Trump has no problem with buying people's loyalty and understands that you can get away with a lot if you make sure that those closest to you are handsomely rewarded.
Trump prefers dealing with people who can be bought, and if they turn against him, he simply accuses them of behaving in the way that attracted him to them in the first place.
Until everyone acknowledges that the adage about power corrupting applies as much to people who whose power derives from their wealth as it does to gov't officials we won't be able to clean the swamp. We have more checks and balances on gov't officials than on multi millionaires.
2
The growing problem for America is that those in the political arena who have adopted Trumpian characteristics are not limited to the underlings who learned at the feet of the master. Witness the number of candidates for political office around the county (e.g.Georgia, California, New York, Ohio etc.) whose campaigns and slogans were/are based almost entirely on the Trump blueprint. Absent losses by Trump-wannabees in the upcoming midterm elections, it's going to be difficult, if not impossible, to put this toxic genie back in the bottle.
28
This reminds me of various times I observed a behavior or noticed a tone of voice from one of my children and found it profoundly irritating and then realized that they had acquired that behavior or tone from me.
I responded to these situations by trying to change.
47
Thought bubbles over the heads in the photo, L-R:
Woman with microphone:
"Who do these folks think they're fooling?"
Mike Pence:
"Heavenly father, forgive Donald Trump his transgressions--but not right away, OK?"
Michael Cohen:
"What the heck am I doing here? I could be out chasing ambulances."
Omarosa:
"Thank you, Lord, for the no-show job at the highest level...and for making Steve Jobs invent the iPhone."
Donald Trump:
"Zzzzzzzz..."
65
NA... Splendid!
1
@NA - Brilliant
1
@NA I had a different reaction; my thought was: he is accepting their worship.
The area where The Donald is still the undisputed champion is the area of shamelessness and brazenness. Stormy Daniels and her attorney are pretty good but they are not in the class with The Donald. There are others in the wings learning the con man's craft.
Actually I think this lends credence to the idea that The Donald possibly has a mental impairment. I have never seen or heard of anyone who could lie (and even contradict his own lies in one interview) with the naturalness and aplomb of The Donald.
All of this reminds me of years ago going to watch professional wrestling. Of course, many people knew that it was all put on and fake. But it was interesting to watch the "wrestlers" ply their trade. What new tricks would they use to gull the faithful -- to generate an air of excitement. It is the same watching The Donald. What tricks and what techniques will the master grifter use to string along his followers?
35
name one person who has worked for Trump who is not a comprised messenger.
56
@runaway
Kellyanne Conway, I adore her. She puts the biased main stream media in its place, each and every interview. She outwits them so beautifully.
Outwits the media? Conway and Sanders have learned to consistently lie and dissemble just like their boss. Defending the indefensible is a mark of sycophancy, nothing to be admired or "adored."
1
@Stew R Obviously you missed KellyAnne big stumble Sunday morning when she not only could not name any African-American WH staffer but also seemed completely unprepared for that question. You may be satisfied with KellyAnne's "alternative facts," but those of us who view this administration with objectivity find that she often fails to provide a plausible explanation or defense of D. Trump's antics.
A good friend of mine is Chinese (married to a German, family in Switzerland). They travel extensively, and have spent significant time in the US (to the degree to seriously consider residing here, but concerned about racism). When Trump was elected, we were aghast.
She was in Beijing, near explosions, when Tienemmen Square happened, and believed the official story until confronted with evidence from the West.
Her advice to me was to ignore the noise from Trump and just focus on my young children. I’ve wrestled with that advice, since. I certainly do focus on my kids - they are our potential saviors (and inheritors of our grave blunders). Yet, I can’t remain ignorant of what is going on around us (and be ignorant dupes like many Trump supporters). But, then there’s the sage advice of worry only about what you can change, circling back to my friend’s earlier advice.
I suppose I may begin to feel less conflicted if the result of my voting helps to send this colossal waste of our resources and attention back to his chintzy tower (or into an orange jumpsuit).
What I don’t want is to be ignorant of the real story if/when we have our own Tiennamen Square and believe the official version.
Journalists are our patriots, not our enemies.
185
It is exhausting reading about all the shenanigans.
Is it even more exhausting to be members of the press covering all of this?
18
Like a horror movie, where the one deadly alien, hidden for eons underground, escapes and reproduces at will to perpetuate and proliferate destruction.
6
"Imitation isn’t just the sincerest form of flattery. It’s the cleverest kind of revenge." No - the best revenge is not to be like your enemy.
4
Years from now people will be shown videos of the "Apprentice" and be told that one person on the show became president of the United States and another person took that president down, and be asked to guess who they were. Should be interesting.
8
Can't one member of the media when interviewing Trump, when he is abusing journalists, just say, "We can't continue this interview with that behavior. The door is right there. This interview is over." After all, he does that same thing quite often to interviewers who are being nothing but professional to him.
69
Rather than echo the intelligent, insightful observations of fellow commenters, I just want to say, "Viva Frank Bruni!"
Mr. Bruni, you have outdone yourself with this column. You are a writer's writer and your love affair with the English language is thriving. Reading you today makes me extremely happy.
I will leave it to you to select the food for our wedding reception.
17
That incredible accompanying photo says it all!
13
Bravissimo to Mr. Bruno on his excellent piece of journalism. May all of Trump's chickens come home to roost, and may the chicken coop go down in flames.
59
Thanks as always, Mr. Bruni for your thoughtful and entertaining opinion pieces. Perhaps you are right, the rats are leaving the ship and destroying their trainer. But I keep asking myself: What can we learn from this? How are we complicit in all this division and rancor? If the party that created this deceitful environment loses power how are we going to build a new way of governing with thoughtful, rigorous, inclusive and intelligent discourse? More than the president's shocking cruel and deceitful words and personality, it's the ideas that the Republican party has manipulated over time that led us to this terrible pass. I hope we can climb over it together with patience and unprecedented civic engagement. I am daring to dream.
22
Most of Trump's people come in one of two varieties: (1) the Internet trolls who crawled out of their basements to bask in the spotlight of reality TV, and (2) the readers of Internet trolling and the watchers of reality TV whose entire worldview if defined by their media consumption habits.
19
Frank,
You’re still at the top of your form..! Excellent, loved it...
Wishing you all the best, brother...
Wm.
62
"...knaves, nuts, schemers and dreamers..." Sadly, true.
And it's becoming more frightening day-by-day as we realize there's no lack of this distasteful demographic in the body politic. If anything, they have become emboldened by the racist, misogynistic culture ushered in by Trump and his servile minions.
The question many Americans are waiting to learn will be answered shortly by the midterm elections :"are there more of them than there are of us?"
20
Please don’t insult science fiction like that.
26
If you have ever seen the movie "A Face in the Crowd", Andy
Griffith plays a serious role of a politician not unlike DT. I see
that movie playing out now. In black and white, it's a fine
performance.
11
You’re always great, but I’m sitting in a waiting room for my daughter, laughed so hard I snorted. Ultimately, it’s tragically sad for the country, but you need some relief. Thx!
47
Can anyone explain to me why Americans almost always seem to vote for their party rather than for the best politician with the best platform. In Canada most of us [I believe- certainly everyone I know] vote for the Platform and Person rather than the party.
62
@BettyInToronto It's probably because for the last several generations the parties and their candidates and their followers have self-selected into groups sharing certain values and objectives so strongly opposed to each other that an adherent of one party will rarely if ever cross the line and vote for a candidate belonging to The Other Side. The last Republican I can imagine myself voting for would probably be Teddy Roosevelt. I mean, seriously:
1932: Roosevelt vs. Hoover
1936: Roosevelt vs. Landon
1940: Roosevelt vs. Wilkie
1944: Roosevelt vs. Dewey
1948: Truman vs. Dewey vs. Thurmond vs. Wallace
1952: Eisenhower vs. Stevenson
1956: Eisenhower vs. Stevenson
1960: Kennedy vs. Nixon
1964: Johnson vs. Goldwater
1968: Nixon vs. Humphrey vs. Wallace
1972: Nixon vs. McGovern
1976: Carter vs. Ford
1980: Reagan vs. Carter vs. Anderson
1984: Reagan vs. Mondale
1988: Bush vs. Dukakis
1992: Clinton vs. Bush vs. Perot
1996: Clinton vs. Dole vs. Perot vs. Nader
2000: Bush (II) vs. Gore vs. Nader
2004: Bush (II) vs. Kerry
2008: Obama vs. McCain
2012: Obama vs. Romney
2016: Clinton vs. Trump
In all of these contests, how could anyone considering themselves to be at all progressive vote for anyone but the Democrat (or Socialist)? Eisenhower was the last Republican I considered to be not explicitly awful.
15
This is because of our Constitution’s political system, which lacks runoff voting and a framework for coalition building, so winner-takes-all is the norm, which results in a deeply entrenched bipartisan system. The solution is a constitutional amendment to give the U.S. a parliamentary form of government, but red-state voters would never let that happen (not peacefully, anyway, I bet).
4
...it seems to me one party (republicans) wants to keep every dollar they earn or inherit or win or steal for themselves - while the other party (democrats) doesn’t mind paying a percent of those monies in taxes to assist people who aren’t fortunate enough to have as much education, good health or good luck as themselves. And to help themselves if they should get down on their luck or sick or old. So glad I am a Canadian. I am 84 and fine financially but if I wasn’t my old age pension would be subsidized to make sure I didn’t have to eat cat food. Sure a few people take advantage of our system but we are a rich country and can afford it. I so admire Bill and Melina Gates and imagine they sleep and dream well.
2
“My fellow Americans: Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” -- JFK
After an exhaustive search spanning months, I've yet to identify one time -- ONE TIME -- that President Trump has done something selfless for the country. Everything Trump does he does to further his own ego, political agenda and/or financial standing.
So let's call it like it is: Trump is a disgusting, heartless vulture and so are his political proteges.
355
@Sarah I agree, right up to your last sentence. Vultures get a bad rap, they serve a useful purpose in nature. I do not think that we can say the same thing about Trump!
26
I believe the technical term for Trump’s peeps are “mini-mes.” Austin Powers movies do seem like an apt metaphor for this administration.
13
Well Trump’s latest tweet has crossed the line
But for Omarosa Newman it’s another sign
That her shocking insights
Have kept him up nights
He should never have called her canine.
25
The 'lesser Trump' emulators are a fitting tribute to a narcissism never seen at a presidential level (even though routine in the private life of the ugly American in-chief), as his bootlickers became drunk with whatever power was allowed, provided no shadow was given to the head-honcho, but ripe to abuse others, following the unscrupulousness of Trump himself. The revenge of his minions wouldn't be complete without piercing his ego, and the palace of mirrors reflecting his superb, and vacuous, vanity.
13
"If you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas"!
This president is a bulldog and is the master showman that taught his litter well! Then Trump gets furious when his lessons are turned right back at him!
It is ridiculous to think that DT will ever be any different. He showed us who he is during his campaign and still millions of Americans voted for him.
Until his supporters say enough we are stuck with this bully as president.
I am not holding my breath for that to happen.
Mueller's report and or a stampede in Nov to vote the Republicans out are the
only possibilities to halt this madness!
54
@Charna I am going to have to disagree. Bulldogs are wonderful animals and are amazingly steadfast and loyal. Trump is none of these things. I believe you owe Bulldogs an apology.
2
@Charna Trump has inspired me to come up with this: When you lie down with demagogues, you get up with fascists.
2
Yes, I apologize to all 4 legged bulldogs but not to the one who occupies the Oval Office.
1
Bruni's last paragraph describes Trump perfectly and shows who his true reflections are. Thank you Bruni!
22
Much of the blame falls to Republicans. This is an unhinged presidency, a broken white house. In Trump World, there are no objective facts. Nor tangible representations of the truth. It's all limited by interpretation.
This is clearly a difficult and exhausting administration.
The luster for some of it being a new experiment for a non-politician is long over. It's a disaster.
It's broken, Machiavellian and reckless. Today the administration jumps from insulting Black Americans to an unexpected briefing on soldiers' remains sent back from warring nations. The president having been absent for two full work weeks.
The subject of our soldiers' remains feels forced and manipulative. Each day is self-revealing of a television performance presidency. As if this is a new cable series from a television network on a Tuesday afternoon.
43
@One More Realist in the Era of Trump
You should read Machiavelli a little more carefully. Machiavelli is very misrepresented by popular opinion. A careful read reveals that he was in fact very intelligent and astute and in general an advocate of good government, even by our modern standards.
The Trump 'gang that can't shoot straight' is the opposite.
1
It’s a which hunt. Which prison are the perpetrators going to do time in? Which day is he going to resign?
34
@Luke That made me laugh!!!
Dang, dude, you called it all out! Now if we could only find the right soul to lead and mount the counteroffensive.
18
@klewless1
Is Michelle Obama available?
“Knaves, nuts, schemers and dreamers,” but you and many in the media will report it and discuss it all the same. That’s the key insight.
1
@Ed It is literally the media's job to report on the actions, deeds, and words of the president and administration. There's no "insight" here.
8
You nailed it, Frank.
18
One of your better columns, Frank. Sad as it is to have such a gang of reprobates to report on, we should all be grateful to you and other columnists at The Times for doing their duty. Sadder still that a big chunk of the country refuses to acknowledge the legions of degenerates in the Trump administration—Trump’s people represent absolutely the worst of America, and there will be no redemption for any of them. Can you imagine the fallout if even one such grifter had been part of the Obama administration?
16
The spectacle that happening in our executive branch is not science fiction and is no longer reality TV. It is our reality and it isn't funny.
42
I guess there is a point when every species turns against its own in the battle for survival. And so the the alligators of the Trumpian swamp. Chew away.
13
Trump, like many bosses, surround themselves with people they are comfortable with, people like themselves. When elected he vowed to hire the best people to his administration. Many of these fine people have been indicted, left in a cloud or are under investigation for wrongdoing; he has fired Omarosa four times. They are people Trump’s comfortable around. Most of these fine people Trump has discovered now are “low-life’s”, “losers” and “hated” individuals who didn’t show up for work. This administration is being run like a poorly managed family business. Let’s how this one doesn’t end up in bankruptcy like other Trump family affairs.
49
@DO5 As Charlie Pierce says "Only the best people is never not going to be funny."
Swamps attract swamp creatures. Just look at Manafort. He saw swamp monster Trump as an opportunity to exploit and profit. Grifters look at shady Trump and want to ride that train, see what happens.
To a large degree, this is how the GOP has worked for a few decades, even before Trump. Compare the amount of convictions while the GOP has been in power to the convictions while the Democrats have been in power. Both have been in power for about 28 years since Nixon. Since that time 1 conviction while Dems in power and 88 while the Repubs in power (albeit around 55 come from Nixon era). Still, what does this tell us? The republicans nurture crime swamps.
7
What does it say about our "rule of law" country when the sitting judge in this case cynically speculates that if Manafort had not been in this public position, he would have got away with his crimes? that the IRS, FBI and rest of the justice system would have "let it go?" What are their jobs?
If Manafort somehow escapes justice it tells us that small and petty crimes don't pay because the State will come down hard on us, but medium size crimes like Manafort's can be hidden from the "system" and massive crimes that real billionaire types inflict on the country become legal because they reshape our country's laws to make it legal and get away with it. And we, the uninvolved citizenry allow it.
10
@Gary Valan, People gerally get away with whatever isn't brought to the attention of relevant and interested authorities.
2
Can there really still be people in this country who believe the POTUS should be spending his time engaging in slanging matches (by tweet) with former top aides as he endlessly rides around on a golf cart at his country club? Is that what they voted for and pay taxes for? What’s wrong with people?!!
124
It is all God's doing to them, Susan.
3
@Susan considering the damage he does whenever he" accomplishes" something it might be better when he spends his time and energy shouting and twittering.
1
@Susan " What’s wrong with people?!!"
They're selfish, willfully indulging in perfect "If it feels good, do it!" behavior, rejecting a large, complicated reality that they find painful in favor of small simple fantasies that make them feel good, and they are doing this no regard to the harm they might be doing others (and their nation) by living, speaking, and acting as if their chosen fantasies *are* reality.
1
To bad some of these imitators aren't Democrats.
It might help them win some elections.
7
@Paul: It isn't worth the trouble to win elections by means that will make worthwhile objectives impossible to reach.
15
@Steve Bolger
It is impossible to achieve worthwhile objectives if you don't win elections.
Nearly sixty years ago, in an ROTC class on maps, we were told that on the field of battle, if the enemy was about to take us prisoner we must eat the map. Did the Commander in Chief eat the document? I have to believe that he did.
18
@Edward Baker He was asleep during that class at the military training school so he probably didn't know about that strategy. On the other hand, frequently eating McDonald's probably made it taste pretty good. Could go either way. Maybe he tore it up with his bone spurs.
7
“They’ll devour you in the end.”
Sort of reminds me of Nixon’s farewell speech to his staff. He was clearly open and remorseful, maybe feeling the freedom that comes when people know a truth they’ve been hiding. Secrets are like internal acid and it feels good to get rid of it, no matter the results.
Nixon said something interesting then. I don’t recall the exact words, but he suggested that if you hate, that hate will come back at some point and destroy you. It was an incredible moment for Nixon. A very human moment.
I doubt Trump is capable of such introspection. But whether it’s “destroy” or “devour”, Trump is reaping the fruit from the hate he has so carefully crafted, in himself, and in those who ultimately get close to him. Maybe we should just call him Icarus. He’s flying ever closer to the sun.
7
The sad thing is that despite the ever growing sump that Trump has created, his loyal supporters continue to think he’s doing great things. Our local television stations carried most of his stream of babbling ( it wasn’t really anything you could call a speech) at a rally in Utica for Claudia Tenney, the local Congress person running for re-election. Even the most egregious lies by Trump were roundly applauded by the crowd. It’s a bizzaro world and it’s very troubling that even when Trump is gone his legacy will linger on.
16
@Dave DiRoma
That fact is the elephant in the room. Those people. They speak volumes about this county no one in their right mind wants to accept. Now we know they are there. The implications of that are enormous.
I'm really sad that I ever even had to learn of any of these people's existence, Trump included. I was so blissfully unaware of him, until he went after Obama. Going through the White House staffers almost feels like going through a mug shot book.
8
You'd better believe Mr. Avenatti is like Trump. Read up on his business dealings and you will see a lot of parallels.
5
Every utterance from Donald Trump's is either self-serving or vulgar -- and often both. His spawn have caught on to the formula.
6
Fine and amusing column but I am reluctant to study a name-calling exchange between two actors from a reality TV show I never watched.
4
The most apt analogy for the Trump administration is not science fiction. It is Fight Club, plain and simple.
We may understand how the nameless main character (Ed Norton) might have become disenchanted with corporate posturing and the daily grind. But anyone who's seen the movie knows that his mental breakdown gave rise to Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) who was a dangerous lunatic no matter how many people (the "Fight Club") chose to follow him. That Norton's character only realized towards the end of the movie that he WAS Tyler Durden lines up perfectly with the GOP's belated understanding of their relationship to Trump. And like Durden, the illusion of Trump has become more powerful than the party that spawned him. Not did Norton find he could not beat Durden (his subconscious projection) in a fight, he found that the members of Fight Club that he himself had indoctrinated would happily kill him for interfering in Durden's unhinged terrorist plots (aka, "Project Mayhem"). In the end, it took an act of virtual suicide (literally shooting himself in the face) to rid himself of Durden... and even then the bombs still went off all around the city. The damage had been done and no amount of regret could undo it.
Fight Club may have come out well before 2016, but as an illustration of the state of modern conservatism, it's hard to beat. The only difference? Durden was FAR less racist and bigoted than Trump (although there were no women in Fight Club).
9
One had to know that Bruni would be writing on this topic too, since it's of a sort right up his alley. Gossipy moralizing. It's not necessarily that I mostly disagree with him, but it is boringly predictable. It might make his readers cheer him on, but it is not very helpful in dealing with Trump. Let's have some harder stuff.
Just thought this needs a reminder...”I’ll hire the best people. The best.”
15
Trump is like Pac-Man, trying to eat up his lesser replicas like he squirreled down the incriminating piece of paper. No wonder why he has such a trying time on the golden throne early Sunday mornings with such a diet!
What Trump likes to see when he holds out his mirror to his fairest is his reflection reflecting his reflection into infinity. However, the crack is growing larger before it breaks into pieces.
5
In terms of political victories, it is less-than-satisfying to see Trump taken on by the likes of Omarosa and Cohen; but as poetic justice, this is delicious.
7
I heard DL Hughley say this the other night and it sums up where we are at perfectly: "Obama is what America aspired to be. Trump is who we are."
17
@Julie R I am an American, but I am not Trump. Less than 40% of Americans are Trump. Most if not all of them have been cultured in the petri dish of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh et al, fire breathing pastors, and their own fears.
9
The American electoral system has allowed mr Donald Trump to claim the presidency while trailing in the popular vote by over 3 million ballots...In any other country this disparity would not have gone unnoticed. In the United States of America it went unquestioned and now the world is sweating through possibly 4 years of mayhem at huge human costs.
Following mainstream media daily coverage of the Trump effect,it is obvious that journalists are being emptied of all substance to obsess over tweets. Many foreigners ,once admirers of the American way,are at a loss to recognize this country they once loved and dreamt of emulating.
20
@Marcelo Brito
....and I see your country is suffering a democratic deficit too.
NYT op-ed headline -
Lula: There Is a Right-Wing Coup Underway in Brazil
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/14/opinion/lula-brazil-candidacy-prison....
1
@mancuroc
Don't forget Macri. He has destroyed Argentina in 2 years. Another neo-liberal praised by Trump. Good luck with Lula. People think only of their own countries. It must be made known that Fascism is present now in multiple countries, whose governments are composed of industrialists and work for their own benefit, people be damned. They can do this because of the non-involvement of the average citizen, who continues to see government as an entity that generally looks after the best interests of the nation, even when it is obvious that they look after their own interests, and that corporations and government are composed of the same people.
While reading Frank Bruni's insightful column, I could not stop thinking of the complicit Republicans in Congress bowing to Trump. They form an integral part of the horrific collage of Trump amoral emulators in whose grip we tragically find ourselves.
79
@Z.M.
That should be a key Democrat point in this election and going forward. It should not be allowed to be swept under the rug.
A wonderful quote from Gandhi (which cannot be actually tracked to him) "...There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it--always.”
The good news; historically, in the (very) long run, this is "mostly" true.
The bad news; it's not because truth and love are so powerful; it's because the children of tyrants are always... cannibals.
Trump is not a "large" enough figure, historically, to deserve the glorious "tyrant". More of a comic footnote, in 50 years. But he stepped onto the stage of history already fully formed as the offspring of tyrants, and a full-blooded cannibal. Lo - behold- the feast has begun.
Gandhi- or whoever said that- was right; because tyrants become tyrants using a toolbox that always self-destructs. They lie to, cheat, steal from, and betray - anyone and everyone, so long as they expect to not get caught and personally gain from the transaction.
Which means yes, their sycophants lie, cheat, steal, and betray also; an absolute guarantee that one day, the Top Cannibal will be betrayed by a subordinate cannibal.
Comforting. In a cosmically uncomfortable way.
64
@Greenpa I agree mostly with your comment, but I would caution against the complacency of thinking he will be relegated to a "comic footnote." The so many things he has undone in a short time (tax code, health care, environmental regulation, alienating allies, etc) and the legacy of the Supreme Court appointment will not be funny. It will be a long time before the US will recover from these things....if ever.
31
@Yertle I agree entirely that his actions, if left in place, would do vast harm. My own preference; once the next actual president is elected, would be for that person to state, by Executive Order, on day one "Since all actions of the previous president are, by multiple lines of evidence, highly likely to be illegal; they are hereby stated to be null and void. All regulations are hereby reverted to their status in December, 2016; all appointments of any kind since then are void."
The GOP has announced their belief in Executive Orders; so be it. And let the courts (minus all Trump appointees) sort it out.
Would be a useful way to continue Trump's entertainment value for a while. :-)
1
@Yertle And should Trump start an actual shooting war, he will become a tragic footnote in world history. (But still not a "tyrant" of historic scale- more like an epic punk.)
Haha, I like the ending, it's like the final scene from "Re-animator"
1
Frank, it is a big mistake to knock Omarosa.
At great risk to herself she don't down a huge bribe
and would not sign the non disclosure agreement upon
being fired.
Her loyalty ultimately was to the nation and to humanity.
She is a great whistle blower and helped to inform the world
about the Trump corruption.
that is why Trump calls her a dog and a low life.
she was "very close" to Trump and has multimedia evidence.
Knocking Omarosa supports Trump.
not a good idea.
@David That's ridiculous. Her loyalty is to herself, and nobody else. That is what allowed her to achieve success (for a time) within Trump's organization, and that is why she is cashing in on it.
He offered her 180,000 a year to keep quiet, essentially. Depending on how long that offer was good for (how many years would she be collecting that payment for), she could potentially make quite a bit more than that from this book, and the books that will presumably follow.
Just because she has discovered the smallest piece of shame, and doesn't feel good about what she has done in the past (if you believe her words), that does not mean that she is "blowing the whistle" or "serving the people". Attacking her is not helping Trump. She can be a conniving con-artist and STILL be telling the truth about what she witnessed in the White House. But she has a long way to go, if she ever wants to be viewed with anything less than contempt.
5
You can only hope the "army of emulators" follows the path of the ants from a childhood song I sang, "and they all go marching down the drain to get out of the rain." It was a campaign promise of his.
4
Narcissists like Donald, have few true friends. Most people in their inner circle are there because they want something from him and are willing to worship at his feet!
Ms. Newman is the first, of ,any of his staff that will eventually come out with books or recordings! Good! This administration and it’s leader are rotten to the core!
3
Convergence is the word here. Things are starting to come together with some of the ex Trumpistas starting to turn on their former boss. I find it hard to believe that Omarosa is the only disaffected Trump supporter that has dirt on the president. Trump's presidency is now full of whistle blower graffiti. More tapes, more facts, continuing investigations and a decline in credibility do not bode well for his presidency. Will his supporters eventually be embarrassed enough to stay home? If they do he and the GOP are looking at a blue tsunami. Trump's presidency is in shambles.
17
Well, so much for this notion of 'American exceptionalism.' Trump, Manigault-Newman, Kelly, Cohen, Manafort, et al. Though coming from different quarters of American society, these characters and their stories nevertheless intersect at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, a house built by slaves and now occupied by knaves.
8
So much for the notion indeed.
President Trump and his acolytes are the predictable outcome of this dreary America First yarp - for when has it ever not been America first?
Some might say a president Trump is the punishment the US deserves for letting its house get so out of order.
Others may say that a president Trump is the punishment the West deserves for letting the US call the shots for so long.
2
In fairness to Omarosa: She is doing something that a number of Trump ejectee's have not done. Spill the beans on the Liar in Chief. I'd be willing to bet that this was her intention from the get go. She saw the invitation into the White House as a potential gold mine. And knowing that she wouldn't be believed, she taped. The more she taped, the better. Book after book becomes possible. All the attacks...and she has to defend herself with her tapes. More books to follow.
So, Omarosa planned this out from the beginning. Say what you will about her, but she shows a lot more forethought than Trump has ever exhibited. Admittedly, a low bar. And I won't pretend that she has turned a new leaf, but she knew and knows how to deal with Trump.
VOTE OUT ALL REPUBLICANS
9
Mr. Bruni has left out the most important "lesser Trumps" - the nearly half this nation who still support him, after the incredible damage he has done since he took office. Indeed, they support him because of his bigotry, his ignorance, his bullying.
Trump supporters are very much "lesser Trumps". They cheer when he spews epithets toward ethnic minorities. They love that he tells them to assault journalists. They laugh when he jokes about sexual assault.
But why are these "lesser Trumps" so important? Because they will control this nation's future. We are at a turning point, as we see Mr. Mueller closing in on the most dangerous, mentally unfit man who has ever sat in the Oval Office. The more Trump is cornered, the more dangerous he becomes. And he has one card he hasn't played yet -- his voters.
If Trump's presidency is threatened in any way, understand that he will unleash the power of tens of millions of these "lesser Trumps", who are some of the nation's most heavily armed citizens. He will tell them that the press is to blame. He will tell them that their brown skinned neighbors are to blame. And they will believe it, because, like him, they are ignorant, bigoted, hateful people.
But their numbers require our vigilance. A dictatorship does not require the support of a majority of a nation's citizens -- a large, rabid minority will do just fine. And these "lesser Trumps" will do literally anything, include attacking their fellow citizens, to keep him in power.
61
@Henry Hurt: Nobody is more afraid of the God Loves Guns Cult of Perpetual Insurrection than the Congress that made it the world's best-armed unregulated militia.
Take a hard look at the shooter who created a confrontation in a parking lot under the authority of Florida's moronic "stand your ground" gun law to kill a man. That's Trumps hard core base.
17
@Henry Hurt Indeed this is truly frightening. Even if eventually Trump, his tribe, and opportunistic, despicable lackeys, are gone, it is these "lesser Trumps" that pose the greatest danger to the citizens of this country and its (formerly) democratic institutions. The possibility of a bloody civil war is not too far fetched any more.
2
Reminds me of an old twilight zone episode - a man who finds fault with everyone, is always complaining about others, then wishes that everyone were like him because then everyone would be perfect; lo and behold, it happens with predictable results - everyone starts finding fault with him and complaining about him.
91
@Me I think that was Shelly Berman. Maybe.
One of the lessons to be drawn from this episode and from the phenomenon of Donald Trump generally, corruption and integrity are existentially incompatible. If a particular enterprise is built on a corrupt foundation, it cannot accept the introduction of integrity into its structure, anywhere, ever.
This seems to be basic human nature. If integrity is found at the heart of an administration, it will eventually reject & expel any corruption that emerges within its component parts. The inverse seems true as well. A human enterprise that develops around a corrupt core cannot tolerate the piecemeal introduction of honesty into its ranks. In either case, the natural tendency is toward a homogeneous ethical environment.
Our President learned this lesson long ago and has selected the people he surrounds himself with accordingly. As Mr. Bruni demonstrates, he has become expert at identifying individuals that will be highly compatible with the ethical environment he strives to maintain.
There remain a few exceptions within his immediate associates, but their longer term viability remains in doubt. McMaster was driven out, Mattis' days seem numbered.
November elections and subpoena power in a democratic Congress cannot arrive soon enough!
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Each round of Presidential elections brings something new, which is the new standard for the next election.
Many of them have a weakness or vulnerability built in. Reagan for example had invented a Morning in America that never was and never could be, and had no plans nor any way to move the country in that direction. Dubya ran on Compassionate Conservatism, that was a flat lie, and was instantly exposed by power.
Trump is experiencing the rest of his new idea. His idea seems to have been The Big Lie with an admixture of hatred of Other, an old idea revived. We already know how that is vulnerable.
Unfortunately, he's gotten away with it more than he ought, because the opposition has itself indulged in demonizing, and blaming their own list of Others. That isn't the way to a big win.
However, despite the ineffectual opposition thrashing around and foaming at the mouth, Trump is still faced with the inherent weakness of his own lies, and blame of those who actually had nothing to do with the problems he can't fix.
Those who came with him are falling out, and acting much as he does? That is just one aspect of the inherent vulnerability of his method. Big Lie guys have always been prone to put the knife in the back of their fellows -- it is who they are.
One of Hitler's first acts was to personally shoot dead his deputy Ernst Röhm and destroy his own paramilitary that brought him to power, in the Night of the Long Knives. That is the paradigm.
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@Mark Thomason - I agree with everything you've said, but George W. Bush didn't run on a platform of "Compassionate Conservatism" - that was his father's campaign slogan. George Herbert Walker Bush may have had a few more brain cells than his son, after all, a man who couldn't pronounce basic English words could certainly have never coined the greatest oxymoron in American politics .
@Mark Thomason
The opposition has not demonized Trump. That perspective is only held by Trump cultists or those who have perpetuated the falsehood that Hilary was no better than Trump.
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Bravo Mr. Bruni, bravo....
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Thank you, Mr. Bruni. Yippee!
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#45 is a cancer on our way of life. The longer he is in office with his deplorable swampthings aka cabinet, the longer it will take to recover--if we ever do.
Vote (Blue) in every election.
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@james
Point taken, but our way of life is a cancer on our way of life. It didn't start with Trump.
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@Robert F
indubitably, but first things first
In other words, you live by the sword, you die by the sword.
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As Trump so accurately tweeted:
“When you give a crazed, crying lowlife a break, and... a job at the White House, I guess it just didn’t work out.”
Bingo! Look in the Oval Office mirror, sir.
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With all the mud being slung in the White House, it looks like Washington DC is back to being swampland.
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The whole trump-thing has been white-hot for about 2 years now. It can't last. Look at the history of people who have been in that position, the great ones and the dogs like trump. How long were the Beatles at the absolute top? Two years maybe? Michael Jackson? And at the other extreme of things Saddam or Hitler? It don't last long, that big moment of fame and power.
One day it will turn. And trump will lose it. Oh, he's had it and still got it, but it will go. And then he can do nothing about it, the loss of that thing.
When Kellyanne announces that she is stepping aside to spend more time with her family you will know its over.
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@paulyyams
But his followers .....they remain. Now we know. If this is not a cry to fix our public education, I don't know what is.
"knaves, nuts, schemers and dreamers ". Perfect, Frank. Elect the clown, get the circus.
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Kelly is a disgrace to the Marine Corps!
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Karma is justice without the satisfaction. - Joe Sarno
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Love the photo!
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@PM Amen, brother!
Frank, you had me at spelunk.
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We're all just extras in The Trump Show.
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