October 3, 2024 | Reading Time: 4 minutes
Trump reminds us he’s not serious about being president
“We need lifting and not grifting,” Eddie Vedder said.
Donald Trump did us a favor. On Monday, he reminded us of the kind of president he was and would be again.
He went to Valdosta, Georgia, to see the damage done by Hurricane Helene. He made himself the center of attention. The story wasn’t about victims suffering from the worst flooding in decades. It wasn’t about the heroes who saved them. It was about him. He took credit for what good Samaritans did. He exploited a natural disaster for his benefit, making the recovery much tougher.
Oh, and he lied.
Guess what happens when you treat a problem like a game? People get hurt. People die. And people lose faith in democracy.
Trump lied when he said the federal government doesn’t care. He lied when he said the Republican governor, Brian Kemp, could not reach Joe Biden, because the president was lounging on the beach. He lied when he said Vice President Kamala Harris was too busy fundraising to react to a national emergency. So, in addition to robbing the locals of their resources, Trump robbed them of their hope and faith in democracy.
All the above is pretty much what he did as president.
More than a million Americans died from the covid, the economy came close to collapse, and dreams and fortunes were lost, because he never took the presidency seriously. When good things happened, they were his doing. When bad things happened, they were someone else’s fault. It was a “heads I win, tails you lose”-style of leadership in the face of another kind of natural disaster that demanded honesty and integrity from the top. But nothing was more important to Trump than Trump.
He did us a favor Monday.
He reminded us of that.
Not long after Trump scammed Valdosta, I came across a video clip featuring the lead singer of Pearl Jam, a rock band that reached its peak in the late 1990s. In it, Eddie Vedder says the man who’s telling Americans they can’t afford eggs is also selling those same Americans $100,000 gold watches. “Which one is it?” Vedder asks his audience.
Without naming Trump, Vedder says we should all have gold watches, because the election “is about time. It’s about precious time and this precious planet. And it’s about time that we say, ‘We’re not going to take this anymore. We’re not going to take this bullshit anymore.’
“We need lifting and not grifting,” he says.
Lots of us have been tired of the bullshit and the grift for a very long time, but most of us haven’t come out and said it. That Vedder does say it, and that he says it as a member of Gen X, America’s Trumpiest generation, according to Politico, suggests the tide really has turned.
Everyone is now so tired of the bullshit that Vedder doesn’t even have to name its source for his audience to know exactly who he’s talking about. They know who’s doing the grifting, just as they know who’s doing the lifting. The ailment needs no name. Neither does its cure.
When people say they have no more fucks to give, what they’re really saying is it’s safe to say what needs saying. And lately, this “I’m so tired of the bullshit” attitude has been trickling down from the very top.
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When a reporter asked the president to respond to Trump’s lie that he’s ignoring hurricane victims in Georgia, Joe Biden said: “He’s lying. The governor [Kemp] told him he was lying. … I don’t know why he does this. And the reason I get so angry about it, I don’t care about what he says about me, but I care what he communicates to the people that are in need. He implies that we’re not doing everything possible. …
“That’s simply not true,” Biden added. “And it’s irresponsible.”
The “I’m so tired” attitude extends to reporters, too. When asked another ridiculous question based on Trump’s lies, Biden said:
“Come on, stop with the game, will you?”
Hurricanes don’t play. Neither should we.
That’s what’s really going on.
We are tired of the lies. We are tired of the bullshit. We are tired of the grift. But at root is a grown-up weariness with Trump’s childishness.
There are real people who are facing real problems, but Trump and his allies just want to play. They want to pretend that problems aren’t problems, but instead opportunities to be exploited for political gain.
Guess what happens when you treat a problem like a game?
People get hurt. People die.
And people lose faith in democracy.
“I would hope this would be a reminder to people of the chaos that Donald Trump brought when he had the keys to the White House four years ago,” said Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, a Democrat. He was on Fox this week talking about Tuesday’s vice presidential debate.
“I don’t think we want to go back to that.”
He’s right, but the VP debate didn’t remind them.
Trump did.
CODA
Around the time I came across the Eddie Vedder clip, I came across this one. In it, the late Carroll O’Connor, who played Archie Bunker in “All in the Family,” explains why his character is not a “lovable bigot.”
O’Connor says Bunker’s prejudice is a “poison,” not only to others but to himself. He’d be happier without those “burdens,” O’Connor says.
Many have called Trump a bigot, though never a lovable one. But no one sees him in the same tragic light in which O’Connor sees Bunker. That may change, as Trump recedes into the background, God willing.
Right now, he’s seen as a villain. Eventually, his hatred and delusions may be seen as a tragic flaw, the rot at the core of his character. He’s dangerous now, but he’s hollow inside. He’s lonely and he’s miserable. His need for approval is bottomless and he will never be free of it.
O’Connor pities Bunker. No one pities Trump.
We may, someday.
Maybe.
John Stoehr is the editor of the Editorial Board. He writes the daily edition. Find him @johnastoehr.
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