How to Know What Donald Trump Really Cares About: Look at What Hes Insulting

[WhiteTara]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/06/upshot/how-to-know-what-donald-trump-really-cares-about-look-at-who-hes-insulting.html?ref=politics



Donald J. Trump’s tweets can be confounding for journalists and his political opponents. Many see them as a master class in diversion, shifting attention to minutiae – “Hamilton” and flag-burning, to name two recent examples – and away from his conflicts of interest and proposed policies. Our readers aren’t quite sure what to make of them, either.

For better or worse, I’ve developed a deep expertise of what he has tweeted about in the last two years. Over the last 11 months, my colleague Jasmine C. Lee and I have read, tagged and sorted more than 14,000 tweets. We’ve found that about one in every nine was an insult of some kind.

snip

First, Mr. Trump likes to identify a couple of chief enemies and attack them until they are no longer threatening enough to interest him. He hurls insults at these foils relentlessly, for sustained periods – weeks or months. Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton have all held Mr. Trump’s attention in this way; nearly one in every three insults in the last two years has been directed at them.

If Mr. Trump continues to use Twitter as president the way he did as a candidate, we may see new chief antagonists: probably Democratic leaders, perhaps Republican leaders in Congress and possibly even foreign countries and their leaders. For now, the news media – like CNN and The New York Times – is starting to fill that role. The chart at the top of this page illustrates this story very clearly.

That’s not to say that the media is necessarily becoming his next full-time target. Rather, it suggests that one has not yet presented itself. The chart below, which shows the total number of insults per day, shows how these targets have come and gone in absolute terms. An increasing number of insults are indeed being directed at the media, but, for now, those insults are still at relatively normal levels.

[Wellstone ruled]

1. Something very

serious is going on with this Guy. Notice the increase in his explosiveness,he is just lashing out at everyone who he thinks are a threat to his Ego. Can only imagine how our Allies are just burning up the phone lines trying to make heads or tails out his petulance.

[WhiteTara]

2. They need to look at Kim Jong Un

for a role model of his temperament. He is a danger to the whole world.

[Wellstone ruled]

3. Possibly,

hunch the Guy has some Chemical Issues going down. This Guy is a disaster looking for a place to happen.

[Maru Kitteh]

6. Kim Jong Un seems, quite unbelievably, to be more measured and controlled than Tweetler.

Jong Un seems to have a greater measure of self-control, and ironically, greater external controls working to keep him in check than Trump.

That, is terrifying.

[annabanana]

4. Very interesting graphs..

He is a loony tune

[TwilightZone]

5. He cares about...himself.

It's really not any more complicated than that. I don't think he even cares much for his family, outside of the arm candy aspect and a "look what I built" kind of thing.

He's a narcissist.