Memo to Trump Fans: Conman-in-Chief Will Betray You All - Rick Wilson
WHAT’D YOU EXPECT?
Memo to Trump Fans: Conman-in-Chief Will Betray You All
He’s swindled and lied to everyone he’s dealt with his entire adult life. So why did you, Trump voter, think you’d be any different? Wake up.
RICK WILSON
09.18.17 1:00 AM ET
The gift of a brilliant actor, great con man, or devious traitor is to be able to hold the facade of normalcy, courage, integrity, or our other higher virtues up to the world and convince it for a time to see the face they want it to see. For the actor, it’s to inhabit the character on stage or screen until the curtain call comes or the credits roll. For the con man, it’s to take that last dollar from the victim of a long con. For the traitor, it’s to pass that last tranche of intelligence on to his handlers from a foreign government.
No matter how skilled their performances, the essential nature of a man’s character is always there, waiting to be revealed in times of stress or challenge. People living a lie are always, as Aristotle reminds us, “... at war with and in opposition to themselves.” In the end, there’s always a tell and always a glimpse behind the mask, and stress is what reveals it.
No institution in the world stresses a man like the American presidency. That glorious burden and singular honor tests, ages, and wears on every person who carries it. The incumbent’s true character, good and bad, is revealed to the world.
Before this week, the essential character of Donald Trump wasn’t a secret—he was always a flamboyant liar, a raging narcissist, and a man driven by impulse and expedience—but to the victims of the biggest political con in American history those were part of his roguish charm. He was always an actor, playing the successful dealmaker and negotiator.
Trump voters are world-champion rationalizers. They knew he was a bastard, but he was their bastard. They knew he was a lying, amoral, narcissistic snake, but by God, he was their snake. American conservatives who knew better sold their virtue, ideology, and principles once Trump won the White House, nodded sagely and intoned, “But Gorsuch.” The last two weeks have been a delicious comeuppance for all of them, as Trump has burned them to the ground by forging a new alliance with the Democratic leadership of Congress and leaving his Republican frenemies in the dirt.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/i-told-you-so-trump-is-a-conman-in-chief
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