Donald Trump: Lonely Loser

"ISOLATED?” read the subject line.

“Friend,” Donald Trump wrote recently to supporters in a fundraising email. “The fake news keeps saying, ‘President Trump is isolated.’ … They say I’m isolated by lobbyists, corporations, grandstanding politicians, and Hollywood. GOOD! I don’t want them,” he fumed, employing italics for emphasis.

Sent on August 28, two days after Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston, Trump’s defiant appeal acknowledged the mounting perception that nearly eight months into his first term—and in the aftermath of his racially divisive response to the violence in Charlottesville—he’s never been politically more lonely. He’s at odds with Congress—including leaders and members of his own party—and his deal-making with Democrats is angering some of his most ardent conservative supporters. He’s been abandoned and censured by art leaders, business leaders and world leaders. His Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida is bleeding bookings. And he’s losing favored aides due to the actions of his own chief of staff, General John Kelly, who restricts access to the president with the diligence of a border guard. Last week, the New York Times described Trump as a “solitary cowboy,” reminding readers he once called himself “the Lone Ranger.”

His critics might see his growing isolation as a product of his political inexperience—an aversion to the norms of the legislative process, a penchant for topsy-turvy management. But as unprecedented as this might be in the annals of the West Wing, it’s merely a continuation of a lifelong pattern of behavior for Trump. Take away the Pennsylvania Avenue address, the never-ending list of domestic and international crises, and the couldn’t-be-higher geopolitical stakes—and this looks very much like … Trump throughout his entire existence. Isolated is how he’s always operated.

The middle son of a stony, workaholic father with whom he had an “almost businesslike” relationship, Trump is a double divorcee, a boss with a professed distaste for having partners or shareholders, a television-tethered, hamburger-eating homebody and a germaphobe who has described shaking hands as “terrible,” “barbaric” and “one of the curses of American society.” He’s been a loner most of his life. At New York Military Academy, everybody knew him but few of his fellow cadets knew him well. In college, he made no friends he kept. After he moved to Manhattan, he lived in a sealed-off triplex penthouse, relied on a small, family-first cadre of loyalists and mainly made more enemies than allies (the mayor was a “moron,” elite “so-called social scene” types were “extremely unattractive people,” and on and on). At his casinos in Atlantic City, he was adamant about not mingling with the gambling masses. Now, in Washington, he’s a two-scoops cable-watcher inside the White House when he’s not weekending at his clutch of protective, name-branded bubbles. Trump, forever, has collected an array of acquaintances, fellow celebrities and photo-op props, while friendships mostly have been interchangeable, temporary and transactional.

smelly-bandit wrote:Still POTUS

Angry Andy wrote:Even Ivanka no longer spreads for him.
He revolts every sane human.

Original Quill wrote:

smelly-bandit wrote:Still POTUS

We'll remember to remind him.  What fun!  

smelly-bandit wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

We'll remember to remind him.  What fun!  

He already knows bro.

Its you lot who seem to think he is #notmyelpresidenta

#newsflash he is your elpresidenta

Original Quill wrote:

smelly-bandit wrote:

He already knows bro.

Its you lot who seem to think he is #notmyelpresidenta

#newsflash he is your elpresidenta

Not for long.  And the pleasure of watching him writhe and squirm is pure heaven.

Let's put it this way, as you have this fixation on his position, without considering it's implications: as long as he lives in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he will have Ulcerative Colitis...supplemented by inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).  Ck it out...

smelly-bandit wrote:

Original Quill wrote:

Not for long.  And the pleasure of watching him writhe and squirm is pure heaven.

Let's put it this way, as you have this fixation on his position, without considering it's implications: as long as he lives in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, he will have Ulcerative Colitis...supplemented by inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).  Ck it out...

Yeah yeah yeah

Been hearing this before he even became president