Guno צְבִי
We fight, We win, Am Yisrael Chai
Donald Trump is a master performer. He is a symbol and character more than a man, a type of performance artist.
But he is not the late Andy Kaufman playing Tony Clifton as Donald Trump, who is trying to speak some type of truth to power. Instead, the president’s performance is that of raw and corrupt power, and being freed from nearly all constraints on his behavior. For his MAGA supporters, such a role model and leader is exciting and cathartic.
Like a professional wrestling promo crossed with insult comedy, Trump mocked the UN building (“a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter”), bragged (“I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell”) and feigned toughness on Russia (a “paper tiger”). He said that America’s NATO allies need to do more to help Ukraine, defended fossil fuel energy and declared climate change to be “the greatest con job ever.” He castigated European countries for being too “nice” to immigrants and migrants because Europe’s (white) “heritage” is being poisoned by supposed hordes of strange (brown) “foreigners.”
Talking for nearly an hour, Trump held little back. The UN, he declared, is useless: “What is the purpose of the United Nations?…For the most part, at least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up. It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve war.”
Trump also returned to his obsessive hatred of windmills, and he is now apparently very concerned about cows: “We don’t want cows anymore. I guess they want to kill all the cows.”
news.yahoo.com
But he is not the late Andy Kaufman playing Tony Clifton as Donald Trump, who is trying to speak some type of truth to power. Instead, the president’s performance is that of raw and corrupt power, and being freed from nearly all constraints on his behavior. For his MAGA supporters, such a role model and leader is exciting and cathartic.
Like a professional wrestling promo crossed with insult comedy, Trump mocked the UN building (“a bad escalator and a bad teleprompter”), bragged (“I’m really good at this stuff. Your countries are going to hell”) and feigned toughness on Russia (a “paper tiger”). He said that America’s NATO allies need to do more to help Ukraine, defended fossil fuel energy and declared climate change to be “the greatest con job ever.” He castigated European countries for being too “nice” to immigrants and migrants because Europe’s (white) “heritage” is being poisoned by supposed hordes of strange (brown) “foreigners.”
Talking for nearly an hour, Trump held little back. The UN, he declared, is useless: “What is the purpose of the United Nations?…For the most part, at least for now, all they seem to do is write a really strongly worded letter and then never follow that letter up. It’s empty words, and empty words don’t solve war.”
Trump also returned to his obsessive hatred of windmills, and he is now apparently very concerned about cows: “We don’t want cows anymore. I guess they want to kill all the cows.”
An Ugly American berates the United Nations — and shames the rest of us
Trump's angry speech before the General Assembly was "coarse absurdist theater"
