Donald Trump is OK with 'whining.' Is it his superpower?
Is whining Donald Trump鈥檚 superpower? We ask that, only partly in jest, because Mr. Trump was extremely pro-whine during a blitz of morning news-show appearances Tuesday.
Oddly enough, foreign policy was the context. quoted critics to the effect that Trump, if sitting across from world leaders like Vladimir Putin, would whine and 鈥渂ecome snippy with them鈥� if they said something he didn鈥檛 like.
Trump agreed. 鈥淚 am the most fabulous whiner,鈥� he said, according to a Federal News Service transcript of the encounter. 鈥淚 do whine because I want to win. And I鈥檓 not happy if I鈥檓 not winning.鈥�
Mr. Cuomo went with this framework and asked whether whiners were, in fact, winners. Trump, warming to the subject, opined that they are.
鈥淚鈥檓 a whiner, and I keep whining and whining until I win,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd I鈥檓 going to win for the country, and I鈥檓 going to make our country great again.鈥�
Suddenly it all makes sense. The rise in the polls, the feud with Fox News personalities, the ability to say absolutely anything yet still get lengthy cable news interviews. It鈥檚 all due to Trump鈥檚 self-referential ! These are entertaining and introduce an element of conflict into virtually all questions.
The media can鈥檛 look away. A certain percentage of voters then relate to his not-so-pent-up anger. Result: of the split GOP field.
Trump鈥檚 reference to whining (next book: 鈥淎rt of the Whinge鈥�) in fact is a microcosm of his entire approach to politics, The Washington Post鈥檚 Amber Phillips.
If you鈥檙e part of the approximately 70 percent of American voters who think he鈥檚 a blot on US politics, you鈥檙e probably face-palming and saying something like, 鈥淒oes he have no sense of shame?鈥�
If you鈥檙e part of the 25 percent of voters who think he鈥檚 OK, you鈥檙e probably saying the same thing, only approvingly. 鈥淗e has no sense of shame!鈥� It鈥檚 just another way in which Trump expresses his contempt for the US political powers that be.
Trump is 鈥渁 man who only seems to get stronger when he breaks conventional political rules,鈥� Ms. Phillips writes.
Perhaps that鈥檚 how he can perform strongly in GOP polls while at the same time talking approvingly of single-payer health systems and saying he does not oppose abortions under any circumstance. Those positions are supposed to be heresies as far as Republican primary voters are concerned. Yet he appears unconcerned about their potential electoral impact.
In another revealing passage from his CNN appearance, Trump dismissed the concerns of friends and advisers who want him to focus on more substantive details.
鈥淭hey want me to come up with a 10-point plan, a 14-point plan, a 20-point plan. It doesn鈥檛 necessarily work that way,鈥� said Trump.
So far for The Donald at least, that鈥檚 true. And that鈥檚 why he鈥檚 a populist candidate, Walter Russell Mead, in the classic sense of the word.
Trump isn鈥檛 a man of the people. He doesn鈥檛 pretend to relate to the common voter. He doesn鈥檛 espouse class grievances or specific economic populist policies. But he鈥檚 making the establishment squirm, and for many folks, that鈥檚 fun to see.
鈥淏y flouting PC norms, reducing opponents and journalists to sputtering outrage as he trashes the conventions of political discourse, and dismissing his critics with airy put-downs, he is living the life that 鈥� at least some of the time 鈥� a lot of people wish they had either the courage or the resources to live,鈥� writes Mr. Mead.
