The Trump Doctrine
When people tell you who they are, believe them the first time.
A trip down memory lane (i.e., the now infamous Access Hollywood tape):
Trump: “Yeah that’s her with the gold. I better use some Tic Tacs just in case I start kissing her. You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful… I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything.”
Bush: “Whatever you want.”
Trump: “Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
Trump this week, via The Hill: Trump on ‘taking’ Cuba: ‘I can do anything I want with it’.
Trump, speaking to reporters from the Oval Office, would not rule out a military move, adding, “I think I can do anything I want with it.”
“Whether I free it, take it, I think I can do anything I want with it,” he said. “You want to know the truth, they’re a very weakened nation now.”
Here’s the video:
I never bought the notion that the Access Hollywood tape was about “locker room talk” but did, in fact, demonstrate his state of mind. Clearly, the E. Jean Carroll case demonstrated that it was literally something he would do.
The question of whether there is a “Trump Doctrine” about foreign policy has been asked from time to time, as is the case with all presidents.
But forget all the attempts to think about spheres of influence or the “Donroe Doctrine” or “flexible realism” or anything else.
The Trump Doctrine is succinct and clear, and we have known about it since before he was elected: When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.
Rich, powerful men can do what they want, when they want.
That’s the Trump Doctrine.
To Hell with actually understanding what is going on, how it works, or what the consequences might be. No, just move on them like a bitch.
What else do you really need to know?
It’s a shame millions of American voters ignored what they were told, and the world is now living through the consequences.
I don’t think voters ignored it, they wanted a master, they wanted to surrender their will, and they wanted to hurt their enemies. They weren’t misled, they chose cruelty and violence, and they got cruelty and violence, which is why no one has left MAGA. Trump is giving them exactly what they wanted. Children starving to death in Africa, protesters shot in the face by ICE, sexual predators unleashed, our friends and allies betrayed, brown people and trans people living in fear, this is what MAGA wanted.
Thank you for highlighting the connection between Trump’s aberrant, rapey sex life and his rapey foreign policy. Why the pederasty of President Trumpstein Files is not irrelevant. Someone who would help abuse underage teens is unfit for leadership. No surprise Trump’s demonic sexual thuggery bleeds into his politics.
We need a serious policy wonk laser focused on affordable housing, universal healthcare, clean and renewable energy, safe and affordable mass transit — and on defending our tranatlantic and transpacific alliance from China and Russia. This crooked, lowlife trash president and his phony VP simply cannot deliver the goods. Incompetent.
And, yes, mollycoddled American adults are to be faulted for our childish embrace of Twitterbrained political entertainment, long-debunked trickle down bs, anti-intellectualism, tedious victim-mentality white grievance, anti-wokeness, and bigoted scapegoating instead of on serious policy solutions. Our immature, amoral, hatemogering electorate got exactly the immature, amoral, hatemogering presidency they earned.
And until American voters take personal accountability for their indefensible, inexcusable political fuckups instead of coddling each other and shifting blame with lame “A woke liberal irritated me online so I voted to destroy my life with white supremacist fascism” bullshit excuses, expect continued American mediocrity. We in psychology can report: positive behavior change is downstream of one’s ability to admit, “My decisions are my responsibility.”
Not seeing anything yet from the US indicating such growth. “It’s always somebody else’s fault” is no way for a person or nation to achieve greatness. Bad news for anyone expecting sweeping improvements in the USA’s post-Trump quality of life.
@Michael Reynolds:
@DK:
Both of you, spot on!
@Michael Reynolds:
MAGA isn’t only sadists, also religious nutters such as Mike Huckabee and Pete Hegseth.
@Michael Reynolds: I absolve no one of their moral culpability for their votes for Trump. I also think that yes, there a very large number of people who clearly chose what they got.
But it is also true that it simply isn’t the case that everyone who voted for Trump voted for your list. This is important not because it absolves anyone or excuses anything. It is important because it is true.
And it matters because it means that there are persuadable people out there. It also is a reminder that people vote for any number of reasons, many of which are ill thought out.
I do think that millions who knew better rationalized away the clear warning before our faces, because that’s what humans do.
And I am at least somewhat hopeful that frustration with our present reality will have real ramifications at the midterms and even in 2028. But, of course, we shall see.
And note I say this not because I think we won’t suffer long term damage from Trump nor do I think we are going back to “normal” whatever that might mean.
As with the toddler’s worldview, we can reduce the Taco doctrine to one word:
MINE!!1!