A Dying Puppet: Trump as an Oligarchical Figurehead
We're living in the Mad King era
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On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump appeared in Pennsylvania in front of a crowd of, I don’t know, dozens, hundreds of people, and ranted and raved. It was the first such rally, if we can call it that, in god knows how long. He looked and sounded exhausted. He parroted the talking points he’s been peddling for a decade now, only the sound and energy was less like a politician or leader and more like a child’s toy whose batteries are dying.
When he was finished, the president did what he loves best, which is get online and post his way through it. In a nearly 500 word screed on Truth Social, he bragged about being one of the best presidents before taking a bizarre turn: a rant about how many cognitive tests he’s taken at Walter Reed and how he “ACED” them in front of “large numbers of doctors and experts, most of whom I do not know.”
The experience of living in “The Donald Trump Era” is many things. Demoralizing. Infuriating. Nauseating. And, simultaneously clarifying and bewildering. Never have we seen someone so transparently incapable and so undeserving. Nearly every time he opens his mouth it is to lie so brazenly that it befuddles the imagination how anyone could believe what he is saying, except, of course, when it is to tell a truth so unsettlingly honest, usually in admitting some new scheme or exploitative measure designed to enrich himself, which is similarly shocking in its own way. Now, as he ages and virtually decomposes in front of us, the experience is not unlike being tossed by violent waves in a boat lost in a storm. Trump has gotten what he always wanted, which was to have the entire world forced to look at him and pay attention to his every move, often at the behest of a loaded weapon or a crushing boot, and what did he desire to do with this historic and unprecedented attention? Nothing all that important, really. Just sleepwalking through a job he doesn’t want and cannot do and angrily abusing anyone who dares point out the obvious.
Because so much attention is paid to Trump, which makes sense because Trump’s entire purpose in life and whole drive is to consume more and more attention, what often gets lost is that he is a figurehead for a large consortium of wealthy stakeholders. Some of them wrestle for the limelight occasionally, including Elon Musk, whose turn in the spotlight was disastrous on every level, but most are largely comfortable letting Trump and his cadre of criminal conspirators command the focus. The wealth and oligarchical classes know that Trump is a clown. They mock him the moment they are out of the room. They view him as an essential tool, but do not respect him or his leadership. They appreciate it because it is lacking.
Behind the dictatorial veneer, Trump is one of the most insecure and venal humans the United States of America has ever produced. Even before his mortal form began to deteriorate in plain sight, he was susceptible to transparent flattery, his opinions transitory depending on what conversation he was having and who was watching, his entire life dedicated to reacting to what the back page of New York City tabloids had to say about him and who he was dating and how his businesses were performing or what people thought about his latest appearance with Howard Stern or whatever godforsaken low-rent thing he was up to. His anger and fascistic instincts were still there, though they were hidden behind closed doors, reserved for his family and occasional outbursts in the press or in his scripted television series. If he were to be given power at any of those points, we would have seen many of these behaviors, just in different forms.
Now, he is the ideal puppet for the oligarchical class. Trump doesn’t understand what they’re doing and doesn’t care to learn. His lack of interest in even the most rudimentary and basic elements of being President of the United States of America is glaring. All he knows is that rich and powerful men are sitting in front of him, giving him gifts, and saying nice things to him. Everything else is muscle memory.
Trump’s day-to-day life is probably like a poison kaleidoscope.
Falling asleep at a meeting, half-hearing what sounds like gibberish while a camera trains on his face. Someone tells him there’s a crisis in some city, he lazily consults his own diminished list of stereotypes about the city, just kind of says the place needs invaded. FIFA, maybe, some stage, a trophy, a medal, sure, that’s nice. Posting. Posting. A CEO in a fine suit hands you a watch or a bracelet or something. No, I agree, we shouldn’t have any laws regulating AI. It’s terrible what these people are doing, isn’t it? Have you seen the polls? Terrific. Terrific. You bet.
The soul revolts from this nightmare. And it’s fitting in this moment of accelerated grift and resource extraction that hollow men like Trump enjoy power. The corruption of representative government by the wealth and oligarchical classes and the total rigging of systems of governance would eventually necessitate a clown president whose only talents are commanding attention at all costs, a fascistic worldview and willingness to hurt anyone, and a susceptibility to flattery and bribery. It’s like finding a new species of moth that excels at living in a toxic dump site. He has no regard for national security or national interests, no conscience about siccing troops and law enforcement on vulnerable victims, just an insatiable need to continue moving forward and consuming consuming consuming.
Of course, the question continues to mount: what happens when Trump dies? I’ve made my argument for awhile now that Trump is a symptom of a larger disease and this project will not simply stop when he is gone. Yes, it will change and mutate, but it will not just cease. Watching Trump expire in real-time means that the plunder will take on a smash-and-grab tone, which is what this moment of hypercapitalism requires anyway. A lot of powerful and rich people are going to cause a lot of damage very quickly and profit wherever they can, even if it continues to destabilize the country, the economy, and the world. And, of course having a puppet who has no idea what’s going on and is willing to level the hammer to spur obedience and destroy resistance tends to help with that kind of destruction.
Is it crazy that I prefer the smash and grab method over the more hidden back door dealing that has been happening quietly over the last several decades? I don't know that it will, but it makes me FEEL like more people will have to notice it and that means we are more likely to be able to stop it.
The only comfort I can glean from this tragic comedy in which we live is a lesson my late husband taught me---Let the idiots and bad actors say and print whatever they want so that the millions bump up against the idiocracy and malfeasance directly. Even those mired in Kardashian soap opera, stock market updates, or sport scores, must eventually hear some of the rantings and ravings of this malignant narcissist and wonder who the hell is in charge. They also might wonder why Trump yelps at them buying only 2 dolls and only 1 pencil while Musk garners another billion, and his tech bro autocrats just must have another cable station or platform to own, or a fifth mega yacht or island or whatever. This should be the dinner table conversation around the nation, sharing the unbelievable yet sadly real screeds of a diseased mind and his puppeteers.