Word Salad A La Trump

Click here for an article at Esquire by Charlie Pierce, entitled "You're Surprised? Have You Met This Guy?" It contains the following quote from The Donald, who was asked this question by The Times of London: "Do you have any models -- are there heroes that you steer by -- people you look up to from the past?" Trump's cogent, well-thought-out response:

Well, I don't like heroes, I don't like the concept of heroes, the concept of heroes is never great, but certainly you can respect certain people and certainly there are certain people — but I've learnt a lot from my father — my father was a builder in Brooklyn and Queens — he did houses and housing and I learnt a lot about negotiation from my father — although I also think negotiation is a natural trait, I don't think you can, you either have it or you don't, you get better at it but basically, the people that I know who are great negotiators or great salesmen or great politicians, it's very natural, very natural . . . I got a letter from somebody, their congressman, they said what you've done is amazing because you were never a politician and you beat all the politicians. He said they added it up — when I was three months into the campaign, they added it up — I had three months of experience and the 17 guys I was running against, the Republicans, had 236 years – ya know when you add 20 years and 30 years — so I was three months they were 236 years — so it's sort of a funny article but I believe it's like hitting a baseball or being a good golfer — natural ability, to me, is much more important to me than experience and experience is a great thing — I think it's a great thing — but I learnt a lot from my father in terms of leadership.

Talk about sloppy thinking. In all that random collection of verbal flotsam and jetsam, the only two people he mentions are himself -- a lot -- and his father. Charlie says:

The guy is talking about his "natural ability" as a president as though it's something you can tell in advance and as though it's tantamount to being able to hit a sand wedge. You can almost hear the spark gaps sizzling in his brain as he formulates the answer.

It brings to mind a Trump interview by George Stephanopoulos, who asked Trump to respond to Gold Star father Khizr Khan, who claimed that Trump had made no sacrifices. Trump said:

"I think I've made a lot of sacrifices. I work very, very hard. I've created thousands and thousands of jobs, tens of thousands of jobs, built great structures. I've had tremendous success. I think I've done a lot."

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: The man's an idiot.

Click here for another article, this one by Chris Cillizza in The Washington Post, entitled "Donald Trump was asked to name one of his heroes. His answer was very, very strange." Cillizza takes three things from Trump's response:

Number one is that his tendency to just talk when asked something is very much on display here. This is a stream of consciousness answer for the ages. Trump goes from heroes to winning the Republican primary within seconds. Then to baseball and golf and then to his dad. It may make more sense to watch than to read. But it makes no sense to read.

Second, Trump is just not introspective. A question about heroes by its very nature necessitates some level of introspection from the person to whom it is asked. What makes a hero? What are the traits you most admire in a person? Who are the sorts of people that you model yourself after? Trump simply doesn't open up. Ever. He is constantly moving forward. He doesn't look back. He doesn't second guess. He assumes he has always done the right thing. In a way, it's a remarkable personality trait and one that as someone who constantly second guesses himself, I sort of admire. The point is that Trump doesn't engage in navel-gazing in public — and, my guess is, in private either.

Third, Trump views himself as totally sui generis. He owes no one for his successes. He models himself after no one. There is no blueprint for Donald Trump except the one he writes for himself. Viewed through that lens, Trump's odd transition from a dismissal of heroes to a discussion of how he beat so many candidates in the Republican primary actually makes sense. The truth is Trump views himself as a prime mover of history, someone who makes new paths rather than following old ones. What Trump was really saying then was that he doesn't believe in heroes only singular men in history — of which he considers himself one. He believes they only made one Donald Trump and then broke the mold.

The way in which Trump reveals his true nature is often when he is seemingly just talking to talk. The assumptions he makes — or refuses to make — speak to a worldview at which he, alone, sits at the center.