Donald Trump is not a competitor. To be a competitor one accepts the rules of the contest, competes fairly, and is prepared to accept defeat. Trump does none of these. The greatest insult he can hurl at someone is "loser."
In the Trumpverse there are only winners and losers, and he is the champion winner. Winning must be accomplished at any cost. Fairness isn't in Trump's lexicon. It's a word that losers use. True winners fight, cheat, gouge, and bite. Winning is all that matters. For a natural-born winner losing is impossible.
Consider a few statements from his CPAC appearance:*
"No president has ever lost an election after carrying Florida, Ohio, and Iowa. And I won them all. . . . I won 94% of the primary vote, no incumbent president who received more than 75% of the primary vote has ever lost an election.
"So how the hell is it possible that we lost? It’s not possible. I got more votes. I got more, which is me, when I say I, I’m talking about we. We, we got more votes than . . . any incumbent president in the history of our country."
Setting aside the question of veracity, Trump here turns to meaningless historical coincidence to explain away his loss, because in his mind losing is simply impossible. He can't accept that more people voted for someone else than for him.
He attacks the electoral process itself and lays into the Supreme Court; he even blames COVID-19:
"They [Democrats] used COVID as a way of cheating. That’s what happened, and
everybody knows it. Hundreds of thousands and millions of ballots, . . .
"I mean, it’s being studied, and the level of dishonesty is not to be believed. We have a very sick and corrupt electoral process that must be fixed immediately. This election was rigged, and the Supreme Court and other courts didn’t want to do anything about it.
"They didn’t have the courage, the Supreme Court. They didn’t have the courage to act, but instead, used process and lack of standing. I was told the President of the United States has no standing. It’s my election. It’s your election. We have no standing. . . . They didn’t have the guts or the courage to make the right decision."
Trump's inventiveness in slinging blame is astounding. Who else would blame a virus? But he must cast blame, because he can never lose.
He goes on to set out what must be done to ensure a "fair" election, i.e. one in which people who oppose him would face barriers to voting:
"We must have voter ID, voter ID. . . . We need universal signature matching. . . . There should be a 100% requirement to verify the citizenship of every
person who votes, and there must be a chain of custody protections for
every ballot, every ballot.
"We need one election day, not 45, 30, one day like it’s been. . . . One day, one day, and the only people that should be allowed to vote by mail are people that can be proven to be either very sick, or out of the country, or military where they can’t do it. One day.
Trump's lack of understanding of the Constitution shows in these statements. Determinations on the method of voting are are the purview of the states.
Trump's ultimate goal is the remolding of the United States of America into his ideal state, which I've been calling Trumptopia. He sees himself as a potentate ruling over a state devoid of minorities, and closed to immigration:
"It’s insane within his first few hours Biden eliminated our national
security travel bans on nations plagued by terrorism. His first
priority was to open our borders to un-vetted travelers from Libya,
Yemen, Syria, Somalia, and many other countries where strict vetting
cannot occur.
"Biden’s radical immigration policies aren’t just illegal. They’re
immoral. They’re heartless. And they are a betrayal of our nation’s core
values. It’s a terrible thing that’s happening.
"The Biden policy of releasing criminals into the US interior is making America into a sanctuary nation where criminals, illegal immigrants, including gang members and sex offenders are set free into American communities.
"The Biden people are pushing a bill that would grant mass amnesty for millions of illegal aliens while massively expanding chain migration."
Trump's rabid xenophobia paints all foreigners as criminals bent on raping, looting, and destroying America. They seem to be waiting by the millions just on the other side of international borders or in the arrival lounges of airports from where they will pounce on us.
Let's parse just one of the above paragraphs:
"Biden’s radical {?} immigration policies aren’t just illegal. They’re
immoral. {How are the policies radical, illegal and immoral? What laws do they violate? What moral code do they insult?} They’re heartless. {Is he now expressing sympathy for the migrants?} And they are a betrayal of our nation’s core
values. {Which values? America has always been a refuge for anyone seeking a better life--e.g. Trump's draft-dodging grandfather Friedrich, who immigrated in 1885}. It’s a terrible thing that’s happening." {Note the negative reinforcing language and innuendo.}
Watch and listen. It's painful, but all Americans should be listening to Trump's pronouncements, noting his lies and calling him out. He's no longer news, so the major networks won't be covering him so much. But his cult army is still out there and we need to pay attention to what they're hearing.
To be continued.
--- Diogenes, 3/6/2010
*These quotes are taken directly from the published transcript. I have edited them for length and cleaned up a few typos.