LISTENER SEPTEMBER 7 2019virtually any other position of responsibility, action would already
be under way to remove him from that role”. The exceptions, he
added, were “a purely family-run business, like the firm in which
Trump spent his entire previous career” – and the presidency.
We are forced to hope that Trump overstated his political strength
when he claimed he could “stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue
and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose any voters”, but it does
appear that nothing he says, no matter how ludicrous, offensive
or reckless, gives his base pause for thought.
Arguably, his worst recent utterance was the casual suggestion
that former president Bill Clinton and wife Hillary, a former first
lady, secretary of state and presidential candidate, were behind the
death in custody of paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein (the medical
examiner determined that Epstein committed suicide).
Trump’s tweet referenced a long-standing alt-right conspiracy that
the Clintons have bumped off a bunch of people who stood in the
way of their ascent from Little Rock, Arkansas, to the White House.
Strangely enough, none of the women who actually threatened to
bring Bill Clinton down – Gennifer Flowers, Paula Jones, Monica
Lewinsky and Kathleen Willey, among others – seems to have been
targeted by the Clintons’ hitmen.
There was also the unsubtle implication that Bill Clinton, who
palled around with Epstein, had reason to fear what would have
emerged if the case had gone to trial. But if you’re going to play that
game, the same could apply to Trump, who
also palled around with Epstein. In 2002, he
told New York magazine that Epstein was
“a terrific guy, a lot of fun to be with. It is
even said that he likes beautiful women as
much as I do, and many of them are on the
younger side.”
The point here is that the furore generated
by Trump’s vile and baseless smear lasted
only a few days before it was overtaken by
fresh lunacy or outrage. Frum again: “If any other president had
done such a thing, it would have convulsed the United States andGEthe world.” For this president, it’s business as usual.
TT
Y^ I
MA
GE
S
ESSAY
DIFFERENT STANDARDS
That is one of the difficulties facing the
20-odd Democrats seeking their party’s
nomination: they are held to completely
different – and much higher – standards
than Trump. As the New York Times’ Frank
Bruni put it, “The truth is that any given
week – maybe even any day – of the Trump
presidency contains enough gaffes, crass-
ness and fiction to sink any of the Democratic candidates. And
those candidates suffer for their worst moments in a way he doesn’t
for much worse ones ... Whether by design or lucky accident, he
has given himself a singular armour, a special inoculation, which
is that no one expects more from him.”
But that’s only half the story. The other half is that a lot of Ameri-
cans – perhaps significantly more than are prepared to admit as
much to pollsters – aren’t offended by Trump’s behaviour. Indeed,
it appeals to them enormously because it validates their views,
behaviour, lifestyle and notion of what it means to be an American.
“Ronald Reagan once took working-class votes away from the
Democrats by offering permission to be proud of the flag,” wrote
Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone. “Trump offers permission to occupy the
statistical American mean: out of shape, suffering from gas, poorly
read, anti-intellectual, treasuring things above meaning and hiding
an awful credit history.”
These are Hillary Clinton’s “deplorables”. A liberal ver-
sion of Trump would have called them “assholes”. And,
as I wrote in another publication when Trump was seek-
ing the Republican nomination, they’re thick on the
American ground: “Even if the asshole ratio is much the
same as in other countries – and it’s fair to say the global
consensus is that America, being the spiritual home of the
asshole, has a higher ratio than anywhere else – that’s an
awful lot of assholes. Trump is the candidate the assholesA lot of Americans –
perhaps significantly
more than are preparedto admit as much to
pollsters – aren’t offended
by Trump’s behaviour.Conspiracy:
Bill and Hillary
Clinton; below,
Jeffrey Epstein.Targets: from
left, Jerome
Powell, Joe Biden
and Democratic
presidential
hopefuls at a
primary debate.