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Narrativity or Story
Trump and Trump-World
We ask initially, why might it seem as if divinity, which implants in the human the desire for the divine or God, is not readily discernable in relation to Trump and Trump-world on narrativity or story?
Trumpâs narrative is informed by a dark vision. That vision presents images of caravans of immigrants invading the country, of Americaâs streets filled with MS-13 gang members, of police officers being gunned down, of Islamic radicals entering our nation, of other countries that have been ripping us off for years, and of federal regulations that have been inhibiting our economic growth. The narrative, putting forth âa right-wing, nativist, protectionist, anti-immigration populism,â is a story giving expression to a politics of fear. As Trump famously responded to Bob Woodwardâs question, âWhat is power?â: âReal power,â he said, âis fear.â For Trump, real power gives rise to fear.
At a deeper level, though, Trumpâs story is all about Trump. He himself proudly proclaims, âThere is nobody in the world who is a better self-promoter than Donald Trump.â Bringing coherence to Trumpâs narrative and offering a quick explanation as to why our democracy stands in peril is a simple fact pointed out by Seth Abramson, which is âthat this presidency is not an American presidency but a Trump presidency: a course of ill governance that is for Trump, about Trump, and inextricably tethered to the interests of Trump.â
To understand Trumpâs story, Craig Unger contends that it needs to include an account of his long relationship with the Russian Mafia and the assistance he received from a Russian intelligence operation to make it into the White House. I too think Trumpâs connection to Russia is an important part of his story, and in the pages ahead, we will make some queries into that part of the story. Robert Muellerâs âReport on the Russian Interference in the 2016 Presidential Election,â according to Attorney General William Barrâs four-page letter detailing its main findings, stated that the âinvestigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.â While the investigation did not establish such conspiracy or coordination to meet Muellerâs standard, there is room for further inquiry into this issue, and in the coming months intense scrutiny into the matter will likely continue in order to shed more light on this aspect of the Trump story.
We will see that Kierkegaard utilized pseudonyms or pen names in telling his narrative. In communicating his story, Donald also has not hesitated to make use of pseudonyms, which for him are false names. In his case, though, the primary purpose in doing so has been to protect his anonymity. In the 1980s and 1990s, Trump would use different names in calling in to the media and representing himself as a spokesperson for the Trump organization. This was focused on the media outlets of New York City. Favorite pseudonyms in that setting were âJohn Barronâ (or âJohn Baronâ) and âJohn Miller.â Itâs interesting that Donald gave his favorite name of Barron to his youngest son who was born in 2006. More recently, in legal documents, especially non-disclosure agreements with various women, Trumpâs frequently-used name was âDavid Dennison.â Kierkegaardâs relation to pseudonyms was of quite a different nature.
Trumpâs favorite platform for communicating his narrative is Twitter. He prefers that direct way of delivering his story to his followers, without any censoring. He believes heâs great at it. When Twitter extended the length of a tweet from 140 to 280 characters, Donald was sad, as he put it, âbecause I was the Ernest Hemingway of 140 characters.â These tweets cover a broad range of topics, but they have a coherence to them: they serve the single purpose of lifting up Donald J. Trump before the public.
In telling his story to promote himself, he finds helpful âtruthful hyperbole,â as he explains in his The Art of the Deal:
Many rightly contend that Trumpâs truthful hyperbole is not always so truthful.
In fact, in Trumpâs telling of his narrative, that usually involves not telling the truth. Donald lies. As Seth Abramson clearly declares: âNever has a presidential campaign birthed so many lies from so many different mouths: lies of indifference, lies of carelessness, lies of callousness, lies of pique [resentment], lies of strategic advantage, lies of ignorance, lies of malicious intent, lies of ulterior motive.â He normalizes lying, and when the press criticizes him, he charges them with setting forth âfake newsâ and functioning as âthe enemy of the people.â In the fall of 2018, he even removed the âhard passâ press credential of CNNâs chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta, accusing Acosta of being a âgrandstanderâ and âbad for the countryâ: this action was met with legal action by CNN, backed by CBS News and other outlets including, somewhat surprisingly, Fox News, and fortunately Acostaâs journalistic privileges were restored after a federal judge ruled in his favor.
The press that Trump constantly runs down has always mattered deeply to him; daughter Ivanka witnessed growing up how her father âlit up or blew up depending on how the press depicted him.â For Donald, a free press is âfake news,â unless it is Fox. Fox News does sponsor a steady flow of what Kellyanne Conway dubbed âalternative factsâ as core viewers have their prejudices ratified by âa news network that distorts, misrepresents, and oftentimes outright ignores the countryâs most exciting domestic news story.â Michael Hayden, former Director of the National Security Council and CIA, thinks we are in âuncharted watersâ in our Republic, where weâre not arguing âover the values to be applied to objective reality, or occasionally over what constituted objective reality,â but rather over the very âexistence or the relevance of objective reality itself.â
The narrative of Trump is tied intimately to the story of Trumpâs close relation to the Fox News operation. Sean Hannity, who admits he is not a journalist but rather a talk show host, Ann Coulter, and Tucker Carlson have done much to promote Trumpâs message. Because of that, they possess much power over him. This became blatantly apparent when Trump did an about-face on the issue of closing down the government at the end of 2018, when these media icons along with Rush Limbaugh harshly criticized him for not demanding that money for buildi...