When Presidential Petulance Becomes Vindictive

Last fall during the throes of the 2024 Presidential Election, citizen Trump posted this announcement on Truth Social: “I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!”

No doubt her avid fans and supporters became concerned — and for good reason. Anyone Trump purports to “hate” becomes a MAGA target. As soon as he shares the name of his enemy du jour his diehard followers spring into action. His emotional support trolls unleash a torrent of lies, smears, and threats of violence on social media. Even if their threats don’t turn violent, such stinging animosity still inflicts an emotional toll on their victim. (Be strong, Taylor. And if that means being more cautious and hiring extra security, please do it.)

Unfortunately, these online threats of violence can — and often do — turn into scary real life episodes. These haters might engage in nonstop harassment over the phone or online. They also might physically block Trump’s victim in the workplace or residence. Of course, The Donald never actually tells his pertinacious minions to do any of these things. He never exactly specifies what he wants them to do to his enemies. He just knows his uber loyalists will alway do his bidding.

Why?

Their abject allegiance remains a mystery for most normal, healthy, functioning people because Donald J. Trump is NOT a normal human being. There’s something terribly, terribly wrong with him. But because he has a lot of money(or claims to have, anyway) he’s become a hero to a lot of voters with lower incomes. Go figure. And yet, there’s nothing very heroic about him.

There’s no real strength of character or moral compass in his sociopathic bone structure. He’s a self-absorbed, self-serving liar who has no concept of the public service his job demands of him. He’s just a vindictive incompetent from the playground of lost fools.

In TrumpWorld, you’re either for him or against him. Period. If you don’t vote for him or applaud whatever he says or does, you’re his enemy. Then he springs into action. He feels justified in wielding all kinds of lies and aspersions against you. He knows his unbridled disdain will incite the antagonism — even the wrath — of his loyal cult. Once he expresses his contempt for someone — be it E. Jean Carroll or Senator Elizabeth Warren or Taylor Swift — he knows he’s inciting and inviting havoc.

Remember, he doesn’t have to tell his MAGA crowd what to do because he knows that merely sounding his displeasure is a dog whistle for their biased ears.

He’s like some mad king who believes the only way he can keep his throne is by silencing those subjects he doesn’t like…and he doesn’t like anyone who disagrees with anything he says or does. And yet, he’s so insecure that he must continually check in to see if his followers still revere him.

That’s the real reason he showed up in person at Super Bowl 59 in New Orleans that Sunday. Remember all the glowing media coverage about how Trump was the very first sitting President to attend the Super Bowl? Ha! He didn’t come because of his love for the game. He arrived there to check how his MAGA crowd would react — not just to him, but to his enemy Taylor Swift.

She was attending the Super Bowl to support her boyfriend Travis Kelce, a star player for the Kansas City Chiefs. When the Jumbotron showed her(and friends) in the audience, boos erupted from the crowd. You could see by her reaction that it caught her off guard. You could also see that she laughed and shrugged it off.

After all, the Chiefs were playing the Eagles, and a lot of Eagles fans who were getting revved up for their team saw her as a symbolic cheerleader for the rival team. So they booed when they saw her. It wasn’t so much that they hated her but that they were against any reminder or association of the Chiefs — their enemy du jour on game day.

Needless to say, Trump didn’t see it that way.

Almost immediately after the booing, he posted this announcement on Truth Social: “The only one that had a tougher night than the Kansas City Chiefs was Taylor Swift. She got BOOED out of the stadium. MAGA is very unforgiving!”

So in his mind, the booing had nothing to do with football fan frenzy and everything to do with insulting and intimidating Taylor Swift — for HIM. Because, narcissist that he is, he believes everything is about HIM and for HIM. So he interpreted the incident as such.

Notice he didn’t mention in his posting that Taylor Swift smiled and shrugged off the booing. She also stayed in the stadium and didn’t get “BOOED out of the Stadium.” Trump conspicuously ignored the reality that most of these boos were probably coming from Eagles fans, not from his MAGA cult. So what did MAGA really have to forgive, anyway?

In this case, Taylor Swift’s only sin was to exercise her rights as an American citizen. She publicly endorsed Democratic Veep Kamala Harris in the 2024 Presidential election — NOT Republican ex-President Donald Trump. Although her support included a donation to the Harris campaign, she respectfully urged the Swifties (along with other young voters) to vote in the upcoming election without insisting they vote for Harris…or anyone else.

No wonder her actions sent Trump into such a vindictive tizzy! She completely ignored HIM!

As President of The United States, however, he’s supposed to act in the best interest of all Americans — not just reward his supporters or punish others who exercise their freedom by not voting for him.

Apparently, Trump never got that Constitutional memo.

I hate to bring this up, dear readers, but now we have a U.S. President who is dumber than Batman’s villains. The Joker would be a more efficient President. The Riddler would be a better organized President. Either one of them (GASP!) would do a better job than what The Donald is currently doing in The Oval Office.

As for Trump’s character, I can only paraphrase this quip from Theodore Roosevelt: “I could carve a better man out of a banana.”

By the way, whatever happened to Trump’s campaign promise “On day one” to lower the cost of things like bananas or eggs so Americans could actually afford “food on the table?”