All Is Vanity: Trump 2020

trump-cardboard-cutout
As promised: A photo with Trump!

W.J. Astore

The Bible tells us that all is vanity, and that’s most certainly true of the Trump campaign and its search for donors.  A friend of mine sent me the following come-on from Trump/Pence 2020:

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“I’ll admit I’m disappointed [that you haven’t contributed as yet], but I know you have it in you to be one of my STRONGEST supporters, which is why I’m reaching out with a one-time offer in the hope that you’ll join me in making history.

When you make your FIRST contribution of ANY AMOUNT, you’ll instantly join the ranks in the Trump Donor Hall of Fame. This prestigious group will be remembered forever as the Patriots who won us the 2020 Election, and I’m offering YOU a spot.
The Trump Donor Hall of Fame is very competitive and your offer is only available for the NEXT HOUR. After that, I’ll be forced to reach out to the next Patriot. Please make your FIRST contribution of ANY AMOUNT IMMEDIATELY and you’ll automatically get your name cemented in the Trump Donor Hall of Fame.”

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Now, tell me, dear reader, who could refuse such an offer?  A chance to be enshrined (or “cemented”) in the “Trump Donor Hall of Fame.”  And all you need to contribute is a dollar — or even a penny!  Not only that, but you’ll gain personal recognition from one Donald J. Trump.  According to the ad:

“I’ll be walking through the Hall of Fame later today and I’ll be looking for your name. Make sure I see it.”

Donald Trump — walking?  Well, it’s nice to see him getting some exercise.

This come-on reminds me of Trump University, where you were guaranteed to meet Trump and get a photo with him.  Turns out that guarantee was bogus (like most of Trump’s presidency, and his businesses for that matter), but some people did get a photo with a cardboard cutout of Trump.

Trump has a keen sense of human vanity, powered as it is by his own bottomless vanity and venality.  But will it be enough to get him reelected?  (Along with the usual fear-mongering, race-baiting, flag-waving, and the like?)  Stay tuned.

16 thoughts on “All Is Vanity: Trump 2020”

  1. “But will it be enough to get him reelected? (Along with the usual fear-mongering, race-baiting, flag-waving, and the like?)” There’s a good chance the answer is “yes”… assisted by the way the Dems picked probably the only person in the primaries who could possibly lose against Trump. Again.

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    1. If Trump succeeds in retaining the presidency, by hook or by CROOK, it will be interesting to see if the Hollywood celebrities who “threatened” to move to Canada last time keep their words this time. If I had the funds, I’d’ve been an ex-pat by now. Sigh.

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      1. I still remember hearing people talking about moving to Canada if Trump won, apparently in blissful ignorance of how hard that is to do legally without a pretty substantial sum of money. I have a friend (Canadian citizen since the 90s) who has been doing what he can to bring his sister, father and mother over and it’s taken a lot of work. As did the work my wife’s church did bringing some refugee families here from Syria a little while ago. It’s a nice country to live in, but not easy to get into for the average person.

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        1. Yeah, Canada has its share of conservative politicians. It took a lot of effort to persuade their gov’t to be fairly open to US citizens fleeing the Vietnam situation. It was not all “Come on up and let us shower you with love.”

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  2. A friend of mine keeps receiving text messages urging his support for The Donald. One of these days I hope my pal figures out how to block numbers from his smartphone! This foolish campaign reeks of sheer desperation on Team Trump’s part. We must take all opinion polls with multiple licks of salt, but DJT is clearly bothered by Biden’s lead. I believe that lead has shrunk back to single digits from about 10% (I don’t follow this foolishness from day to day). I also understand that the Trump campaign is now playing up the Great Man’s crusade to crush the “violent anarchists” trying to rule the streets of Portland, OR. There’s no frickin’ way anyone can call this election this far in advance. Indeed, 2016 was being called for you know who right up until she discovered she’d lost via the Electoral College.

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  3. It’s rather amazing, and yet predictable, that Trump is essentially running a mass personality cult, appealing to the vanity of his followers in a “competition” for inclusion in his “Hall of Fame.”

    He has no platform for 2020; no ideas for the future. It’s all slogans, smoke, and mirrors … and walls, and towers, and statues … and violence. (See Portland, Oregon.)

    I know: Obama ran on hope, change, imagery, and so forth. But there was some substance there. Trump is an empty shell. Though appearing shiny to some, he’s nothing but a hollow icon of vanity and villainy.

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    1. We’ve known of Trump’s vanity all along, and his soullessness (if an avowed atheist may be allowed to comment on such a thing). The real problem of the moment is that, on the advice of Sean Hannity I’m guessing, and Steve Miller, and maybe Bannon secretly back in the camp…Trump has “evolved” into a Fascist demagogue who would have no issue with declaring national Martial Law. I say this without hesitation, and without fear of being written off as paranoid or hysterical. Let’s bear in mind that democratic elements in Weimar Germany tended to laugh Hitler off as a bad joke early on. Trump is very, very bad but must not be dismissed as a mere joke.

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        1. Obviously no need for such sophisticated hardware! They never heard of drones and helicopters?? It’s like Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant,” I guess, where the small town PD breaks out all their fancy cop gear to deal with Arlo’s (alleged!) littering!

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    1. But, but Denise! You have to act within one hour of receiving the funds appeal!! Time is of the essence, the anti-Christ Democrats are trying to take back the White House and the US Senate!!

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      1. Point taken!

        I would assume, however, that the Orange Moron may make some provision for those of his older supporters who prefer snail mail. In that case, perhaps he would allow a week to respond, while the equally reality-challenged internet users take the front line in fending off the anti-Christ Dems.

        As it happens, I used to get appeals from the Dems couched in almost the same language you use. I took to responding to their claims point by point, calling them out for their cowardice and hypocrisy, then returning the appeal letters sans funds. I don’t get those letters anymore.

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        1. Not long after I posted my previous comment, what do you suppose was being reported? The Trump Campaign is implying to “Evangelicals” that a Pres. Biden would mean “the end of religion in America”!!! One simply cannot make such stuff up, as the strangeness of truth surpassed that of fiction pretty early in this presidency!!

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  5. gee, i wish i’d applied to trump university! tho’ i suspect i’d have been rejected as a misfit w/ too low an IQ. after all, its owner/founder, in his own words, declared w/ dead-serious sanctimony: “i am the world’s most stable genius”…. eek! …and don’t forget to open your wallets, if not your bank accounts, to allow the ‘world’s most stable genius’ to help himself to your centimos so he can carry on expanding his empire, and when it fails, declaring bankruptcy…… failed state, failed university, failed casinos, failed resorts, failed golf courses, failed fashion flops, failed test scores [despite paying brainiacs to sit his exams and entrance tests for him]… no matter; the orange moron WINS AGAIN! [tnx for the risible epithet, denise donaldson; all your sobriquets for dumpy-trumpy have been as funny as they are fitting]. jeanie mceachern.

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    1. Thank you! I usually try to avoid mentioning his name. If one believes in the Law of Attraction, the more CheetoHead’s name is put out there, even in a negative context, the more of him we’ll get.

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    2. Yes, a “failed state” indeed, is good ol’ USA. GOP now squabbling internally over a “relief” package, fighting over which big business sponsors of their party will get the sweetest perks no doubt. A trillion dollars a year fed to the Pentagon Pig, perfectly okay with the Dems. Virus cases spreading out of control. Police state rehearsals in Portland. Gil Scott-Heron (R.I.P.) once sang “And nobody’s fighting/’Cuz nobody knows what to save…” Thank goodness there’s SOME fightback spirit on display!!

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