The REAL Donald Trump – A Fascinating Interview of the Man from 1990

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In 1990, Donald Trump conducted a lengthy interview with Playboy Magazine. It provides an absolutely fascinating window into the man’s mind, which I suggest everyone read in full. Unexpectedly, I came away with a more informed and nuanced perspective on the man. While it didn’t change my opinion of him as President, I do have a much greater appreciation for Donald Trump as a person, specifically how his mind works and what drives him.

I originally came across this interview after seeing a tweet referencing a 25 year old interview during which Trump expressed admiration for how strongly Chinese authorities cracked down on dissent in Tiananmen Square in 1989. I immediately thought to myself that this would be the perfect fodder to further elucidate the kind of cold, brutal, authoritarian leader Trump undoubtably would be as President.

While that particular quote didn’t disappoint, I decided to read further and came away with many additional observations. I think these observations are worth sharing since I think there’s a very real chance Trump will be elected President within the next ten years. His chances ride on the fact that the current system is terminally corrupt, as well as socially and economically bankrupt. It will crash and burn, whether in slow motion like the past eight years, or very rapidly over the next several. Someone will likely step in to fill this void, and Trump has the personality type and understanding of human nature to possibly propel himself into the position when the timing is right. Is the time right in 2016? Probably not, but a President Trump is far more likely to occur in our lifetimes than many of us want to admit.

So with that out of the way, let me share some of the things I learned from the interview. First, I think Trump is far less materialistic than people presume, which sounds like a contradiction considering he is unquestionably one of the biggest showoffs on planet earth. While this is true, the motivation behind his ostentatious public persona is primarily to further his brand. As he says repeatedly in the interview, it’s all a show. In other words, he claims it’s pure marketing and I believe him.

What motivates Trump isn’t the collection of material things, rather, it’s a constant need to stroke his enormous ego and stoke his narcissism. Life is merely a giant game for Trump. A game in which the winners collect lots of fame and money, and the losers don’t. He doesn’t simply want to win this game, coming out on top is his entire life’s purpose. The idea of not winning isn’t even an option.

So with this in mind, is the Presidency just the ultimate prize for Trump? Does he want it simply because it is one of the few “wins” he has yet to collect? I think so. Deep down, I think Trump can’t truly envision himself as life’s ultimate winner without the Presidency. This is not to say I think Trump isn’t genuine when he says America is going down the toilet. Indeed, he was hitting on many of the exact same themes back in 1990. In fact, it gives you the impression that Trump has thought America was lacking his entire life, precisely because Trump had yet to be named the country’s CEO.

Trump believes in winning, and he thinks he and America are one in the same. In that sense, I genuinely believe that as President he would do what he thinks is best for America. In that sense, he’s not the typical detached, corrupt, greedy, globalist U.S. President we’ve become so accustomed to. This is precisely what his supporters are picking up on and why they love him.

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The Dissident Dad – “Death”

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“Bodie is getting dead.”

Those were the words out of my 4-year-old’s mouth as the vet was on her way to our house to put down our 15-year-old German Shepard.

While this event was traumatic enough, within 12 hours, my children came face to face with yet another death.  We noticed buzzards circling in the backyard, and when the kids went to see what had happened, the only thing left was a cat’s tail. 10-month-old kitten Queen Elsa was dead.

Due to these two events, the last 24 hours has been a pretty sad period over at the Ameduri home, with the topic of death front and center. As far as the dog, the kids asked a dozen times why we didn’t just let Bodie pass — why did the vet have to give him a shot? We explained that it was the humane thing to do, and that by doing so we helped our dog avoid the pain of not being able to walk, use the restroom, and potentially even starvation due to a loss of appetite.

It’s funny, I’ve never given much thought about the right to death debate, but as I was explaining why it was humane to kill our dog, I couldn’t help but think about why it wouldn’t be just as humane to allow a person to do the same if they so desired. While I’m not going to open up that can of worms, I started to appreciate the notion that individuals should have the freedom to chose how they want to end their own lives.

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Liberty Links 1/22/16

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Below are links to some of the more interesting and important reads I came across today, but will not be publishing on in detail.

Saudi Arabia’s Top Cleric Forbids Chess, Calls it “The Work of Satan” (New York Times)

Half the Foreign Policy Experts Signing Clinton’s Anti-Sanders Letter Have Ties to Military Contractors (The Intercept)

FBI Ran website Sharing Thousands of Child Porn Images (USA Today)

FBI May Have Hacked Innocent TorMail Users (Motherboard)

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Mitch McConnell Moves to Grant the President Unlimited War Powers with No Expiration Date

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The essential act of war is destruction, not necessarily of human lives, but of the products of human labour. War is a way of shattering to pieces, or pouring into the stratosphere, or sinking in the depths of the sea, materials which might otherwise be used to make the masses too comfortable, and hence, in the long run, too intelligent.

– From George Orwell’s, 1984

This morning, I came across an extremely important story with tremendous long-term negative implications for freedom in these United States. It relates to the fact that the always shady Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is moving to fast track an Authorization of Military Force (AUMF) for the President that would allow for unrestricted warfare against ISIS. There would be no time or geographic restrictions on this authorization. Rather than being a favor to President Obama, this is primarily a means to ensure that whoever takes control in 2017 receives a blank check for unrestrained militarism with no expiration date. This is terrifying.

Before I get into the issue at hand, some background is necessary. Many legal scholars, and indeed, even many members of Congress have admitted that Obama’s war against ISIS is illegal and unconstitutional. One of the best articles I’ve read on why this is the case, was published in the New York Times in 2014, which I covered in the post, Obama’s ISIS War is Not Only Illegal, it Makes George W. Bush Look Like a Constitutional Scholar. Here are a few excerpts:

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Liberty Links 1/21/16

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Below are links to some of the more interesting and important reads I came across today, but will not be publishing on in detail.

Mozilla Co-Founder Unveils “Brave,” a Browser that Blocks Ads by Default (ArsTechnica)

A New 9th Planet for he Solar System? (Looks like Planet X may be real, Science Magazine)

DEA and TSA Agents Team Up to Steal Citizen Cash (Reason)

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Billionaire CEO of Blackstone Trolls the American Public – He Doesn’t Get Why People Are Angry

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DAVOS MAN: “A soulless man, technocratic, nationless and cultureless, severed from reality. The modern economics that undergirded Davos capitalism is equally soulless, a managerial capitalism that reduces economics to mathematics and separates it from human action and human creativity.” 

– From the post: “For the Sake of Capitalism, Pepper Spray Davos”

I’ve written several posts examining the dangerous cluelessness inherent throughout the ranks of the oligarch class over the past several years. One of my earliest and most viral pieces was published two years ago and titled, An Open Letter to Sam Zell: Why Your Statements are Delusional and Dangerous. That article was a response to the billionaire’s appearance on Bloomberg during which he instructed the less financially fortunate to “emulate the 1%,” as if their destitution was a result of personal shortcomings as opposed to egregious structural flaws inherent in the rigged, crony, oligarch-controlled Banana Republic economy billionaires such as himself helped mold. Here’s an excerpt:

Individuals, social classes, even cultures and nation-states develop storylines and so-called “myths” about themselves and how they fit into the bigger picture of current events and human history. We all see ourselves and whatever group(s) with which we identify within a particular social, political and economic context. This is obvious, yet it is much more difficult to look at your owns myths and question them. It is far easier to look at other groups’ myths and heap criticism on them. That is basically all you do.

You think everyone that has issues with you oligarchs and how the 0.01% is destroying our economy and society is simply envious because you assume they think like you do. Certainly, if you were poor you would be envious of the the rich. You’ve made that clear. However, that is not the primary motivation of the anger and resentment swelling up from the underclasses.

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Liberty Links 1/20/16

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Below are links to some of the more interesting and important reads I came across today, but will not be publishing on in detail.

With Gridlock in Washington, Lobbyists Turn to Statehouses (Beware of parasites at the local level, Wall Street Journal)

Amid Election-Season Criticism Of Big Business, US CEOs Worried About Declining Trust In Business (International Business Times)

The US Military Wants a Chip to Translate Your Brain Activity Into Binary Code (Gizmodo)

Bay Area Biologist’s Gene-editing Kit Lets Do-it-Yourselfers Play God at the Kitchen Table (Introducing Biohacking, San Jose Mercury News)

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Not a Joke – War Criminal Hillary Clinton is Now Running on Her Foreign Policy “Strengths”

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When it comes to watching the Hillary Clinton campaign, you need to be prepared for increasingly suicidal and irrational acts of desperation. While the most pathetic of all her shameless acts was saying she is sponsored by Wall Street as a result of the terror attacks on 9/11, the hits just keep on coming.

In her latest scheme, the Clinton campaign released a letter signed by former national security officials warning the American public that Bernie Sanders isn’t ready to be Commander in Chief (i.e., he will not sufficiently defend the status quo). While obviously absurd to any thinking person, most Hillary Clinton supporters are not thinking people.

Moreover, her move brings up a key point that I mentioned repeatedly on Twitter during Sunday night’s debate, which is that Sanders wasn’t hitting Clinton hard enough on her unabashed militarism and string of debacles while Secretary of State. Foreign policy is an issue on which she is as vulnerable as she is on Wall Street, yet Sanders either doesn’t get it, or isn’t using it for some reason.

A perfect example of her foreign policy incompetence was support for the overthrow of Qaddafi in Libya, as well as a related interview in which she brags about killing him by saying: “We Came, We Saw, He Died.” Meanwhile, Libya has become a humanitarian disaster, a failed state, and a haven for ISIS. For example, take these excerpts from the post, Revisiting the Incredible Disaster That Is Libya:

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Yanis Varoufakis Reveals – Berlin Blocked Greece From Chinese Funding During Crisis

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Hundreds of millions of people throughout the Western world are being forced to admit an obvious, yet uncomfortable reality. Democracy is dead. Your vote and your voice doesn’t matter. Not at all.

No group of people understand this as intimately as the Greeks. They voted for one thing, got something else, and in the process were unceremoniously reminded of their political irrelevance.

– From the post: Greeks Flock to Grassroots Alternative Currencies in Affront to Euro Debt Slavery

Just in case you still had any doubts as relates to how slimy, nefarious and undemocratic the EU is, check out the following from Ekathimerini:

Yanis Varoufakis was instructed last year by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to put together a small team of people to draw up a plan for introducing a parallel currency if Greece was unable to reach an agreement with its lenders on a new bailout, the ex-finance minister said in a TV interview late Tuesday.

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Video of the Day – Sarah Palin’s Rambling, Bizarre and Incoherent Endorsement of Donald Trump

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Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump. Like watching a train wreck.

Enjoy.

Reason’s Peter Suderman sums up the spectacle perfectly:

Sarah Palin summed up Donald Trump supporters better than any of us have been able to do so far, I’ll give her that.

In part this is because making sense isn’t really Palin’s style. But it’s also because there is no coherent defense of Donald Trump’s candidacy. His own argument is little more than a simple boast that he will make the country great, like it used to be, followed by a series of insults and a discussion of his poll numbers.

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