Donald Trump loves buckets of KFC chicken and six packs of Diet Coke. He also loves dictators. His “fave fascist” is Rodrigo Duerte of the Philippines whose personal “Death Squads” murder drug dealers. Trump praises Duerte who replaced due process with machine gun massacres. (During 2016 and 2017 there were 7000 dealers killed in this fashion.)
What seems to impress Donald most is Duerte does some of the killing himself. One can almost hear Trump sigh enviously. This brings me to Trump’s infamous “I could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and I wouldn’t lose a vote.” Narcissist that he is, I thought made that bizarre remark to prove his popularity. I now think it was a sign of his dictator dream.
Actually, I’ve always thought the Trump “strongman face,” like his Atlanta mug shot, is uncannily similar to the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. (Thus occasionally I refer to Trump as “Donito.”)
Trump’s worshiping of authoritarians was first revealed to me in December of 2015 not long after he announced his candidacy. He excitedly phoned the MSNBC show “Morning Joe” and exclaimed, “The world’s most powerful leader, Putin, called me a “genius!” (What Putin said was “Yarkii” meaning “brilliant” but not in the intellectual sense but more like “Trump is a shiny object.”)
Joe Scarborough responded, “You do know Donald that Putin kills journalists and democracy seeking protesters.” Like a pouting child, Donito remained silent before feebly countering, “Yeah, well we kill people too!”
Clearly Putin is Trump’s hero whereas Donald is Putin’s puppet. At the 2018 Helsinki Summit Trump actually said he trusted Putin more than his own intelligence advisors. (The next day Trump said he was misinterpreted.)
2018 was also the 100 year anniversary of the end of WWI for which there was an auspicious event attended by world leaders. Trump anxiously scoured the room for his pal Putin who finally entered and gave him a modest smile. Donito used his thumb and baby finger simulating holding a phone and mouthed, “Call me later.” Putin barely nodded.
Part of the WWI tribute to the American soldiers who died in France was a visit to the sacred Aisne-Marne cemetery but Trump canceled his visit. Some speculated it was because rain would ruin his artfully coiffed hairdo that Trump designs to cover his bald spots, but which remind me of cotton candy. Instead, he sent his Chief of Staff General John Kelly.
Recently Kelly finally revealed what he thinks of Trump. “A person who didn’t want to be seen in the presence of military amputees; a person who demonstrated contempt for a Gold Star family; and a person who considers our heroes who gave their lives in WWI as ‘losers’ and suckers.’ All I can say is God help us.” (Trump countered by calling Kelly “a man with a small brain.”)
Among the many rogue dictators Trump envies is N. Korea’s Kim-Jong-Un about whom he said, “Imagine, he was only 28 when he killed his uncle and took over the whole country!” At first Trump called him “little Kim” and “rocket man” referencing N. Korea’s failed rockets launches. Trump later went weird, “But he wrote me beautiful letters and we fell in love.” (Makes me want to gag.)
The two met in N. Korea but Trump was so completely unprepared he didn’t even bring up the expansion of Kim’s long range missiles. Side by side, the two are comically different in height but both have bizarro hair cuts. And when they turned their backs the pair have matching big bottoms.
Another rogue dictator who regularly receives Trump kudos is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey who fuels corruption, abuse and ethnic cleansing. (No wonder Trump likes him.) However Trump goes hot and cold on Chinese President Xi Jinping. He actually suggested he won him over with a huge piece of chocolate cake at the White House, “The most delicious cake I’ve ever tasted,” Trump exclaimed.
Trump has said, “I consider him a friend. He’s a strong tough guy and I call him King.” “But I’m not King, I’m president,” Xi replied. Trump said, “No, you’re president for life therefore you’re King.” (Which Trump says wouldn’t be a bad idea for the U.S., that is, as long as he was the king.)
Disturbingly, the world is becoming more authoritarian by the minute and if Trump is re-elected I fear we can wave goodbye to democracy. Then again, dictators often meet a brutal end. Mussolini and his wife were killed. And two days before Hitler and his wife Eva Braun, who were married only for a day, committed suicide. (Talk about a short honeymoon.)
The ultimate humiliation, in the town square Mussolini’s body was hung upside down. In reading that I immediately wondered if Trump were ever hung upside down would his artfully coiffed hair cover his bald spots.