Scott Tibbs
Donald Trump, Nick Fuentes and an obvious weakness
By Scott Tibbs, December 6, 2022
After Donald Trump met with neo-Nazi Nick Fuentes at his Florida home, notorious troll
Milo Yiannopoulos told NBC News that he arranged the dinner "to make Trump’s life miserable," knowing that "news of the dinner would leak and Trump would mishandle it."
Trump is not a Nazi, nor is he a Nazi sympathizer. If he was, he would not have had his Jewish son-in-law play a prominent role in his administration, would not have moved the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, and would not have been a friend of the Jewish state. But meeting with Fuentes once again exposes Trump’s biggest weakness - his inflated ego and his desperate need for approval. Trump loves everyone who praises him, and he does not think any deeper than that. Trump's inflated ego has led to a number of unforced errors over the last seven years, including alliances with bad people.
For over a week, Trump refused to denounce or distance himself from Fuentes. Some have said Trump fears alienating the alt-right. If Trump actually thinks Fuentes and his supporters are an important part of his base, then Trump's actual base should be insulted. Almost all of the 76 million people who voted for Trump find Nazi ideology odious and evil.
However, I do not think that is the reason. More likely, it is pure ego: Trump loathes criticizing people who praise him. Trump is a brittle man who needs constant praise and validation. This is a very bad trait for any leader, much less the President of these United States. Trump also does not want to admit he got scammed by professional trolls or a rap artist. This is where the "outsider" would benefit from "establishment" advisors who would not let Yiannopoulos or Fuentes within a hundred miles of Mar-A-Lago. Trump has always eschewed such advice, thinking he knows best. He clearly does not.
None of this is new. This has been a real problem since Trump launched his campaign in 2015, and Trump's inflated yet brittle ego has been a problem many of us have warned about since then. He never had the maturity or professionalism needed to be President. He certainly does not have the wisdom or humility to realize there is a lot he does not know, and that even the best and brightest need solid, experienced and principled advisors.
I refused to vote for Trump in 2016. I did vote for Trump in 2020 after four years of solid conservative policy, despite having the same concerns about his character I had four years earlier. But since Trump is not a conservative himself, he needs solid conservatives around him to help him craft good policy. Without Mike Pence around, I am not sure that solid policy will continue if Trump is elected again. Given how erratic Trump has been in the years since he left the White House, I am not sure I will vote for him if he is the Republican nominee in 2024.
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