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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Two Simple Words Bother Trump So Much
Donald Trump has always been comfortable hurling insults. Yet for all his bluster, the more the 2024 U.S. presidential election heats up, the more one thing becomes clear: The former president can dish it, but when it comes to a specific type of insult, he cant take it.
He hates being called a loser. Or, for that matter, a sucker.
Those words came to the fore again on Sunday, when Trump demanded Joe Bidens campaign take down an attack ad quoting back at Trump some of his most infamous insults: those directed towards U.S. soldiers, including those killed in combat.
As first reported by The Atlantic in 2020 and later confirmed by John Kelly, the retired U.S. Marine Corps general who became Trumps second White House chief of staff, in conversations around a cancelled visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France in 2018, Trump called fallen U.S. soldiers both losers and suckers.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/why-two-simple-words-bother-trump-so-much
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Botany
(71,213 posts)tinrobot
(11,132 posts)SomedayKindaLove
(705 posts)Would be high up there
Dave Bowman
(2,537 posts)![](/emoticons/cry.gif)
TSExile
(3,223 posts)![](/emoticons/hi.gif)
Wounded Bear
(59,457 posts)He's a loser. He has never won anything that he didn't cheat at or game the system.
liberalla
(9,536 posts)to be tough and strong. Don't be weak and soft. He was raised to be a "killer". Being a loser or a sucker is weak and soft. His father despised that.
When those words are dircted at him, it is just about the worst insult to be paid someone (in his mind).
apnu
(8,781 posts)Hes not a man, Trump is a child.
liberalla
(9,536 posts)... from a man who was pretty rotten and a criminal in his own right!
wnylib
(23,029 posts)his father's demands to measure up to expectations. It's why he idolizes abusive dictators. It's why he is always in victim mode. He still feels the victimization of an abusive father and still tries to escape it by being a victimizer himself. Never found a way out of the trap of just two alternatives in life.
Stuck in such an either/or paradigm, Trump decided early on that there are no gray areas in life, no values, no right or wrong, good or bad. There is only power by any means to stay on top, or no power and being a loser. Rules are meaningless unless he can make them serve his need to protect a severely damaged ego.
PatSeg
(49,305 posts)as the root cause of his endless barrage of insults. Another leader with serious daddy issues.
wnylib
(23,029 posts)until I worked next to a parolee on a part time job several years ago. The company did background checks on new hires. Following labor laws, they did not discriminate against people with a record, but did screen out anyone whose crime was related to the company's business. Also, the crime had to have been committed at least 7 years prior to hiring.
Until taking that part time job for extra income, my experience and knowledge of the legal system had been limited to films, books, and my own traffic tickets and divorce. The job involved handling the company's customer service complaints over the phone. So I sat at a desk next to a parolee convicted of burglary and rape. I learned about that from another co-worker who recognized the new hire's name from an old newspaper article.
The parolee, "John," talked about himself during down times and training sessions. He was 34 years old when parolled and found an 18 year old high school senior for a girlfriend who was estranged from her family due to abuse. He persuaded her to quit school and live with him. He "generously" paid for her phone and controlled all her outside contacts. He lived near the office and rushed home on breaks and lunch to check up on her.
But, like a child, he sought advice from me and another female co-worker on how to "handle" his relationship. He had zero concept of what was healthy. He bragged that he would make millions of dollars on some magazine ad for "quick money" and would buy out the company that we worked for. He was obsessed with power and control over others. Ironically, though, he respected the two of us that he asked for advice because we were direct and honest with him.
He told me about a course on Shakespeare that he took in prison. He insisted that Shakespeare had no more talent than anyone, but just had good contacts to promote him. Contacts and image projection were the only keys to success. There was no such thing as talent or right and wrong, just the guts to promote oneself.
I learned from him that he'd been in foster care as a toddler due to abuse and neglect, bounced from one home to another, was rejected by one set of foster parents that he'd hoped would adopt him, and was booted from the system to fend for himself when when he aged out. Different income and social level from the Trumps, but same conclusions about values relationships after a life full of abuse and neglect.
After a few months, the 18 year old girlfriend sneaked back to the school to ask for help from the counselor. The counselor contacted police and Social Services. They put her up in a hotel with a police guard. She naively called "John" to explain why she was gone because she'd left with no word. He tracked down which hotel she was at and broke into the room, claiming that he was rescuing her from a "dirty" cop who was abusing her. He filed that as a formal complaint in his defense against the cop, so the police department was legally obligated to investigate. "John" lost and went back to prison for the rest of his term, plus additional charges.
It was a total eye-opener to me of how a criminal mind works and how it can develop from abuse. Not always. Many abused children take a different path, especially if there is some positive person or incident that influences them.
PatSeg
(49,305 posts)if he hadn't come from a family with money. What an awful story. I'm glad that girl got free of him.
I am taken by the total lack of remorse or guilt with such people. If they get caught and punished, they often turn around and commit the same crimes again. There are a few who have an epiphany and turn their lives around. John Dean and Michael Cohen come to mind, but there are others who seem incapable of changing. It is like they are wired differently.
If someone like Steve Bannon or Roger Stone serves time in prison, I have no doubt that they will come out and do the same things with the same in-your-face arrogance.
wnylib
(23,029 posts)I encountered "John" a couple times after he finished his term. Just before he went back to prison, he had an acquaintance deliver an "engagement ring" to the girl with a note that she was now obligated to wait for him to get out. I heard that directly from him before his parole was revoked. It did not matter to him that we told him that you can't own another person.
After his second release, I was shopping with a friend when John saw me and said "Hi." He told me that he was out "for good" I said that I hoped he would get counseling to help him stay out. He said that he was getting counseling through an organization to help ex cons adapt to life outside of prison.
My friend overheard this and asked how I knew him, so I explained. He had a distinctive appearance and she recognized him as a guy that she had seen in a grocery store with a younger woman who looked terrified to speak or move. Her son had recognized the young woman from their high school days, but she acted afraid to speak to him. John had taken up again with the former 18 year old girlfriend. By that time, she was over 21.
Through my friend's son's contacts from high school, we learned that John had threatened her if she refused to go back with him. She had another boyfriend by then, but broke up with him out of fear of John. John had done a psychological number on her about her being promised to him (the ring) and her obligation to him.
The new boyfriend threatened to bring charges against John for threatening her if he ever came near her again. Then she and the new boyfriend left town.
The next time I saw John was several months later. He was walking with a group of friends outside of a shopping center. He had gained quite a bit of weight. He told me that he had gained from meds he was taking, that he had a good job, and was doing fine.
He also told me something that sounded almost like it was meant to be intimidating. He said that he would stay in touch with me because he had learned that I lived in the same apt. building as his biological mother with whom he had reconnected. He gave the address as if revealing something important. It was not my address, but I had sense enough not to correct him. My surname is a common one. My first name is not as common, but also not rare. I know that there are other people in my area with the same name. I even met one once. So his mother apparently had a neighbor with the same name. Or, with the same last name and first name initial. I just smiled and said I was glad that he was doing well.
I have not seen him anywhere since then. Don't know if he turned his life around, moved away, or got in legal trouble and was imprisoned again.
PatSeg
(49,305 posts)I guess that confirms what I was saying. Some people don't change no matter how long they serve in prison. It is really creepy that he seemed to be threatening you. I wonder how many other people he has done that to. Reminds me of an ex in-law who ended up in prison for a whole year for stalking a family member. (Wasn't the first time he was in prison.) It was many years ago, but to this day I still keep tabs on him and where he is. Recently I found a police report that indicated he hasn't changed at all.
I find it unnerving that there are so many people who seem incapable of change even if their behavior ruins their own lives and hurts those they profess to love.
wnylib
(23,029 posts)PatSeg
(49,305 posts)And for some reason, the behavior often gets worse.
ShazzieB
(17,277 posts)Mary Trump has said that his emotional development was arrested at around 2.5 years. Which means that when we call him a toddler, we are stating the obvious.
KS Toronado
(18,332 posts)![](/emoticons/blush.gif)
apnu
(8,781 posts)He seemed pretty triggered by Stormys book.
Sneederbunk
(14,644 posts)PatSeg
(49,305 posts)are probably words he heard when he was a child. "Loser" is definitely one that triggers him and I can picture someone(s) calling him that when he was young. Others that I think he heard as a child: low intelligence, disgraceful, weak, nasty, like a dog.
"Donald, you are a disgrace to the family. You're a real loser." (Probably his father?)
20 June 2018
GQ Magazine
For more, there is Adam Gopnic's SCATHING summary of Trump being humiliated by Obama at the 2015 White House Correspondent's dinner. Here:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trump-and-obama-a-night-to-remember
ShazzieB
(17,277 posts)Gopnic's article was published in 2015, early in Trump's run for the presidency, when few people thought he had a serious chance of winning the nomination, much less the general election. Thanks for drawing our attention to it. It's fascinating (and horrifying) to read in hindsight.
Here's a no paywall link for anyone who needs it:
https://archive.ph/rl3c
2017.01.08-150152/http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trump-and-obama-a-night-to-remember
https://archive.ph/2017.01.08-150152/http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/trump-and-obama-a-night-to-remember
littlemissmartypants
(23,622 posts)riversedge
(71,497 posts)Fox News host on Donald Trump:
What I love about him, he never plays the victim. He was like, Keep weaponizing me. I just keep winning. Never plays the victim. I thought he was super presidential today.🤡
Link to tweet
Buns_of_Fire
(17,450 posts)I want to see him go into full meltdown between now and November - full spittle-spewing, bowel-releasing, stroke-inducing rage.
Dave Bowman
(2,537 posts)can't stop laughing!
Dave Bowman
(2,537 posts)He's very insecure and if the value of someone, in his mind, is absolutely related to money then that must burn a bit.
JoseBalow
(3,607 posts)given his clownish efforts to cover it up with makeup and hairspray