Trump. the scentless apprentice

Trump was a stealth candidate with a big mouth who went outside of conventional rhetoric and excited the masses to no end, and that would include the rank and file Democrats. Personally, I didn't think he had a chance to win and in a legitimate political system that offered its base real candidates he wouldn't have stood a chance, but both Parties fielded such weak front runners in 2016 that he managed to rise from the rubble and actually win the nomination. In terms of policy, Trump is really no different than most Democrats or Republicans of the era, but stylistically he is light years different from them, and this is freaking everyone out, myself included. We've never had a President who tweets incessantly and talks about how fake the news is in such a blatant way. Sure, every Republican claims the media is out to get him, but Trump has taken it to a new level, and like most things that come out of this pathological liar's mouth there is a grain of truth to it and that's what makes this a unique Presidency, and one worth studying if we don't all die in a nuclear war first!

The mainstream media has been "fake" for most of my life and my words for this in the '90's was that we were living through an age of disinformation, so that the goal of the news was to distract and divert. I realize this view point was coming from a time when the news was relatively good in America, but Vietnam taught that you can't show the truth and keep the people on your side, so the media got imbedded in corporate America and became a spokesman for Wall St., the War Industry, etc., and on this Trump is right, except that he likes Wall St., the War Industry, etc. What makes him unique (?) is that he's the first serious political candidate I can think of who wholeheartedly believes in conspiratorial thinking, and isn't afraid to voice it. I realize a lot of this thinking comes from what they call the "alt right" and some of it makes sense, while some of it doesn't, but regardless no President has had the balls, insanity, stupidity, or whatever you want to call it, to come out and take the Country into his diabolical thought process. Nixon came close, I think, but technology wasn't as advanced and on some rudimentary level he was a Party man but Trump isn't. He's not a Republican, a Democrat, or even a politician until the last couple of years, and could give a fuck about his Party.

I don't really know what to say about Trump except that he is the byproduct of a political system that has completely broken down so that to blame him specifically for the shape we're in is absurd. We're a celebrity obsessed culture where everyone thinks they are one heartbeat away from either being a millionaire, or famous, or both, and Trump is the biggest TV fan we've probably ever had as President, and though he was a rich man's son he embodies the same hopes and fears of a celebrity obsessed culture, making him the ultimate Boomer President.