Ruth Marcus opened her column yesterday with a line by Jonathan Swift: “I never wonder to see men wicked, but I often wonder to see them not ashamed."
By now, Swift would have been exhausted by wonder and wallowing in revulsion. For history reserves its wonder for wickedly competent authoritarians, whereas we, Swift's cousins abroad, are stuck with a bumbling authoritarian wannabe whose shameless narcissism is just about all he has. And it's revolting beyond words.
Its latest exhibition came yesterday afternoon, when Trump tweeted that "Time Magazine called to say that I was PROBABLY going to be named 'Man (Person) of the Year,' like last year, but I would have to agree to an interview and a major photo shoot. I said probably is no good and took a pass. Thanks anyway!"
His vain obsession with Time's cover is legend — and typically Trumpian. In 2012, he tweeted that the magazine had "lost all credibility when they didn't include me in their Top 100…"; four years later, upon being named by the discredited magazine as Person of the Year, he told NBC News that it "means a lot … it's a very important magazine … I consider this a very, very great honor."
Indeed it's such an honor in Trump's pathological narcissism that, in the honor's absence, he simply invents it. There was no call from Time, there was no "probability" of Trump's being named Person of the Year, there was no requested accompanying interview and photo shoot, there was no presidential "pass."
The magazine made all this clear in a pair of stupefied tweets. "The President is incorrect about how we choose Person of the Year. TIME does not comment on our choice until publication, which is December 6"; and 45 minutes later, from Time Inc.'s chief content officer, came this: "Amazing. Not a speck of truth here — Trump tweets he 'took a pass' at being named TIME's person of the year."
Not a speck of truth. Neither a speck of shame. "Media-savvy" Trump had to know that Time would correct the record, but what did he care? He needed to reinvent a world in which he, as always, is #1 — and that he did, without the faintest care as to media fallout.
I never wonder to see him not ashamed. In fact nearly all of us no longer wonder to see him not ashamed. The presidency has become a reliable geyser of shameless lies, at which, by now, we mostly yawn. Yes, Trump's naked falsehoods are still revolting, but they've also become so commonplace they have worn down our wonder. For the first time in our history, we expect the president of the United States to be a Goebbelsesque jackass of narcissistic, authoritarian-wannabe lies. More's the pity.
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(Note on above image: It isn't a real Time cover, but it should be.)