begin quote from:
Donald Trump's obsession with himself
| CNN | - |
But
no presidential candidate in living memory has built a campaign so
exclusively on the foundation of his own personal, brand,
self-congratulatory rhetoric and life story as Trump. And don't expect
anything different if he makes it to the White House.
Donald Trump's obsession with himself
Donald Trump: Be courteous to "scum" media 02:01
Story highlights
- Trump is not just the figurehead of his own campaign -- his personality is the campaign
- So far, Trump's unique, personal and unconventional campaign style has worked
(CNN)It's all about Donald Trump.
From
his condemnation of journalists to his racially tinged attacks on a
judge presiding over a lawsuit related to Trump University to his feud
with New Mexico GOP Gov. Susana Martinez, there's one thing in common
about the mounting Trump controversies: The presumptive Republican
presidential nominee is aiming to make the entire 2016 campaign about
himself.
American
politics is littered with larger-than-life personalities. But no
presidential candidate in living memory has built a campaign so
exclusively on the foundation of his own personal, brand,
self-congratulatory rhetoric and life story as Trump. And don't expect
anything different if he makes it to the White House.
"You think I'm going to change?" he told reporters at a press conference this week. "I'm not going to change."
Trump
has prospered by being the loudest, most unapologetic salesman of self
in politics that most seasoned observers have ever seen. He is not just
the figurehead of his own campaign -- his personality is the campaign,
as evidenced by stump speeches, press conferences and endless television
and radio interviews that add up to an unstoppable torrent of
self-promotion.
"The Trump
campaign is not about any cause, it is all about Trump," said Peter
Wehner, who has watched candidates and presidents up close as an aide in
the last three Republican administrations. "His campaign is all about
him. How he treats other people is all about him -- whether one is
praised and patted on the head or cruelly mocked depends on what you
have said about him."
Trump's self-aggrandizement has become a dominant theme of the presidential campaign.
The
billionaire boasts about his wealth, his portfolio of gleaming
buildings and golf resorts, soaring poll numbers, the size of his
crowds, his "crazy" television ratings, how Mexicans will love him, how
his book is an all time best-seller and how his 757 jet is superior to
Air Force One.
Ego-driven strategy
It's an ego-driven strategy that would doom most politicians.
But,
so far, Trump's unique, personal and unconventional campaign style has
worked. He's dispatched his rivals in a bloated Republican field and is
now locked in a tight general election duel with Hillary Clinton. His
style could even help him win over disaffected workers who also seem
themselves as victimized by the political and economic establishment.
Still,
there are major questions about whether a personality-driven campaign
-- lacking the traditional organizational and field skills -- can be
successful during a complex national contest.
The
Clinton campaign is working overtime to make Trump's personal
mythologizing look like a fatal flaw. The former secretary of state is
mounting a two-pronged strategy that centers directly on Trump's
persona. She hopes to make a case that his volatile personality makes
him unsuitable to be commander-in-chief and to use incidents from his
colorful character and business career to deconstruct Trump's carefully
built self image.
"He is trying to scam America the way he scammed all those people at Trump University," Clinton said Wednesday, referring to the growing scrutiny surrounding Trump's namesake training programs.
Clinton will keep up the attacks Thursday during a foreign policy speech in
San Diego. An aide said Clinton will use the address to "rebuke the
fear, bigotry and misplaced defeatism that Trump has been selling to the
American people."
Trump's allies
dismiss the idea that his campaign style lacks the gravitas and
temperament required of a President, arguing that his tirades against
the press, for instance, are merely a result of unfair coverage.
'A temperament question'
"Many
of the reporters know the facts, but choose to write horrible stories
about him or portray him in a negative light," Trump spokeswoman Katrina
Pierson told CNN's "New Day" on Wednesday, adding that if Trump becomes
President he will have wide public support. "So it's not going to get
to the point of a temperament question because the people will be behind
Mr. Trump."
Trump is hardly alone in getting high on himself: Self-confidence is synonymous with politics.
But
presidential candidates typically take pains to mask their personal
ambition in a flurry of detailed policy positions and ostentatious
attempts to feel the voters' pain.
Peter Feaver, a former aide to President George W. Bush, said Trump's reliance on his personality is unique.
"This
persona is actually one he has been honing for decades," said Feaver, a
former senior National Security Council official, noting that unlike
other big personalities that took aim at the presidency, Trump lacked
core ideological convictions.
"Take
Ronald Reagan for instance. He clearly had a persona that was built up
over decades but even more he had a governing philosophy even as he was
developing a persona," Fever said. "Trump doesn't have that. He just has
the persona."
Feaver also notes
the irony that after spending eight years lambasting President Barack
Obama as a hubristic, self-obsessed figure, Republicans are about to
nominate someone who takes those perceived deficiencies to extremes.
The
presumptive GOP nominee is not known for introspection. But he seems to
agree with critics who say the campaign is almost exclusively about
himself.
"A very good musician said
Trump is the greatest in the world without a guitar, meaning without an
instrument. I've got to stand up here by myself," Trump said in
California last week, explaining his unique style of political
performance art.
He want on to
boast how a good friend -- who was "by the way, one of the most
successful people in the country, in the world" -- asked him how he was
able to hold such large audiences in the palm of his hand.
"I said, 'You know, honestly, it's not hard because there's so much love in the room. It's unbelievable.'"
Such
comments, laced throughout Trump's public appearances, reveal a
politician apparently intoxicated with his own magnetism and brimming
with self belief.
Contrasting with conventional nominees
And
they contrast with the stump speeches of more conventional political
nominees -- which sag with policies designed to lure various
constituencies of a party and cliched invocations to a higher national
purpose and political unity that Trump's speeches conspicuously lack.
His
public appearances, while hitting top political points on illegal
immigration, free trade and U.S. allies who he says are fleecing
America, are effectively a list of his personal triumphs -- that seem
like the obsessions of a billionaire and have little in common with his
heartland audiences.
He frequently
relates the tale of his new hotel in Washington in the city's old Post
Office building which he says will come in under budget and ahead of
schedule and will be "a higher-quality hotel than anybody ever saw
before." And he often recalls the media frenzy as he and his wife
Melania descended the escalator at Trump tower to launch his campaign
last year, saying it "looked, literally, like the Academy Awards."
Trump's
implicit case is that his personality is so dominant, his presence
alone makes the need for detailed policy proposals moot. That's why when
he vows to rescue health care for veterans, he doesn't say how he will
get it done. He promises to bring back jobs from Mexico and China --
again without revealing his approach. He says he will "knock the hell
out of ISIS" but doesn't detail a credible military strategy.
Given
the billionaire's somewhat ill defined political creed and
unpredictable style, no one can say for sure what his presidency would
be like.
But if the campaign is anything to go by, one thing is certain: it would be all about Trump.
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