President Donald Trump is the first president that I know of who is a pathological bully. It seems like it’s in his DNA.
Yesterday, Republican Senator Thom Tillis from North Carolina announced he would not seek re-election next year after President Trump bashed him on social media for voting “NO” on the “Big (Not so) Beautiful Bill.” Trump threatened to finance any candidate who might run against Tillis, which might just be his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. Tillis said he had enough of the threats and has decided he’d step out at the end of this term. As much as I would like to convince Sen. Tillis to stand up to Trump and run and dare him to finance a challenger, I understand why he wants to get out of the mess. And it is a mess.
President Trump projects a bully mentality in all that he does politically. Trump was acting like a bully when he launched the lie that he won the 2020 election. Trump was acting like a bully when he threatened to withhold federal money for New York City if Zohran Mamdani wins the election and does not do what Trump wants him to do. Trump was acting like a bully when he threatened to withhold financial aid to California because California Governo Gavin Newsom disagreed with Trump sending the National Guard and the Marines into L.A. during the riots.
President Trump acted like a bully when he threatened to raise tariffs on nations thinking that they would all bow down to him and meet his demands. That did not happen, which caused Trump to change his mind several times.
In the business world, Donald Trump was a bully, but his bully mentality didn’t always work for him. It is inconceivable that anyone would go broke running a casino. Trump went bankrupt running casinos six times. Trump lost with his Trump University. And those were not his only losses.
The idea that Donald Trump is some kind of genius is flawed by his bully mentality. Bullies do not rely on their intellect. In fact, if you’re a genius, chances are you’re not a bully. Trump admits he lacks in the intellect department by virtue of his reliance on being a bully. That’s all he knows. And sadly, many Americans are vicariously living through Trump’s bully mentality. They want to be bullies but can’t, so they pledge allegiance to Trump as a way of living out their own lives as second-hand bullies.
Bullies only bully people they think will not get up and hit back. The aforementioned cases where Trump has acted as a bully are all cases where Trump thought owning the bully pulpit of being President of the United States was enough to scare people - and countries. Look what has happened, even with mass deportation. Trump bullied there, too, and as of today is working on a plan to give special passes to illegal immigrants who work in certain industries, like the hotel and agriculture industries. That is blatantly hypocritical and breaking a campaign promise to deport ALL of the illegal immigrants. Once again, Trump thought he could bully his way through mass deportations, but the hotel and agriculture industries stood up and said no. And there was speculation that Trump possibly had illegals working at Mar-a-largo.
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