In my book I explain that Trump's whole 2016 campaign hinged on his hero narrative: the story he told about his heroic journey and how he had been purified to fight corruption, for his people.
Trump claimed that because he was once a corrupt insider he knew how corrupt the system was & how to fix it. Trump explained repeatedly that he had gone from being the "ultimate insider" to the "ultimate outsider." What purified Trump, according to Trump?
This escalator ride.
Whaaaaat? You might think. Like, how did the escalator purify Trump to fight corruption? Obviously it didn't, but that is the ONLY reason Trump gave for his supposed shift from corrupt insider to heroic outsider.
There's a lot of religious & fascist implications to how Trump claimed hero status, but I just want everyone to be clear that it was all a con. And, it was a con that never made any sense in the first place.
I remember that @page88 & I chatted about this on her awesome pod at the beginning of this year: slate.com/podcasts/trump…
And my book is available at your favorite local or in ebook, audio, or regular book formats here: amazon.com/Demagogue-Pres…
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