Mr. Murphy, since you are humble enough to admit that you could not see this coming, please listen to those who did when we tell you that not only have you not imagined the worst, you have also not yet seen it.
What we are seeing right now is not the bottom, but a mere transition to a much more dangerous mode of being for the Trump regime. He is still, as he has been all along, testing the limits. He is still escalating. Still getting those whose support he requires to go along with him
It is in his nature to covet everything he does not have and despise whatever he gets. If he thinks he deserves something, as soon as he has it he thinks "Well, that was far too easy. They're holding out on me." and wants more.
It is the same when he gets away with something.
It is the same when he gets away with something.
It has been a while since I expounded on Trump's nature, as I fear I've basically said everything, but I think if you want to understand him, you have to think about his famous second scoop of ice cream.
Who among us has not, from time to time, encountered someone who remarked along the lines of, "To be an adult is to realize that you can simply buy a cake," if not said it for themselves?
Donald Trump could buy far more than a cake.
Donald Trump could buy far more than a cake.
When he holds dinners in his private dining room, it's his habit to have everybody else served one scoop of ice while he gets two. He's very proud of this. Proud of the habit, and proud of the second scoop.
Think for a moment how ridiculous this flourish is.
Think for a moment how ridiculous this flourish is.
He's Donald Trump. Even knowing his wealth has been baldly inflated, he could afford two scoops for everyone. And it's not even his ice cream or his expense anymore; this is the White House kitchen.
I honestly can't remember the last time I had something served a la mode in a restaurant that didn't come with at least two scoops of ice cream. And as an adult, serving myself? Half the time I don't even bother with "scoops", I just spoon however much ice cream I want in a bow.
But what he wants is not a specific amount of ice cream; what he wants is *more ice cream than anyone else has*. And he can accomplish that most easily by withholding from others what he gives to himself.
Why am I talking about ice cream when he's talking about sending the military to violently put down a protest?
Because to understand the enormity of what he's capable of, you have to understand how petty and mean he is.
Because to understand the enormity of what he's capable of, you have to understand how petty and mean he is.
It is his nature to test limits, to escalate, to seek out challenges to his power and then to double down when he encounters them, confident (as long experience has taught him he should be) that if he does not back down when expected to, the other side will not know what to do.
Right now, Twitter is placing, for the first time, the very slightest of limits on him. He already (and still!) receives special treatment on here - the latest warning from Twitter outright states that if anybody else had tweeted the same thing, it would have been removed.
But Donald's desire is not for a specific level of deference, or power, or access to the collective soul of his following.
It is the same as his desire for ice cream.
What he wants is *more*.
It is the same as his desire for ice cream.
What he wants is *more*.
He wants *more* and he wants those who would challenge him to have *less*, and to know it, and for them to sit there and say nothing.
When he gets away with doing something that he was told should not be done, when he gets away with saying something he was told he should not say... his response is to take if further until he's challenged again.
And when challenged, his response is to ask, "Who will stop me?"
And when challenged, his response is to ask, "Who will stop me?"
I believe there is a part of him, a very broken part of a very broken man, that seeks its own destruction in doing this. A part that means it when he asks officials of the previous government, "Well, why didn't you stop me?"
He inaugurated his reign by dancing to the inauspicious lyrics, "And now, the end is near and so I face the final curtain." He has chased that final curtain his whole life, tried to provoke a final confrontation, the small part terrified that no one stops him...
...while the outward shell of the man becomes more and more convinced of his own legend, that he is unstoppable.
Twitter tests him by saying, "Maybe you shouldn't be spreading this kind of message on our platform. Maybe you shouldn't say these things."
Twitter tests him by saying, "Maybe you shouldn't be spreading this kind of message on our platform. Maybe you shouldn't say these things."
How will he respond? How can he respond? He only has one card in his deck, one move in his repertoire, and that is to double down when challenged.
He will follow along these lines until someone stops him.
He will follow along these lines until someone stops him.
And those around him, for the most part, will not seek to stop him, but will go along with him, because they have gone along so far, and because they fear that if they turn on him now (or worse, if he turns on them), all they have sacrificed along the way will be for nothing.
It is possible, just possible, that someone close to him will convince him it is more in his interests to shift tacks here. That happens from time to time. But the obstacle they face is that he has few actual interests that are as important as testing any limit placed on him.
Any reason they can come up with for why it wouldn't be good for his future prospects to do this, he will weigh that against what he loses in a future in which there are things he cannot do.
