Donald Trump did the Tomahawk Chop on Saturday night. I mean, it’s not like Donald Trump actually gives a shit about the Tomahawk Chop, but he went to Game 4 of the World Series and did it. The PA system played their dumb sound and the whole crowd did their dumb arm thing, and Trump was one of them, just chopping away. Here’s a video if you want to see it. I don’t know why you would want to see it, but you can, I guess:
Pretty boring! Just a big dumb arm motion that he’s doing indifferently, with no expression on his face other than “Here’s some dumb shit for me to do.” The reason he’s doing it indifferently is that he doesn’t care. The reason he doesn’t care is, well, why would he?
Donald Trump did not go to a World Series game because he thought “It sure would be neat to attend a World Series game.” He went to that game because it allowed him to make a political statement that his supporters would appreciate. He is the Leader Of The Non-RINO Republicans, and he goes to his rallies and rambles about whatever’s on his mind and gets wild applause. This is his life.
Part of that deal, though, is that at all times he has to tell them, “Yes, you’re right, you’re great, everything you like is great, I think you’re perfect, unlike the liberals who hate you.” So when there’s some cause that suddenly becomes The Thing, whether it’s ivermectin or the racist-ass Tomahawk Chop, he has to insert himself in the
conversation just so he can say, “The guys who like me are right.”
That’s it. That’s his role, and in return an incredibly vocal minority of America will overthrow facts and logic and democracy for him. Because he is telling them what they want to hear, they will go to the ends of the Earth for him. Or they will go to the ends of the Earth for something, and then he will tell them, “Yes, you’re right, you’re great, everything you like is great, including going to the ends of the Earth for whatever cause this is. I too now love this.”
Liberals hate the Chop, so Trump’s base loves it, so Trump now has to love it too. In a way, he’s a prisoner of his base’s whims. In another, more accurate way, they feed off the worst in each other and grow even more codependent and insulated from reality, creating a bubble of their own opinions which they believe everyone agrees with, but it sure can be comforting to assume that he’s secretly miserable and hates himself, and this is the price for his many, many transgressions.
Everyone I know thinks that, so it must be true! You can’t argue with logic like that.
This is the world he wants. Does it matter that his wife hates him?
No, not really.
Does it matter that instead of naming someone important to him who had cancer he’s engaging in the pettiest, most transparent, most pathetic, most incompetent grandstanding possible?
Again, no, not really.
As long as people say Donald Trump is winning, in his mind, he is winning. As long as he has people who will lie for him, commit violence for him, break the law for him, support his vision of an America that revolves around him, he’s happy. And as much as he embarrasses himself and the country, as long as he delivers judges handpicked by right-wing ideologues and cuts taxes on rich people, those rich people will still support him.
Rich people like principal Giants owner Charles B. Johnson.
Charles Johnson, for as much money and success as he’s enjoyed in his life, is no differnt than the rest of Trump’s base. Sure, he might get into more of the back rooms than the average person, but in the end, if Trump supports something, then so does Charles Johnson. Trump supports people who say he’s great and should be President. Trump emphatically supports people who say he’s great and had the presidency stolen from him. So too does Charles Johnson.
On September 8, Johnson gave the maximum individual donation to Herschel Walker, a Georgia Senate candidate, a former college football star, and a prominent Trump supporter. Specifically, he’s a “Stop The Steal” guy, meaning that he thinks the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, pushing debunked lie after debunked lie in order to convince people he was the rightful winner, and even engaging in some false flag bullshit on January 6.
Charles Johnson had previously pledged not to donate to anyone who supported the insurrection on January 6, what with it being an attempt to overthrow the country’s democracy and whatnot, and then when everyone stopped looking, donated to someone who supported the insurrection on January 6. That person, of course, was Lauren Boebert, and then he got some attention for it but not too much so fuck it, why not give to Herschel Walker too? Who’s gonna do anything? Who’s gonna care?
All rich people everywhere think they can do whatever they want and that they’re untouchable. Usually, they’re right. They give money to people who help their rich friends, and then their rich friends help them when it becomes necessary. It’s a whole circle of…I don’t know, something shitty.
There are people who could stop the cycle. The Republican Party could, in theory, turn on Trump out of a principled defense of democracy. The rest of the Giants ownership group could turn on Johnson as a way to save face. Rob Manfred could come after the Braves and force them to stop the Chop.
It could happen, but it won’t. There is too much inertia and too much self-interest at play. This time next year, the Chop will still be around, Trump will still be around, and Johnson will be giving money to whatever grifter claims to be JFK Jr. Things need to change. Things will not.