The GOP candidate's triumph of narcissism
Columnist Dana Milbank comments about the current state of the Donald Trump presidential campaign.
The Trump campaign has lately alternated between disaster and farce: the awkward rollout of Mike Pence, the botched logo, two parliamentary disputes on the convention floor, a muddled message, a plagiarized speech.
But in one respect, the Republican National Convention of 2016 was a YUGE success. It is the triumph of narcissism.
Addressing the convention Monday night, after a Beyonce-style entrance lit in silhouette: Donald Trump.
Addressing the convention Tuesday night via video from Trump Tower: Donald Trump.
Accepting the nomination Thursday night: Donald Trump.
Midway through the 8 p.m. hour of Monday’s programming at the convention, Patricia Smith, whose son was killed in the Benghazi terrorist attack, spoke emotionally about how “I blame Hillary Clinton personally for the death of my son.”
But her speech was preempted — by the candidate.
Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly, citing a “breaking news situation,” cut off convention coverage to do a phone interview with the candidate. Trump’s “breaking news” turned out to be little more than a denunciation of Ohio Gov. John Kasich for skipping the convention. Upstaging his own convention speakers? Classic Trump: Self-worship over sound judgment.
For weeks, GOP leaders pleaded with Trump to build a professional operation, but his campaign resisted, saying he didn’t need to act like other politicians. Now we see the consequences: a convention rally of conspiracy theorists, co-hosted by Trump’s longtime political adviser; a needless floor fight over convention rules in which the hapless presiding officer, a backbench congressman, walked off the stage; and plagiarized phrases in a speech that went unvetted by Trump’s thin staff.
Trump allies variously reacted by saying there was no plagiarism, that only 7 percent of the speech was plagiarized, that the staffer responsible should be fired and that a part of the Michelle Obama speech that Melania Trump lifted from was itself purloined from radical leftist Saul Alinsky.
“Never Trump” gave way to “Everywhere Trump” in Cleveland: a stream of interviews and tweets distracting from proceedings. Trump packed the week’s prime-time speakers list with low-wattage names unlikely to upstage him, including celebrities along the lines of Scott Baio — Chachi of “Happy Days” fame, who days earlier tweeted a message labeling Hillary Clinton a vulgarity for female genitals. The top-billed speakers: Melania Trump (Monday), Tiffany Trump and Donald Trump Jr. (Tuesday), Eric Trump (Wednesday), Ivanka Trump (Thursday) and, of course, Donald Trump (always).
The shootings of police in Dallas and Baton Rouge gave Republicans an opening to try to establish themselves as the party that will keep Americans safe. Monday night’s program was, shrewdly, packed with law-enforcement and military types, numerous “victims of illegal immigrants” and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who fired up the delegates.
But then the sound system blasted Queen’s “We Are the Champions,” and Trump made his backlit entrance. “Oh, we’re going to win, we’re going to win so big,” he said. “We’re going to win so big . ... We’re going to win so big.”
His children picked up the magnificence Tuesday, attesting that “his desire for excellence is contagious” (Tiffany Trump) and that “we’re the only children of billionaires as comfortable in a D10 Caterpillar as we are in our own cars” (Donald Jr.).
Trump’s personal greatness was, likewise, the theme of his Pence rollout Saturday, when he went on, mostly about himself, for 4,000 words before yielding to his vice presidential nominee: “I’ve been a very, very, very successful businessperson . ... I won in landslides. ... I dominated with the evangelicals.”
There were signs that delegates had misgivings about their narcissistic nominee: The convention floor was quieter than usual, the roll call lethargic, the Trump merchandise booths uncrowded.
Perhaps some of them could remember, eight years ago, when their nominee, a war hero, spoke of serving a “cause greater than self.” For Trump, this is impossible. There is no cause greater than himself.
Dana Milbank is syndicated by The Washington Post Writers Group.