The Man Who Would Be King

Be Careful What You Ask For

I was looking at this picture of Donald Trump attending a luncheon at this week's G7 meeting, and it caused me to revise my thinking about him. I have believed for some time that he had only recently figured out that he was going to die. And it appeared that this prospect not only surprised him but terrified him.

And from this it seemed there flowed an inexhaustible supply of manic behavior. Attacking, always attacking, as Roy Cohn had so sedulously counseled him. 

I had expected a later phase, still focused on the fear of death, but where the attacks would go away and the mind would turn to an inner focus on beating the reaper.

I think we may have skipped over that phase, or it may have happened so quickly that it never left any public trace.

I now think Trump has gone to the phase where he accepts imminent death and perhaps even longs for it. 

I expect to see recurrence of the violent attacks against the outer world and fate. He does have a large staff dedicated to keeping him alive and in the fight, particularly online, but I don't think his heart is in the battle anymore. The picture above is the real Trump of today - exhausted, and knowing he is beaten. The rest is really just a bunch of hangers-on hoping to prolong the gravy train and maybe stay out of jail, at least until they can get safely out of the country.

Trump is ready to die.

"The Man Who Would Be King" is an 1888 short story by Rudyard Kipling and a 1975 movie starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine. Things go great at the beginning, then not so much. It is Afghanistan, after all. 

See also Circling the Drain, Just Another Picture.