Vassals, Mooches, and Thugs (oh my)
Kim Jong Un is unthreatening and respectful? Hello?
Trump also says he’s miffed at South Korea for refusing to
help the United States in its conflict against Iran — a conflict that was
initiated entirely by Trump alone and is over 4,000 miles away from South
Korea.
Wha?
Many are bewildered by how badly Trump treats America’s
traditional allies and friends, like South Korea, and how nicely he treats
traditional enemies and dictators, like North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
But there’s no reason for bewilderment. All you need do is
get into Trump’s transactional lizard brain to see that, for him, the world
contains only three kinds of nations or people: vassals, mooches, and thugs.
In his head, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, and Venezuela are
vassals. He believes Greenland will also become one, as will Cuba.
Trump’s view of vassals isn’t limited to foreign nations.
For him, domestic vassals include American corporations, Wall Street banks,
Republican members of Congress, Larry and David Ellison, Jeff Bezos, Mark
Zuckerberg, ABC, NBC, and CBS. He believes all can be extorted to pay tribute
to Trump and America.
Mooches have little power but
significant resources, and in Trump’s view they are taking advantage of the
United States and Trump by getting more than they’re giving back in tribute.
Mooches are to be scorned, berated, and squeezed for all
they’ve mooched. In his head, mooches include Europe, South Korea, Canada, and
Mexico.
Domestic mooches include big universities receiving large
government grants, Washington law firms making lots of money off government
business, and immigrants.
Domestic thugs include Elon Musk, the Supreme Court, and the
bond market.
Trump sometimes makes mistakes, assigning a nation or person
to one category when it belongs in another. He thought Iran was like Venezuela,
a potential vassal with huge resources but little power. He’s discovered, too
late, that it’s a thug. Now he doesn’t know what to do.
He thought of all women as vassals, to be exploited. But
then he ran into E. Jean Carroll and discovered that some women can be powerful
and stand up to him, thug-like.
He assumed all universities were vassals, too. Columbia
University turned out to be one, but Harvard is proving to be a thug.
Our mistake in trying to understand Trump is to think of him
as bound by laws, treaties, laws, and norms — and at least cognizant of
alliances and power politics. But Trump doesn’t feel bound by anything and
isn’t cognizant of anything beyond his transactional lizard brain. To him,
every nation or person is either an opportunity to extract money and power, an
affront justifying bad treatment, or a menace requiring pacifying.
If you’re dealing with Trump, you want to be a thug. If
you’re a vassal, you’re forever dependent on him. If you’re a mooch, he’ll step
on you and keep you pinned to the ground.
