A VERY TRUMPTY NEW YEAR

Trump held a “media availability” slot open during his New Year’s celebration at Mar-A-Lardo, and nobody showed up!

A reporter’s tweet:

“Trump appeared tired last night at Mar-a-Lago when taking limited questions from the press (a total of 2 minutes) - as he couldn’t even fire back on a question about DeSantis. Instead he was rendered mute. To make it worse, even NewsMax didn’t even pick up his remarks.”

Here’s his “truth” from his “Truth Social” account:

“Wow!! So while Trump Hating CNN &MSNBC (MSDNC) RATINGS are both at record lows, numbers that they have never seen before (“they’re toast”), Fox News Ratings are also way down because they never say Trump or TRUTH, never talk about the Rigged Presidential Election, and is a Fake Polling Network. Our giant MAGA BASE, much bigger than anyone knows, does not like watching Fox play their games. Their Ratings will continue to sink. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”

Can you say “pathetic”? I knew you could.

Trump is so detached from reality that he thought the media would come running if he announced that he would talk to them at his private club. Especially on New Year’s. He’s a presidential candidate, you know? (You didn’t know? He’ll tell you all about it.)

Why would the media rush to cover anything that Trump has to say? He has been telling the same lies for years.

His act is a stale as Wayne Newton; he appears to be a presidential candidate in technicality only.

Trump doesn’t move ratings for anyone, including Fox News,. Without Fox, it is difficult to see the former president getting any media coverage. No wonder he’s upset with them.

At his New Year’s show, Trump is reported to have appeared on-stage and given a “New Year’s talk” (i.e., a rant) about wars, nuclear weapons, airports, and how people couldn’t fly from New York to Florida. He claimed America is a third-world country, because he lost the Massively Rigged Election.

Ho-hum.

When I ran across the following information a few weeks ago, I was fascinated by it, by the larger meaning, by the metaphorical glance into what passes for Trump’s “soul.”

It is, as we say in the screen trade, “a character tell”:

According to many who have been around him, Trump’s favorite movie is “Sunset Boulevard.” He even bought a 35mm print, and he shows it at Mar-A-Lardo nowadays. He takes it with him to Bedminster and watches it there. He used to show it on DVD during long flights on Air Force One.

A man with the attention span of a mayfly, Trump is known to watch the movie, intent, pulling on the sleeves of those around him, telling them a “great scene” is coming, asking afterwards “Isn’t that great?”

Like Norma Desmond, he’s ready for his close-up, but as happened to her, the cameras and public attention are long gone, never to reappear. Like her, he has only one destination left, and apparently doesn’t even have a butler as loyal as Max von Mayerling to stage a departure.

Why is this a “character tell” you ask?

Well, “back in the day” when he was fresh out of auditing classes at Wharton and graduated wherever he did in the class of 1970 from the University of Pennsylvania that he paid the school to keep private (the fact he couldn’t get into Wharton when it had entrance requirements far less than today’s tells you what you need to know - that and the memory of one of the Wharton professors whose class he audited, that “Donald Trump was the dumbest fucking student who ever walked in my classroom.”), Donald wanted to get in the movies. Like many others, he was attracted to the dream.

His career since has demonstrated he should have had no problem becoming a studio executive. He could easily have been one like Mark Canton, who when he was starting out at Warner Brothers 50 years ago had a sign on his office door - “Friend of Comedy” - to which people would affix Post-It Notes saying things like “Enemy of Intelligence.” (Canton had the last laugh - when Peter Guber and Jon Peters got control of MGM, they installed him as Studio President. He’s the guy who gave Jim Carrey a pay increase from $7 million a picture to $20 million, which led to the financial downfall of any movie not a superhero movie. The people with the Post-It Notes were right.)

Back when I did my two years of two lunches a month with Billy Wilder, we once talked about “Sunset Boulevard.” He called it “A postcard to all those who can’t let go, no matter how hopeless they are.”

THAT is the “character tell.”

Unlike Norma Desmond, who had the good sense to stay inside her mansion on Sunset Boulevard, Trump wakes up every single morning, knowing that he is a loser. Nothing - not even being surrounded by an adoring crowd of wealthy cultists who have each given him $200,000 for the privilege of being in his company, - can distract him from the fact that he is a loser. No matter how hard he tries to prove otherwise.

His New Year’s Message to Americans:

“HAPPY NEW YEAR to all of the Radical Left Democrats, Marxist Lunatics, China loving Coco Chow and her Obedient Husband, Mitch, and Clueless RINOS, who are working so hard to DESTROY our once great Country. More importantly, HAPPY NEW YEAR to the Incredible, Brave, and Strong American Patriots who Built, Love, and Cherish America. The REAL leaders of our Country will always remain FAITHFUL and LOYAL to you. The USA will be back, Bigger & Better & Stronger than ever before. GOD BLESS YOU ALL!”

Doesn’t the photo at the beginning (taken on New Year’s Eve) remind you of a former 60s/70s Vegas lounge act now 20 years past the final sell-by date?

You can support That’s Another Fine Mess by becoming a paid subscriber for only $7/month or $70/year, saving $14.

Comments are for paid subscribers.