Following the U.S. government’s efforts to retrieve classified documents from Donald Trump, culminating in an FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, and the former president’s legal peril for absconding with the paperwork and obstructing efforts at retrieval, The Washington Post recently published a deeply-reported overview of Trump’s post-White House existence. The article demonstrates a certain continuity with his presidential years; as the reporters put it, “In the two years since he left office, Trump has re-created the conditions of his own freewheeling White House — with all of its chaos, norm flouting and catering to his ego — with little regard for the law.”
Equally if not more compelling than those continuities, though, is the portrait of an out-of-touch, narcissistic, and deluded post-presidential Trump, whose days appear designed to distract the former president from his removal from power and convince him that he is a beloved and admired figure. The article observes that, “A longtime Trump confidant termed his Mar-a-Lago existence, where he has tried to re-create the trappings of the presidency, as “sad.” Comparing it to life at the White House, this person added, “It’s like a Barbie Dream House miniature.”” Other details in the article support this harsh assessment, with the president notably surrounded by lackeys and sycophants dedicated to shutting out bad news and to creating a warm bubble of approval.
One aide rides along for his daily golf rounds “in a golf cart equipped with a laptop and sometimes a printer to show him uplifting news articles, online posts or other materials.” Another aide “has called around to Trump’s network of allies across the country requesting that they dial the former president to boost his spirits with positive affirmations.” Events at Mar-a-Lago seem engineered to create a sensation of adulation — but to any sane outsider, the portrait that emerges is of a Potemkin village of an emotional support network for a pathetic man:
By evening, Trump emerges for dinner, surrounded most nights by adoring club members who stand and applaud at his appearance; they stand and applaud again after he finishes his meal and retires for the night. He often orders special meals from the kitchen and spends time curating the music wafting over the crowd, frequently pushing for the volume to be raised or lowered based on his mood. In the Oval Office, Trump had a button he could push to summon an aide to bring him a Diet Coke or snacks. Now, he just yells out commands to whichever employee is in earshot.
Of course, as the article notes, not all the former president’s time is spent golfing and getting high off his own adulatory supply. The article notes that he’s raised $150 million in political donations, and has endorsed and disparaged many, many Republican candidates. There is also the important fact that he is running for president again, though he’s yet engage in the tempo of political activities we’d normally expect from someone running for the highest office in the land.
So while Donald Trump continues to constitute a threat to our system of government and our society — whether through the threat of his return to the presidency, his ability to evade punishment for his attempted coup and purloining of confidential documents, or his ability to inspire and infect millions of Americans with his shamelessness and psychopathy — reports like this one should also remind pro-democracy strategists of the risks in behaving as if Donald Trump is the sole or primary threat to American democracy. At this point, the mixture of open white supremacism, misogyny, and corruption that Donald Trump ran and ruled on has become the lifeblood of the broader GOP — an infection that found an all-too-willing host. We now have a generation of Trump-inspired authoritarian politicians, like Florida’s Ron DeSantis, who carry on and deepen the president’s contempt for democracy and equality. Against this, a deluded and diminished Trump bumping around Mar-a-Lago on the fumes of idolatry and sycophancy must be properly gauged and prioritized.