re: #54 jaunte

I think he used to be careful about hiding his real net worth, but now he’s made it to the presidency of the United States, he doesn’t really need that particular ego crutch. There must be something he’s hiding that’s more serious than slightly less money than he claims.

There may well be, but I doubt he really knows what it is. That would imply a level of intellectual curiosity or even animal cunning that he’s never displayed. And I don’t think that any particular ego crutch ever goes away for a bottomless pit of narcissism. This is a guy who continues to mail Graydon Carter pictures of hands, after all. And who Kris Kobach is convincing to tear down the entire American democratic construct so he can prove he got more votes than a woman.

If the Trump era has shown anything, it is that you can’t ascribe too petty or too pathetic a motivation to Trump, and that you’re pretty much always going to be wrong if you assume there’s a cunning plan behind the facade.