Actor in clown costume (1869). Credit: Weir Collection.

A brief overview of Trump's personal oddities

After eight years of relatively normalcy from the Executive Branch under President Obama—whose oddest trait might be his anal nighttime nut habit, or the vast and unscrupulous expansion of the surveillance state and drone warfare, take your pick—we are now about to enter at least a few years of President Trump, who exhibits, shall we say, questionable tendencies for a commander-in-chief. Even outside of his Nuremburg-style rallies and tiny hands.

For example: "I would rarely leave the White House," Trump told The Hill in June 2015. At the time it seemed like a negligible line, because, obviously, the thought of him entering the White House to begin with was…well.

Anyway, it bears a look back on now, particularly in light of his recent and historic agoraphobic behavior. The president-elect rarely leaves Trump Tower or Mar-a-Lago, and during times of crisis he holes himself up in his office and surrounds himself with yes men.

See also: Trump's germophobia—he once described shaking hands as "barbaric"—which he tried to use as a reason why he would not have had two Russian prostitutes pee on a bed. Also his rumored dependency on "cheap speed," which, given the man that he parades around as his doctor, seems all but guaranteed? And then there's his weird burger order ($36 and well-done), and, of course, his Nazi fetishism.

Jan 18, 2017

Executives of other oil companies describe Exxon Mobil as “ruthless, self-isolating and inscrutable … priggish Presbyterian deacons” who maintain “kind of a 1950s Southern religious culture. They’re all engineers, mostly white males, mostly from the South. … They shared a belief in the One Right Answer.”

At ExxonMobil, top leadership operates in a cult-like fashion, and likely Secretary of State Rex Tillerson all but grew up in it. It'll be interesting to have a cult leader as our chief diplomat.
↩︎ In These Times
Jan 18, 2017

This is incoming Small Business Administration head Linda McMahon.

The eighties were Trump’s era, where he still seemed to live. But he was also reminiscent of the older comics who once roamed the Catskills, those dark and angry men who provided a cathartic outlet for harsh ideas that both broke and reinforced taboos, about the war between men and women, especially. Trump was that hostile-jaunty guy in the big flappy suit, with the vaudeville hair, the pursed lips, and the glare. There’s always been an audience for that guy.

Basically, Trump is the very worst kind of comedian.
↩︎ The New Yorker
Jan 18, 2017
More Headlines