Friday, March 22, 2024

QOTD: Trump's "Fake Love" Fundraising Con

 

Amanda Marcotte, writing in Salon.com, explores the "love letters" that the Malignant Loser sends to his cultists in the form of fundraising letters. The manipulation of his gullible goobers to suck money out of their pockets is based on making them feel loved by the Malignant Loser -- often in psychosexual terms -- who wants their "love" back in the form of contributions. Excerpts from her excellent article:

"When I think about Donald Trump, I usually visualize Larry ‘Lonesome’ Rhodes, Andy Griffith’s character in Elia Kazan’s 1957 film “A Face in the Crowd.” Rhodes is a master manipulator, the embodiment of the wrongness of mass media and consumerism, and a fake populist everyman.

But Donald Trump is also many other things. Like other fascist leaders, demagogues, and 'great men of history' he is a symbol more than a human being. For his MAGA people and other followers, Trump is a messiah. He is a force for vengeance and destruction. And as I have explained before, he is also their teacher, preacher, father figure and a type of lover.

When I think of the shapeshifter Janus-faced Trump now, I see him more like Robert Mitchum in the iconic role as Rev. Harry Powell, with his knuckles tattooed with the words love and hate, in Charles Laughton’s 1955 film 'Night of the Hunter.' As proof of Trump’s so-called love for his MAGA people, he is sending out wave after wave of fundraising emails where he literally tells them, repeatedly and in different ways, how much he 'loves' them." (our emphasis)

Marcotte then quotes some of the unctuous and narcissistic emails that the Malignant Loser has sent out to his worshipful cult. She continues:

"These 'love' emails (of which there are many) are also a demand from Donald Trump – and a way for him to get the narcissistic fuel he desperately craves as an apparent malignant narcissist and megalomaniac with a god complex – for love and loyalty in return… and of course money.

Ultimately, Trump’s use of fake love is a way for him to manipulate his followers and their deep need for validation, meaning, affirmation, community, and belonging in a society where loneliness and social atomization are a public health emergency. As others have observed, Trump’s political rallies fulfill that function as a type of church tent revival, traveling roadshow carnival, and fascist family reunion and bacchanal." (our emphasis)

The quote dubiously attributed to P.T. Barnum that "there's a sucker born every minute" is what the Malignant Loser is counting on for his continued survival, financial and political.

 

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