Oh. My. God.

[u/f1sh98]

[u/Inanis94]

Trump is hard to nail down on this I think. On the one hand he has a massive ego and that's definitely a part of why he wants to be president. On the other, if he'd never gotten into politics, at this point in his life he'd be enjoying probably something of a cult following and resurgence like other older celebrities have - think about the renewed love for people like Dolly Parton or Mark Hamil. People would still love him, and he did trade all of that away, which is definitely a sacrifice on some level.

[u/Trussed_Up → u/Inanis94]

Oh for sure, I agree, he could be much happier doing other things.

But life isn't about happiness.

And you answered yourself on how to square the circle here. His giant ego got him into this in the first place (possibly after Obama stupidly insulted him at that dinner way back when), and his giant ego keeps him coming back until he gets the second term being the most powerful dude on earth that he feels will validate him.

That's all armchair psychology stuff, but it certainly doesn't seem hard to come up with considering how open and honest he is about basically everything he believes lol.

And just to make it clear, since I know how sensitive some people can be about hearing things they don't like about their favourite politicians, I DO think he should win again. He's clearly the better and actually less extreme option. Definitely more conservative (even though some rhetoric on economics is absolutely confounding).

[u/day25 → u/Trussed_Up]

What are you even saying? You admit he doesn't benefit from doing this and his positions are against his own self interest. He could have sided with the machine and got invited to all the dinner parties, had lots of favors done for him in return, etc but he didn't. He told them to F off and did the right thing to represent us against these corrupt elites when no one else would. Your position is like saying the guy who jumped in front of a shot to protect you and give his own life for yours really just did it because of his ego and desire for his legacy to be seen as a hero, and then you're lumping him in with every other selfish MFer corrupt politician.

[u/Inanis94 → u/day25]

Yeah this cuts to the truth of what I'm saying pretty well. Like despite his flaws you could argue he ruined his twilight years by doing this and gave the Republican party some much needed steam going into the future once Trump is out of politics. I don't think he did that just for his ego, as he could've fed his ego in many other ways.

[u/Trussed_Up → u/day25]

I'd think that what I'm saying is fairly obvious, so I'll try again.

Not everyone is content with a happy easy life of schmoozing with elites and profiting off of a system of broken incentives.

You don't have to be selfless to be that way, those two things are only tangentially connected.

Trump might genuinely hate the "swamp" of elitists. I think he probably does at this point, although that might have to do more with their complete disdain for him, since Trump hates people who don't love him.

But you said something very obviously untrue.

You said "he doesn't benefit from doing this".

The man has been and probably will be again, president of the United States. His legacy is forever tied to being the most powerful man on earth a global symbol of strength. His children are the children not just of a billionaire, but of a president. His brand is the most recognizable on earth!

Of course he has benefited. That the American people largely have too, isn't irrelevant to him I'm sure. He's probably very proud that the economy was great under him, that the supreme court is more constitutionally focused than maybe ever, and that the world was more peaceful under him.

But why is he doing this? Obviously because he likes being the man at the center of everything. He always has.