{"id":120001,"date":"2018-01-21T08:32:29","date_gmt":"2018-01-21T16:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=120001"},"modified":"2018-01-21T08:32:29","modified_gmt":"2018-01-21T16:32:29","slug":"trumps-jargon-is-infectious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lukeford.net\/blog\/?p=120001","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s jargon is infectious"},"content":{"rendered":"

Virginia Heffernan writes<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Donald Trump\u2019s triglycerides are 129. His fasting blood glucose is 89. His alanine transaminase is 27. He\u2019s fine. He seems to be hewing to norms, for once.<\/p>\n

But to hear the presidential physician tell it, Trump is bionic. In a news conference, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson hailed Trump\u2019s health as \u201cexcellent\u201d eight times. He padded his encomium with steroidal intensifiers. Incredibly. Exceptionally. Hands down. He sounded awestruck: \u201cHe has incredibly good genes, and it\u2019s just the way God made him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was chilling to hear a doctor underscore Trump\u2019s oft-expressed faith in his own genetic superiority. When Trump himself gives this \u201cgood genes\u201d spiel, it often dovetails with his broader ideology of white supremacy. But more shuddery still was hearing Jackson pipe Trump\u2019s special brand of overheated self-congratulation.<\/p>\n

We know this plot by now: A man of apparent self-possession disappears into an examining room or a golf cart with the president \u2014 and comes out hollow-eyed, body-snatched and programmed with Trump\u2019s own pieties.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, the journalist Maggie Haberman tweeted, \u201cThree Trump advisors have commented privately at various points that people around him\/close to him begin to act like him.\u201d This phenomenon goes for the media too. As Katy Waldman wrote in Slate: \u201cTrump\u2019s tics continue to seep into the way we write and speak, whether we think we\u2019re being ironic or just can\u2019t help ventriloquizing the man on everyone\u2019s mind. We\u2019re all the puppet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sure, there are those lost souls who take up the full bow-and-scrape routine: Vice President Mike Pence, attorney Michael Cohen, Don Jr., some in the Cabinet. Hope for them is gone. But what of the less likely Trump imitators who have forfeited actual dignity to act like him? One year ago, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, no one\u2019s idea of a pushover, threw over his establishment Hebrew in favor of Trump\u2019s cloying imbecility. \u201cPresident Trump is right. I built a wall along Israel’s southern border. It stopped all illegal immigration. Great success. Great idea.\u201d<\/p>\n

Similarly, as Trump was getting close to President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi of Egypt in the fall, the Egyptian government waxed Trumpian to mark a deadly attack on a mosque in the Sinai: “As usual, deplorable @CNN coverage of Sinai tragedy today. Anchor more interested in reporters access to Sinai than in those who lost their lives!!!”<\/p>\n

Trump almost certainly counts the rhetorical subordination of these men as a win. After all, he devised his interpersonal strategies in the 1970s, when mentally dominating others was considered a fine art. The manual for \u201ccorporate warfare\u201d in those days was \u201cPower!\u201d by Michael Korda, who ran in Trump\u2019s circles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Virginia Heffernan writes: Donald Trump\u2019s triglycerides are 129. His fasting blood glucose is 89. His alanine transaminase is 27. He\u2019s fine. He seems to be hewing to norms, for once. But to hear the presidential physician tell it, Trump is … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29752],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-trump"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t