Politics - News Analysis

Trump Bragged to Bob Woodward About Being Number One on Twitter and Facebook: And He Wasn’t Even Close

The major revelations within Bob Woodward’s book are out in the public domain now and – quite appropriately – have consumed nearly the entire national conversation for the last week. When a man spends significant time emphasizing to Woodward that COVID is deadlier than even initial reports suggested and that he knew all about, then went out and told the country the opposite, it’s a huge story. It gets even bigger and more relevant when still to this very day that man insists upon holding indoor rallies (which Trump now blames upon a Democratic governor who left him no choice) with maskless supporters awaiting him, in part, because Trump mocked masks through much of the campaign. No wonder the detail still dominates.

But as we’ve written before, some smaller anecdotes provide a richer picture as to what drives Trump. A common theme throughout Trump’s presidency has been that it’s primarily about the money, and though that’s no doubt true, Trump also sees the presidency as an opportunity to simply be the most famous person on Earth, as if that – in and of itself – is a huge accomplishment that validates him.

According to Slate, Trump bragged to Woodward that he was number one in the world on Twitter and Facebook, as if any other adult on Earth truly cares about such a statistic. But when Woodward fact-checked the claim … well, you know already. Trump did crack the top 10 – at number nine – on Twitter but had a couple of dozen people ahead of him on Facebook. Hey, good enough for government work, we guess.

Trump is also a huge believer in genetics which is something very scary to contemplate. History’s most monstrous dictator, Hitler, was also a big believer in genetics and we know that Trump had enough interest in Hitler to keep a book of Hiter’s speeches at his bedside, odd – for a person that rarely reads. Recall Dr. Jackson’s press conference after Trump’s press conference and something about “great genes”? We have heard references to his genes a lot. Trump’s obsessiveness about the power of genetics comes through in his repeated need to bring up an uncle that was a professor at MIT:

 His uncle, as he has said many times, was a brilliant MIT professor who knew about nuclear weapons—“so I understand that stuff,” the president says. “You know, genetically.”

No, you know? Some of us have fathers that are ICU specialists and we understand fck all about IV fluid management – “genetically.” Trump never ceases to amaze in his ability to downplay the need for study, discipline, and hard work. He will get it “genetically,” and that might explain how it is that he appears to be the least education or enlightened president of our lifetime.

But he’s number … nine on Twitter (or was at the time.) It must be genetics.

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Peace, y’all
Jason
[email protected] and on Twitter @MiciakZoom

meet the author

Jason Miciak is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is originally from Canada but grew up in the Pacific Northwest. He now enjoys life as a single dad raising a ridiculously-loved young girl on the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He is very much the dreamy mystic, a day without learning is a day not lived. He is passionate about his flower pots and studies philosophical science, religion, and non-mathematical principles of theoretical physics. Dogs, pizza, and love are proof that God exists. "Above all else, love one another."

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