Donald Trump's rant at Bill Maher proves he is a lame duck
By Daniel Okafor · Reporting from New York ·
After Bill Maher called him a lame duck, Donald Trump launched a social media diatribe against the comedian, showing a president distracted by personal grudges.
Donald Trump is wrong to use the presidency as a weapon in a personal feud with a comedian. The scale of his response proves the point Bill Maher made. On Monday, Maher told the Club Random podcast that Trump is "way less" of a threat than he used to be. He called the president a "lame duck." Trump responded on Sunday with a post on Truth Social. A man who is not bothered by a critic does not write a manifesto to prove it.
The math of a grudge
The length of the post is the story. He used the post to call Maher a "total loser."
The facts of the dinner on October 15 show the volatility. Trump, Maher, Kid Rock, and ESPN host Stephen A. Smith dined at the White House. On October 16, Trump told reporters that Maher "likes me a lot more than people understand, and I actually like him." Then Maher appeared on the October 23 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. He asked Karoline Leavitt about Trump's "lame duck" phase. He said Trump had the "lowest approval rating of any midterm candidate ever."
By Sunday, the meeting was a "waste of time." Trump wrote that Maher is "gutless" because he enjoyed every minute of the meeting. He told Maher, "Don’t call anymore."
Personal animosity defines the feud
This conflict shares the mechanism of the Clinton-Gingrich feud. Both are high-profile political rivalries defined by public insults and personal animosity between opposing ideological figures. In both cases, the policy arguments are buried under a need to wound the opponent.
Trump's rant focuses on the personal. He claims Chuck LaBella, a producer for Maher, lobbied for the meetings. Trump says LaBella called him multiple times as a gofer.
These are the words of a man who feels slighted, not a leader managing a country.
Does the record support the claims?
CNN reports that Trump also uses the post to threaten the press. He wrote that he is thinking about moving the press to create needed space. This is a direct threat to the White House press workspace.
The Independent reports that Maher believes Trump is less alarming now than he was 10 years ago. The evidence suggests otherwise. A president who spends his time attacking a comedian is a president who is distracted. He is more concerned with his image as a winner than with the functions of his office.
The facts suggest two outcomes. First, Trump will likely follow through on his threat to relocate the press corps to create more space. This is an act of institutional retaliation. Second, the administration will likely blacklist Republican surrogates from appearing on Real Time with Bill Maher. Trump already vowed to have Republicans stop covering Maher.
The verdict is in the word count. When a president writes the longest post of his life to tell a comedian not to call him anymore, he has already lost the argument. He is not a leader dismissing a critic. He is a man shouting into a void, hoping the echo sounds like applause.
Sources
- The Independent: Bill Maher says Trump is ‘lame duck’ hours after president brands him ‘total loser’ in lengthy rant
- CNN: Trump rails against Bill Maher in his longest Truth Social post ever
- New York Magazine: The (Imaginary) Talk That Explains Trump’s Bill Maher Rant
- Deadline: Donald Trump Posts 1,300+ Word Diatribe About "Loser" Bill Maher