The Laziest President in History
Laziness, deception, and egotism — the triad of Trump's traits that are leading the U.S. into authoritarianism.
Whenever Donald Trump does something that instinctively strikes us as shocking or offensive or boorish or (dare I say) un-American, three of his worst character traits are invariably involved — laziness, deception, and egotism. Sometimes it’s just one or two of those traits, but more often than not, it’s all three of them.
The most recent example is the unannounced demolition of the East Wing of the White House. Deception is perhaps the most blatant of those three traits because, even though he had previously announced the construction of his ego-inflating ballroom, he had promised the American people that there would be no effect on the existing structures of the White House — the so-called “people’s house.”
But scratch the surface of this affront to our senses, and his laziness becomes just as obvious.
For purposes of discussion, let’s pretend that this vanity project has a legitimate purpose. Let’s ignore the abject tackiness of the renovations that he’s done to the other parts of the White House and that he intends to impose on this ballroom of his. Let’s also stipulate for this discussion that there was a legitimate reason to engage in some demolition or renovation of the East Wing in order to accomplish his objective of constructing a ballroom and providing access to it from the existing structures. There are ways to accomplish those objectives that don’t involve lying to the American public and destroying a beloved landmark.
Did Trump work with historians and preservationists? Did he draw up detailed plans for review? Did the salesman-in-chief sell his vision to the American people?
Oh, hell, no. His inflated ego told him he didn’t have to do any of that. Those rules and norms are for other people. Instead, he first lied to the American people that the East Wing would remain intact. Almost immediately, excavators showed up and began demolition with no notice. Then — perhaps when it was already obvious — he announced that the entire East Wing is being destroyed.
While there is no historical precedent for this kind of destruction of federal government property, least of all the White House itself, Trump has previously used this modus operandi in the private sector, in the construction of the Trump Tower in New York.
Trump Tower was built on the site of the Bonwit Teller building, a fashionable department store on the corner of 57th Street and Fifth Avenue that was constructed in 1929. The façade of that building contained two art deco bas-relief stone sculptures of architectural and historic significance. Preservationists in New York City had an agreement with Donald Trump to save those sculptures; they were to be donated to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
But Donald Trump’s word, even in duly executed legal documents, was as worthless then as it is now. Despite his promises, the sculptures were destroyed by his construction crew on June 5, 1980. But John Baron, Trump’s imaginary friend/alter ego and fake VP of the Trump Organization, gave the New York Times the flimsy excuse that it would cost $32,000 of the $100 million budget for the Trump Tower itself to save them. (That $32K was probably pulled out of his backside, too.)
In both of these cases, Trump has been too lazy to do what is necessary to do things the right way. In both cases, he put his ego ahead of anyone else’s needs or expectations. And in both cases, he used deception to get away with it.
The wrecking ball is a perfect metaphor for the way Trump goes through his political and personal life.
Trump’s laziness, ego, and deception aren’t limited to his construction destruction endeavors. His efforts at curtailing illegal immigration are the most flagrant recent example where all of those character traits have been front and center.
Most Americans believe that undocumented immigrants who are violent criminals should be deported. There’s virtually no argument there. But Trump and his racist cronies have quickly morphed that belief into a violent, error-laden process that has literally separated families and torn communities apart.
Trump is too lazy to do the sometimes time-consuming work of distinguishing those who are truly dangerous criminals from hard-working people with families and legal immigration status. Hell, in many cases, his untrained, unqualified ICE goons haven’t even made the distinction between citizens and non-citizens.
Not surprisingly, Trump’s bait-and-switch fast talk on the campaign trail never included that he’d be illegally deporting legal residents to brutal foreign prisons with no due process. He never campaigned on tearing hard-working men and women away from their children and families. It was only going to be the “worst of the worst” (his words) who would be deported.
Instead of de-escalating the rhetoric and the deportations in the wake of his numerous failures to abide by legal deportation practices, he has instead waged war (again, his words) on blue cities and has empowered his ICE goons to meet quotas of thousands of deportations each week, all because his ego is too fragile to admit that his approach was wrong.
His slapdash tariff “plan”1 is yet another example of laziness, ego, and deception on full display. He has been willing to throw the nation’s and the world’s economy into chaos because he has long possessed some crackpot notion that tariffs would somehow be good for the U.S. economy. He and his spokespeople have deceitfully claimed that the nations whose goods were being exported to the U.S. would be the ones paying the tariffs when, in reality, it is the exact opposite. The cost of those tariffs are invariably passed on to U.S. consumers.
His ego was such that he thought he could get instant results. Instead, he got lawsuits, collapsing U.S. industries, alienated allies, and — in a delicious twist — his own voters turning against him, since they’re bearing the economic consequences along with the rest of us.
If there had been any economic benefits to be gained from an overhaul of our international trade policies, that would have involved the hard work of policy planning, diplomacy, and perhaps protracted negotiations — work that Trump is far too lazy to do.
It’s not hard to find examples of these traits throughout the Trump regime’s reign. That’s because he’s simply too lazy to do the hard work of governing — policy development, negotiating, compromising, strategizing, etc. His ego is too fragile to admit failure or defeat on any issue. Worst of all, his actions have demonstrated amorality when it comes to deceiving the nation and willfully hurting the citizens of the country whose flag he loves to hug.
While negotiating and working across the aisle might take time, what takes even more time (and money) is dealing with all the challenges and lawsuits. Even aside from the economic cost of his anti-social personality traits, the opportunity cost of defending all those lawsuits is overwhelming, when any other president would be using their time and energy to do the people’s business.
An ego the size and scope of Trump’s needs lots of fuel. So far, there have been enough sycophants and toadies at his disposal to provide that fuel.
To counteract that, most of the protests and legal action to date have been focused on one person — the convicted felon in the Oval Office.
But we’re reaching the point where protests need to bypass Trump altogether. He’s proven that any protests against him only force him to dig in deeper and indulge in his negative character traits with even more determination. Instead of aiming solely at Trump, the opposition must also be aimed directly at the people who have abdicated their responsibility to act as checks and balances against a president with authoritarian aspirations — namely, members of Congress.
The No Kings rallies and other actions demonstrate that there is massive widespread opposition to Trump, his behavior, and his policies. It’s time to refocus the majority of that opposition on the Congressional Republicans who are enabling Trump’s outrages.
There’s probably never been a better time to do so, since Mike Johnson has refused to bring Congress into session. Many of those Republicans are in their home districts, and they’re not doing the business of their constituents. Local actions that attract local media can put tremendous heat on those local representatives.
With enough pressure, they can be reminded that their jobs in Congress are increasingly at risk as we head toward the next election cycle. That may be enough for some of them to put pressure, in turn, on Johnson and on the GOP Senators in their states for Congress to do its Constitutional duty and prevent some of the worst outrages that are happening daily all across the country.
The word “plan” is in quotation marks, because the outcome of his actions reflect more of a random series of impulsive decisions rather than a cohesive strategy to implement tariffs to benefit the economy.