Donald Trump melted down when the New York Times reported that his Ohio rally arena was sparsely attended. He insisted that attendees “migrate down” to lower seats! Of course, he meant to fill empty seats, but his dilapidated logic was dwarfed by the sheer hysteria and venom of receiving such a sad crowd. He utterly lost it, demanding: “The New York Times, and many other Artificial Media Outlets, should be arrested for their dishonesty and disservice to our Country.”
The reaction to his hissy fit was priceless, as an Alabama online outlet pointed out that “Trump has 292-word meltdown on Ohio rally flop: ‘Narcissism ... incomprehensibly off the charts’”:
Trump critics mocked the president’s grievance and his description of the Ohio venue as an “arena.”
“The trump rally was at a … high school gym,” posted Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA).
“Grandpa is melting down again because he couldn’t fill a high school gym,” added another user on X.
“The narcissism is incomprehensibly off the charts. And he’s the president of our country,” posted author Jennifer Erin Valent. “This is such a tragic era of American self-destruction.”
In a similarly petulant vein, Trump’s handpicked MAGA cultist Texas attorney general Ken Paxton was caught whining to supporters about his imploding race. Politico revealed that Paxton apparently cannot even run his own campaign:
“I’ve never been in a race where I felt less control over the campaign and, like, what issues are going to matter because it’s all coming — you know — from D.C.,” Paxton said during a small fundraising event last month, according to an audio recording obtained by POLITICO from a person in the room who does not support Paxton, and verified by another attendee.
“I don’t control message or what we’re doing.”
It’s a mystery why Trump cannot direct his own people. But the irony of the acknowledged helplessness of a candidate who impugns the masculinity of his opponent, Democrat James Talarico, should not be lost on anyone.
The outbreak of sniveling and petulance in MAGA ranks is widespread. Vice President JD Vance has begged voters to give the Republicans a second chance. Unable to deflect questions about Republicans’ sagging polls or his own cruddy performances, he has now taken to embodying a Mean Girl. Sniping at another Republican, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Vance groused, “It is really obvious to me that, at this very moment, Ted Cruz is running for president.” He added, “At this moment, I’m not. I’m trying to help elect Republicans. That’s what I’m going to keep on doing.” Well, the VP who leaked to the New York Times a tale to explain his secret opposition to the Iran war is almost certainly thinking ahead to 2028. Regardless, why spend time backbiting about a fellow Republican? He’s “insecure,” was Cruz’s explanation.
All the sobbing and bellyaching does not seem very, well, high-T masculine, which has been a major theme for a party that has marinated in toxic misogyny for years. Bullies who accuse their opponents of feminizing the country (especially the military) and target trans kids seem ever so frail and helpless when things do not go their way.
Keen political observers have watched Trump and his ilk manipulate the fears and insecurities of American men who feel they are “losing” out in society and in the economy specifically. “When you can’t envision a sustainable career based on your skill set, you may be putty for a demagogue who evokes idealized memories of a past where you fit in—however racist or sexist that past may have been, and sometimes because of how racist and sexist it actually was,” wrote Harold Myerson in 2024. “You can be putty for a demagogue who blames your plight on MAGA’s usual suspects. You can be putty for Donald Trump.”
Resorting to temper tantrums to explain away one’s own shortcomings (in the case of Trump, his abject unpopularity born of failure; in the case of many of his followers, loss of economic and cultural stature in a shifting economy that deprioritizes physical labor, existing in a culture that liberated women from dependence on men). As Myerson put it:
It was only with Trump that the Republicans found a candidate whose own insecurity and rage at the elites who scorned him, and at the out-groups he deemed to be inherently undeserving, made him susceptible to some of the same phobias that define Precarious Manhood, and made him its avenging champion.
But by “remaking the Republican Party in his image, he transformed it in this way as well. The Grand Old Party is now the Party of Precarious Manhood.” Now, they risk becoming the party of whiny, complaining, male, self-assigned victims.
As historian Ruth Ben Ghiat has researched and written about, “strongmen” live in fear and weakness of being exposed, which is precisely what is happening now. “[T]hey have a constant need to feed their ego because they are weak and fragile people,” Ben Ghiat has explained. “The secret of strongmen is that they live in fear. And this is why they build their bunkers. And Trump’s always talking about, you know, not only the ballroom where people can adulate him and he can get money, but the bunker underneath; that’s his safe space.” It’s also why he surrounds himself with incompetent sycophants who will never upstage him, including the creepily rapturous Natalie Harp. But when daily confronted with evidence of his fading power and popularity, Trump falls into a pit of fury.
As is the case with many raging narcissists, Trump ping-pongs between self-pity and aggressive, violent ideation. From the Access Hollywood tape to his liability to E. Jean Carroll to his sympathy for the unnamed Cornell accused rapists to his selection of multiple men for his Cabinet accused of sexual assault to his non-stop badgering of female reporters who ask hard questions, Trump’s animosity toward women has never been a secret. But what has become increasingly apparent as he declines in vigor, impulse control, and overall health is the degree to which he and his followers fall prey to the victim mentality, excuse-mongering, and wallowing in their own rage.
Taking a step back, we can recognize Trump and his minions’ shrieking as the pathetic last yelps of a dying autocratic regime. As a pragmatic, political matter, it must be a turn-off for all those guys who thought they were getting a tough guy and instead received a feeble hysteric. No wonder they no longer bother showing up to his campaign rallies.
Fun Fact: tomorrow the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize is announced. Another day of presidential fury.
Another excellent column, Ms. Rubin. I marvel at your prodigious output of well-written insightful material. I myself have frequently thought about how quickly "So much winning" morphed into "So much whining!". Thank you again for your important writing.