The Two Donald Trumps
In the movie “Lenny” (1974), the agent for Lenny Bruce1 (who is being recorded by an interviewer) reveals that Lenny Bruce hated the legal hassles created by his on stage performances.
Lenny Bruce, who has often been stylized as a 60s comic, was in reality a Beat generation 50s social satirist and comedian.
The 50s version of Bruce was edgy, profane, and acerbic. The 60s version of him was less funny and consumed by his legal battles. And it all started on October 4, 1961.
It was at a Jazz Workshop where he was explaining the difference between a preposition and a verb. He used the word “coc#sucker” to make his point. He was arrested and charged with obscenity.
From that point forward, Lenny Bruce’s act and material were enmeshed in First Amendment case law and his ongoing legal battles. There was no longer the Beat hipster, the social critic, and the unabashed observer of a hypocritical society — just a long and lonely rant about how the system was screwing him.
While Donald Trump’s personal portrayal of himself began dying in the limelight in October 2016, the second Donald Trump would not emerge until the latter half of 2023 and by 2024 had subsumed his earlier self completely.
Pre-2016, Donald Trump was, at least as far as his PR could take him, a successful businessman — brash, brilliant, and irresistible to women.
At the end of his presidency, dents began to appear — his finances were exposed, members of his own cabinet called him out for his D+ views on public policy, and his sexual dalliances were being debated on the internet,
After a plethora of criminal indictments in 2023 and losing one of his defamation lawsuits against E Jean Carroll, a second Donald Trump emerged.
The new Donald Trump is a self-described victim of a corrupt legal system and partisan politics. His enemies are women, former attorneys, and disloyal employees (former).
For weeks now, Donald Trump has ranted, fumed, and complained about the legal processes that have been imposed upon him like a 6 year old in time out. His bogeymen are judges, district attorneys, and President Biden.
But unlike Lenny Bruce, who’s deterioation can be heard on recorded material, the new Donald Trump is not a regression, but a metamorphosis into a much worse person.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenny_Bruce
Good read a different way at looking at the situation. I remember Lenny Bruce thought he was cool while my parents were having melt downs at dinner every night. Sad how he died but he open the doors for comedian s like George Carlin, Larry David list goes on and on. The only doors Donald Trump will ever open lead right to hell.
I enjoyed this article, I disagree with the first part of this quote (finances):
“…At the end of his presidency, dents began to appear — his finances were exposed, members of his own cabinet called him out for his D+ views on public policy, and his sexual dalliances were being debated on the internet…”
The real Donald Trump’s finances were exposed with his bankruptcies of the 1990’s and the hesitancy of major banks here in the USA and then Deutche Bank to avoid underwriting his many failed business ventures.