The death of “Donald Trump”

The main reason for Donald Trump's recent downfall is because he broke the one rule that sustains even the least-skilled carnival barker: he became boring.

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What happens to a carnival barker who stops being entertaining? 

Just look at Donald John Trump in the year 2024 and witness the decaying husk of what can most generously be described as a man, or perhaps more accurately as a caricature. He has devolved into a Las Vegas cover band that has overstayed its welcome and can now only play to the cheap seats in the swarthy back alleys of a dimly lit club that caters to a desperate assembly of inebriated vagabonds who are looking for cheap thrills and cheaper drinks. 

He has become a magician who’s run out of tricks. Instead of a spectacle, the audience is left with an embarrassment. We all have become living witnesses to the death of a performer before he dies. His existence is now a wake. An inevitable descent into irrelevance. 

This is now the permanent existence of the pathetic, shallow, weak, elderly fraud known as “Donald Trump,” former President of the United States, desperately running for political office to escape accountability for a lifetime of privileged vulgarity, heedless crimes, and unbridled narcissism. He is so exposed that even his gaudy orange makeup can no longer hide his weaknesses and vulnerability. 

The main reason for Donald’s recent downfall is because he broke the one rule that sustains even the least-skilled carnival barker: he became boring.

There are numerous examples, but we can simply reflect upon his unhinged and pathetic performance at his Pennsylvania rally on Saturday. His verbal diarrhea which consists of lies, grandiose delusional claims, and racism was the stuff of national headlines, non-stop media coverage, heated debates, and divisive controversy for nearly a decade. As former CBS CEO Les Moonves said in 2016, “it may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” Unfortunately, he isn’t even good enough for ratings anymore. 

Even his most ardent base checked out after an hour, streaming out of the sparsley-populated auditorium, as he rambled incoherently past the hour mark. He reiterated he is a “really smart guy,” which is something that smart people never say because it is reflected through their actions and words. Even though he is on record for alleging climate change is a “hoax” created by China, he now says it’s good because it will lead to more beachfront properties. 

He continued his streak of cruel misogyny by mocking Kamala Harris, claiming she laughs like a “lunatic.” He was upset that the sketch artist made her look fabulous on the cover of Time magazine. He unveiled perhaps his greatest whopper claiming that he - a bloated, sweaty, splotchy dough of a man - was in fact “a better looking person” than Kamala Harris. This comment alone suggests Donald might actually be suffering from severe mental impairment. Other examples include him falsely saying that he is leading in the polls (he isn't) and shamelessly taking credit for a major price reduction in prescription drugs that was actually implemented by the Biden-Harris Administration. He dipped back in the 2008 bag and randomly brought out “Barack Hussein Obama” to insinuate that the first Black president and victim of the racist and Islamophobic “birther conspiracy” that Donald himself helped spread was somehow a Muslim and thus a threat. 

However, the coup de grace was him forgetting that he was actually in Pennsylvania. “Would that be okay, North Carolina?” he asked the confused crowd. 

The emperor is exposed. The Mar-A-Lago of cards and inherited wealth are tumbling down. The curtain has parted and the grand wizard, the brilliant real estate titan, the Midas of New York, the reality TV star known as “Donald Trump” is revealed as a frail, stumbling, broken man. 

The creation known as “Donald Trump” has always been bullshit. He was a fictional character entirely fabricated and constructed out of smoke, myths, “The Art of the Deal,” and TV. He was initially aided by whiteness, wealth, producers, ghost writers, and an American public addicted to celebrity, power and freak shows. Recently, he has been propped up by Republican remoras, selfish billionaires and white Christian Evangelicals who use him as their flawed but useful avatar to achieve their selfish ends. 

But what happens to an avatar that can no longer fight, perform, or fulfill its purpose? It becomes obsolete, useless, and, eventually, discarded.

The election is still over two months away. This convicted criminal can still become the President due to the electoral college, a compliant corporate press that seeks profit over truth, and an entire ecosystem of conservative co-conspirators willing to subvert democratic institutions to install right-wing minoritarian rule. Regardless of what will happen in November, it is clear to all of us the creature known as “Donald Trump” has lost its vitality and its lust for life. All that remains is the ashes of a brittle man known as Donald J. Trump. 

I would say rest in peace, but sadly I am not that generous and forgiving towards such a monstrous creation that has brought so much pain and heartache. I am petty enough to mock and laugh at his downfall because bullies and tyrants should always be ridiculed as a way of removing their power and weakening their venom. I will celebrate once - inshallah - he is defeated, because we, the majority, deserve a catharsis, a much-needed release, and a long-awaited opportunity to exhale and hope again. 

For now, I will simply look down at this pathetic, shriveled excuse of a man with pity and be grateful that the creation known as “Donald Trump” is finally dead.