President Donald Trump is fuming at a recent New York Times story that detailed his daily routine during the coronavirus pandemic, including the fact that he “arrives in the Oval Office these days as late as noon when he is usually in a sour mood after his morning marathon of television.”
Trump blasted the news outlet on Twitter on Sunday, claiming that “I work from early in the morning until late at night, haven’t left the White House in many months (except to launch Hospital Ship Comfort) in order to take care of Trade Deals, Military Rebuilding etc., and then I read a phony story in the failing @nytimes about my work….”
He continued in a second tweet writing: “….schedule and eating habits, written by a third rate reporter who knows nothing about me. I will often be in the Oval Office late into the night & read & see that I am angrily eating a hamburger & Diet Coke in my bedroom. People with me are always stunned. Anything to demean!
Trump is angry about the portrayal in the Times because it reveals two not-so-appealing things about him:
1- He’s utterly incompetent. As we all read stories about medical professionals going weeks without seeing their families, taking risks with their own health due to a lack of personal protective equipment, the commander-in-chief spends his days obsessing over TV coverage and eating fries.
2- He’s deeply insecure. Everyone, including presidents, works best their own way. That Trump can’t be confident enough in his approach to own it and, instead, works to push out a message that he is constantly working, so hard —in fact, that he sometimes skips lunch!!!— speaks to a deep-seated insecurity about how he is perceived by the public. Truly smart people don’t need to tell the world how smart they are. Great athletes don’t need to brag about their athletic accomplishments. And hard workers don’t need to tell you how they skipped lunch because they were working so very hard.
Check out Trump’s tweet below.
….schedule and eating habits, written by a third rate reporter who knows nothing about me. I will often be in the Oval Office late into the night & read & see that I am angrily eating a hamburger & Diet Coke in my bedroom. People with me are always stunned. Anything to demean!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2020
Trump apparently only cares about attacking his detractors and demanding that they portray him as a hero. But in so doing, he’s shown himself in a very unflattering light.
