TRUMP’S BUNCH PART 1

ELLIOT WEINBERGER IS AN AMERICAN ESSAYIST regularly appearing in London Review of Books. By way of achievements, Wikipedia notes, “In 2021, Weinberger was awarded the Jeanette Schocken / Bremerhaven Citizens’ Prize for Literature, given biannually to a writer who ‘sets an example against injustice and violence, against hatred and intolerance.’ In their citation, the jurors wrote: ‘In the spirit of Enlightenment, Weinberger acts in these texts as an agent provocateur for a better world, as a great warner against the loss of freedom and human dignity.’”

Several things caught my eye: “against hatred and intolerance,” “against the loss of freedom and human dignity.” Nor do I mind his “agent provocateur” status, particular in these Trumpian times.

Weinberger’s “Incoming!,” London Review of Books, December 26, 2024, begins, “They came from Florida, from Fox News and Fox Business, square-jawed men and women with big hair and collagen lips. They came from professional football and World Wrestling Entertainment. They came from daytime talk shows and reality television. They were ‘straight out of central casting’, as the future president said. Some of the women resembled his daughter and some of the women resembled his wife. None of the men resembled him.”

In succinct mini-bios, Weinberger then describes 49 of Trump’s fealty, people who “have no connection to the work they will manage, or no experience in the work they will manage, or no experience managing large bureaucracies like the bureaucracies they will manage.”

Here, in Parts 1 and 2 today and tomorrow, are tidbits gleaned from Weinberger’s article. Some read like political satire—yet are utterly factual. All the quotes following are taken from the LRB article with the boldface my choice for typographical clarity. Also, comments of my own are interspersed here and there.

“The future secretary of defence is adorned with the white supremacist tattoos of a Jerusalem cross, the Crusader rallying cry ‘Deus vult’ and an AR-15 assault rifle flanking an American flag.”

Deus vult, “God wills it “, as adopted by white supremacist groups. Image from Wikipedia.

“The future White House communications director calls the opposition ‘snowflakes’ whose ‘sad, miserable existence will be crushed’ when the future president returns to power.”

“The future director of the FBI promises a ‘government gangsters manhunt’ and revenge against disloyal journalists.”

He appears again later in the list as wanting “to turn its Washington headquarters into a museum of the horrors of the deep state.”