You Can't Always Get What You Want

I saw from a recent clip in Tupelo, Mississippi, that Trump still plays You Can't Always Get What You Want at his rallies. The Rolling Stones have asked him repeatedly to stop using their song, but in typical Trumpian fashion, he refuses to do so.  It has been his theme song ever since he descended from his escalator at Trump Tower in the summer of 2015.

It is hard to square the lyrics with his bloated ego, as the song is really about second choices, not first choices.  Maybe he was never satisfied with his wives?  He lavished praise on Ivana in his book, Art of the Deal, but given his new celebrity status he wanted something more than a second-hand Czech model.  He reportedly chased after numerous celebrities, including Madonna, before settling on Marla Maples, a virtual nobody, in 1989.  Two years later, he ditched Ivana and married Marla.  A few years later, he would trade Marla in for Melania.

During this time, Trump found his voice on The Apprentice, especially the celebrity edition where he turned demeaning contestants into an art form.  This combined with his occasional appearances on the WWE made him a celebrity among the underbelly of America.  His crass style was perfect for a group of people proudly disenfranchised from mainstream society.  When the Tea Party came along in 2010, Trump saw his opportunity.  He had a couple of setbacks, most notably the 2011 White House Correspondents' Dinner, but he bided his time and when the moment came he seized on it.

Hillary was the perfect foil for his unrelenting abusive harangues.  She tried to go high, as Michelle encouraged her, but it was no use.  Trump and his Friends and Fox were able to turn her every stumble, every faux pas, every derogatory word against her.  Trump became the champion of the "deplorables," which his MAGA crowd firmly embraced.  She really didn't have a chance, especially when the mainstream media turned against her too, promoting many of the same kooky conspiracy theories found on Fox.

Throughout the campaign we heard the Stones' refrain over and over and over again.  The song soon grated on your nerves, but this was part of Trump's style.  He wanted to rub all our noses in the ground, as he had done Hillary.  This was the ultimate revenge for all the abuse he believed he had suffered over the years, not just during the campaign.  It's not like we really wanted Hillary, or Jill Stein, or Gary Johnson, but in Trump's mind, "we got what we needed," a bitter taste of just desserts.

Some thought he would rise to the occasion.  CNN kept searching for that "presidential moment" where Trump would assume the full responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief.  Instead, we got a reality show president.  Was there really ever any doubt this would be the way it would turn out? 

The song keeps playing and will continue to play, as Trump believes as president he can do anything he wants, including being his own DJ.  To hell with copyright violations. But, has he finally got what he wanted?

It doesn't seem so.  He is more bitter than ever.  What he failed to garner is respect, which is what he has been coveting all along.  He still can't accept he lost the popular vote to Hillary, or that his election is tainted by Russian interference, or that his weekly approval rating has never crested above 50 per cent.  Here he is the most powerful man in the world and he continues to battle with all his insecurities, which have no doubt dogged him ever since he was a child.

I suppose in this very odd sense, the song fits.  Trump is the victim of his own art of deception, holding himself in a blood-stained glass, unable to accept his own reflection.