By Joni Halpern
When the Donald Trump was elected President, he stood at a podium and said, “I wonder what my father would think of me now.”
We cannot know the answer to that inquiry, because we know little about the intricacies of the Trump family’s relationships within their own household. The facts we do have suggest it was not a warm-hearted, nurturing household in which moral character was an imperative. It seems to have been more of an intense training ground in how to triumph over all obstacles that threaten the achievement of riches, notoriety, class standing, and acclaim.
There were winners and losers in that struggle, the losers being abandoned to future irrelevance, the winners moving on to ever larger prizes of fame, glory and ardent followers.
What might be a better measure of what Donald Trump has achieved is what our own fathers would think if one of their children had achieved what Donald Trump has achieved -- extreme wealth, political power, and millions of followers who have openly conceded that a complete loss of decency is a small price to pay for the political environment they seek.
I can’t speak for anyone else’s father, but I know what my dad would think of me or my siblings if we had risen to fame and fortune by the same means as Donald Trump.
By Joni Halpern
When the Donald Trump was elected President, he stood at a podium and said, “I wonder what my father would think of me now.”
We cannot know the answer to that inquiry, because we know little about the intricacies of the Trump family’s relationships within their own household. The facts we do have suggest it was not a warm-hearted, nurturing household in which moral character was an imperative. It seems to have been more of an intense training ground in how to triumph over all obstacles that threaten the achievement of riches, notoriety, class standing, and acclaim.
There were winners and losers in that struggle, the losers being abandoned to future irrelevance, the winners moving on to ever larger prizes of fame, glory and ardent followers.
What might be a better measure of what Donald Trump has achieved is what our own fathers would think if one of their children had achieved what Donald Trump has achieved -- extreme wealth, political power, and millions of followers who have openly conceded that a complete loss of decency is a small price to pay for the political environment they seek.
I can’t speak for anyone else’s father, but I know what my dad would think of me or my siblings if we had risen to fame and fortune by the same means as Donald Trump.