David:Yes, of course Trump loathes himself.
No human being on the planet is less capable of joy or even fulfillment.
This is a key connection between himself and his voters.
Leah:But close to 90% of Republicans voted for Trump.
Trump voters were Bush and Reagan voters, and they were Goldwater voters.
Are you saying they are all deeply unhappy people and always have been?
David:The key people are the five million people who voted for Obama and who voted for Trump.
They are who matter.
They are low-income, low-information, disenfranchised, blue-collar voters.
They are furious at the varieties of ways in which the world has left them behind.
Obama offered them hope.
Trump offered them rage.
HRC offered them precisely nothing.
What is different about this book?
David:Its not everybody elses Trump-bashing book.
It offers a tragic take on human natureTrumps destructiveness and self-destructiveness echoing with an existentially lost populace.
It has leaked off-air Fox News conversations.
Its about a very scary American strain of death wish.
Its about the emotional weather of living under Cloud Trump.
Its a manual for beating bullies.
David:Oh, hey.
Leah:When did you realize America was screwed up enough to elect Trump?
Hes a millionaire schlub.
This allows him to play both ends against the middle.
Trump pretends to be real.
Leah:What particular talents does Trump have that tap into the American psyche?
David:What such talents does he not have?
He has swallowed America whole.
David:Exactly the wrong question.
G.K. Chesterton, asked whats wrong with the world, said, I am.
Leah:I fully understand that within myself I can find what is scary about Trump.
The spectacle is impossible to turn away from; weve all been rubbernecking for 3 years now.
But I think your answer absolves Trump and his administration of their cruelty.
They took babies from their mothers at the border.
They wont stop until poor people dont have health care.
Its not just PT Barnum giving people a good show.
So, let me ask again: whom do you hate the most?
David:The book is the book and my life is my life.
In my actual life, I work to bring an end to the oligarchy.
Along with everyone else, I yell at the TV and radio and web.
In the book, though, I strive to understand the phenomenon.
And to understand all is most definitely not to pardon all.
Does Trump vs. liberals feel like a sports event to you?
On some level, is checking Twitter every morning and getting outraged fun?
If it is, is that white privilege?
David:Love the title but have never read the book.
To not view Trump as both deadly serious and a funny game-player is to miss the entire point.
Of course its sport; thats a huge part of the shtick.
Bread and circuses means there are circuses.
Overreliance on the term white privilege: another reason Trump will be re-elected.
Leah:Is Trump your perfect foil?
What about him as subject matter makes him so conducive to your writing style and thought process?
All the usual human vices and sins.
Leah:Should America still be a country?
How can you stay in a marriage with 63 million people that voted for a monster?
David:These are the very questions that got Trump elected and that threaten to get him re-elected.
Theres nothing remotely useful about this sort of moral self-congratulation.
Leah:How do you hope this ends?
David:Im not in the hope business.
Im in the tragic-news-about-the-human-condition-business.
We are a fallen, doomed species.
People want apocalypse always.
Trump promises to deliver the end or a glimmer of the end.
