I saw Donald Trump on TV in 2010 and it changed my life: the origins of my fascination with the world's most dangerous idiot

10/01/2024

Anyone who follows me on Instagram has seen for themselves how often Donald Trump is on my mind. 

Having put out so much content about him in the run up to the 2024 presidential election, I figured that it was time to reveal how it began between myself and this repulsive man.

It's a story that involves Bali, a recent break-up and E-News!. 

It's a story of me in a transitional moment of my life, when things weren't easy. Seeing Donald Trump made me realise how much how much worse a person's life could be. 

An excerpt ...

The story that the show intended to communicate was exactly what you would expect from a television network whose main product is PR for celebrities: Donald Trump was rich, his wife was sexy, he worked hard, had a great life, and was living the American dream. None of this was particularly interesting to me. 

There was something about the show that had me riveted. 

Beyond the surface presentation of what stories Donald Trump was selling about his life, there were all sorts of other things going on in the subtext. Like how this self-proclaimed business genius seemed to have nothing intelligent to say about business. 

Like how obviously uncomfortable all of his four grown children were around him.

Each of them spoke of long periods of their life in which they did not talk to their father, or at least harboured great resentment toward him because of how he had treated their mothers. Or them. They'd had to accept the painful realisation that he would never change or apologise for his actions.

Donald was on camera with them as the shared these stories.

You might expect a father would be saddened to hear such things.

Instead, Trump seemed proud that each of his children had come back into his life without him needing to have made any amends for behaviour.

I remember at least one of his sons mentioning that their main motivation in reconnecting with his father was so that he could be part of the family business. Trump seemed to take that as proof of his success as a business-man.

His wife of (then) seven years, Melania, was often referenced but completely absent. No friends or colleagues of his appeared on the show either to give testament to Donald's character. These absences struck me as notable.

Trump gave the show's presenter a tour of his apartment. I had never seen it before that moment and was not aware it was possible for me to laugh out loud for several minutes at the sight of a person's home. Donald Trump's apartment looks like it was thrown together by the set designer of a porno movie as a low-budget simulation of a Las Vegas casino interior while under the constraints of a drug addiction. 

Like a television set, the whole place had a sterile vibe, like it was unhabited by humans. Every object had a cheap-looking quality, reminiscent of Walmart knock-offs, and none of their arrangements made any sense. 

Every time Trump entered a new room, he theatrically gestured for the viewer to take in the sights and I cackled anew each time.

Trump strutted like a peacock through this ungodly mess, oblivious to how unbelievably ugly his own home was, convinced instead that it was a masterpiece. He proudly presented a gold-coloured toilet that had been installed in a guest bathroom.

The man clearly saw himself as a king of glamour, but nothing about him had even a modicum of style. 

Trump talked enthusiastically about how his plan was to keep working for the rest of his life so that he could make more money. The show obviously intended this to convey aspirational virtue. However, coupled with the clearly dysfunctional relationships his reality seemed to be populated with, the impression was more one of a lonely and pitiable man-child.

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