Tubby, hero and victim of 9/11

The one thing Trump didn’t try to dominate and why that changed

After its original coverage of Trump’s remarks at a 9/11 ceremony in D.C., which (true to form) minimized the insanity of what Trump said, the New York Times gave a fuller if still absurdly dainty account yesterday afternoon:

At an event honoring those who died on Sept. 11, 2001, President Trump on Tuesday claimed that two firefighters lifted him up and carried him away from a seemingly unstable building when he visited the area shortly after the terrorist attacks.

This was the latest in Mr. Trump’s evolving — and often disputed — account of his actions on Sept. 11 and in its aftermath, when he was working as a real estate developer in New York City.

“Often disputed.” Aaron Rupar has video:

Two firemen — we thought [the building] was coming down on top of us — two firemen, big strong guys, and I’m not the smallest guy in the world — they grabbed me under the arms and said, “Gotta get out of here.” And they literally lifted me up. This is not easy to do. I’m big. They lifted me up and they started running with me. I said, “Fellas, I can run myself.” But they were amazing, but they thought it was coming down, it didn’t come down, U.S. Steel.

This came after his claims a few days earlier that he went down to the World Trade Center site right after 9/11 and “worked hard” on recovery efforts there (claims no one can verify). He had previously said a lot of other obvious bullshit about 9/11, e.g. that the fall of the WTC left his own building the tallest in New York, and that he saw Muslims cheering the attacks in Jersey City.

At this point it may seem absurd to analyze any of Trump’s lies, as he delivers them reflexively and without caring, apparently, whether they are believable. But it’s worth a minute to examine this one.

Just because the lies are compulsive and clumsy doesn’t mean there isn’t a through-line to them. They have an overarching purpose, which is to elevate Donald Trump. Sometimes they have other purposes, too, as with his bogus Iran War statements clearly meant to goose the stock market for the benefit of his cronies. But his casual lies are pure self-aggrandizement: Big strong men with tears in their eyes, fittest president ever, etc.

9/11 was a traumatic event that fueled a hunger for heroic stories, and there were enough real ones to meet the need. Trump didn’t get that at the time. His boast about having the tallest building after the attacks was widely considered stupid and tasteless —and not much dwelt on, because we already knew he was an asshole. It was simply what he always did — brag on his achievements, even if they were only “achievements” in the sense that someone else lost big (like the thousands who died in terror), leaving him the victor.

But a week later he had himself photographed near the site, and in his first term as President he appeared at 9/11 memorials in D.C. without saying anything too repulsive. He knew the rubes were solemn about it, and let it alone.

But this year is different. First, Trump’s popularity has collapsed spectacularly. Also, all his fellow fascists have flipped out because a Muslim Mayor of New York will preside over this September 11th ceremony in New York.

While, as I have said, Trump is too senile and self-centered to really care what the NPCs think anymore, the recent evolution of his 9/11 story suggests that he is at least subconsciously reacting to circumstances: At a moment when most Americans are celebrating qualities that he not only lacks but can’t even understand, their rejection of him may have caused his ancient narcissistic injuries to bleed afresh. And the anti-Muslim-Mamdani ravings of Rudy Giuliani and other such shitheels may have given him hope that he can step into the racist breach and become (as Giuliani had been before his downfall and disgrace) America’s hero.

So it’s no longer enough for Trump to give room to the respect and mourning of his fellow countrymen: He has to tell them how he was there at The Pile and suggest that he was pulling up debris with his bare hands to help find the fallen. And because 9/11 is about victims as well as heroes, he also has to portray himself as one of the fallen, being pulled up from the rubble by firemen like Father Mychal Judge. (Though of course he can’t remain passive even in victimhood: “Fellas, I can run myself.”)

He has three more days to top himself and I don’t doubt he will. Look out below!