TRUMP

94 ANATOMY OF A MONSTROSITY
Trump doesn’t actually care much about getting to the truth. As a
lawyer who worked with him once observed: “Donald is a believer in
the big-lie theory… If you say something again and again, people will
believe you.” 358 (The “big lie” theory in question—that it’s better to
tell a large lie than a small one—originates with Adolf Hitler. Indeed,
Trump has notoriously kept a book of Hitler speeches by his bed. 359 )
One can see this at work with the “Obama founded ISIS” remarks.
Trump simply says it and says it, refusing to back down or qualify it,
with the hopes that it catches on.
But Trump also knows how to take small truths and spin them into
big bullshit.
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Perhaps above all, though, Trump stands for impunity: the
notion that you can get away with absolutely anything. For his entire
life, Trump has been testing to see just how many rules he can violate
without facing consequences. He’ll stiff his contractors, assault
women, lie about his building projects, mistreat his tenants, misrepresent
his past. And he knows that nothing will happen, because he’s
Trump. In fact, he knows that he will, in fact, be rewarded. The more
codes he violates, the more brazen he is in disregarding every norm
of kindness, taste, and good manners, the more success he will find.
It doesn’t matter what people say, because ultimately, all that matters
is that they’re paying attention to him. Nobody can destroy him,
nobody can hold him accountable. Trump stands for complete immunity
from consequence.
Trump has spent his life proving definitively that if you’re a white
guy with a pile of money, and you throw away every ounce of your
shame and decency, all of your wildest dreams can come true, and you
can become as powerful as you’ve ever wanted to be. In the schoolyard,
you can throw rocks at the other kids. What are they going to do