Donald Trump's Magnificent But
Issue #11 of The Two But Rule
Like any tool, the two-but rule can be misused. (Here’s a link to details on momentum thinking and the two-but rule, if you’re new.)
Many zealots, charlatans, con-men and world leaders have shown mastery of the two-but approach while using it for nefarious (or at least self-serving) purposes. When they hear, “But your evil plan won’t work…” They respond with, “But it would if…” (#2buts)
Of course, whether you consider someone to be a grifter or a godsend depends on your perspective. In any case, there’s one lesson that a good villain (or hero) of a well-written story exemplifies: persistence. And there’s no question — a paragon of persistence walks among us today. Here’s his story:
Whether you consider him the great destroyer of modern democracy or the silver-spooned savior of the forgotten, you must admit that Donald Trump has a magnificent but.
He’s the first American President to bare it every hour of the day on social media. This is the first generation to have a clear, continuous view up the but of a sitting President. If there’s something more hiding in there, it must go deeper than even Twitter can mine.
The Art of the But
All but jokes aside, Donald Trump really does practice the art of the but. No, seriously, he does. He relentlessly and masterfully applies the two-but rule.
Here’s an example: The goal — build a wall to, “Cover the entirety of the southern [US] border…sufficient to stop both vehicular and pedestrian traffic.”
Lots of buts to unpack here:
But it will cost billions, but we’ll get Mexico to pay for it.
But the border is over two thousand miles long across terrain that wouldn’t allow a wall to be built, but we only need less than one thousand miles because of the impassable terrain covering the rest.
But at the end of the administration, the wall had not been completed, but there was wall…beautiful wall…so much wall.
Impressive. Technically all well-formed pairs of buts…even an inadvertently fuzzy one at the end.
Ultimately four hundred and fifty-eight miles of border wall were constructed under Trump, costing somewhere in the neighborhood of $15 billion. This replaced three hundred and seventy-three miles of preexisting fencing and added about eighty-five miles of new barrier between the US and Mexico.
So was President Trump both an expert practitioner of momentum thinking as well as a legendary exaggerator? Yes, but…well, yes.
An Inexhaustible Supply of Second Buts
Trump’s most historic chain of buts was demonstrated before, during and after January 6th, 2021. Let’s review:
But we lost the election. But we could challenge the count in court.
But that didn’t work. But we can call officials in States we need to win…maybe intimidate them a little bit and see if they can find some more votes.
But that didn’t work, and one of them blabbed to the media, so we’re totally screwed. But first, we’re not screwed because I’ve made everyone distrust the media already, and second, we can still head this off in Congress. Get Mike Pence on the phone!
But Pence said no. He’s going to certify Biden’s election. But maybe he’ll chicken out when they start chanting, “string him up.”
But he didn’t, and now the election is certified. Time to start packing, right? Um…
History shows that the former President, never former in his own mind, had only just begun to apply the full weight of his inexhaustible but.
Say what you will, there is no question that Donald Trump’s but never runs out of gas.
Author’s note: This was a hard post to publish. Clearly it pokes some fun at a former US President, and it could draw fire from both the right and left of the political spectrum.
In these times of heightened tensions, posting something like this piece takes some amount of courage…or foolhardiness. The pen might not be mightier than the sword, but it can get people to swing them at you.
Stephen King says that writing is about getting happy. After putting it aside for a few months, this piece still made me laugh and smile. So…that’s my compass. I hope that, no matter where you stand, it did the same for you.