“To offend a strong man, tell him a lie. To offend a weak man, tell him the truth.”
That quote, often attributed to Marcus Aurelius, one of the great Stoics, perfectly encapsulates the very troubling and sad moment we’re in, and the very troubling and sad president we’re dealing with.
For all his bluster, Donald Trump is inarguably weak and small. His ego is easily bruised, his feelings are easily hurt. He’s been this way for a long time, and as Americans living in the Trump era, we’ve all come to see how deeply insecure, petty, and vengeful he can be.
His late-night social media rants lashing out at enemies both real and imagined; his impetuous and impolitic attacks on longtime allies who don’t roll over for him; his reckless primarying of his own party members who dare break from him, even if momentarily.
Hell, you could even say his very presidency is the result of an otherwise harmless roast by former President Barack Obama at the 2011 White House Correspondents Dinner that he took too personally.
But when things are going particularly badly for him, his skin is at its paper thinnest, and it shows.
Last week, Trump announced on social media that he was banning three news outlets — MS NOW, Politico, and CNN, where I work — from covering the White House. He hasn’t said why those particular outlets were targeted, giving the impression that this might not have been all that well thought out. Imagine that.
It does coincide, however, with Trump’s steadily sinking approval numbers, which just this week hit an abysmal record low, falling below 30% according to one poll.
Believe it or not, focusing on ballrooms and buildings, invading Greenland and Canada, suing political enemies and chasing crypto deals while we’re in an ill-advised war and most Americans are stretching to afford basic necessities, has not endeared him to voters.
It’s almost as if ignoring his key promises to voters — to lower inflation, to lower the cost of goods, to never get us into another war — has turned them off.
So, stuck in a bed of his own making with nowhere to go, he’s lashing out, this time at the press, simply for covering the bad decisions he’s made and their impact on voters.
But trying to punish or sideline the press will not change the fact that he and Republicans are in deep trouble. All it does is make him look brittle, desperate and weak.
It’s also a deeply disingenuous effort. Trump has justified his tantrum by saying the press is both “purposeful” and “fully coordinated” in reporting “fiction and lies.”
There’s a legal mechanism for the thing he’s talking about, and tellingly, he isn’t using it. Because, if true, what he’s describing is the textbook definition of actual malice, the legal bar used for defamation cases.
But he’s not suing the press, because this isn’t about the law, but rather his feelings. And it’s simply not our job to protect his feelings, or only publish news that makes him feel good. We’re not his parents or his kindergarten teachers.
He can throw all the fits he wants, and there’s no doubt his continual attacks on the press have had a chilling effect, but I know one thing: ultimately, the press will win this battle.
He may wish he were president of Russia or North Korea, where the free press doesn’t exist and state media tells only positive stories about Dear Leader, but here in America, the press is protected. Here, Americans want to live in a democracy, not a dictatorship. And here, we expect our political leaders to be able to take a metaphorical punch. Especially if the “punch” in question is simply the truth.
S.E. Cupp is the host of "S.E. Cupp Unfiltered" on CNN.
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