The One Thing Trump Can't Buy [View all]

There is a jealousy at the heart of Donald Trump and the MAGA movement that I find endlessly fascinating. More than anything else, they crave cultural relevance. They want to be seen as cool, influential, and admired in the broader culture, but the conservative movement in this country simply doesn’t have that kind of juice—because they’re dorks.

And that’s why Trump and his movement feel the need to insert themselves into everything.

Yesterday, Trump went to the NBA Finals to see the Knicks. The Knicks were on an incredible run, and there were a bunch of genuinely fun storylines surrounding the team. As a sports fan, I’ve especially enjoyed the story of a professional wrestler named Danhausen whose character is a demon that can curse people and who supposedly “uncursed” the Knicks before their winning streak. Sports are fun because of weird little stories like that.

But Trump couldn’t just let the day belong to the teams and the fans. The most corrupt and least popular president I’ve seen in my lifetime needed to make himself part of the story. And the result was predictable. Instead of the focus being on the game, the attention shifted to Trump. Security became a massive operation. Fans dealt with additional disruptions. The conversation became about him, and the Knicks lost, I would argue, in part because of that.

https://endlessurgency.com/p/the-one-thing-trump-cant-buy