'The corpse at every funeral': Trump ridiculed for his unrelenting obsession to be the center of attention

In a biting column for NJ.com, Carl Golden of William J. Hughes Center for Public Policy at Stockton University, ridiculed former president Donald Trump for his inability to step off the public stage and move on with his life, choosing instead to continually thrust himself into the limelight.

In order to make his point, Golden referred to a quote from Teddy Roosevelt's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who once said of her father that he "wanted to be the corpse at every funeral, the bride at every wedding and the infant at every christening."

As Golden notes, that description also fits Trump like "one of his finely tailored navy blue suits."

Noting the ex-president manages to suck up all the oxygen in the room leaving possible GOP contenders for the 2024 presidential nomination standing on the sidelines, Golden claimed Trump will never let go of the spotlight -- and the press is complicit.

"Trump has gleefully seized on the [Biden] administration's missteps and erosion of public confidence and parlayed it into a massive media presence, using it as he's done for his entire private and public sector career to dominate the debate," he wrote. "The media, while certainly no supporter of the ex-president, at the same time can't seem to get enough of him. They can't boycott him or refuse to cover his appearances, following his narrative and giving him a marquee presence while shunting his potential party opponents off to stage right."

He added Trump, "... no longer simply teases the possibility of seeking the nomination in 2024. There's no element of coyness in his confident predictions that he'd scare off any potential challengers while mopping the floor with those who dare enter the arena to face him."

Golden then warned that Trump's influence is "outsized" and the Republican Party is stuck with him.

"Trump will continue to play Alice Roosevelt's corpse, bride and infant and — nominee or not — will use them all to exert an outsized and potentially decisive influence on the party," he concluded.

You can read the whole op-ed here.