Stephen Robinson, Alternet

Convicted felon Donald Trump has absolutely no heroic qualities. He’s a bully and a coward. There’s no doubt that he’d use a baby as a human shield like Martin Sheen in The Dead Zone. However, a specific demographic of Americans — “dummies” — still admires him.

The Times ran an article Tuesday titled ‘Antihero’ or ‘Felon’: 11 Undecided Voters Struggle With How to See Trump Post-Verdict. These geniuses, on which our democracy hinges, aren’t quite sure how to view a man convicted of 34 felony counts and who, a jury determined, repeatedly defamed the woman he sexually assaulted. The word “criminal” seems an ideal descriptor, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

When asked “after the Trump verdict, what word best describes how you feel about Donald Trump,” John, a 58-year-old white man from Pennsylvania, said “martyred,” because he apparently didn’t get enough love in his childhood. Wendy, a 57-year-old Black woman from New York, said “unpredictable but memorable,” which is how I describe the woman I dated in 2004, who claimed she’d been abducted by aliens.

This is gonna be one of those focus groups, isn’t it?

From the Times:

The idea of voting for a felon for president was unacceptable, un-American or too unreal for several of our participants, including some of those who gave Mr. Trump credit for managing the economy. Others thought Democrats pushed these felony charges to help Mr. Biden politically, saying that the Biden campaign was trying to exploit the verdict.

Seems like the whole point of a journalistic enterprise is to correct obvious misinformation. There was no political motive behind Trump’s prosecution. He just kept committing crimes in broad daylight, and America at least tries to have a reasonably fair criminal justice system. (Yes, I know it’s hard to read the last half of that sentence without laughing.) But the Times isn’t in the business of telling people they’re wrong. That’s where I come in.

James, a 53-year-old white man from Iowa, complained, “they’ve been going after Trump since he was elected in 2016.” (Because Trump is a criminal.) “Democracy is supposed to be about the will of the people. I don’t really think the majority of the people in this country wanted to see him prosecuted on these charges.” (Most Americans agree with the verdict and believe Trump was guilty.)

Jorge, a 52-year-old Latino man from California, said, “I think Donald Trump would never have a fair trial in New York because, like many people said, most of the jury was probably Democrat. It’s like if we have a trial for Biden in Houston.”

Trump’s legal team agreed to the jury that returned the guilty verdict. Also, Houston is in Harris County, which Biden carried 56 to 42 percent. If he were to falsify business records in Houston to cover up payments to an adult film star, he’d first need to set up a business in Houston. Once he’s done that and shamelessly cheated on his wife and coerced the adult film star into sex, he’d probably get a decent shake in Houston, but that sounds like a lot of work.

Defaming Tony Soprano
The Times advises that we “check out the feisty exchange in the group about Tony Soprano,” who some voters in the focus group compare to Trump. It was once a dealbreaker when presidential candidates reminded voters of famous fictional gangsters, but in Trump’s case, it’s giving him too much credit.

Jonathan, a 37-year-old Black man from Florida, said, “Trump is not a moral compass to a lot of his supporters. He’s the bad guy that’ll do things on our behalf. He’s the Tony Soprano or the Walter White —”

Ben, a 42-year-old white college adviser, responded, “Don’t bring my Sopranos into this.” That’s a fair point. I should clarify again that Tony Soprano is a gangster and a murderer. Walter White from Breaking Bad is a drug kingpin and a murderer. These characters both have entires in the Villains Wiki. Ruthless killers aren’t ideal models for a US president, but maybe I’m as naive as Kay in The Godfather.

Jonathan insisted that Trump’s an “antihero,” leading an exasperated Ben to literally invoke Joe Biden: “Come on, man!”

The ironically named Hillary, a 55-year-old white social worker from California, said, "Jonathan, when you brought up The Sopranos, I got it. He’s the antihero. And that’s why I cast a vote in 2016 for him, though I did expect at the time that a lot of the shtick was just shtick and that once elected, if elected, no grown 71-year-old man would comport himself in the way he did.”

It’s bad enough that Hillary Clinton didn’t sweep the “Hillary” vote, but this Hillary actually went with the Tony Soprano candidate instead? And even after Trump didn’t live up to her very high New Jersey gangster standards, she’s still willing to consider him again in 2024? This is too absurd for even Camus.

Hillary goes on:

“What does that portend, though, for a democracy if we have nothing but antiheroes, going forward? That these people, these complicated, murky, ambiguous, morally ambiguous people, are the models? And maybe that’s putting it mildly and gently. What does that portend for our system of government?”

These are certainly compelling questions … that an idiot would ask. Neither Hillary Clinton nor Joe Biden are “antiheroes.” They’re just normal Democrats who also aren’t psychopaths. It’s not great TV, but I prefer to keep my Emmy-winning psychopaths safely inside the TV and not in the White House.

Antiheroes in fiction are defined by their lack of idealism, courage and morality. That’s great for film noir, but it’s not a good look for the commander-in-chief of the world’s most powerful military. The key difference between an antihero and a traditional villain is that the antihero tries, at least initially, to do the right thing, but goes about it in destructive ways. I’ve seen no evidence that Trump has ever possessed positive motivations. He’s a two-dimensional villain.

People often confuse antiheroes with villain protagonists. Henry Hill in Goodfellas is a straight-up villain. He’s somewhat sympathetic and far less sinister than most of the other characters in the film, but he only ever does the right thing when his life literally depends on it and he still regrets it.

Antiheroes tend to feel helpless in a world over which they have no control. Think the narrator in Fight Club. Jonathan likely considers himself the antihero in the show no one would watch. Trump appeals to him as the strongman Tyler Durden of his imagination. He says:

You have to remember why Trump is the choice of millions of people. Trump represents a shock to the system. His supporters don’t hold him to the same ethical standards. He’s the antihero, the Soprano, the Breaking Bad, the guy who does bad things, who is a bad guy but does them on behalf of the people he represents.

The MAGA cult is convinced that Trump gives a damn about them. He doesn’t. Trump does possess the selfishness, cynicism, ignorance and bigotry of most antiheroes, but he isn’t in the same league as Tony Soprano or Walter White. However, I wouldn’t mind if he shares their fate.

Americans think the economy sucks and while the Democratic response of “nuh uh!” is technically correct, it’s probably not politically viable. People historically vote based on their wallets, so it’s a serious problem for the incumbent president (that’s Joe Biden) if a majority of Americans wrongly believe we’re in a recession. A recent Harris poll for the Guardian detailed these upside-down sentiments:

55% believe the economy is shrinking, and 56% think the US is experiencing a recession, though the broadest measure of the economy, gross domestic product (GDP), has been growing.

49% believe the S&P 500 stock market index is down for the year, though the index went up about 24% in 2023 and is up more than 12% this year.

49% believe that unemployment is at a 50-year high, though the unemployment rate has been under 4%, a near 50-year low.

A whopping 58 percent of Americans blame the Biden administration for the economic horror show they’ve imagined. These numbers are usually fatal, because as I keep saying, people don’t vote like Vulcans. They’re more like civic-minded Klingons who cast ballots based on how they feel. Democrats have dazzled us with graphs, charts and all sorts of data, but they’re obviously not putting voters in the right mood. During the next press conference about the economy, Biden could try dimming the lights and playing some Barry White. Desperate measures are needed.

This situation is not unique to America. Almost every incumbent leader and their party are in a political free fall. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is doing even worse in the polls than Biden, and Trudeau is young and minty fresh. He has more time than Biden to turn things around, but he’s currently on track for a colossal wipe out from the Conservative Party and what Politico calls its “firebrand populist leader” Pierre Poilievre. (Yeah, that’s not good.) On the upside, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Conservative Party are also doomed.

Biden still has a fighting chance precisely because economic conditions are better in the US, and his administration is responsible. Nonetheless, there’s still a chance the unhinged psychopath, coup plotter, confirmed rapist and now convicted felon could win. At least he was only an unhinged psychopath when he beat Hillary Clinton. Do we need to pull out more graphs and charts?

Why is everyone so grumpy about the economy?

Aside from avoiding an actual, real-live recession, Biden has capped the price of insulin, forgiven significant amounts of student loan debt, and expanded access to health care. Yet his approval ratings have buckled under the weight of what Kyla Scanlon dubbed a “vibecession.” Fortunately, Scanlon isn’t a political candidate, as voters usually don’t appreciate having their personal experiences dismissed, even when based in fundamental misperceptions. Biden can’t try the “I feel your pain” approach, because unlike Bill Clinton in 1992, he’s the sitting president. Voters want to see more action than empathy.

Consumer confidence is rising, yet why does it seem like most people I talk to complain about rising prices? If you work in publishing and the arts, you’ve probably heard countless people tell you they simply can’t afford to pay for content right now. We don’t call them deadbeats. We just try to tempt them with subscriber discounts.

It’s been noted that Americans are pleading poverty even as Memorial Day travel rebounded to pre-pandemic levels. People apparently drowned their economic woes with increased tourism. Yes, more people get their news today from social media, which amplifies discontent. Also all the influencers seem happier and more successful than you. The lady in the Homeworthy video talks about “sourcing pieces” to decorate her fancy New York apartment, and you’re so broke you can only “buy things” like a chump.

Lower-income Americans are supposedly richer than ever, but they’re also on the front lines of rising food prices and skyrocketing housing costs. Since 2019, housing prices have ballooned 54 percent, which literally hits people where they live. Mortgage rates have stabilized, but are still high enough to prevent people from buying a home. You might consider that a “first world problem” if you’re a tone-deaf jerk, but for many people, the “American dream” is closely associated with homeownership.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) determined that goods and services are technically cheaper than they were in 2019. This is because wages have grown faster than prices. Unfortunately, people rarely make this calculation when complaining about the price of eggs. The sticker shock phenomenon is real. People want prices to visibly decrease, but that will never happen, and if it did, it’s the result of deflation, which is what actually happens during a recession. That’s why rent prices dropped in major cities during the pandemic.

The Post ran an interesting story this week about how housing costs are affecting voters in Nevada. Biden won the state in 2020, but Trump is currently leading in far too many polls. D. Carter, a Black woman, paid $1,525 for rent, cable and wifi for a one-bedroom apartment before her monthly rent was jacked up to $2,100. No, she did not also receive a 40 percent raise.

Unwilling and unable to pay the new rate, Carter, who spoke on the condition that her first name not be used, considered buying but quickly realized that with interest rates hovering around 7 percent, she was priced out. She found a new apartment in a decent part of town after months of searching, but said still pays up to 50 percent of her fluctuating $50,000 to $70,000 income from her banking job for rent.

The economy has improved enough after the pandemic that landlords can charge substantially more in rent. That might make sense to people priced out of their homes and neighborhoods, but it doesn’t make them feel jolly. According to the Nevada chapter of the National Low Income Housing Coalition, the Las Vegas metro area is short on housing for about 312,000 people. Construction of affordable housing is a nationwide problem — a combination of those high interest rates plus well-meaning building requirements in many progressive cities like Portland, Oregon.

Catherine Ayres, a 73-year-old with a fixed monthly income of $1,451, has struggled with housing for decades, but during the past four years, she’s shared a studio apartment with two other people.

Minority renters also suffered more during covid because their landlords were more likely to evict them or charge onerous fees if they fell behind in their payments. Landlords in predominately white neighborhoods were more forgiving and even decreased rents. An eviction in your rental history makes it extremely hard to find housing even when your finances improve.

Perception is political reality

What’s interesting is that Biden and many mainstream Democrats do recognize that perception is political reality, at least when it comes to crime. The White House performed the “I Told You So” dance when Portland’s progressive District Attorney Mike Schmidt decisively lost re-election to “tough-on-crime” prosecutor Nathan Vasquez.

“I am committed to ending the open-air drug use, to ending the open-air drug dealing that we have suffered from as a community,” Vasquez said on election night. “I am also committed to restoring that idea that it is OK to hold people accountable and do it in a compassionate manner.”

Technically, Portland experienced a significant drop in homicides and shootings last year, but that reality didn’t save Schmidt. A Biden official said, “Particularly right now, Americans don’t want to feel like things are out of control. Well-meaning ideas have gone too far, and we need a sensible approach.” That approach involves cracking down on immigration and increasing spending for law enforcement.

An anti-crime message in 2022 helped Republicans flip several House seats in New York and possibly ensured their narrow majority. New York Governor Kathy Hochul has since promoted a “tough-on-crime” agenda, dismissing bail reform and even sending the National Guard into the New York subway system. Homeless encampments in major cities don’t sell Americans on a booming economy either. It looks like a Steinbeck novel.

Democrats nationwide have embraced Republican rhetoric about the border rather than pointing out that there is no “border invasion.” Democrats clearly prioritize feelings more than facts regarding these issues. Perhaps the economy is different because the Biden White House fundamentally believes it’s doing the right thing, regardless of voter “vibes.” But “vibes” don’t care about political agendas.

Economist Alex Williams has a good argument about what’s likely fueling economic discontent:

“The economy sucks because, where workers gained leverage, their employers tended to push the cost of that leverage onto customers, which intensified a vicious cycle of service workers and customers getting mad at each other” is my most compact explanation of any “bad vibes.”

Biden and Democrats could acknowledge that the economy is a problem and just blame Republicans for it. It’s literally the approach they’ve taken to crime and the border, but so many liberals are opposed to any economic message that’s not Ricky Martin’s "Living La Vida Loca" at high volume.

“Trump got us in the mess. We’re making it better. Trump and his goons will make it far worse” is both simple and true.

Donald Trump, savvy political operator, has realized that repeatedly falling asleep during his current criminal trial does not inspire voter confidence, so he’s instead fallen back on his most reliable crisis management technique — lying. He posted Thursday on his jack-legged social media site:

“Contrary to the FAKE NEWS MEDIA, I don’t fall asleep during the Crooked D.A.’s Witch Hunt, especially not today. I simply close my beautiful blue eyes, sometimes, listen intensely, and take it ALL in!!

This is the man who might win another term in the White House. He thinks he’s Sinatra.

Maggie Haberman at the Times reported on the first day of Trump’s trial that he “appears to be sleeping. His head keeps dropping down and his mouth goes slack.” He wasn’t aware of his surroundings and “didn’t pay attention to a note his lawyer passed him. His jaw kept falling on his chest and his mouth kept going slack.” He cuddled with the Sandman two more times that week.

Last Monday, Times reporter Susanne Craig noted that Trump “struggled to stay awake” before opening statements began. “His eyes were closed for a short period. He was jolted awake when Todd Blanche, his lawyer, nudged him while sliding a note in front of him.”

NBC News reported on Tuesday that Trump’s baby blues “were closed for extended periods and his head at times jerked in a way consistent with sleeping.”

Wait, was Trump lying about his Batman sleep schedule?
Scott Nover at Slate “spoke with esteemed sleep researchers and medical professionals to learn how in the world it’s even possible that Trump is accomplishing this feat of public napping. Surely, there must be something about the pressure of being a defendant in a criminal trial that’s hypnotizing the leader of the Republican ticket?”

Or Trump is 77 years old, sleepy and gassy.

Ann Rogers, a professor at Emory University who studies sleep and is probably a lot of fun, confirmed: “There is nothing specific about the courtroom that is sleep-inducing. In fact, I would assume that most people on trial would be anxious and that would keep them awake.”

She assumes a great deal for a professor.

Excessive daytime sleepiness, especially among senior citizens, is often a result of sleep deprivation, and Trump has a habit of staying up all night posting nonsense on social media. As Rogers points out, Trump boasted in 2015: “I’m not a big sleeper, I like three hours, four hours, I toss, I turn, I beep-de-beep, I want to find out what’s going on.” (Melania’s probably safely in another room, so Trump’s “beep-de-beeps” are a solitary affair.)

Going without sleep was a big part of Trump’s fabricated image. He claimed people who slept too much were lazy.

“Don’t sleep any more than you have to,” he wrote in his 2004 book Think Like A Billionaire. “I usually sleep about four hours per night.”

Republicans would often suggest that Trump rarely slept during his nightmare administration. His former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney said in February 2020 that Trump “never sleeps” and went a full day and a half without sleep during an international trip.

Trump might claim he doesn’t need much sleep, but what’s likely is that he often dozes off during the day and his cronies just play along. Now, he’s in a courtroom at 8 and can’t hide the truth.

“Wednesday morning, [Trump] lands in the helicopter. He flew to India, did day and half of work, flew back, did not sleep on the flight home ... he’s emailing, and texting, and taking phone calls ... He lands about 7:30 in the morning on Wednesday. He did that press conference Wednesday night ... he had not slept.”

Few people can function on just four hours of sleep a night, at least not without cocaine-induced assistance. Trump might claim he doesn’t need much sleep, but what’s likely is that he often dozes off during the day and his cronies just play along. His actual “work day" as president didn’t start until 11, but according to the daily schedule shared with the press, he got up bright and early at 6. The next five hours were devoted to “executive time,” an absurd euphemism for watching Fox & Friends in bed. Now, he’s in a courtroom at 8 and can’t hide the truth.

Wednesday night, Haberman told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that “there’s this huge sleeping debate,” but it’s not a debate. There are not competing theories. Trump’s openly fallen asleep in court.

“Sometimes, he is — sometimes he is sleeping,” Haberman conceded. “That is a 100 percent true. I’ve seen it. People around him have confirmed to me that he has been sleeping at times that we have said he is.”

“However, sometimes he is closing his eyes,” she added. “And I’ve talked to people around him about this too, because that is how he tries to just basically stay calm and deal with it. And whether that then leads to sleep or whatever, who knows? But he is sitting there with his eyes closed for long periods of time. It’s not always sleeping.”

That’s a very generous sleep analysis. Yes, closing your eyes for an extended period leads to sleep for most mammals, but maybe Trump isn’t always sleeping when his eyes are shut. Sometimes, he’s just completely checked out. He’s imagining himself as a pony running peacefully through a large field, but wait, there’s Kristi Noem up ahead with a shotgun!

The rest of their exchange is just bizarre.

COLLINS: Yes, I noticed this, because he’s very clearly awake, but his eyes are closed, for like a minute at a time as
HABERMAN: Sometimes more, yes.
COLLINS: … as Keith Davidson or the witnesses is answering. It’s like he doesn’t want to hear what they’re saying either.
HABERMAN: I think it’s — I think it is a compartmentalization method. And he’s pretty good at compartmentalizing.

No, he’s not! What are these words that she’s saying? Trump is completely unstable and lacks any sense of emotional discipline. It’s not as if he leaves the trial in the courtroom when he’s campaigning or at home. He’s been issued a gag order and held in contempt because he can’t stop attacking witnesses and jurors.

Trump isn’t “compartmentalizing.” He’s unable to focus and stay awake during his trial, which is far less demanding than serving as commander in chief. That’s the story, but Haberman will still find a way to put a positive spin on a damning situation for the guy who calls her “Maggot.” Maybe she’s the one who should wake up.