A Trump accountability innovation: How to take credit for winning and blame others for losing
You may have thought the results of yesterday’s midterm elections were about the candidates who were running and the voters who were voting. Nope. They were about former President Donald Trump, who has decided this is his moment to return to the spotlight.
In an interview with a new news organization, NewsNation, on Election Day, Trump said if he endorses someone and they win, he deserves the credit, but if they lose, they have only themselves to blame.
No, I’m not taking that quote out of context. Here’s the video — see for yourself.
A versatile and universally applicable accountability philosophy
Everyone thinks this way. But no one but Trump has the balls to say it out loud.
This philosophy is clearly an innovation in accountability. And it’s so versatile! I’m adopting it immediately.
If I make a prediction and it is accurate, I’m taking credit. If it is inaccurate, I’m finding someone or something else to blame.
If I give you advice and you follow it and succeed, I get the credit for that. If you follow my advice and fail, it’s your own fault, you loser.
If I edit your text and it’s better, you should thank me for improving it. If I edit you and the results suck, you’re just a poor writer and there’s nothing I could do.
What an amazing mechanism. I urge you to adopt it yourself to avoid all responsibility for anything that goes wrong.
Good luck with this. If it works, please give me credit. If it gets you in trouble, well, that’s on you. Let me know how it goes.
Isn’t that what he’s done for his entire life?
Yeah, but he doesn’t usually say it out loud.
Yeah, his saying it out loud reminds me of a 1970s comedy sketch by imitator David Frye. Frye’s “Richard Nixon” says, “I take full responsibility–but not the blame. Let me explain the difference: People who take the blame go to jail. People who take responsibility do not.”
I dislike Trump as much as anyone can, but I think it’s pretty clear that he is not serious about that claim. In the video he appears to say it with a little smile and it seems to be intended as a good humoured riposte to the reporter’s question.
If you think subtlety is a Trump characteristic, well, let’s just say I disagree.
Just think, he’ll probably announce his candidacy for 2024 if the Republicans win the House AND Senate BUT, he’ll announce he’s not running if they lose them.
If it would help keep Trump from running again, may God help us that somehow the Trumpublicans don’t prevail in at least one chamber!