Why Trump Turned Gooey -- Digby

[erronis]

https://digbysblog.net/2025/11/22/why-trump-turned-gooey/

Rick Perlstein shared a piece on Facebook noting:

Check out this brilliant guy’s entire Facebook page (Part 2). Best I can tell from the information provided he… is someone who works at Goodwill in Holland, Michigan. Elite institutions fail us. Ordinary people will save us.

He’s right about this guy’s writing. It’s excellent. And his analysis of the Mamdani-Trump meeting is spot on:

Thirty Minutes in the Lion’s Den: The Interview Trump Thought He Controlled

by Bruce Fanger

White Rose USA — November

There’s a strange thing that happens when you watch the full thirty-minute interview instead of the clipped version the internet tosses around. The edges soften. The masks slip. And you start to see the actual geometry of the interaction — where power sits, where insecurity leaks, where the tone changes, where the truth speaks by accident. The viral clip makes it look like a moment. The full meeting reveals a dynamic.

This wasn’t a showdown. It wasn’t a humiliation. It wasn’t a triumph for either man. It was something far more revealing: a case study in how a bully behaves when he can’t rely on fear, and how a principled politician behaves when he refuses the role of the victim.

. . . (Much more in this quote)

. . .

[choie]

1. I disagree.

It was a triumph for one man, and is name is Zohran Mamdani.

[returnee]

10. Nothing in the OP precludes...

…that Mamdani was not triumphant. It suggests outright that he was able to do something no other Democrat has been able to do.

[chowder66]

2. Great piece. Excellent analysis.

[Cha]

3. Wow that was Some Writing &

analysis.. brilliant actually.

lol "Why trump turned Gooey. "

TY, erronis

[erronis]

4. Thanks, Cha. I'm in awe of so many brilliant writers on these webs.

I'm happy to share segments of what I read and rarely have much to add - that wouldn't detract from the message (if that makes sense.)

[Cha]

5. Yeah, it makes sense..

Thank You!

[58Sunliner]

6. Very succinct.

"Trump compensates by overcorrecting into flattery:...It’s dominance disguised as benevolence.., digest the threat by complimenting it."

[Alice Kramden]

7. Big KnR

Great article

[Martin Eden]

8. Saving for later

Bottom line, lookz like Mamdani played him like a fiddle.

[Maru Kitteh]

9. I'll look forward to reading this more fully. Thanks!