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Inside the Billion-Dollar Effort to Make Trump Feel Good About Himself
Trump’s administration is marshaling vast public resources and more than $1 billion worth of taxpayer money to flatter the president
NEW: Inside the Billion-Dollar Effort to Make Trump Feel Good About Himself
— Rolling Stone (@rollingstone.com) 2025-06-06T13:00:51.258Z
Trump’s administration is marshaling vast public resources and more than billion worth of taxpayer money to flatter the president.
Full story: www.rollingstone.com/politics/pol...
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/donald-trump-dear-leader-bondi-noem-republican-propaganda-1235356187/
Trump sat with his arms under the table, calling on his deputies one by one. They thanked him effusively. They touted his leadership and fearlessness. They laughed along as he joked about the federal judges blocking his administration’s agenda, including his efforts to send immigrants to foreign jails without due process. Bondi was ready to perform after Vance calmly explained to the assembled media that they should be reporting on Trump’s historic accomplishments rather than “fake BS.” Bondi wasn’t so calm. She cleared her throat.
“Mr. President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country ever … ever,” she said, awkwardly emphatic. “Never seen anything like it. Thank you. Your directive to me was very simple: Make America safe. And, despite that, we’ve still been defending over 200 civil lawsuits filed against you.”
Bondi read some statistics about the government’s fentanyl seizures, “which saved — are you ready for this, media?” She turned to the camera. “258 million lives.” She turned back to Trump. “Kids are dying every day because they’re taking this junk,” she said. “They’re dropping dead, and no longer, because of you, what you’ve done.”
It’s unclear what kind of math Bondi used to determine that Trump saved the lives of 258 million Americans, equal to around 75 percent of the nation’s population. She had said the previous day that Trump had saved a comparatively modest “119 million lives.” A source with knowledge of the matter says Bondi intentionally inflated the number at the Cabinet meeting not just to flatter Trump, but to troll the media. Regardless, the exaggeration was so absurd that even White House officials were howling with laughter about it later......
Trump’s demands for flattery are costing a fortune. His new administration is only a few months in, and already the total price of just three such initiatives — a flashy, Trump-flattering ad campaign from the Department of Homeland Security, a gigantic military parade in Washington, D.C., on Trump’s birthday, and the repurposing of a palatial airplane from Qatar as Trump’s new Air Force One that he can use in his post-presidency — will easily top $1 billion. And that’s just the beginning.
The sprawling efforts to flatter Trump are about more than serving his ego, according to Anthony DiMaggio, author of Rising Fascism in America: It Can Happen Here. “They have to do with a president who needs to be not only at the center of a media circus, but who needs to be told ritualistically over and over how great he is,” DiMaggio says. “What’s interesting to me about this, as a political scientist, is that it’s not just a personality-based thing or a defect. It’s a broader pattern that has to do with behaviors that are overlapping with authoritarian politics and ideology.”.....
The all-encompassing effort to satiate Trump’s ego — in Cabinet meetings, TV appearances, and beyond, throughout multiple branches of government — has been essential to the president’s autocratic efforts. Trump and his administration have plunged the United States into a series of constitutional crises, engaged in overt corruption, and overseen genuine democratic backsliding — all of it buttressed by propaganda designed to further inflame his personality cult......
‘Trump’s Birthday Parade’
The administration’s propaganda around every arm of its policies is in service of Trump’s emotions. He must be thanked for closing the border. He must be praised for his haphazard tariff scheme throwing the economy into chaos, which officials insisted proved his dealmaking prowess, even as financial markets cratered. Bondi talks about fentanyl seizures as if Trump himself is cuffing drug runners. The most pointed example of the administration’s slavish devotion to the president’s self-image isn’t on the cable-news airwaves, though. It’s within the walls of the White House, which has been transformed into a veritable shrine to his visage.
A garish painting of Trump raising his fist after the assassination attempt against him near Butler, Pennsylvania, last year has replaced a portrait of Barack Obama. A tacky portrait of Trump with the American flag superimposed across his face — the same image he has long used as his Truth Social avatar — has been crammed in between paintings of former First Ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush. The West Wing walls now feature a piece of boardwalk-caliber art depicting Trump, Ronald Reagan, and Abraham Lincoln posing in front of the American flag together. Trump is in the foreground. (The art retails online for $27.)
“Mr. President, your first 100 days has far exceeded that of any other presidency in this country ever … ever,” she said, awkwardly emphatic. “Never seen anything like it. Thank you. Your directive to me was very simple: Make America safe. And, despite that, we’ve still been defending over 200 civil lawsuits filed against you.”
Bondi read some statistics about the government’s fentanyl seizures, “which saved — are you ready for this, media?” She turned to the camera. “258 million lives.” She turned back to Trump. “Kids are dying every day because they’re taking this junk,” she said. “They’re dropping dead, and no longer, because of you, what you’ve done.”
It’s unclear what kind of math Bondi used to determine that Trump saved the lives of 258 million Americans, equal to around 75 percent of the nation’s population. She had said the previous day that Trump had saved a comparatively modest “119 million lives.” A source with knowledge of the matter says Bondi intentionally inflated the number at the Cabinet meeting not just to flatter Trump, but to troll the media. Regardless, the exaggeration was so absurd that even White House officials were howling with laughter about it later......
Trump’s demands for flattery are costing a fortune. His new administration is only a few months in, and already the total price of just three such initiatives — a flashy, Trump-flattering ad campaign from the Department of Homeland Security, a gigantic military parade in Washington, D.C., on Trump’s birthday, and the repurposing of a palatial airplane from Qatar as Trump’s new Air Force One that he can use in his post-presidency — will easily top $1 billion. And that’s just the beginning.
The sprawling efforts to flatter Trump are about more than serving his ego, according to Anthony DiMaggio, author of Rising Fascism in America: It Can Happen Here. “They have to do with a president who needs to be not only at the center of a media circus, but who needs to be told ritualistically over and over how great he is,” DiMaggio says. “What’s interesting to me about this, as a political scientist, is that it’s not just a personality-based thing or a defect. It’s a broader pattern that has to do with behaviors that are overlapping with authoritarian politics and ideology.”.....
The all-encompassing effort to satiate Trump’s ego — in Cabinet meetings, TV appearances, and beyond, throughout multiple branches of government — has been essential to the president’s autocratic efforts. Trump and his administration have plunged the United States into a series of constitutional crises, engaged in overt corruption, and overseen genuine democratic backsliding — all of it buttressed by propaganda designed to further inflame his personality cult......
‘Trump’s Birthday Parade’
The administration’s propaganda around every arm of its policies is in service of Trump’s emotions. He must be thanked for closing the border. He must be praised for his haphazard tariff scheme throwing the economy into chaos, which officials insisted proved his dealmaking prowess, even as financial markets cratered. Bondi talks about fentanyl seizures as if Trump himself is cuffing drug runners. The most pointed example of the administration’s slavish devotion to the president’s self-image isn’t on the cable-news airwaves, though. It’s within the walls of the White House, which has been transformed into a veritable shrine to his visage.
A garish painting of Trump raising his fist after the assassination attempt against him near Butler, Pennsylvania, last year has replaced a portrait of Barack Obama. A tacky portrait of Trump with the American flag superimposed across his face — the same image he has long used as his Truth Social avatar — has been crammed in between paintings of former First Ladies Hillary Clinton and Laura Bush. The West Wing walls now feature a piece of boardwalk-caliber art depicting Trump, Ronald Reagan, and Abraham Lincoln posing in front of the American flag together. Trump is in the foreground. (The art retails online for $27.)
trump is a small child who needs his ego constantly stroked