in history.

I used to watch his press conferences when he was Mayor of New York and a number of times he would be asked about some very good program and everyone, including him, wanted to do it but he would say, "We can't afford it." He's that kind of politician. I'm afraid he'd say "We can't afford it" to some important things because he's so budget-conscious (despite the fact Trump has taken this country on an obscene spending spree from which most Americans have gotten nothing in return).

I might be nuts, but I don't think Bloomberg is running to win. I know he says he's running to win, but I think he's just trying to save the country. People who don't like him might change their minds by November if it turns out he really is here to help us out. I think this guy is a patriot, and he's willing to spend a fortune to save us from four more years of Trump. Too good to be true? Maybe so, but we'll see.

Lastly, I don't think there's any love lost between these guys. I think it could be partly personal for Bloomberg: that he wants to help take Trump down.

While I agree that in terms of polls and likely outcome of the primaries, Trump is scared to run against Biden, I believe the person he has Oedipal night sweats about is Michael Bloomberg because Bloomberg can do something to Trump no other person so far has been able to do: dismember Trump’s psyche. Bloomberg can expose him completely as a fraud and a charlatan. Trump’s greatest fear is being exposed by someone more successful than him who he has no psychological defense against. If you were an FBI profiler trying to get a confession out of Trump, you’d send in Bloomberg because there’s a button inside Trump such that if the right person hits it, you’ll see Trump disintegrate like a Twinkie in a tornado. And Bloomberg is the guy to push it.

It doesn’t matter if Bloomberg is saying something that hundreds, thousands of reporters, psychiatrists, and foreign affairs experts have said before—if it comes from Michael Bloomberg it will hit a target nobody else has been able to hit.

It has to do with exposing Trump in a way he’s not capable of defending himself against. Trump has an arsenal of tools he’s relied on since childhood when he’s attacked, such as name-calling, blaming, deflecting, projecting and lying. They are childish but have been somewhat effective (early on, they were more effective) with his base. They’ve allowed him to keep his self-concept intact. But Trump has no defense mechanism against Bloomberg. For Trump, an attack by Bloomberg is almost like an attack from a glorified image of his own father—the father figure he imagines he had but didn’t, and also being attacked by the person he imagines himself to be but obviously isn’t: an actual stable genius; a (mostly) beloved New Yorker; an actual philanthropist; an actual respected billionaire; an actual successful businessman. Trump’s usual defenses will crumble because his fragile façade isn’t equipped to repel an attack from someone who actually exists in the space Trump thinks belongs to him: It’s an attack from deep inside the very place he wants to occupy.

And inversely, Bloomberg knows exactly what Trump is. Over Bloomberg’s lifetime he’s seen thousands of less-successful malignant narcissists like Trump pass through high finance. He can read Trump like an X-ray machine. Bloomberg is probably too compassionate to intentionally disgrace a lot of the losers he meets, but he won’t hesitate to slam-dunk Trump when the opportunity presents itself.

Remember, Trump and his father were very competitive and Fred Trump was an extremely demanding, controlling person. Trump shifted his real-estate aspirations to Manhattan not to try to “outdo” his father but to impress him and, importantly, avoid competing with him. But Fred Trump could never be impressed by anything Trump did, and Trump could never meet his father’s expectations. Fred Trump’s death left unfinished business between them. “Unfinished business” that someone as psychologically shrewd as Bloomberg can exploit by speaking to Trump the way a disappointed father speaks to a son he never loved. That’s why I think Bloomberg, more than anyone else, can throw Trump terminally off balance. How? Maybe with something as simple as an advertisement but probably something more creative, perhaps hitting Trump on multiple platforms, but especially a televised interview where he could speak almost directly to Trump, shaming him, humiliating him in a sophisticated manner that Trump couldn’t miss. I think one reason Bloomberg is remaining aloof from the fray is he that he knows this confrontation is coming and wants it to be meaningful, which it wouldn’t be if he were constantly in Twitter scuffles. Today we saw a glimpse of a direct confrontation between these two people.

Michael Bloomberg doesn’t actually have to win the nomination to accomplish this. He can attack Trump at the time and place of his choosing. He’d probably wait until closer to the election because he’s also a superior strategist. But in the unlikely event that Trump is stupid enough to keep attacking him (which surprises me, actually), it could come sooner.

Trump is taking a risk here because his low self esteem could be decimated by someone like Bloomberg who is so much more successful in the very ways Trump values and defines 'success'. I thought Trump might totally avoid even invoking Bloomberg's name, but it looks like it's game on. But I bet it won't last long.

EDIT: There's also the peripheral issue of 'Does Trump see his father when he sees Michael Bloomberg' in terms of how he will approach confronting him.

Layman Pang was sitting in his thatched cottage one day [studying the sūtras]. "Difficult, difficult," he said; "like trying to scatter ten measures of sesame seed all over a tree."

"Easy, easy," Mrs. Pang said; "like touching your feet to the ground when you get out of bed."

"Neither difficult nor easy," their daughter Ling Zhao said; "on the hundred grass tips, the great Masters' meaning."


From The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell.

Edited for clarity of who is talking.

is that he'll have spent somewhere around $650 million (including but not limited to golf) by the end of 2020. By the way, does this include protection for Jared, Ivanka, Don Jr., Eric, etc...?