National Review senior editor Charles C. W. Cooke, on today’s episode of The Editors, says Democrats have got it “backward” in their criticism of Trump’s McDonald’s visit.
“The criticism of Trump,” said Cooke, “is that he is fake, phony, ersatz. And he’s not. That is completely wrong. Trump is unique, genuine. And this is both a huge asset for him and his biggest liability.”
Cooke pointed out that “Trump is what he is. What you see is what you get. And you can tell this because if you watch the extended footage from the McDonald’s visit, he is absolutely obsessed, thrilled even, overjoyed to learn that no human hands touched the fries. He keeps telling the customers this because he’s a germaphobe.”
What made this appearance stick, however, “is that he shows up,” Cooke said. “He doesn’t even pretend to do the ‘man of the people’ thing. As Noah said, he shows up in a tie and a suit. . . . He shows up as what he is.”
Cooke was clear that “the dark side of Donald Trump is also real. And it’s his big problem. It is why he is a threat. But it’s totally backward, this critique. This is who he is. It’s not who he’s pretending to be.”
The Editors podcast is recorded on Tuesdays and Fridays every week and is available wherever you listen to podcasts.