A manuscript of a book by former national security adviser John Bolton alleges a direct link between President Donald Trump’s request for an investigation into political rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter and withholding security aid from Ukraine, the New York Times reported Sunday.
Unsurprisingly, Trump and his supporters were quick to dismiss Bolton’s firsthand and potentially incriminating insights. As the situation worsens for the president, both he and his legal team will continue to peddle a self-victimizing “witch hunt” narrative to divert focus away from the facts and rile his base, just as he often does.
We should not allow him to do so. Self-victimizing narratives, such as the bogus one which Trump will use to defend himself to the American public, are dangerous rhetorical strategies that citizens should not tolerate from their elected leaders or from fellow members of society.
Being accountable is how you earn trust – it is like an insurance policy that you purchase through the credit of your word. In the Trump era, however, an age where accountability is besieged by greed and misinformation, most politicians go uninsured. Thus it seems natural that 81% of Americans believe that members of Congress behave unethically “some” or “all or most of the time.”
As a rhetorical tactic, self-victimization attempts to liquidize the credibility of criticisms by fabricating a narrative of persecution. Doing so frames any sort of negative scrutiny, even if it is supported by facts, as a cruel and unwarranted attack on a victim.
From his Twitter tantrums to his unabashed entitlement, nobody embodies the spirit of self-victimization quite like the president. It’s as if he thinks he is immune to every federal investigation he labels a "witch hunt," a phrase he has tweeted 344 times, according to archives of his tweets.
In Trump’s narrative, as with all self-victimization, the would-be victim is not being subjected to reasonable scrutiny, but is instead being hunted by sadistic inquisitors eager to draw and quarter their innocent prey.
There have been numerous examples. First it was the “white plight” narrative that he peddled to his core constituency to win the election. Then it was the Russian collusion. Now, it’s impeachment.
One of the worst examples was when Trump had the audacity in 2018 to demand an apology from Bob Iger for the “HORRIBLE comments” made about him on ABC. The kicker is that this was Trump’s response to Roseanne Barr’s tweet comparing Valerie Jarrett, a black former Obama adviser, to a monkey.
Only a merciless, shameless victim complex explains how a white billionaire president can ride the coattails of a racism scandal to fish for undeserved pity.
The problem is that Trump is normalizing self-victimization, both in the public sphere and in the hearts and minds of his acolytes. Since day one he has spun the yarn that the media, liberals, the “deep state” and every microorganism not wearing a “Make America Great Again” hat is a conspirator in some dastardly scheme to subvert his reign. Last Wednesday, the second day of the impeachment trial, he set his personal record of 142 combined tweets and retweets in a single day, most of which were personal insults slingshotted at his political enemies.
And the impeachment trial will only continue to amplify Trump and his supporters’ indignant cries for mercy. Conservative pundits will surely remember the trial as history’s biggest sham and lament how easy Caesar had it compared to Trump.
The normalization of self-victimizing in today’s society poses a serious threat to actual victims. Despite their protests, the disadvantaged and most vulnerable members of society will suffer a blow to their general credibility as long as others seek cheap validation for their plight, be it real or imagined.
Don’t give self-victimizers, like the president, the attention they so desperately crave. If, like the president, they can’t be ignored, their tactics can at least be shunned.
Our commitment to eradicating self-victimization can be affirmed through action. Acknowledge when you or a friend begins to self-victimize and nip it in the bud. It’s the only way to stop the Donald Trumps of the world from getting away with his crimes and feeling righteous about it, too.
Carter Cooley (he/him) is a junior studying political science. After graduating he plans to go into political campaign management.
