The Great Gatsby, Trump, and Netanyahu

I recently saw a summary of the Great Gatsby which provides a parable for the leadership, or lack thereof, that is an example of back up and when it doesn’t appear. Most know the essence of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s wonderful book, The Great Gatsby, Nick Callaway’s famous analogy that applies to Trump, Vance, Natenhayu. Tom and Daisy were careless people who smashed things up and then returned to their money and refuge after as their vast carelessness. They helded them together and let other people clean up the mess that they had made.

Trump, Vance, and Netanyahu miscalculated the staying power of Iran because of a character flaw that they had. They chose to have sycophants with whom to surround themselves and purged their parties of anyone that would stand to oppose them. It is a flaw that leads to the destruction we see today because those in power with them continued to support them in anything that would be characterized as “back up” by telling them what Trump and Vance wanted to hear. That is the worst form of leadership that one can imagine, and the results are that Trump, Vance, Netanyahu have no place that makes sense as a solution to the dilemma. It is the wrong kind of “back up” that has led them to the abyss.

We see this phenomenon as central to Trump, Vance and Netanyahu’s lack of leadership that has led us to this place of seeming no return. During the televised TV coverage of Trump’s cabinet meetings, we watch each person go around the room and tell Trump that he is great and they are so fortunate to be serving in his cabinet. Notice whenever Hegseth gets in a tight spot when in an interview before Congress, he changes the narrative as an attack on Trump by the Democrats. “Trump is the one person who is courageous enough to take on Iran. Others were too afraid.” Netanyahu is quick to back on the right side of the red line when Trump calls him back from a red line of when he can or cannot attack. Trump knows this which makes it worse. Yesterday when he was in his office and the President of Jordan paid him a compliment about being a great leader, Trump looked at the camera and said with a smile, “he knows what I like to hear.” It was a joke if nothing was at stake.

Recall that many others warned us before his recent election that there would be no guardrails to limit him.

The Republicans have lacked courage, but they themselves are caught between a rock and a hard place with the midterms on the horizon. Hindsight is 20/20 vision, but we should look at how another Republican who led our nation with a troublesome event, if not more so, than the Iran debacle. It is Lincoln. Doris Keans Goodwin in her book, A Tribe of Rivals, explores what set apart Lincoln from the current administration. Lincoln wanted people who were around him who held different viewpoints than he had so he would get a picture of all the angles that should be explored of what would be best for unifying our country.

Now Trump finds himself in a quagmire with no one to bail him out as he creates the mess that needs to be cleaned up similar to Nick and Daisy. But there is something more that Fitzgerald  tells us that captures that Nick and Daisy go back their lives where there refuge is status and money.

I once believed that Trump grifted out of greed as nothing of a monetary value is ever enough. He is a person with an empty soul.   But art does imitate life and vice versa. I watched him as he was roasted by various news people. He does have a charming side to him. I am now seeing him like Tom and Daisy who break things and then return to their refuge of wealth. Their tragic sense of life written by a book with the same title, Miquel de Unamuno captures the essence of life being caught between reason and what is right with matters of the heart. It could be that Trump struggles with intimacy and empathy. Still, he smashes things up and can’t find his way home to his heart. This failure places him in the sphere of loneliness.

It is found simply in a question that is his nightmare. To whom does he turn, if he needed help at 3 on the morning about a personal matter? His back up is only power and money which never addresses the pain that he experiences that makes him vulnerable.