Last Monday, the Iowa caucuses marked the beginning of the 2016 Presidential primary elections, in which a candidate is chosen to represent each party in the upcoming presidential election. Republican candidate Donald Trump placed second in the Iowa caucuses behind Ted Cruz, despite the image he has built for himself as “the winner.”
For someone so confident in his role as a winner, Trump has turned out to be quite the sore loser. After the results of the caucuses were announced Monday night, Trump gave a surprisingly gracious speech accepting his second place, expressing gratitude for the people of Iowa, and even congratulating Cruz on his win.
This out-of-character phase did not last long, however, as the next morning, he started a tirade on Twitter, throwing a tantrum about not winning the Iowa caucus. He started mildly, making some excuses and defending his second place, saying “Because I was told I could not do well in Iowa, I spent very little there — a fraction of Cruz & Rubio. Came in a strong second. Great honor.”
Critics have noted that after portraying himself as a winner, the best way for Trump to make a comeback is to repaint himself as the underdog. He could show his second place as an accomplishment since he was competing against seasoned politicians, but his belligerent persona and huge ego simply would not allow him to accept that someone bested him.
His tweets spiraled down quickly as he began to accuse the media of not covering his “long-shot great finish in Iowa” fairly, and blaming the voters for not giving him enough credit for self-funding his own campaign. Yes, Donald — blaming the voters will make them so much more inclined to vote for you.
Trump later begins attacking Cruz directly, saying: “Ted Cruz didn’t win Iowa, he stole it. That is why all of the polls were so wrong and why he got far more votes than anticipated. Bad!” This is in response to a fiasco that occurred the night of the caucuses in which Cruz’s campaign disseminated the incorrect information that Ben Carson was leaving the race and encouraged Carson supporters to vote for Cruz instead. Cruz later apologized for his staff’s mistake.
On Wednesday, Trump said on Twitter, “Based on the fraud committed by Senator Ted Cruz during the Iowa Caucus, either a new election should take place or Cruz results nullified.” If he had won, he would have had no problem with what Ted Cruz had done. But instead, he’s called for “Ted Cruz [to] be immediately disqualified in Iowa, with each candidate moving up one notch.” Instead of moving on and focusing on New Hampshire,he is keeping his loss in the media and in front of voters’ eyes.
For Trump, getting the candidacy is not about helping the country as much as it is about feeding his own ego. Just because he has had financial success (using a fortune his father left him), does not mean he will have success in the political realm, and he cannot face this truth. Think of the complex of a spoiled only-child; the pride and joy of his parents. For years, his mother has been coddling him and he is convinced that he is the greatest thing to walk this Earth. When he goes off to kindergarten, he cannot stand being anything but first in line.
Not unlike this spoiled kindergartener, Trump has just stepped out of his sphere and now he’s floundering because he has always gotten his way. He has somehow gotten this far with his blusterous personality, but do we really want a president who will throw a hissy fit when a bill he proposes is not passed? How would he react if he was wronged by another country?
Right now, Trump is still mostly harmless: yelling, tweeting and sulking whenever he loses. Being President of the United States, however, requires a diplomatic and compromising spirit which he simply does not possess. With such a volatile personality and monstrous ego, I shudder to think of a country led by Trump.
Follow Apoorva Bhaskara on Twitter.
