Donald Trump On Getting Mad AND Getting Even - The Twissing of John Lewis

I've decided to create a portmanteau - "Twiss" - a combination of Tweet and Diss. Since twist is already a word, it might not work, but we'll see how it goes.  And of course the Twisser In Chief is Donald Trump.

Donald Trump celebrated the Martin Luther King Day prior to his inauguration by twissing John Lewis, one of the 13 original Freedom Riders.

Congressman John Lewis should finally focus on the burning and crime infested inner-cities of the U.S. I can use all the help I can get!

Of course when you consider that he knocked John McCain for being captured, I guess it is not a surprise.

As it happens, Trump actually explained this type of behavior in one of his books.  Think Big And Kick Ass In Business And Life. which he coauthored with Bill Zanker.

Think Big is like many of the books that the worst managing partner I ever had used to encourage us to read.  There is some good advice in there, but there is something off about the whole thing.  What is in there that you won't find in many self-help books is a chapter titled Revenge.

He starts it out with "I always get even".  He gives a couple of examples of people who he considered disloyal because they did not come through for him when it was time for them to pay him back for what he had done for them.  He had the same beef with Martha Stewart.

He had been "her single biggest promoter" on the Apprentice and never once did she call him to say "Donald, thank you very much".  Then when the show failed she blamed him.

He wrote a scathing letter "Your performance was terrible.", etc., etc.

My motto is: Always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades.

Then there was a dispute with Rose O'Donnell who criticized him for giving Miss USA a second chance.  He had a choice.  He could attack back or let it pass.  This far into the chapter it was not hard to guess his choice.  On Entertainment Tonight and several other shows, he lashed out calling her a slob who talks like a truck driver.

There's 26 minutes worth of back and forth.

In the Q&A, Trump reinforces his revenge based world view.  On people in general, he writes:

In truth, it's a cruel world and people are ruthless.  They act nice to your face, but underneath they're out to kill you.  You have to know how to defend yourself.  People will be mean and nasty and try to hurt you just for sport.

To a question about what to do when someone intentionally harms you, he replies.

When someone crosses you, my advice is "Get even!".  This is not typical advice, but it is real-life advice.  If you do not get even, you are just as schmuck! When people wrong you, go after those people, because it is a good feeling and because other people will see you doing it.  I love getting even.

So that pretty well accounts for a goodly percentage of Trump's tweets.  The problem he might have is that being twissed by Trump is going to turn into a badge of honor in some circles.

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Peter J Reilly CPA thinks Donald Trump would do well as the managing partner of a regional accounting firm.  Leader of the free world, maybe not so much.