The White House has released a motivational video of President Donald Trump offering what he calls his “life-changing lessons,” a highlight reel of his personal philosophies and recipes for success.
The 11-point list, taken from a stump speech given by Trump, is platitude-heavy and raises quite a few questions about how the presdident approaches life himself.
“Let me share some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned,” Trump says in the video, before rolling out a list of his personal discoveries that sometimes appear to contradict reality.
“First, if you think that you’re too young, let me tell you that you are wrong. You’re not too young,” he says.
However, Trump has repeatedly mocked young leaders for their age, most notably his Swedish nemesis, Greta Thunberg. When she was named TIME’s Person of the Year in 2019 at the age of 16, he tweeted: “So ridiculous. Greta must work on her Anger Management problem, then go to a good old fashioned movie with a friend! Chill Greta, Chill!”
He also belittled Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a Republican National Committee event in the same year. “The Green New Deal. Done by a young bartender, 29-years-old, wonderful young woman,” Trump said, drawing laughs from the crowd.
Next up in Trump’s list of platitudes: “I rarely see somebody successful that doesn’t love what he or she does.” And yet during his first year in office, he complained to Reuters that the presidency was “more work than in my previous life” and admitted it was hard going. “I thought it would be easier,” he said.
Another of Trump’s lessons: “Work hard.” That will raise a few eyebrows, given the fact that he has played golf for nearly 17 percent of his second presidential term, according to Trump Golf Track, which constitutes 38 full days of his 225 days in office. After an early blitz, Trump has also made fewer and fewer public appearances in the past few weeks.
Trump’s other lessons include: “Everybody should believe in the American dream! It’s real.”
Trump, however, settled a $25 million fraud case over his Trump University in 2016, which New York’s attorney general described as a scam that preyed on young people’s belief in the American dream.
“Trump and his sham for-profit college preyed on the hopes and dreams of thousands of Americans,” Eric Schneiderman said.
Students, some of whom paid up to $35,000 in tuition fees, were told they would receive exemplary training in real estate, before finding that the courses offered were mainly comprised of recycled material from the internet.
In his ninth rule, Trump scolds, “too many of our young people have been taught to think of themselves as victims,” insisting, “in America, we reject that idea.”
Trump, however, has made a political career of his own victimhood. He has reveled in the media attention of various trials and investigations that he branded “witch hunts” or declared himself to be the victim of politically-motivated judges and investigators.
Since losing to former president Joe Biden in 2020, Trump has relentlessly cast himself as the ultimate victim of a “rigged” election.
Finally, Trump closes with what he brands the “most important” principle. “I’ve learned that perseverance is everything,” he says.
But Trump’s record shows otherwise. From multiple forgotten “Infrastructure Weeks,” abandoned threats so common that he acquired the nickname TACO Trump, to a trail of broken marriages, perseverance has never been his hallmark.
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