We first meet him as an aging, bumbling dictator who uses theatrics and tricks to fool the people. Dishonest, but well-meaning.
An accidental leader.
Some years later, there has been a fundamental change in his character. He is a former circus performer-turned-manipulator who uses control and deceit to rule. He is no longer looking out for his citizens, but for himself.
A tyrant.
He still relies on smoke and mirrors. No dissent is tolerated. No disbelievers.
The Wizard of Oz to Wicked. Two movies, two very different times, and, in many ways, two different wizards.
But ultimately, the only way they can sustain their power as they grow older is to withdraw and hide behind the character they have created.
Wounded by his election loss to Joe Biden in 2020, a vengeful Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, hell-bent on imposing his will. The 47th president is in many ways a darker version of 45.
Trump is taking Washington as his own, politically and now physically, with nearly 2,000 troops patrolling the streets. His White House acolytes behave with the brash certainty of the brainwashed. ICE is everywhere, masked and mean.
His name was once on hotels. Now it’s on everyone’s lips.
But the big character that Trump has projected for years, long before he was a reality show performer on television, is getting harder to maintain. At 79, it is almost impossible to keep up the blistering pace of his shock-and-awe return to the Oval Office.
In the first month of his second term, Trump answered more than 1,000 questions from the media—seven times as many as Joe Biden answered in the same period. According to the American Presidency Project, Trump is on course for an average of 352 exchanges with reporters in 2025 if he keeps up the current pace.
For a wizard like Trump, invincibility is a given. He simply cannot accept weakness. His osteopathic physician, Capt. Sean Barbabella, gave him a clean bill of health in April, writing that the president “remains in excellent health, exhibiting robust cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and general physical function. His active lifestyle continues to contribute significantly to his well-being. President Trump’s days include participation in multiple meetings, public appearances, press availability, and frequent victories in golf events. President Trump exhibits excellent cognitive and physical health and is fully fit to execute the duties of the Commander-in-Chief and Head of State.”
But there have been signs lately that age is catching up with the oldest person to assume the presidency at 78 years and seven months in January.
We’re told Trump is too proud to wear compression socks, the cheapest and easiest method to deal with cankles, but he can hide his legs behind the Resolute Desk.
Tans are easy and effective. You can buy a spray called “Two Weeks in Cabo” for $200, and nobody can tell you haven’t left the house. But you do have to take off your socks.
It’s harder to hide the gaps in mental acuity that reveal themselves in rambling answers and drops in concentration that lead to memory lapses. Trump forgot the name of the Atlantic Ocean on Fox & Friends this week, and the countries in the six wars he claimed to resolve.
It’s helpful to remember names in the Oval Office, especially if you’re meeting world leaders. He didn’t recognize Finnish President Alexander Stubb, one of the Europeans paying court as back-up to Volodymyr Zelensky.
To be fair, not many other Americans would recognize him either, but he was sitting right in front of the president at the White House on Monday. Perhaps Monica Crowley, ex-Fox News contributor and now head of West Wing protocol, should have handed out name tags.
Whatever you think of his throw-it-all-against-the-wall diplomacy, Trump is still working at an extraordinary rate. He left the White House for Alaska and Vladimir Putin at 6:45 a.m. on Friday and returned at 2:48 a.m. on Saturday morning.
At least the Air Force One pilot wasn’t following his directions. Trump twice said earlier that the summit was planned for Russia and called St. Petersburg by its Cold War name, “Leningrad.”
On Monday, Trump was all on again with the visit from Zelensky and his cohort of Europeans.
No wonder critics are saying he looks tired. The cracks are showing, as they inevitably will. As a result, the off-the-cuff sessions with the press have slowed down. There are days when Trump doesn’t venture in front of the cameras at all.
“This is normally the time when the president goes on vacation, but not this president,” Karoline Leavitt said proudly on Tuesday. It wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I’m told Palm Beach is empty this week.
Trump was controlling the musical playlist at the time, as he likes to. “A Whiter Shade of Pale” by Procol Harum boomed out of the speakers. Time for another tan.
The president still has more than three years of this to go. If you take him seriously, it may be more.
We get shorter as we age, due to changes in the spine and a decrease in bone density. That probably explains why Trump isn’t as tall as he claims. Does he look like 6-foot-3-inches to you?
He may well step back further from the limelight he loves. Back down his gold-bricked road. The image is so much bigger than he is now.
It’s the mark of the enduring autocrat. They are ever-present, but never there.
As he ages, Trump will retreat to the Emerald City, leaving the press with Truth Social and Karoline Leavitt.
Will he go to heaven? That’s for others to decide.
But we could all end up in Oz.
The post Opinion: Why Shrinking Trump May Become the Wicked President of Oz appeared first on The Daily Beast.
