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Friday
I experienced a shock of recognition when I watched the stage action following Donald Trump’s recent victory over Nikki Haley in the New Hampshire primary. My faculty reading group had just begun discussing King Lear, and when I saw South Carolina Senator Tim Scott tell Donald Trump, “I love you, man,” I felt I was watching Lear’s love test for his three daughters all over again, with Scott playing the role of the two. older sisters.
I’ve compared Trump to Lear many times on this blog, and applying the play to Scott’s recent declaration solidifies the connection even more. Both Trump and Lear are narcissists, and the loneliness and insecurity that arise from thinking you are the center of the universe explains why they administer love tests in the first place. Somewhere deep inside they feel they are unworthy of being loved and so use their power to force declarations of love from others.
Throughout Trump’s presidency, we witnessed numerous instances of him demanding that subordinates sing his praises. The same dynamic played out in Scott’s “I love you, man.” Here’s Goneril’s own declaration:
Sir, I love you more than words can wield the matter;
Dearer than eye-sight, space, and liberty;
Beyond what can be valued, rich or rare;
No less than life, with grace, health, beauty, honour;
As much as child e’er loved, or father found;
A love that makes breath poor, and speech unable;
Beyond all manner of so much I love you.
And now Regan’s:
Sir, I am made
Of the self-same metal that my sister is,
And prize me at her worth. In my true heart
I find she names my very deed of love;
Only she comes too short: that I profess
Myself an enemy to all other joys,
Which the most precious square of sense possesses;
And find I am alone felicitate
In your dear highness’ love.
By professing such love, however insincerely, Goneril and Regan get that piece of the kingdom originally intended for Cordelia. By his profession of love, Scott ensures that no other Republican will run against him when he is up for reelection. Perhaps Trump will even choose him for running mate.
Rather than bask in his triumph, however, Trump unloaded on Haley with the same fury that Lear directs toward Cordelia. After all, she had had the temerity to stand up to him. Therefore, after Scott endorsed him for president, he had to make sure the Scott hated Haley as much as he did. His comment—”And you’re the senator of her state. And [you] endorsed me. You must really hate her”—is what drew Scott’s declaration of love.
While Nikki has mostly soft-pedaled her criticisms of Trump, that’s not enough for the ex-president. It’s the same with Cordelia. Her “I love your majesty according to my bond; nor more nor less” is essentially a refusal to play Lear’s narcissistic game. In doing so, however, she appears to confirm—at least as he sees it—what he secretly fears to be the truth, which is that he is unlovable. As a result, he erupts:
[B]y the sacred radiance of the sun,
The mysteries of Hecate, and the night;
By all the operation of the orbs
From whom we do exist, and cease to be;
Here I disclaim all my paternal care,
Propinquity and property of blood,
And as a stranger to my heart and me
Hold thee, from this, for ever. The barbarous Scythian,
Or he that makes his generation messes
To gorge his appetite, shall to my bosom
Be as well neighbour’d, pitied, and relieved,
As thou my sometime daughter.
Trump was less poetic but just as angry:
Who the hell was the imposter who went up on the stage before, and like, claimed a victory? You can’t let people get away with bullshit. And when I watched her in the fancy dress that probably wasn’t so fancy, I said, “What’s she doing? We won.”
And later:
I don’t get too angry. I get even.
To Scott’s declaration, meanwhile, Trump responded, “That’s why he’s a great politician!” In other words, he didn’t believe him, just as Lear, deep down, probably doesn’t believe Goneril or Regan. Nevertheless, to prop up this fragile self, he needs to hear the words.
If Trump ever loses his power, he is likely to find himself rejected by Republicans no less than Lear is by Goneril and Regan. I can imagine him railing at their ingratitude–How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is to have a thankless child!”–and the turning him out into the storm.