'This is exhausting'

“I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT!” That’s what Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform this week. He’s a little late. Most of the rest of America figured out whether they were Swifties or haters at least three albums ago. Of course, Trump wasn’t referring to the billionaire pop star’s music, but to her endorsement of his rival Kamala Harris. I can’t imagine any other president reacting with such petulance. Nixon or Johnson might have thought something similar if a superstar opposed them, but they would never have uttered it in public.

The only former world leaders I can think of with a similar small-mindedness and lack of impulse control are would-be authoritarians: the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, for example, who once called the U.S. ambassador a “gay son of a bitch.” Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, who said a congresswoman was too ugly to be “worth raping.” Or outgoing Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who has labeled rivals and journalists “pimps” and “dirt.” Yet even they had more self-discipline than to throw a tantrum about a singer.