Trump presidency like being 'stuck in an acid trip': Kurt Andersen
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President Donald Trump has rejected speculation that Donald Trump Jr. might run for mayor of New York City, telling Fox Business on Thursday that his son “wouldn't have a chance” of winning in the heavily Democratic city.
But just as his son’s mayoral victory would surprise Trump, so too does Trump’s presidential victory still feel surreal to a longtime member of the New York City press, Kurt Andersen, a left-leaning author who covered Trump’s years as a real estate mogul in the 1980s and ‘90s.
“It remains to me kind of amazing,” Andersen told Yahoo Finance on Sept. 29, before Trump contracted COVID-19. “Like [being] stuck in a nightmare, stuck in an acid trip.”
“I can't say I wake up every day surprised,” he adds. “But something like some cousin of surprise.”
Andersen, who regularly covered Trump after founding “Spy” magazine in 1986, wrote a book called “Fantasyland” three years ago that examined the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories in the United States.
“I saw what was happening to the country that made it so ripe to elect such a preposterous, monstrous person,” says Andersen, who helped coin the nickname “short-fingered vulgarian” often used in “Spy” magazine in reference to Trump. “But that doesn't mean I wasn't still surprised when he was elected.”
Andersen recounted Trump’s early considerations of a presidential run in 1988.
“It was funny,” he says. “It was a joke. He was a cartoon character.”
With less than a month until the 2020 election, Trump faces a formidable challenge from Democratic candidate Joe Biden. An average of national polls calculated by FiveThirtyEight put Biden ahead by 10.1 percentage points as of Friday morning.
On the campaign trail, Trump has touted his economic record, defended his handling of the coronavirus, and blamed the pandemic on an initial failure by China to contain it in the early days of the outbreak. On Thursday, he sought to resume campaigning less than a week after announcing he had been infected with COVID-19.
Andersen spoke to Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer in an episode of “Influencers with Andy Serwer,” a weekly interview series with leaders in business, politics, and entertainment. In August, Andersen released a new book called “Evil Geniuses,” which examines how wealthy Americans leveraged their power to dictate federal policy in their favor from the 1960s onward.
A portion of the electorate supports Trump, but he also draws strength from wealthy conservatives who benefit from his policies, Andersen said.
“I would say 30% love him...,” he says. “It would be my estimate.”
“Then there are my evil geniuses who don't love him by and large, who understand that this is the guy they got him there,” he adds. “Who the hoi polloi in their right wing coalition love, and therefore they're stuck with him.”
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