Making Sense of POTUS: Part III--Traits 3 and 4

Having taken a close look at the first two of the nine traits that Donald Trump publicly and consistently portrays, let's now turn our attention to Traits 3 and 4. 

As a reminder, they are: 

3. POTUS will not take responsibility for any ill-conceived action   
    or comment, however intense the blowback is. 

4. When he is forced to confront his bad behavior, he ignores it, 
    denies it, or rationalizes it as the result of being victimized.

The best example of Mr. Trump's patent refusal, and probable inability, to genuinely own up to bad behavior is his response to the blowback from none other than the only mistake for which he has apologized!



Here are the facts. On October 7, 2016, the Washington Post released a video revealing a 2005 conversation between Donald Trump and radio personality Billy Bush (both of whom were almost certainly unaware that their mics were still hot). In it, Trump admits to trying to bed Bush's married co-host and says, 

I'm automatically attracted to beautiful women. I just start kissing them. Its like a magnet. I don't even wait. And when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything--grab them by the pussy--you can do anything.

This is a direct admission of sexual assault (without a specific victim), and the political blowback was fierce. It included stinging responses--in various forms and forums--from the following twenty prominent, vocal Republicans: RNC Chair Reince Preibis, Mitt Romney, John Kasich, Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan,

Bill Hassan, Robert Bentley, Bradley Byrne, Jason Chaffetz, Joe Heck, Kelly Ayotte, Mike Crapo, John McCain, John Huntsman, Dan Sullivan, Corey Gardner, Deb Fisher, Rodney Davis, Anne Wagner, and--importantly--Mike Pence. 

Unprecedentedly, and perhaps owing to the election being a month hence, Donald Trump apologized. Or so it seemed. Here's the entire transcript.

I’ve never said I’m a perfect person, nor pretended to be someone that I’m not. I’ve said and done things I regret, and the wordsreleased today on this more than a decade-old video are one of them.

Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am. I said it, I was wrong, and I apologize. I’ve traveled the country talking about change for America, but my travels have also changed me. I’ve spent time with grieving mothers who’ve lost their children, laid-off workers whose jobs have gone to other countries, and people from all walks of life who just want a better future. I have gotten to know the great people of our country, and I’ve been humbled by the faith they’ve placed in me. I pledge to be a better man tomorrow and will never, ever let you down.

Let’s be honest — we’re living in the real world. This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we’re facing today. We are losing our jobs, we’re less safe than we were eight years ago, and Washington is totally broken. Hillary Clinton and her kind have run our country into the ground.

I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people. 

Bill Clinton has actually abused women, and Hillary has bullied, attacked, shamed and intimidated his victims. We will discuss this more in the coming days. See you at the debate on Sunday.

Ignoring the meaningless first paragraph (and its poor grammar), paragraphs 2 - 5 clearly show the insincerity and manipulativeness of POTUS' apology; an apology tucked between buffoonish excuses and brand burnishing. Here's the analysis. 

"Anyone who knows me knows these words don’t reflect who I am." In this, his very first substantive comment, he literally disowns what he is about to apologize for. A nine word apology follows, after which he asserts that he has changed. How? As a result of the humility that he acquired by traveling to console bereaved mothers and the unemployed. This is interesting rhetoric for several reasons. 

• Most importantly, Mr. Trump apologized for what he said, not for the behavior that he was describing
• POTUS seems to be implying that he was assaulting women into his sixties, given that his political travels started then. Remember, these travels availed him of the widows and paupers from whom he allegedly learned the humility that caused him to change.
• He talks about helping women to provide a counterweight to the assault charge. Further, his description of himself as emotionally supportive is an attempt to induce identification.
• Mentioning the unemployed allows a pivot into campaign mode which, needless to say, has no place in the midst of an "apology".

"This is nothing more than a distraction from the important issues we’re facing today." Simply said, this completely nullifies Donald Trump's apology. It also allows him, thematically speaking, to keep stumping.

"I’ve said some foolish things, but there’s a big difference between the words and actions of other people." Here, the President is employing that argument so often heard in middle school, 'Yea, but what they did was worse'. This is rationalization and minimization in service of exculpation.

In other words he's not really sorry, which incontrovertibly proves the accuracy of Attributes 3 and 4. 

TRUMP-NOCCIO