Authoritarianism Expert Explains Why Libertarian Boos Will Be 'Lethal Blow' For Trump
Authoritarianism expert Ruth Ben-Ghiat explained the impact that getting booed at the Libertarian Party National Convention may have on former President Donald Trump.
On Sunday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Ben-Ghiat said the relentless jeering of the presumptive GOP nominee on Saturday was “so interesting,” given how he’s been stuck in a New York courtroom amid his ongoing hush money trial, and that he likely feels “he has to be everywhere and he actually needs those cheers for his ego all the more.”
Trump may have known he would be booed during his address to the Libertarian Party audience, said Ben-Ghiat, a New York University history professor and author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present.”
“But the booing is also a kind of lethal blow to the kind of ego that the strongman has, because the secret of the strongman is that they’re very weak and they’re very brittle,” she added. “And so, right now, I think he’s going everywhere also because he’s desperate for attention that is not him falling asleep in the courtroom.”
Watch from the 4:20 point here:
Earlier this year, Ben-Ghiat said that “autocrats are fragile and insecure creatures” who use ritual humiliation to stay ahead of their rivals.
The professor has previously warned that Trump will never leave office should he win back the White House in November’s election, and has described the GOP as “an autocratic party operating in a democracy.”