Our current president and former reality television star Donald J. Trump is obsessed with celebrity — always has been.
He’s preoccupied with his own fame and how it compares to others in the public sphere, always has been.
Ascending to the presidency of the world’s most powerful nation has done nothing to fill that deep dark hole in the man’s soul that renders him incapable of ignoring a perceived slight from a prominent, public persona.
I guarantee to you, Page Six is top of the pile in his daily security briefing.
Trump loves gossip, he’s trafficked in it for years. It’s part of his DNA. The digital receipts are plentiful.
He’s tweeted about Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart and Miley Cyrus, not to mention his bizarre and ongoing feud with Rosie O’Donnell.
Now in his second term and imbued with a renewed sense of shamelessness, Trump has decided to take his ever expanding list of celebrity grievances to the A-List.
Trump is going to war with Springsteen.
Picking fights with Bruce Springsteen is pretty ambitious for a guy who hangs out with Kid Rock.
Tweeting catty comments at Katy Perry and Alec Baldwin is one thing, but going after the Boss? That’s big-game hunting.
Bruce isn’t the only A-lister to run afoul of the President. Beyoncé, Oprah and Taylor Swift have all been targeted for their support of the opposition, and now Springsteen, who had the audacity to exercise his right to free speech and criticize Trump’s policies in a public setting.
Springsteen has been using his platform and calling out the needless cruelty of Trump’s policies at his concerts, which in turn elicited insults and attempts at intimidation from Trump.
The president’s response to a superstar musician criticizing how he’s running the country is to launch vague threats about not letting him back in the country. Silencing of critics is authoritarian level nonsense and the president’s willingness to go after celebrity members of the opposition is both incredibly petty and terrifying.
Lashing out at celebrities scratches the attention itch for Trump.
He has a pathological need to command the news cycle and be the center of attention. He figured out long ago that if you can’t grab the spotlight with raw talent, being an unconscionable jerk is a reasonable substitute.
Also, let’s not overlook the jealousy factor.
Trump spent the first 60 years of his life craving the acceptance of New York society, Fortune 500 business leaders and A-list celebrities. He finally got the business leaders, but the other groups remain elusive.
You know he wants to hang out with Taylor and Beyoncé, but the best he’s been able to do is Kevin Sorbo and Chachi from “Happy Days.”
He wants to be on George Clooney’s prank list, but instead he’s had to content himself with texting Dean Cain. It must be a tough pill to swallow when you’re the most powerful man in the world and instead of Bruce Springsteen, you get stuck with Ted Nugent.
I’d be cranky, too.
Sheneman has drawn political cartoons for The Star-Ledger since 1998. His work is syndicated nationally through Tribune Content Agency. Find him at Drew Sheneman’s Cartoon Cavalcade.
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