Well, it’s official.
Yesterday’s Electoral College vote confirmed that Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States, to the delight of alt-righters and doomsday preppers alike.
To most who followed the Hamilton Electors movement, the news didn’t come as a shock.
It was more like an aftershock that followed the Richter-shattering Big One that happened back in November.
Trump’s election was a stunner not only because every pundit and prognosticator led Dems to believe they should pick up a bottle of champagne on their way home from the polls, but also because Trump survived numerous scandals that would’ve sunk any other campaign in the history of American presidential politics.
Trump voters didn’t seem bothered when he boasted about sexual assault or asked Russia to launch a cyber-attack against America, but how would they have reacted to video of Trump hurling out racial slurs?
Well, thanks to Tom Arnold, we may never know.
Arnold was a contestant on the Celebrity Apprentice, and like several others involved with the show, he claims to be in possession of shocking videotapes that show Trump exhibiting the kind of behavior that only Trump could get away with.
“I have the outtakes to The Apprentice where he says every bad thing ever, every offensive, racist thing ever,” Arnold says.
“It was him sitting in that chair saying the N-word, saying the C-word, calling his son a retard, just being so mean to his own children,”
Uhhhh … so why in the hell didn’t he share this footage with the general public?
Arnold offers this baffling explanation:
“I’ll tell you why. Because when people sent it to me, it was funny. Hundreds of people have seen these. It was sort of a Christmas video they put together.”
“He wasn’t going to be President of the United States.
“It was him sitting in that chair saying the N-word, saying the C-word, calling his son a retard, just being so mean to his own children.”
Clearly, Tom has a different opinion of what’s funny than the rest of the world, which goes a long way toward explaining his comedy career.
Sadly, the revelation that Trump casually drops racial slurs and is brutally mean to his own children probably wouldn’t have had much of an impact on the election.
However, Arnold’s reasoning in not releasing the video is another example of the weird double standard that allowed Trump to get elected.
There may be no candidate in history who spent as much time living as publicly as Donald Trump did.
None of that time was devoted to public service of any find, but for nearly 40 years, Trump successfully sought out the spotlight, and he used his platform to put his misogyny and bigotry on display.
And for the most part, it was laughed off because he was “Donald Trump, rich, radioactive doofus,” not “Donald Trump, President of the United States.”
The problem is, presidents aren’t implanted with a microchip that makes them start “acting presidential” – to quote one of the Donald’s favorite phrases – on their inauguration day.
Donald Trump spent 40 years showing the world his true self, and yet millions still believe that at the age of 70, with no political experience of any kind, he’ll become the consummate world leader on January 20.
Good rule of thumb: if Tom freakin’ Arnold has the means to embarrass you on an international scale, the most important gig in the western world might not be a great fit for you. Just sayin’.