We assume that Player One in the White House is having fun. Between moments of boredom with the whole thing he appears to enjoy time playing a video game, one like SimCity in which players build their own communities. But the game Donald Trump plays allows him to build his very own TrumpWorld.
So far, his world includes global mapmaking. Nobody serious much cares or thinks that America is elevated and Mexico diminished by renaming the Gulf of Mexico, but for a dedicated gamer it is like calling out other players online. It thrills Player One in TrumpWorld since it represents unilateral might. Then there are the options of making Canada a state, taking Greenland and the Panama Canal by force, or displacing millions of people to create the Gaza Riveria Resort, a luxurious playground for the rich and famous. And this is only the first level!
Trump, who we are told simply doesn’t read much of anything that’s not on a teleprompter, is so completely mesmerized by video that he appoints people to office based on their appearance on TV. It bestows a reality on them that others lack and in TrumpWorld it is a major qualification for high office: Pete Hegseth, Dan Bongino, Sean Duffy… you get the idea. His Kennedy Center board appointees include Laura Ingraham and Maria Bartiroma. Being a Fox News host or contributor is best, but others on TV can get the presidential nod, and even become ambassadors, too.
For a former reality TV star, it is the most fun ever to have your own global reality video game. You can upend all of world trade, commerce that makes greater prosperity possible, with nothing more than a notion and the push of a button. On a whim Player One can threaten one tariff rate one day and another the next, changing frantically from day to day. This makes planning and production virtually impossible for anyone engaged in business. But it’s okay since it’s only a video game. It’s his world. Any inconvenience or cost digital beings suffer in the changing gamescape is not really real in a reality video game reality.
Trump World should have been carried a warning for extreme violence. It was packaged as peaceful, but it’s clear now that thundered threats of bombardment are major tools of fun and play. “If they don’t make a deal, there will be bombing. It will be bombing the likes of which they have never seen before!” Wow! That’s awesome! “Your country gets blown to smithereens,” Cool! “Hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before!” Boys playing games online talk like that. Normal people in the real world, people with healthy human consciousness don’t. But TrumpWorld is just a hyper-exciting game, one that now features fresh new images of people being incinerated right before our eyes. “Oops!” So realistic! So exhilarating!
As you would expect of a serious gamer, even before his first go-around Trump showed himself to be uncommonly interested in wielding deadly power. He repeatedly pressed a foreign policy adviser during the 2016 campaign to explain why the US couldn’t use its nuclear weapons. Like so many other role-playing and real time strategy games – Fallout, and Command and Conquer – TrumpWorld now includes the thrilling prospect of carnage by nuclear weapons.
What if things go amiss? No worries. TrumpWorld’s Player One can always take a break and play some golf. One game is as good as another. If everything gets broken down or blown up in TrumpWorld, he can pause and reset.
Can’t he?
