Monthly Archives: September 2020

While I know I harp on this far too often, I want to remind users of this blog that it is not political in nature. 

Also, I understand that there has been no deficit of reporting on President Donald Trump. That said, when I read this article on Donald Trump (here’s the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that accompanies it) in David S. Kidder and Noah Oppenheim’s. The Intellectual Devotional Modern Culture: Converse Confidently about Society and the Arts (Emmaus PA: Modern Times, 2008), from which I have developed a large number of readings and worksheets, I decided to work it up because of its historical interest. Nota bene the publication date, which is not before Mr. Trump first indicated an interest in running for president–that was 1999, as the article reports–but well before he ran. The article takes a bemused tone as it characterizes Trump, essentially, as a clown and a product of celebrity culture.

It also contains some information about Trump’s assets and his management of them that may well turn out, in the very near future, to be false. The Trump Organization returned from the edge of collapse, in the 1990s, it is clear, by taking in money from some dubious figures. Moreover, at least one of its lenders flagged some of his (as well as his those of his son-in-law, Jared Kushner) transactions as suspicious. This article argues that Trump emerged from his various bankruptcies by dint of his own genius. It has become increasingly difficult, under the circumstances, to believe that.

All of this is under investigation by both the Southern District of New York and the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. So this reading may turn out to be an interesting avenue for historical inquiry concerning the Trump presidency. He kept his own mythology alive for far longer than the facts supported it. The question for students is this: how did Trump accomplish that? How are the news and entertainment media in particular and our culture in general culpable in this man’s lies?

If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.