Revenge

 

The erstwhile president has a wooden leg. Not Obama, who from a straight standing position can slam a basketball into the hoop from the other end of the court; Trump. He does nine-holes with his wooden leg in the mini-golf room of Mar-a-Lago; it’s a feat. Footage shows him limping places, material that eventually will appear in the Netflix documentary ‘History’s Best Kept Secrets’. That could be a little while coming. Rumour mingles with innuendo mingles with bad disco that he lost his leg during a series of ‘The Apprentice’ reality TV show, the one where guests went to an undisclosed maritime location to harpoon an albino whale. The whole series was never put to air. Producers are tight-lipped; their lawyers are light tipped. Psychiatrists, cleverly disguised as wealthy wrestling enthusiasts, who are close to the man they call the Great White God (GWG), say he conflates all kinds of things with the whale, as though they were the same thing. These include comedians who make fun of him; liberals, whom he derides with the collective name ‘Gregory Peck’; and anybody in general who disagrees with him or has crossed his path. They are all ‘bad people’. Much cussing and cursing and golden showers are sprayed in their direction. But that is mere noise to precede his real intention, which is to kill the white whale, whatever it takes. No lie is too big, no plan too piddly, that it will not be implemented for revenge at having to wear a secret prosthetic. His crew are all creeds, colours, all of that stuff, includes anyone who can serve as a means to one end: his revenge. Expendability is an option, with many jumping ship before committing the unthinkable. Collateral damage? What other kind of damage is there? With eye firmly on the whale, the GWG launches forth in some direction or other, a leader relying on others to read compasses and redraw maps to his personal worldview. Irony mixes with historical awareness mixes with Andy Warhol day-glo highlighters when his psychiatrists call him GWG in confidential emails. What to do? It’s difficult to interview someone who answers questions with half-hour speeches unconnected to the question. Hard to analyse someone whose free association balloons into talk bubbles big as a white whale. Awkward conversing with someone who threatens to fire them if they don’t get back to the main subjects of all-in wrestling and how best to aim a harpoon. His crew speak in cadences biblical; he uttereth in words baleful and bilious. Dr Queequeg’s Casebook notes: ‘GWG- easily bruised ego- Melania once called him Stump.’ They are in uncharted waters. The Pequod is all they have, this is not reality TV anymore, and they could go to the bottom, Barack Obama, Stephen Colbert, Gregory Peck, Andy Warhol, Dr. Queequeg, Melania Knauss, and all.