(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . DON’T FEAR HIM. PITY HIM. [1] ['Douglas Schonenberg', 'Bill In Portland Maine', 'Greg Dworkin'] Date: 2026-05-29 “The illusion of power only works if you believe it.” People fear Donald Trump. I don’t. And maybe the real question isn’t why he has power. Maybe it’s why so many people are willing to believe in it. Because sometimes what looks overwhelming from a distance, doesn’t look the same when you get closer. People look at him and see strength. Confidence. Control. But real power doesn’t look like this. Real power is quiet. It doesn’t need to announce itself every five minutes. It doesn’t need constant reassurance. It doesn’t need a crowd to feel whole. What we see here is the opposite. A constant need to be seen as the best. The smartest. The most loved. Over and over again. That’s not strength. That’s dependence. Because people who actually believe in themselves don’t need to keep saying it out loud. They don’t need to demand loyalty or measure their worth by who praises them. So ask yourself, honestly, Why does he need constant praise and validation? Watch him. Not the headlines. Not the spin. Not the talking heads. Just him. The repetition. The circling back. The constant need to reassert the same things again and again. It’s not confidence. It’s maintenance. It’s what happens when an image has to be constantly propped up so it doesn’t collapse under its own weight. This isn’t calm, controlled authority. It’s something else. Something that feels…. wrong…. More fragile than people want to admit. And once you see that, it’s hard to unsee. Because real strength doesn’t act like this. It doesn’t beg this often. It doesn’t ask this loudly. For someone surrounded by people who constantly fawn over him, he spends an incredible amount of time asking to be loved. Publicly. Repeatedly. Almost insistently. Who’s loyal. Who isn’t. Who supports him. Who doesn’t. Over and over again. That’s not what strength looks like. That’s what emptiness looks like when it has a microphone. And no amount of power fills that. You see it in the obsession with his name. Stamped on buildings. On products. On anything he can attach it to. Not later. Not as a legacy. Now. Like if he doesn’t carve it into everything himself, his name might disappear the moment he does. Think about that. What kind of person needs to see their own name that often? That’s not confidence. That’s someone trying to convince the world;and maybe themselves; that they matter. History has seen this before. Men who needed to feel larger than life. Who tried to force their place into history instead of earning it. Men like Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and Joseph Stalin. Not the same outcomes, YET. Not the same scale, YET. But the same hunger. The same need to be seen. To be remembered. To be bigger than they actually were. And it never comes from strength. It comes from the fear of being nothing once the spotlight is gone. That’s the part people miss. Fear only works if you believe the image. If you believe he’s solid. Unshakable. In control. But what if he’s not? What if what you’re actually looking at is someone who needs the crowd just to feel alive? Someone who measures himself through applause? Someone who keeps asking to be loved because, somewhere along the way, that feeling never stuck? That’s not someone to fear. That’s someone who depends on your fear to keep the illusion alive. Take that away, and what’s left? Not a strongman. Not something larger than life. Just a man. And not a strong one at that, rather something to pity. At some point, someone pulls the curtain back. And the voice gets smaller. The image gets thinner. The power doesn’t look so powerful anymore. Because it was never what it claimed to be. It just needed you to believe it was. Fear is what gives him his mystique. It’s what makes him feel inevitable. But the moment that fear turns into something else: something smaller; something closer to pity; that illusion starts to crack. And once it cracks, even a little, he doesn’t feel untouchable anymore. He doesn’t feel inevitable. He just feels… human. And things that feel human don’t hold power the same way. They don’t command the same loyalty. They don’t feel unstoppable anymore. And things that don’t feel unstoppable, really aren’t. So no, I don’t fear him and neither should you. Pity him. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/5/29/800047507/community/dont-fear-him-pity-him/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/