'I really don't like critics...'

Americans really need to grow thicker skins these days, but don't expect leadership on this issue by the President of the United States. Donald Trump might strike you as the sort of person who'd advise just that considering how easily people seem to be offended by him, but it shouldn't take anyone long to realize that he's as thin-skinned as anyone here. In London today, while characteristically downplaying protests against his visit and talking up the numbers who've cheered him, the President said, "I really don't like critics as much as I like and respect people that get things done." Some will find that quote further proof of Trump's authoritarian tendencies, since "getting things done" over objections, principled or otherwise, is what authoritarians claim to do, or at least admire. What's more clear here, however, is the implicit assumption that the critic only criticizes and never gets anything done. In Trump's mind, we can assume, "getting things done" means making deals, while the critics he most resents are those he presumes unwilling to deal with him, those he referred to today as "negative forces." While there probably are critics who prefer only to criticize, either because they want nothing or something else done, there are others who criticize in order to establish the position from which they'll negotiate, e.g. the diplomats of those countries who criticize the President's tariff policies. Trump probably recognizes this distinction himself, but you wouldn't necessarily deduce that from his statements in London. Reflexively he makes a form of ad hominem attack on any critic, most likely repaying them in kind as far as he's concerned. Almost invariably those who criticize him are "failing" or, in the case of the mayor of London, a "stone cold loser." We may have more insight now on why he says this -- if he sees critics as losers because they do nothing but criticize -- but it may simply be an intimidation tactic. How sincerely he means the insult certainly depends on its target, but to criticize critics constantly suggests a certain emotional hypocrisy, at the minimum, when an above-the-fray attitude might be more appropriate. That attitude is clearly what the media establishment expects of politicians, yet to be fair there's plenty of reasons for Trump to take much of the criticism directed at him personally. He might not be able to distinguish reliably between principled and ad hominem criticism, but the rest of us should recognize the difference between principled criticism and the "orange man bad" sort that is all too common. Having acknowledged that, however, you probably could still concede that, with his attitude toward critics of any sort, Donald Trump probably picked the wrong country to govern -- but then again, as all critics should remember, he didn't pick himself to govern it.