Trump's McDonald's Stunt Was Much Worse Than Just Cosplay

Who is this for?

Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Does Donald Trump have any real skills? I’m talking about actual talents or abilities that aren’t somehow contingent on demagoguery or being born wealthy. It’s a question I’ve asked myself a lot over these past eight-ish years, and to date I haven’t really come up with a satisfying answer. He’s not an accounting whiz, or an architectural savant. He doesn’t have a knack for urban planning, or corporate management. He doesn’t really have anything you can point to as evidence that he, himself, is better suited for a job — any job! — than someone else, or that his undeniable success in life is anything but the inevitable result of combining inherited riches and amoral ambition.

Nevertheless, Donald Trump would like you to believe that his success is based on some nebulous set of inherent skills that elevate him above us mere mortals. He regularly proclaims that he is an expert beyond all experts, no matter the subject. He brags and belittles and self-aggrandizes, even as he attempts — awkwardly — to convince voters that he’s an ordinary guy just like them. “Forget about building my fortune by inheriting the family business, and licensing my name — which, incidentally, I also inherited,” he says in so many words. “I was a nobody who worked my way up from the bottom, which is why I get you, and why you should vote for me.” Laughably obvious dissonance aside, it’s somehow a compelling enough message for millions of people who have chosen to believe that Trump is both Superman and Everyman: Schrödinger’s candidate for the stupid and gullible.

Which brings us to Trump’s latest campaign stunt.