Has Trump really entered his fat Elvis phase?

 By Hal Brown

Bonus: Here's a list of the website links that I use.

This is what Jonathan Capehart said filling in for Lawrence O'Donnell last night:

"The crowd cheered, even if he wasn't playing to a full house. Retributions against whom, exactly? Voters who rejected the Trump brand of democratic values and hand-picked candidates? The lawmakers to impeach him twice? The federal and state prosecutors overseeing many investigations into Donald Trump? But even as Donald Trump enters his 'fat Elvis' stage, it's imperative to take his threat to democracy seriously. It's still not clear who's gonna stand up to him in a Republican primary." Raw Story

Trump has been compared to fat Elvis before. For example in:

Trump Just Took 1 Step Closer To Fat Elvis Tonight, Except the Suit’s Green

December 26, 2022 in Poliztoom

Is this a good comparison? 

I was curious about what the other superstar's late life was really like. I wasn't a fan but do know that he continued to perform as he gained a lot of weight. I didn't know about his drastic decline in health at the end of his life until I did a cursory web search. This is what I found:

Inside Elvis Presley’s weight loss battle: the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll gained 80kg (176 lbs.) during his final years following unhealthy food habits like the ‘Elvis sandwich’ and rumoured eating disorders

and

'Paranoid' Elvis Presley's tragic final days - gorging on cheeseburgers and sad regret

Elvis Presley was overweight, constipated, "paranoid" and "miserable" in the lead up to his death on the toilet - though he was able to have one last piano singalong with his loved ones before he died.

Alas, it seems to me that Trump is nowhere near being in his fat Elvis stage. This is how Grunge described his last years of life:

And yet, when Elvis died on August 16, 1977, he had become something entirely different from his former self. Dealing with addiction and health issues and having a difficult time adjusting to the shifting cultural climate of the '60s and '70s, Elvis died a Vegas showman rather than a groundbreaking rocker. This kitschy new incarnation of his identity at the time of his death — what many refer to as "Old Elvis" — led to him becoming a new sort of posthumous icon, with many claiming his passing was faked and that Elvis was either alive on a private island somewhere or abducted by aliens

Grunge reported:

By 1976, Elvis had become disenfranchised and unhinged, his drug use, bad health, and financial excess chipping away at his composure. He spent most of his time holed up in the elaborate den — nicknamed the "Jungle Room" for its exotic decor — of his Memphis compound Graceland. Most worrisome to his record label, RCA, was that the King had become entirely uninterested in going into the studio and recording.

Compare this with Trump who just gave what your could call a two hour paranoid rant or a rousing speech depending on your politics at CPAC. Trump has embarked on a national tour and shows no indications of his physical health being impaired.

Although he's been accused by critics of recycling his old litany of gripes and his dark vision of where the country is headed this isn't true. He has amped it up exponentially. His CPAC performance was high octane compared to his 2016 and his 2020 campaign which seems now in comparison to have been fueled by cheap gas. 

You can't even accuse him of singing the old songs. He has entirely new songs with lyrics that made the old tunes look lame and tame. If he was a singer the title of his new album and his national tour would be "Retribution and Revenge".

Jonathan Capehart is right about one thing even though I don't think Trump is really in his fat Elvis phase: It's imperative to take his threat to democracy seriously.

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I created my blog on Google Blogger (originally just Blogger) in 2012. I was surprised to see that it was ranked number one here.

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This was my first Blogger post from 2012. There are just three photos there. The next post has lots of photos from the cranberry harvest.

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