Who needs “Mean Girls” when we have Trump and Vivek?!
But one big difference between them and "Mean Girls"
This weekend America was treated to a fight between two people who, to the casual observer, seemed to truly like each other as marked by their mutual public displays of affection. But that all came crashing down on Saturday with a very public blow up. No, I’m not talking “Regina” and “Cady” in the new version of “Mean Girls” released this weekend but the ugly, yet equally amusing, fight between Donald Trump and fellow GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.
In the original Tina Fey written “Mean Girls”—as in the new musical version released this weekend—the story line features “Cady Heron” enrolling in a new high school ruled by “Regina George” and her popular friends known as “The Plastics.” Cady quickly became well liked, which got the attention of “Queen Bee” Regina. That is when treachery came into play, as Cady pretended to support and help Regina when in reality she was secretly working to undermine her to win the attention of a popular boy. It all leads to a public showdown with name calling and even one of the two backbiting former friends, Regina, getting hit by a bus. (She, of course survives, the movie is a comedy after all!)
After what happened this weekend between Trump and Ramaswamy, all the elements are there for Tina Fey to pen a version of the film featuring these two “Mean Guys.” It can even be a musical like the new “Mean Girls,” after all, a lot of words rhyme with “Trump.” (Although not so much with Vivek.)
This story all began when the then new guy in politics, 38-year-old Ramaswamy, joined the GOP presidential race and, like “Cady” in “Mean Girls,” quickly attracted the attention of many including the GOP’s “Regina” in Trump. From there, it appeared to be a love fest with Ramaswamy praising Trump with lines like, “President Trump, I believe, was the best president of the 21st century.” In response, the very thin-skinned and pathetically needy “Regina,” I mean Trump, applauded Ramaswamy calling him everything from “great” to “a very, very, very intelligent person” who might even be “very good” as Trump’s vice-president.
Even last month, the mutual affection between these two was on display after the fourth GOP presidential debate with Ramaswamy again praising Trump and the former President writing on social media after slamming the other candidates: “Vivek WINS because he thinks I’m great.”
But it now appears Ramaswamy was channeling his inner “Cady” by falsely painting himself as a Trump fan when he was actually trying to undermine him to win the affection/votes of Trump’s supporters. At least that is what Trump believes. As CNN reported, Trump was recently annoyed when Ramaswamy told the press that Trump was “wounded” given the fact he’s facing 91 felony charges in four different jurisdictions. As one Trump advisor told CNN on Saturday about Ramaswamy, “He’s been making slights at the former president and we have noticed,” adding, “If you poke the bear, the bear will bite back.”
The bear--or in this case the bloated Trump--bit back on Saturday night after Ramaswamy posted on social media a photo of himself with a group of young men in Iowa wearing T-shirts that featured Trump’s mugshot from his Fulton County election subversion case with the words, “Save Trump, Vote Vivek.” Above the photo, Ramaswamy wrote: “A group of young men in Iowa came out in the blizzard. They sent a clear message.”
That was too much for “Regina” aka Trump. He finally went public with his suspicions by brutally slamming Ramaswamy on social media. The leader of MAGA—the “Mean Girls” equivalent of “The Plastics” except bitter, angry and bigoted—shared how he was misled and betrayed by Ramaswamy who “started his campaign as a great supporter.” But now Trump sees him for who he really is, writing, “Unfortunately, now all he does is disguise his support in the form of deceitful campaign tricks.”
Trump went on to call Ramaswamy “deceitful” urging his supporters not to be “duped” by this tactic and instead vote Trump. The former President then went as far to expel Ramaswamy from the MAGA clique, writing, “Vivek is not MAGA.” (This conjures up “John Wick” being dubbed “excommunicado" from the underworld crime family he was a part of but let’s stick to “Mean Girls” theme.)
How did Ramaswamy respond to Trump’s very “mean” attack? By posting on social media how he still “respects the hell” out of Trump and noting how he had repeatedly defended Trump in the past. He also added some type of justification for his actions that frankly made little sense, but then again this is Ramaswamy writing the post, not Tina Fey.
In the final climatic scene of the original Mean Girls, it was the newcomer “Cady” who defeats “Regina” for title of the Spring Fling Queen. But by then “Cady” had evolved as a person, telling her fellow students assembled in the school gym for the big dance: “To all the people whose feeling were hurt – I’m really sorry.” She then literally broke the Spring Fling Queen crown into pieces, sharing it with “Regina” and all the students she had wronged.
That is where the analogy between the movie and Trump/Ramaswamy ends. In Mean Girls, the characters redeemed themselves by reflecting on their past “mean” conduct and evolving for the better. In the case of Trump and Ramaswamy, that will never happen. Neither one is redeemable. In fact, these two despicable people deserve each other.
Trumputin is not really mean, he is malignantly mean spirited, amoral in every sense, has no empathy or conscience, no core values. I have never seen a more unqualified, empty vessel in politics, ever before. Vivek is an opportunist, maybe as callous as trumputin but a bit more intelligent. Either one, both despicable.
They are both spoiled self serving entitled brats!