American historical figure who reminds me of Trump
Posted: July 31, 2016 Filed under: America Since 1945, politics 2 Comments
George Armstrong Custer.
Hear me out. It’s true that Trump’s not a military man, but as he says:
And he was educated at the New York Military Academy which went bankrupt and was sold to Chinese investors.
Trump
Custer
Both were weird about their hair.
Trump obvs, but Custer had a toupee and used all kinds of scented pomades.
Neither drank.
It’s interesting that Trump never drinks. Maybe it would take the edge off? Custer gave up drinking after an ugly episode in his youth and would drink milk at cocktail parties.
Vain about appearance to an almost absurd degree.
Both kind of OCD.
Trump is a self-described germaphobe. Custer during the Civil War compulsively washed his hands.
Wrote popular self-aggrandizing books.
(Custer’s fellow officer Frederick Benteen, who hated Custer’s preening and vanity and bragging and “pretentious silliness,” called it My Lie On The Plains, which is a good slam.)
Survived stupid moves that cost others dearly.
Trump blunders forward, somehow ending up ok but leaving defaulted creditors in his wake. Custer’s Civil War and post-Civil War career can sound similar, but with dead cavalry instead of money:
Custer’s abrupt withdrawal without determining the fate of Elliott and the missing troopers darkened Custer’s reputation among his peers. There was deep resentment within the 7th Cavalry that never healed.
A lot of plunging in blindly.
Impulsive, jump in and figure it out style marks both of their careers.
Wild swings in career.
Trump’s companies declared bankruptcy four times. Custer was courtmartialed and relieved of duty only to be called back in time to get everybody killed.
Had ambition to be president?
This one’s debatable but the argument’s been made that it’s possible when Custer was driving into the Indian encampment at Little Bighorn without waiting for anyone else he had the idea that the news might get out in time for him to get the 1876 nomination for president. A crazy plan.
Not sure what will happen to Trump and his followers.
We know how it ended for Custer:
Drawn for us by Red Horse, who was there.
One significant difference is that Custer was physically brave and very good with animals, whereas Trump appears to be a huge wuss and bad with animals.
(Got this idea from reading Son Of The Morning Star for possibly the fifth time? How cool was Evan S. Connell?:
Helytimes 
What an ugly insult to Custer; despite all his faults, he was a brave man who gave his life for our country.
Trump is a draft dodging coward who had medical paperwork forged to avoid Vietnam and, until very recently, was too scared to visit our troops in Iraq.
Their vanity may be similar, but Custer had other qualities; Trump has no redeemable qualities whatsoever; a golden spoon born and bred imbecile.
Looks like Trump has at last had his Little Big Horn but unlike Custer was not on his horse at the head of his army and paid for his fatal miscalculation.