The DT's

Donald Trump doesn't act like any other U.S. President.  Sure, there were some notable for fighting against any perceived insult--Harry Truman comes to mind--but not anyone who was punching back every day.  On the other hand, are we surprised?  We knew what we were getting.  And I don't just mean based on his campaign.  He's been a public figure for decades, and this has been his public face.

Which is why I was sort of amused to have his technique confirmed when reading a selection from Julia Phillips' You'll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again excerpted in Christopher Silvester's collection of writing about Hollywood. It's in a nasty profile of producer David Geffen.  He and Phillips were discussing who should direct Interview With A Vampire:

[Just who does Geffen think he is?]  Then I answer myself: He is David Geffen, a powerful force in Hollywood January 1989, the Donald Trump of Show Business.  Jesus, these guys are taking the fun out of everything.  I noticed the week before [...] that Donald Trump had written a letter of protest to People magazine because the week before they had, in an article about Merv Griffin, said that Trump has been bested by Griffin in the Resorts International deal.  Jesus, was Donald so insecure as to personally write a letter about that shit?  Aren't you supposed to be above that sort of thing if you're Donald Trump?

Phillips, who produced The Sting, Taxi Driver and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, died in 2002, so she didn't live long enough to learn definitively that Donald Trump is not above that sort of thing.

By the way, I remember reading about the Resorts International deal, which was big business news back then. I have no idea who was bested, though I do seem to recall Griffin did not do well financially in Atlantic City.