If you are a big time male celebrity or power-broker, the single last thing you want to hear right now is; “Ronan Farrow on line 2.” Farrow, all of about 29 or 30 years old (and quite possibly Frank Sinatra’s son) is the single best/hottest journalist going now for his championing of women’s rights. We thank him a million times over for his courage, along with the courage of women coming out, in establishing in the “MeToo” movement. Now he’s after something even bigger.
One of Trump’s many nightmares is Farrow coming to possess anything recording Trump completely unawares. Whether the tapes demonstrate that Trump was beholden to Russians, or being a rancid racist, Trump would have no reason to believe he could survive Farrow’s reporting any more than any of the other men who deservedly got put on ice.
I am speaking of the long sought but oft forgotten tapes of outtakes from “The Apprentice,” rumored to have revolting statements upon them.
The tapes reportedly document Trump using the N-word and calling his son Eric Trump an R-Word.
At a Sunday night Emmy Awards party, actor Tom Arnold reportedly confronted “The Apprentice” producer Mark Burnett, saying Farrow “had possession” of the tapes.
“Discussing last night’s incident with a group of party attendees, we hear an excited Arnold was asked if he actually had any Apprentice tapes of Trump and answered in the affirmative. He said they had been “handed over” to New Yorker journalist Farrow on Sunday,” Page Six reported.
Well then.
Now, we have many many reasons to be skeptical that anything could bring Trump down, other than proof that he is the Russian agent he so obviously is. Trump survived a tape with the admission that he sexually assaulted women, “grabbing them by the ..” One might think there is nothing Trump wouldn’t survive. But, the tape on the bus discussing his assaults on married women (or any woman) came before the MeToo movement and all the righteous power behind it. If the tapes came out today, one would think that it would play out quite differently.
Whatever the result regarding Trump’s abuse of women, a tape with Trump using the N-word is beyond speaking about a sexual assault, which could be said to be “just talk”. But, absolutely everyone knows that tossing around the “N word” is so destructive to racial relations, that its use by a white person is an invitation to ruin. A white person using that word is a clarion call stating; “I’m a racist who denigrates black people and not ashamed of it, I’ll do it in front of your face.” There is no other way to take it.
The white racial apologists will point to its use by black people themselves, attempting to make it acceptable. No, it is a historical truth that any word used to suppress an entire race, religion, whatever, is almost always taken up by the receiving group as a means to rob the word of its power. Black people can use the “N-word” and not suffer the consequences, because a black person’s use of it is a clarion call to the world; “You can’t destroy us with your racism, I’ll take away all the power you imbue into the word.” It has happened throughout history. Notre Dame did something similar by calling themselves the “Fighting Irish,” a big “F-You” to the sneering perception of the Irish as nothing but drunken brawlers.
Getting back to Trump, he cannot survive a tape with him using the N-word. It is simply unacceptable from any white person. A janitor in the White House would be fired if caught using it, and so will the president of the United States. If there is a defining line in United States history, it is the ever-present problems with racial animus toward African-Americans. Everyone knows, that’s a line one doesn’t cross. Trump knew it, and chose to cross it as a demonstration that he’s not afraid of consequences. He is too powerful.
We will find out soon enough. Ronan Farrow doesn’t play. He took down the most powerful man in all of entertainment, now he is honing in on the most powerful man in the country. I doubt he is scared, and I’ll bet he can bring down Trump just as surely as Mueller can.
Stay tuned.
