Not all U.S. Icons of Self Promotion are as Toxic and Demeaning as Trump.

On Monday January 20, which was a national holiday to commemorate Dr. Martin King, an implicit (at-best) bigot and felon, Don Trump, was sworn in as the 47th U.S. President. Voters who dislike that person and who believe that Trump will improve the economy (although it bankrupted four casinos from 1991 to 2009) re-elected it as president..

The U.S. has had near-fabulists as cultural icons before. Ben Franklin, and Muhammad Ali are examples of deft self-promoters. Each sought to improve his lot, discern and exploit his innate talents toward success, and improve the wider world.

We’ll ignore the great hypocrisy, the irony of searing in the bigot and felon Trump on Martin King’s national holiday. To consider that would deserve more space and wit than a reading might want to use.

This is disparate from Trump’s psyche and vantage point.

Trump yearning to serve its image, itself, gleaning constant public adulation and serving its pocket. I refer to Trump as it instead of him because no respectable man acts as that person does.

Ben Franklin, inventor, U.S. Ambassador to France, journalist, of the 18^th century (1706-1790) and Muhammad Ali three-time heavy weight boxing champion, and global good-will ambassador (1942-2016), of the 20^th century, share a birthday. January 17^th.

As opposed to the 45^th and 47^th U.S. President, neither Franklin nor Ali’s self-promotion were doggedly about hiding or overcoming the barren sense of self, nor shoring up their self-concepts or self-talk.

Neither American cultural icon, Franklin or Ali, was driven by creed or ambition to demean people or were clueless to empathy, or consequences, as their relative means to success as Trump is.

Trump sees neither virtue nor profit in kindness or service to anyone but itself with an approach to self-promotion, and success which seem to glow with a tinge of vengeance. Both Franklin and Ali were confident and deft at self-promotion while not malicious in blurring or flouting facts or courtesies as they pursued goals.

According to CNN.com in 2018, Benjamin Franklin aspiring to success, found that he aspired to improve himself. “Franklin started by taking a critical look at his behavior, and he found that too often he traveled down unvirtuous roads that “natural inclination, custom or company might lead me into,” as he put it. Compare contrast Frank/Ali

According to Forbes magazine in 2020, “Muhammad Ali was a major celebrity even before his first successful title fight against the reigning heavyweight champion of the world, Sonny Liston, in 1964. A year before his victory, Time magazine (which had a circulation of ten million) devoted a full front page to Clay.” History shows that neither Franklin nor Ali self-narratives bluntly or consciously evaded facts.

Why does Trump have a compulsion to lie..! Politifact.com has recorded Trump’s history of lies. As “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” made clear, it’s much simpler and easier to make your point via facts! Still, it persists in the multi-pronged lie about 2020 presidential election having been stolen.

Consider the weekend between the Jan 17^th, the birthdays of Messrs. Ali and Franklin, and the Jan 20^th second inauguration of Don Trump. Consider that Franklin and Ali were not narcissists. And Trump’s glaring thin-skinnedness nudges Americans to wonder about its implicitly and amply ill psyche as it “leads” the United States again.