Why I Get My News about Trumpism from Late-Night Comedy

Trump provides enough absurdity for a comic script. There is no need for comedians to embellish what he says. Why, then, do we watch comedy shows that essentially repeat what Trump has just said?

If you’d asked me yesterday, I couldn’t quite have put my finger on it. Fortunately, Masha Gessen (they/them), a Russian-American journalist who criticizes Putin and Trump, explains this phenomenon in their new book, Surviving Autocracy, released June 2.

Much in this book drew my attention. Here are some of the most important parts.

Part One — “An Autocratic Attempt”

Many politicians lie, cheat, and abuse their power. What makes Trump different? It is that he lacks “sincerely held beliefs and a coherent system of values”; because he has no ideological commitments, his crimes are not confined to those areas; he does not act “in good faith.” He is the first president to “set out to destroy the American political system itself.” That’s what he really meant by his campaign chant: “Drain the swamp!” He didn’t genuinely mean he wanted to get rid of lobbyists and the politicians they corrupted (as evidenced by his zealous accomplishment of the opposite). He meant he wanted to drain Washington of its institutional coherence. He was never going to become “presidential”…