Endowed with a restless and indefatigable spirit, he abhors inactivity, and pines for agitation, if not for action. A country like [the United States] allows him, of course, to busy himself in every corner of the earth. What he aims is not substance, but the mere appearance of success.
He exults in show-conflicts, show battles, diplomatical notes to be exchanges, ships to be ordered to sail, the whole movement ending for him in parliamentary debates [and social media attention], which are sure to prepare him an ephemeral success, the constant and the only object of all his exertions. He manages internal conflicts like an artist, driving matters to a certain point, retreating when they threaten to become serious, but having to, at all events, the dramatic excitement he wants. In his eyes, the movement of history itself is nothing but a pastime, expressly invented for for the private satisfaction of [Donald J. Trump].
He knows how to conciliate a democratic phraseology with oligarchic views [of the wealthy classes]... how to appear as the aggressor where he connives, and as the defender where he betrays--how to manage an apparent enemy, and how to exasperate a pretending ally... and how to utter brave words in the act of running away.
Accused by one party of being in the pay of Russia, he is suspected by the other of [not truly being one of them]. If, in [2018-2019] he had to defend himself against the motion of impeachment for having acted as a minister for [Putin], [he has, in 2019], the satisfaction of being [the subject of a conspiracy of which he has successfully convinced the Senate], but baffled in the [House.]
But if [his] art of diplomacy does not shine in the actual results of his foreign negotiations, it shines more brilliantly in the construction he induced the [American] people to lay upon them, by accepting phrases for facts, phantasies for reality, and high-sounding pretexts for shabby motives.
He exults in show-conflicts, show battles, diplomatical notes to be exchanges, ships to be ordered to sail, the whole movement ending for him in parliamentary debates [and social media attention], which are sure to prepare him an ephemeral success, the constant and the only object of all his exertions. He manages internal conflicts like an artist, driving matters to a certain point, retreating when they threaten to become serious, but having to, at all events, the dramatic excitement he wants. In his eyes, the movement of history itself is nothing but a pastime, expressly invented for for the private satisfaction of [Donald J. Trump].
He knows how to conciliate a democratic phraseology with oligarchic views [of the wealthy classes]... how to appear as the aggressor where he connives, and as the defender where he betrays--how to manage an apparent enemy, and how to exasperate a pretending ally... and how to utter brave words in the act of running away.
Accused by one party of being in the pay of Russia, he is suspected by the other of [not truly being one of them]. If, in [2018-2019] he had to defend himself against the motion of impeachment for having acted as a minister for [Putin], [he has, in 2019], the satisfaction of being [the subject of a conspiracy of which he has successfully convinced the Senate], but baffled in the [House.]
But if [his] art of diplomacy does not shine in the actual results of his foreign negotiations, it shines more brilliantly in the construction he induced the [American] people to lay upon them, by accepting phrases for facts, phantasies for reality, and high-sounding pretexts for shabby motives.
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