Graydon Carter, editor of Vanity Fair and longtime Donald Trump antagonist, doubts that the billionaire celebrity businessman will be successful in his run for the White House, but thinks it could happen on the strength of Trump’s ego.
In a new column for the December issue of his magazine, Carter wrote that Trump’s penchant for stinging insults has endeared him to a large segment of the Republican Party, and that his success in business mirrors that of people who’ve mastered national politics.
“What the experts fail to grasp is that, crude as his jerry-built platform is, to many voters there is a kernel of … accuracy in many of his more astringent barbs,” Carter said.
He cited Trump’s oft-repeated jabs at Jeb Bush (“low energy”) and Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton (“criminal”).
“Hillary Clinton, no matter what her supporters say, does appear shifty,” Carter wrote. “Far too many voters get the feeling that however much she opens up there is more under the lid.”
On Trump’s career in business translating to politics, Carter wrote: “Most people who succeed at business do so with a relentless, single-minded ego thrust that crushes the opposition and tosses aside the weaklings who stand in the way. Wait, that does sound like what it takes to win at national politics.”
Trump and Carter have had an aversarial relationship for several years, going back to when Carter founded the satirical Spy magazine, which dubbed Trump “the short-fingered vulgarian.”
In a new biography, Trump called Carter “scum” and named him as one of the three reporters he dislikes the most.
