What the Hell Are You Doing? 2: Scholastic Edition

"Grab that record": How Trump’s high school transcript was hidden https://t.co/SeXZBTL2jN

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) March 5, 2019

The important takeaway from this is that Donald Trump sent folks out to make sure his grades and SAT scores and all that did not get out and about just after he made the silly demand to know about President Obama's grades. I would have to believe this is because, in retrospect, it occurred to him that just maybe, his own academic achievements would not stand up to a comparison with Obama's own. Which makes one wonder about the potential projection that made him crack on about Obama's school records anyway.

There's something very specific about a detail that seems very intentionally buried, though--it makes people curious.

I'd have to say Trump's proprietary guarding of his tax returns and the possible lie about whether he's under audit with the IRS are perhaps the same kind of potentially unnecessary guarded behavior that stems from a fear of comparisons more than a cover-up of any truly embarrassing thing. We know from photos that high school Trump was a capable athlete. But there are some open questions about his academic history.


To which I, not a snob, would say, "So what?" I went to a school that my parents could afford and that was one public bus away from my house. I'm not living in fear that people will think I'm a dope because I could have gone to a better school, or because people will know I changed my major a few times (I started in Biology, ended up in English Lit. These are not similar disciplines, which says a lot about my understanding of my interests and capabilities when I started college versus when I graduated.) Of course a person who is 18-20-something years old is going to be a little flexible about what they want to experience from life versus what they want to achieve academically, and their interest and efforts can shift depending upon their circumstances. And not everyone is really cut out to be an intellectual and deal with the theoretical or lab sides of their chosen work--if their passion is business, why not just go and do the work? I'm super-prepared to not deride 20-something Donald Trump from either half-assing his undergrad years or even give him a lot of shit for his several draft deferments. He had those opportunities to do academic things or business things instead of war things, which others of his generation did not have. He lived a life that he seems to prefer to cover up about rather than defend.


And that's the problem. See, if someone like, say, John McCain, knew that he wasn't exactly scholastically gifted, but knew he had other qualities, he'd just rest on his life record and admit that experience and a sense of duty made him who he was. Trump's life record, his business associations, practices, and those of the children he introduced into his business is potentially dodgier than his scholastic one. All are under investigation. And he is willing to delay or impede all of these inquiries. Which only would, in practice, make everyone wonder the more whether the secrecy means there is something worth hiding.


This is very much a "what the hell?" if you suspect Trump hasn't anything dodgy to hide. Why then, any elaborate cover-up attempts? Are bad grades or a poor SAT score even relevant to his current functions as C-in-C? It becomes a little more clear when you consider that malignant narcissism might motivate him, and simply make a requirement for his basic functioning that he only or mostly hears only good things about himself.

It becomes downright troubling when it extends to his sense of accountability regarding his conduct as the US world leader and how he conducts himself under our flag and in our name. What the hell is he doing? Do we even feel sure we know?