{"text":[[{"start":7.5,"text":"“Circumstances pertaining to government”. Those four quietly devastating words were the ones the president chose to use as his excuse for not attending Donald Trump Jr’s second wedding last weekend. Oh, and his “love for the United States of America” (no mention of his love for his eldest son on Truth Social). "}],[{"start":27,"text":"Trump Sr could have easily come up with a proper excuse for not being able to make it. Even if he really did have some urgent “circumstances pertaining to government” to attend to, he could have expressed a bit more regret at having to miss such a milestone. Instead this seemed like an assertion of his own supremacy over his son. "}],[{"start":46.9,"text":"This was not the first time the president had publicly expressed his lack of interest in his namesake’s nuptials. “Uhh, he’d like me to go,” Trump said, cuttingly, a few days earlier. “I said, you know, this is not good timing for me. I have a thing called Iran, and other things.” "}],[{"start":66.55,"text":"Duh, Donnie. Remember that thing called Iran? Though as Trump continued, it was clear this was more about optics than the war itself. “That’s one I can’t win on. If I do attend, I get killed. If I don’t attend, I get killed. By the fake news, of course, I’m talking about.”"}],[{"start":83.5,"text":"Sure, sure. Because we can all imagine the “fake news” crucifying the president for spending a few hours of his Saturday attending his own son’s wedding rather than, say, playing golf, as his official schedule shows he had done the previous three weekends. "}],[{"start":98.85,"text":"Unusually for someone so obsessed with other people’s good looks, Trump couldn’t even bring himself to say anything nice about Don Jr’s new former-model wife Bettina (formerly Anderson, now proudly Trump) during the briefing. “He’s, uh, got a very, uh, person who I’ve known for a long time, and hopefully they’re going to have a great marriage.” "}],[{"start":120.3,"text":"Why so uncharming? Had he discovered that his new daughter-in-law’s late father, who was Jeffrey Epstein’s personal banker, once described the late child sex offender as “a gentleman of the highest integrity”? Maybe. But the snub seemed — particularly in the context of recent reports that Amazon is considering asking Don Jr to lead a reboot of The Apprentice, and the fact he is being mentioned as a possible 2028 presidential candidate — to be more about making sure his son knows his place. "}],[{"start":151.8,"text":"“Don’t go getting any ideas,” seemed to be the subtext. “I’m the only Trump around here who is ever going to be turned into a 22-foot golden statue.”"}],[{"start":162,"text":"The president seems to have little respect for his children’s brainpower — his eldest in particular, whom he reportedly once described as “not the sharpest knife in the drawer”. And this isn’t the first time that Trump has appeared to think Don Jr was getting a little too big for his Maga cowboy boots. Back in 2016, when Don was touted as a potential candidate for New York mayor, the president told Fox News presenter Sean Hannity: “I don’t think that’ll happen”. "}],[{"start":188.45,"text":"“I think he does have a particular animus against Donnie,” Trump’s niece Mary Trump told me over the phone. There was a significance, she said, to Don Jr being the eldest boy and not measuring up to family expectations. Her father Frederick Trump Jr, Donald’s brother who died at the age of 42, had also been the eldest son. "}],[{"start":208.14999999999998,"text":"But for Trump, this seems to be about more than just feeling his children are not serious people. With less than two-and-a-half years to go before America decides on a new president, if democracy holds (sadly one needs such “ifs” these days), it seems Don Sr is getting jittery about the idea of giving up his throne — not to his son; not to anyone. "}],[{"start":229.64999999999998,"text":"In the same week as the wedding, he snubbed his vice-president JD Vance in a Fortune interview by failing to describe him as a good potential successor despite his actually being in the room at the time. Earlier in May, he had also embarrassed Vance by carrying out an impromptu poll of a Rose Garden audience, asking whether they would prefer him or Marco Rubio as president (the Boston Globe reported that Rubio received more applause). "}],[{"start":257.04999999999995,"text":"“At a very basic level it’s just a very authoritarian tactic: you constantly humiliate people in your inner circle, people who would challenge you,” Mary Trump told me. “But the thing about Donald is he can’t imagine anything existing beyond him . . . and once he considers his successor, that means admitting that he is not going to continue in perpetuity.”"}],[{"start":276.44999999999993,"text":"The very discussion of what comes next seems to be an unacceptable affront to the man’s ego. There can only be one President Trump. And, as is clear from his golden statues and his gilded ballrooms and his “jokes” about still being in power in 2032, he is going to live forever. "}],[{"start":301.24999999999994,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1780212144_5503.mp3"}