The president-elect has a busy day. He’s scheduled to meet intelligence officials who will brief him on evidence that Russia interfered with the election, an assessment he has disputed. He’s also got a sit-down with Vanity Fair editor Grayden Carter, who famously called him a “short-fingered vulgarian” in the 1980s.
So how does Trump spend the morning? By tweeting about how much better his ratings were on Celebrity Apprentice when he hosted the show:
Wow, the ratings are in and Arnold Schwarzenegger got "swamped" (or destroyed) by comparison to the ratings machine, DJT. So much for....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017
being a movie star-and that was season 1 compared to season 14. Now compare him to my season 1. But who cares, he supported Kasich & Hillary
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 6, 2017
While there is justified worry that Trump will rule as a kleptocrat, these tweets reveal that there is something our egomaniac-in-chief loves more than money: glory. Trump is addicted to the narrative that his brilliance alone makes success happen. Hence he’s willing to denigrate a TV show for which he’s an executive producer. And if he can get a jab in at a fellow celebrity-turned-politician—who supported John Kasich in the GOP primary and then vowed not to vote for Trump in the general election—that’s all the better.
But the former California governor has got some punch of his own:
I wish you the best of luck and I hope you'll work for ALL of the American people as aggressively as you worked for your ratings.
— Arnold (@Schwarzenegger) January 6, 2017