GQ: We Are Running Out of Ways to Say That President Trump Is a Dangerous, Delusional Lunatic

By Jay Willis:

It's easy to laugh at this, both because you appreciate farce and because you need to do something to mask the pain, but there's an insidious sleight of hand here. It is true that there are dead people who are registered to vote, since most people forget to notify their county elections board of their death. It is also true that there are people—like Steve Bannon, Steven Mnuchin, and the president's own daughter—who, because they have lived in more than one state of late, still appear on more than one voter roll. To be clear, neither one of these true statements has any effect on the integrity of election outcomes, but they're at least...true. When it comes to this president, that's borderline cause for celebration.

Along with these two truths, though, President Trump throws in one outlandish, demonstrably false lie: that there are undocumented immigrants who illegally vote. This tinfoil hat fodder has been debunked by just about everyone you can imagine, but by sandwiching his lie between two truths to make it appear less egregious, he signals to Republican-controlled state governments that they have carte blanche to engage in voter suppression efforts, so long as they give it some septic, administrative-sounding label like "tidying up," "cleaning house," or "updating the voting rolls." Guess which registrations mysteriously and disproportionately disappear during exercises like these? Click if you want, but be honest: You already know.

Processing President Trump's democracy-destroying hijinks du jour has already become an exhausting exercise, because the man is committing his crimes against reality so quickly that there's scarcely time to dissect the horrifying implications of one before another comes along, short-circuits the alarm cycle, and starts it all over again. He is walking chaos theory: if he just keeps the hits coming fast enough, the very real danger is that the collective national outrage will first give way to apathy, and then to resignation.

The best way for Americans to fight these feelings of helplessness and hopelessness is to search out new, creative ways to channel their entirely justified fury toward some good, productive use. Midterm elections are less than two years away, but between now and then, President Trump has made it very clear that some bullshit of epic proportions is coming down the pike, so start with this: go make damn sure you're registered to vote.

The Full Story (January 25, 2017)

[Special] GQ: Trump's Tie Is Held Together with Scotch Tape, Not Unlike Our Fragile Democracy

By Jake Woolf:

Donald Trump's ties have never been great, both the ones he wears and the ones he sells (which are often the same thing). We can overlook the fact that he uses a Windsor Knot over our preferred four-in-hand style, but the biggest factor contributing to his menswear fail is that he just ties his neckwear way too long, a good four inches beyond where your tie should stop. And today, we learned a very unfortunate by product of that sartorial choice: Donald Trump, the future president of the United States, scotch tapes the back of his tie to the front.

You see, because the President-elect doesn't leave enough slack on the thin end to reach the built-in loop, he's left with an unmoored sliver of silk that threatens his commanding suited man presence. And again, his solution is to use scotch tape, the very adhesive that's sitting next to you at your desks right now, to connect the two pieces. Sad!

The Full Story (December 1, 2016)

GQ: The Mystifying Triumph of Hope Hicks, Donald Trump’s Right-Hand Woman

By Olivia Nuzzi:

Getting the most out of the star requires keeping him informed. While Trump nurses an obvious addiction to cable news, the reading that's put in front of him is largely confined to a topic he already knows well. Every morning, staffers print out 30 to 50 Google News results for “Donald J. Trump.” He then goes at the sheaf with a marker, making circles and arrows and annotating things he likes or doesn't like. The defaced article gets scanned and e-mailed to the journalist or the person quoted who has drawn Trump's attention, under the subject line “From the office of Donald J. Trump.”

As for what arrives in Hicks's in-box, a typical day brings upwards of 250 media requests. Usually, she alone decides who gets in and who's kept out. But sometimes it's Trump who plays bouncer for his own private party. “She sees the tantrums, and there are tantrums,” a source who's been with Trump and Hicks told me. “He reads something he doesn't like by a reporter, and it's like, ‘This motherfucker! All right, fine. Hope?’ He circles it. ‘This guy's banned! He's banned for a while.’ That's exactly how it works.” Hicks plays parole officer to an extensive and expanding blacklist of outlets and reporters (your correspondent once included) no longer welcome at his events.

While Hicks is often eager to please, she doesn't mind upsetting the media and harbors no reverence for the civic duties of a free press. When reporters send her questions, she's often irked—convinced they're playing detective merely to irritate the campaign. She's seemingly unaware that they might just be vetting a potential United States president. Often she doesn't respond.

The Full Story (June 20, 2016)