During a heated political discussion in Horace and Pete‘s 10th and final episode, comedian Louis C.K.‘s wonderfully crafted characters devise a frighteningly legitimate theory regarding Donald Trump‘s presidential aspirations. Dubbed the “president hole,” the characters determined “Nothing short of the presidency is gonna fill that hole, and he’s gonna get it like he got that ten billion, ’cause when he got the ten billion, it didn’t fill his hole.” Neither all of Trump’s money nor his “many Russian war brides” will satisfy the hole’s void, so American voters will “help him” fill it. Why? “‘Cause we’re good,” that’s why.
It’s a speculative observation, yet it’s specificity alarming. That’s because, according to New Yorker television critic Emily Nussbaum’s recent chat with C.K., the inspiration came from a visit to a Trump casino many years prior. Per the Hollywood Reporter‘s account of Nussbaum and C.K.’s appearance at the New Yorker festival:
“I saw this thing happening where buses were showing up from all over the country but with little old ladies from places like Ohio and Tennessee to Atlantic City… and they filed in to the Trump casino. They take what little they have. They have nothing! They take that nothing, the little tiny scraps, and they turn it into chips and they pour buckets of money into his machines. Then [Trump] showed up and he just walks around,” he said, making a face like Trump surveying the scene. “And it wasn’t like, ‘Hi, folks, thanks for coming.’ It wasn’t like that at all. That’s not what he represented.”
Instead of greeting visitors and potential casino customers with a smile and wave, C.K. noticed Trump “just walked around miserable looking” the entire time. Even when the two happened to ride an elevator together in private, the mogul’s visage didn’t change:
“I looked at his face and he just looked miserable. And everyone’s like ‘Donald!’ So excited to see him. And they’re giving him everything, and he has everything, right? And they’re leaving on the same bus with nothing, just ruining their lives. I saw this as a reverse charity, like a weird kind of charity… He has a $10 billion deficit in his heart. So if he doesn’t have that much money, he’s nothing. So they were like, ‘Donald, you take this!’ They come from miles around to give to him because they’re invested in his happiness. It’s so big, this desperate hole that people come from all over [to fill it].”
Now that the Donald’s deficit has grown much larger than $10 billion — or any monetary value, for that matter — C.K. surmised Trump’s presidential campaign hinges on his need to “control” the lives of Americans. He needs that, the comedian half-joked, or he “[isn’t] going to make it through the day.”
(Via The Hollywood Reporter)