President Trump’s recent attempt at self-aggrandizement projecting himself as a tough guy threatening Iran is not new or original. I first heard the quote in 1966 as the punchline of a macabre joke told by a card-carrying member of the American Nazi Party (ANP). The guy telling the “joke” actively campaigned for ANP founder, George Lincoln Rockwell to run for president. The storyteller was Hank, and he looked like a tall, lanky Abraham Lincoln dressed in a dark suit, white shirt, and skinny black tie. He was a talented cartoonist and told the story while drawing illustrations on napkins in a pizza and beer joint. These were my college days, filled with “characters.”
I think we can all safely assume that Donald Trump didn’t create the meme on his post. Anything dealing with intelligence, artificial or otherwise, is a foreign concept. No, someone else developed the graphic and that person just re-invented it for Trump. Perhaps it is fitting that it was first used in neo-Nazi circles telling of an elderly, long-hidden Hitler, hiding in Argentina. In that story, a group of neo-Nazis recognize their leader and try to convince him to return to power. He at first refuses claiming it is a thankless job. He finally relents but on one condition, “This time—no more Mr. Nice Guy.”
Yes, Donald Trump only steals from the best. Any original thought would die of loneliness. He can joke about a war he started and one in which he has been hopelessly outwitted by a much weaker adversary. He can joke about the misery and hardship this war has caused millions of people throughout the globe. He can joke while burning through billions of our hard-earned tax dollars. He can joke while Americans struggle making ends meet from his recklessness. Just don’t let anyone else try to make a joke on late-night television or post a cryptic seashell image.
It can be noted that the phrase in question was also used as the title of an Alice Cooper song on his Billion Dollar Babies album of 1973. I’ll leave you with the lyrics of this early “shock Rock”/glam artist’s song, No More Mr. Nice Guy:
[Verse 1]
I used to be such a sweet, sweet thing
'Til they got a hold of me
I opened doors for little old ladies
I helped the blind to see
[Pre-Chorus]
I got no friends 'cause they read the papers
They can't be seen with me
And I'm gettin' real shot down
And I'm feeling mean
[Chorus]
No more Mr. Nice Guy
No more Mr. Clean
No more Mr. Nice Guy
They say he's sick, he's obscene
[Pre-Chorus]
I got no friends 'cause they read the papers
They can't be seen with me
And I'm feelin' real shot down
And I'm, I'm gettin' mean
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