This piece from the Washington Post has aged extremely well!
Trump thinks Biden pulled a scam in Ukraine because it’s what Trump would have done
— by Elizabeth Spiers, September 24, 2019
Everything President Trump accuses his opponents of doing can be understood in one of two ways: as projection or a confession.
…
Trump has to convince himself and his supporters that his worst qualities and misdeeds are somehow eclipsed by the faults and misdeeds of others, however fictional, implausible or easily refuted by readily available evidence. He knows he can continue to be evil, as long as he is the lesser evil. To be the lesser evil, greater demons must be conjured up from thin air.
But the weakness of this particular tactic is it demonstrates how shallow Trump’s imagination is. His “everybody does it!” nihilism is not indicative of a complex and cynical worldview. Trump simply assumes everyone else does it because it is what he would do.
So if he wakes up tomorrow and accuses Joe Biden of trying to act like a tough guy, of selling out America in exchange for small-stakes business advantages and being “low IQ” — all of which Trump has already done — it will not be any reflection on Biden. (Coming soon, no doubt: Joe Biden cheats at golf!) It will just be another contour in the cartography of Trump’s own guilt and self-loathing. Projection, again, and a confession.